Top tips: Smooth digital projects - Part 2

Our Senior Project Manager Jess is back with more tips on how to approach a digital project. Read her first set of tips here. At Pixl8 she works with clients from scoping stage right through to final delivery. Even though each project is different, the same challenges arise in different forms.

However, there are simple things that you can do to mitigate these issues and make the most of working with your agency. Whether your digital project is small-scale or involves a comprehensive replacement of your existing systems, there are things that your team can do before a project starts to set things up for success.

Cleanse your data

Tidy up your data, merge duplicates and strip out legacy data that you don’t use. Interrogate every data point you collect - what do you actually do with it? If nothing, strip it out of the data migration.

Stakeholder management is key

At which points of the project are you going to involve your stakeholders? Too early and they might not be able to visualise what you’re planning, too late and you may have developed something they won’t buy into. The Project Manager can help advise you on the key milestones and best times to engage people.

Build in a time buffer 

Sometimes you don’t know the true size of a project until you get into it and start immersing yourself in the details - which is why building contingency into the timing plan is critical. You want to find the very best solution for everything you need, not the fastest.

Be ready to reflect and adjust

Reflection and adjustment are key principles of agile project management. Try to work iteratively so that you can take a look at the solution as soon as the first version is built rather than holding onto it until we can show the finished, polished product. 

Be open to reviewing the developing product 

Be happy to work in an open and discursive environment. Agile project management also requires you to embrace change. Building a new platform takes months, you have to be poised ready for changing requirements and ready to adapt the plan to fit them. We've seen lots of examples of this, namely the pandemic changing the focus of many businesses. For example their events offering, moving from physical to online. We've also had examples of management changes that have resulted in a change of strategy for the site mid-way through the build.