Page 100 - DMGT521_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Unit 6: Generation and Screening of Project Ideas

(Smashing’s side note: Have you already bought the Smashing Book #3? The book Notes
introduces the latest practical techniques and a whole new mindset for progressive Web
design. Get your book today!)
It’s All About the Process
As a Web community, we are well equipped to handle any low-budget projects that come
our way. We have more frameworks and streamlined solutions than we’ve ever had
access to in the past, such as WordPress, HTML5 Boilerplate and ThemeForest. Learning
how to leverage these tools is key to understanding how to make money on small projects.
And mastering these tools gives us the flexibility to stray from cookie-cutter solutions.
However, before you decide to take on a workload filled with small projects, let’s stress a
key point. Some clients are extremely demanding about their design process and the
functionality of their websites. Be careful to set clear boundaries with the client so that you
don’t end up working for less than minimum wage. We’ll cover a few techniques for this
below.

Over the years, we’ve picked up knowledge from many different sources. One of the best
summaries of how we try to systematize our own work flow comes from Bill Beachy over
at Go Media. He recently released a short podcast episode discussing business systems,
which I strongly encourage you to check out.
But first, let’s look quickly at the various methods we use to cut down on our website build
time.
Write Down Your Processes
During the course of working on projects, we’ve developed a master document that we
call the Low-Budget Guide. It details every single step of building a website on a budget.
We have sections on the fastest ways to deploy a test WordPress installation on various
hosting providers, documentation on common WordPress settings, plugins and problems,
as well our standard step-by-step process. We’ll review this process in a case study later in
the article.
The Low-Budget Guide helps us address several important aspects of our work. First, it
prevents us from forgetting to do anything. Having a step-by-step guide eliminates any
errors that might cost several hours of development time.

Mapping out your processes can save a lot of hassles down the road

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