Corporate Programme Management for the Web

I've worked for a number of blue-chips for a number of years, and am continually surprised by the fact that - since online is not a primary or secondary revenue base - sensible, value-driven approaches to managing a Web portfolio are few and far between.

Many larger companies play lip service to the concept that the Web is (or can be) a hugely important component in the process of "doing business": they show initial interest (in terms of capital investment) in a couple of pilot projects, and then seem to rapidly lose interest in keeping up with the Internet as a "going concern".

The complexity of stakeholders, risk management, the "agility" of a larger corporation, and - of course - competing (core) investment concerns all play a role in making it difficult to apply a longer-term, strategic programme approach to online activity, and ensuring that this is delivered according to best practices.

Benchmarking helps, but - funnily enough - when speaking to colleagues working in related roles for different companies, I find that this is, in fact, an endemic problem. So this is a call for comment, input and assessment from anyone working in an internet management role where the core product is not sold online, but where the Internet is "considered" a core component of business activity - correct me if I am wrong, maybe share successes and failures, and indicate the righteous path forward...

Web Project Management Best Practice

I was contacted to take part in an e-consultancy review of Online Project Management a short while ago, and received a link to their report on best practice in this area today. [UPDATE 16/05/07 - Linus Gregoriadis, Head of Research at e-consultancy, let me know I was pointing to a link for survey participants only, so - just in case you have bookmarked this, the link has now switched.]

I have to say, having skim-read the first-half, that it very much matches my experience. For instance, as a PRINCE2 qualified practitioner, I would have to agree that the PRINCE2 "exception"-led model of change management (and over-reliance on detailed specifications) can work against managing rapidly moving Web projects (where XP and other Agile methods build this into a rapid and iterative loop).

The great thing about a Web project is that you can manage the overall project with one methodology and branch off (in a controlled manner) software development, for instance, in a slightly different direction. I think it pays to be cute and take a pick-and-mix approach, rather than try to adhere to a monolithic approach, all in the name of getting things done. I don't think this has to be at the cost of losing control of time, cost, quality and associated risks; this is one of the reasons that I enjoy Basecamp as a Project Management tool: it helps me control the project while being flexible enough to stand setting up PRINCE2-type methods, controls and stages as categories.

Note: prince2 link updated on 10/03/2010 thanks to helpful comment.