Why a website?

What are you trying to achieve in becoming a website owner? This is a question that most people don’t ask, consequently few websites have any tangible goals. If you can’t answer this question, it’s probably time to quit.

Who are your target audience?

Should you decide to go ahead, there’s nothing wrong with catching the eye of casual surfers, but it makes sense to have an idea of the type of visitor you’d like to attract.

This’ll help you decide what information needs to form the core of the website, remember, content is king.

What do you expect them to do?

There’s been quite a lot written recently on the ‘Call to Action’.

Your goals, remember the first step, will tell you what action you’d like visitors to take, but you need to decide how to structure the site to take them in the right direction.

What’s their motivation for investigating your website?

There are a huge number of websites on the Internet, and some of them will offer the same thing as you’re site, so what’s going to differentiate your website from these others?

Knowing your audience helps when creating an effective marketing campaign to accompany the site launch: where to advertise and how.

Why will they come back?

Your content is undoubtedly fabulous, and a sound foundation, but how is it structured and presented? If your hard won readership can’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll go somewhere else, and are unlikely to come back.

You’ve got to commit to regularly providing something new and of value to your visitors. This is seriously time consuming, and if you’re unwilling, or unable to make this commitment it’s your last chance to back out of the website game.

Still interested? Next time it’s time to start building the website.

These small businesses are staffed by the knowledgeable, enthusiastic types that originally gave birth to the Company. These are very high value individuals that will create that feeling of quality that niche customers prize so highly, and justifies your higher price.

Eventually, the time comes to make the decision whether to stay small forever, or start to scale up; and this is where disaster can strike.

Growing turnover is dependent on appealing to a larger market that rarely shares the values of your current clientele. Frequently prices must be reduced, but doing this on a large scale means cutting costs, especially wage bills. Poor staff leads to poor service, and to make matters worse, the decline causes those old hands to look for something better elsewhere… a downward spiral which can destroy reputations.

I’ve experienced this decline through several suppliers I’ve used over the years as they’ve attempted to grow. The message is clear: know your market, and when think carefully before making a decision you may regret.

I want to continue blogging on personal topics: particularly investment, but anything else continues to be fair game. They’re going to have their own section of the site, but I need to bear in mind that today’s interest may become the business of tomorrow.

The work I’m targeting must determine content that’s pertinent to the business blog. I’ve focused on web development and administration to date, and I think this will continue. However, I could leverage my experience in project management and engineering teams better.

I’d like to improve the RSS provision and integrate other social media on the site, but that’s for another post.

Although I’m going to radically change the category structure on the site, I’m keen to avoid breaking the Web. This is where the permalinks should come into their own… I hope.

Conversely, the software behind blogs, forums and wikis on the Web have been around for a long time, establishing a reputation for solid performance under very heavy loads. Whilst they lack the complexity of enterprise solutions, they’re built on enterprise quality database management systems, rendering all that corporate intelligence easily searchable and secure.

The Internet is based on reliable, but inexpensive foundations; much of the software is free to use, even for commercial purposes; and where it isn’t the license fees are tiny compared with many proprietary packages.

I have an Intranet at home based on Apache web server, PHP and a MySQL database: all free to use and easy to install. It’s supported by a mixture of wired and wireless data connections that are common around many British homes and businesses. On this framework I’ve installed several copies of MediaWiki, the same software used by Wikipedia, both shared on the Intranet and privately on individual laptops.

Clare and I use these wikis to capture notes and the solutions to everyday issues. It provides a way for us to work jointly on these documents whilst maintaining a record of revisions. Everything is stored in a MySQL database rather than scattered around files on different drives. This can be quickly backed up and, best of all, it’s fully searchable from my browser; finding anything is really quick.

The bottom line is that bringing a little of the Internet inside the corporate firewall will make your intellectual property more agile, relevant, accessible and traceable: much more valuable!

In the UK, this title appears to be most frequently used in the public sector, for which the data presented on ITJobsWatch indicates there’s a small, but growing demand. Whilst these vacancies cite SQL and information security as desirable skills, I feel that it’s too tightly focused on specific platforms and established techniques.

Making full use of all the information out there, not just specific corporate databases, requires developments in the application of query languages. A distributed nature places emphasis on capturing and maintaining data source references, and version control to provide traceability.

Corporate data must move away from the monumental central store, with a schema unchanged since the dawn of time, to a series of smaller repositories that can be easily maintained, extended and indexed as the business need arises.

The key message is that if business moves quickly, as does information upon which it’s based, so must the approach to interpreting that information. As for the Information Analyst, this job is too big for any individual professional. It’s an exciting multi-disciplinary field that will grow in importance as key step in the future of information.

It seems clear that the world of tomorrow is going to be poorer: much of the pre-crisis money never actually existed, it was borrowed from the future. Whatever the reason, everyone is going to have less to spend. Production volumes are dropping, a feature of recession anyway, which combined with badly weakened Western currencies is going to lead to higher prices. So how is product development going to react?

The focus of product development, and maybe life in general, should shift from new products to incremental improvement. With little money around, the time is right to consider total cost of ownership: I want most of my kit to last a while, but still do a useful job.

Building on existing products rather that new launches will be the path. Longer component design lives, combined with modularity minimise the scale of component replacement necessary to add new functionality: no more ditching the iPod because your music collection has grown.

I also expect product ranges to shrink, freeing funding to concentrate on those with a real market and user base. The same will be true of functionality, every product has features almost nobody uses: why so many cup holders?

Consolidation is the theme, so tomorrow will be smaller, but I suspect better for it.

The Agile approach is more adaptable with respect to three key project variables; only the last of which, in my experience, is considered flexible in the waterfall world of engineering.

• Scope.
• Time.
• Resources.

Scope contraction.

Scope flexibility is something of a taboo subject. Scope is something that is added to in both a controlled manner — providing additional revenue — or uncontrolled creep. But the point of any project is delivering something that achieves the customers business goals. This is not necessarily the product that they, or the development team, initially envisaged.

One uncomfortably overspent project lead to the realisation that I could have achieved the business objective well under budget by actually drastically reducing the scope. It wouldn’t have delivered exactly what the customer expected, but it would easily have achieved their goal.

Which is more important, expectation or results? If you have a customer representative on the team it’s much easier to explain your rationale, and the chances are they’ll like the idea of results with less work as much as you do.

Timescales.

If you have a customer that doesn’t mind when you deliver, you’re a rare and lucky project manager, though you’ll never actually finish anything; deadlines do provide focus. So set plenty of deadlines, that’s what iterations and releases are about.

Try to answer the most pressing question as quickly as possible. Leave refinements and those ever present scope changes to the next iteration, it’s probably only a few days away.

This rapid cycle provides useful results, whilst allowing the flexibility to quickly change direction without that wasteful churn: just tidy this up a bit then I’ll be with you.

And the resources?

I’m afraid the project manager has to earn their money too. Line management will always have the urge to reassign any of your key people they feel aren’t being fully employed. It’s important to emphasise that the productivity of any team depends on preventing this happening.

Agile teams don’t strictly segregate workload on the basis of job descriptions, that’s why you need versatile individuals. Unfortunately, these are exactly the type of individuals that those managers will want to steal away. Removing the demarcation of tasks will help ensure everyone is kept busy and that work is conducted using the minimum number of people.

Better than the Waterfall.

I’ve found actual project goals shift too frequently for effective use of the Waterfall approach to project management. Using iterations within this framework always felt unnatural; how do you decide how may there will be and when will you actually deliver something?

An Agile approach perversely leaves me feeling more in control by worrying less about control. There are a huge array of Agile software development techniques, many of which can be adapted to other engineering disciplines.

For Software Engineering, I would recommend reading The Art of Agile Development. The Agile Alliance promote the use of Agile techniques, so take a look at the Manifesto for Agile Software Development upon which it’s all based.

Define your business.

When developing business processes try to keep everything as simple as possible. Simple processes are likely to be followed: complex ones won’t. This is definitely true of written procedures, but human employees have the ability to sift through the junk and ignore it; you may not like that but it’s true.

Computers on the other hand don’t share this aptitude. Your software developers may try to ensure the software follows your monolithic procedures, but the conflicts ignored by human employees will have to be resolved; a long and expensive process.

A systematic approach to this analysis can help, especially with the inevitable documentation, take a look at business process modeling and the OMG notation.

Well implemented processes will be familiar to your staff and any software based on them equally so, saving a fortune on training.

What is success?

Now you’ve got a minimalist set of effective processes, you’re in a position to consider how the application of software and hardware systems might improve or expand your business, and bear in mind that it might not.

What will success would look like? It too needs to be defined as simply as possible if you’re going to recognise it. Frequently at the start of projects everyone is so excited that this step is lost. It is either overlooked or results in a requirements document so complex nobody can be bothered to read it.

Ask yourself how many other business purchases you would make without actually considering what you’re expecting to have delivered. Would you be happy if you were hoping for a photocopier and ended up with a filing cabinet?

Get involved.

Most organisations expect their involvement to end once they’ve specified their requirements. The developer will go away, build the software, and deliver it perfect and on schedule. OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but placing your staff in the development team is not an optional extra.

They’re likely to spend substantial time working closely with the developers, it’ll be worth it, you’re likely to get a better system. Most will be involved in user testing, but the customer representative is a key role representing the business interests within the team. Customers are not project managers, they are focused on the benefits to the business and its operational goals.

Primarily involve people that actually undertake the work this system is meant to enhance, and those that will continue to use it. There’s a huge temptation for senior management to attempt to fulfil this role, but they usually know next to nothing about the processes in question, so resist it. There is a vital role for senior sponsorship, but it’s not in the development team.

Resulting software will be intuitive, and the computer literate will be able to understand it based on their knowledge of their current job, and of course your procedures.

The pay back.

Get the basics right — develop good business processes, define success, and build an effective team — and your project has a much better chance of delivering satisfaction, on time, and to budget.

This came to my attention a few years ago when my Mother decided to learn how to use a computer. Once she retired she needed to keep up with the technology she’d avoided for years. I actually think it was a great idea; retirement often increases the perception that the world is leaving you behind. She’d never used a typewriter: why are those letters in such a strange place? The mouse was a huge challenge to hand–eye co–ordination.

She enrolled on CLAiT Level 1, and she’s made great progress, but I doubt she’d claim to be comfortable enough to be able to try something completely new without a lot of support. She can surf the Web, check and send basic email and do a little word processing, but that’s about it. It’s more than enough for her needs, but a business is going to need a little more.

The point is that there are a lot of younger people still in the workforce that are in much the same position to my Mother. They are often encouraged to undertake ECDL training as shown on the BCS website:

The European Computer Driving Licence® (ECDL) is the internationally recognized qualification which enables people to demonstrate their competence in computer skills.

The record breaking ECDL is the fastest growing IT user qualification in over 125 countries.

ECDL is designed specifically for those who wish to gain a benchmark qualification in computing to enable them to develop their IT skills and enhance their career prospects.

The problem I have is that I’ve encountered people with these qualifications, and others, purporting to be ‘Microsoft Excel Expert Users’, and they haven’t even figured out that a spreadsheet IS a big calculator! This can’t be entirely due to the course content, so why are these people allowed to pass this qualification: it has to be in the assessment and a reluctance to fail anyone.

So as an employer facing a knowledge based economy — according to the UK government — where success is based on the skills of your employees, how do you decide which candidates are fit for purpose? My experience is that you can’t rely on these benchmarking qualifications.

My partner, Clare, works for a medium sized company that has grown significantly over the last few years. A couple of days ago, she was complaining about the way everything on her computer is now so tightly controlled you can’t even personalise the desktop background. The working environment has become utterly uniform with a one size fits none approach.

To my mind, an employee’s existence is not driven to enhance the business that pays their salary. Whilst most staff display a professional pride, at the heart of it their lives are about enjoying themselves. Spending much of that life at work, it’s understandable that they want a workplace that’s comfortable, inspiring and enjoyable to be around; minimal aggravation and maximum enrichment.

So why do most companies persist in equating success with the creation of a sterile working environment?

Business isn’t just about making happier, better people, it’s about making profit. It’s ability to do that is proportional to the productivity and creativity of its staff. In turn they’ve been repeatedly shown to be more cost effective if they’re happy and motivated.

Creating the icons was a random creative act. I realised later that this initiated a number of useful insights relating to several business focused activities. Thinking back, it isn’t the first time this has been the case, just the first time I noticed.

Computer systems are endemic in the business today, and they have their part to play in enriching the workplace.

Encouraging general creativity in employees can invigorate business innovation, essential in a rapidly changing world. Letting them express themselves, through background images of friends, family or their own graphic creations for example, will certainly help them feel less like a cog in the machine. These small concessions might lead to your most profitable product.

The domain name.

First you need an address at which your users can find your website. Your domain is your identity on the Web, so it’s a good idea to go for one that’s memorable.

Domain names are registered for a fixed number of years, and you have the right to renew your registration at the end of that period. Nominet is the registry for .uk domains.

The software.

This is dependent on the objectives of the proposed website. If a static billboard is all you want then the software comprises a few well written, standards compliant HTML code. If you are building an online shop, like Amazon, then your software needs to be a lot more complex.

Most websites now fall somewhere in between, but are what is known as dynamic. This usually requires the use of a database to store the website information that is accessed by scripts for display.

The Web host.

You’ve got your domain name and created the software to run the website, but now you need a way to put all of this on the Internet.

This is where Web hosts come in by providing access to a web server. This kind of service is usually billed either monthly or annually. Depending on the package you select it can take two general forms:

1. Shared hosting – where you share the server resources with other people.
2. Dedicated hosting – where you have a server to yourself.

Of these two, the first is much less expensive than the second, but it’s nowhere near as flexible when it comes to configuring your website. The final choice is a trade off between these cost and flexibility, but here are a few criteria to bear in mind:

1. There needs to be enough storage space for all your files.
2. There must be enough monthly bandwidth allowance for your user traffic.
3. The server needs to be capable of running the software you’ve used to build your website.
   • Can it run your scripts?
   • Do you need access to a database?

The website.

Roughly speaking, put these together any you’ve got the final product; a functioning website. Don’t forget, now it’s up and running it’ll need maintenance, monitoring and regular doses of new content to keep visitors coming back.

Who’s going to control the website?

Projects need a single point of contact to operate efficiently. Decision by committee, whilst the most democratic approach, rarely provides the reliable and rapid response needed during a development project. The same applies once the website is launched. Someone needs to take editorial control, whether you’re managing the website yourself or not.

When selecting your representative it’s important that they can be easily contacted at short notice. Remember that time lost could turn out to be expensive; late decisions in development adversely impact on deadlines and resources; delaying new content may lose visitors and sales.

What functionality does the website need?

Approach the question of functionality from the perspective of your target audience rather technical capability. What do you think your visitors are going to want to find on your website and enjoy enough to want to come back?

The technology behind the Web is capable of providing a vast range of functionality. This topic alone is worthy of a book, but here is a list containing a few suggestions:

Articles

Longer articles like this one can present ideas, products, anything. Think of magazine articles and you’ve pretty much got the idea.

News posts

Posts can be thought of as items in a newsletter and are often accompanied by RSS feeds to improve distribution to a wider audience. These are the basic components of a blog or weblog and may or may not support visitor comment. I was wondering which example to use… then I thought of my blog, jameswhinfrey.co.uk.

E-commerce

How could I not include this? The ability to buy and sell almost anything over the Internet, the best known example has to be Amazon.

Discussion forums

Forums provide a way for your customers to ask you questions and discuss your products and services. It’s hard to find a great example, but this is Apple.

Wikis

Wikis enable the collaborative generation of content and they’ve been used to create product documentation and online knowledge bases. Take a look at Wikipedia.

Galleries

There are a number of online image galleries, try flickr to see a great example.

Multimedia

This is a very wide category, examples of which are animation and audio content — podcasts, take a look at iTunes for that one.

How often do I need to modify the website?

Content management.

Depending on the length of your audience’s attention span, you need to keep the new content coming. If you need to regularly add new content, the ability to do it yourself may be attractive; but consider whether you have the time and skills to create interesting, high quality content. If you don’t then pay someone who does to write the copy for you; you’ll get a better product and save yourself a lot of time.

Look and feel.

If your audience is very design conscious the look and feel may need updating relatively frequently. Even if they’re not, you can’t ignore this aspect and a fresh look will keep visitors interested. You’re probably not going to do this yourself, so expect to consult an agency and pay for this work. Technical features in the design can make this process much quicker and more effective; foremost amongst these are web standards compliance.

And now we can start the development.

The next topic I’m going to address is broadly how the project progresses from this point to deployment, but that’s for another time.

Do I need a website?

It seems a simple question doesn’t it, but it’s not as simple as it first appears. There are three aspects to consider when arriving at your answer. A good development agency can offer guidance on these topics; contact them as soon as possible to ensure you end up with a quality product.

With whom am I trying to communicate?

This is the key, and what the Web is all about. If your not trying to communicate with anyone or have nothing to say, you don’t need a website. If you don’t know your target audience, you need to work on this first.

Start with your existing customer base or interest group, and then try extrapolating to your future goals. It’s worth careful thought, this target audience will determine the form and function of the final website.

Do I have time for a website?

A good website is never finished. Your website must be kept fresh, through the continuous addition of new content and functionality, if you want your hard won visitors to keep coming back.

Editorial management and writing content itself can be a very time consuming proposition that must be considered.

You’ll want to ensure you get what you want. Even with the best support in the world you’ll have to devote a substantial amount of time to the development project. Your chosen agency can handle the technical aspects, but without your timely input the project can’t run efficiently and you could be left disappointed; a situation benefits neither you nor the agency.

Do I have the money to support a website?

Of course none of this comes for free; whether outsourcing the work or using your own time; a web development project is a financial commitment. In addition to the manpower resources, the final stage in the project is deploying your new website. To do this you’ll need to buy a suitable domain name and hosting the website on a web server will usually entail a monthly fee.

I want a website, so what next?

You’re fully committed to the development project, what follows are a few more questions to define the form and function of your website. These are what I want to discuss in the next part of this series.