A fun AND succesful project…
We recently launched The Times Spelling Bee website for Times Online as part of their Spelling Bee Championship, a competition aimed at improving spelling.
Working on this project was (and continues to be) a highly satisfying process. This got me thinking about what factors influence how you perceive whether a project was a positive experience or not. The reasons for this project being enjoyable to work on from my point of view include the following factors (in no specific order):
- Excellent client relationship
- Clear lines of communication – both internally and with the client
- Interesting and engaging subject matter
- Clearly identifying requirements at the initial stages of the project
- Implementing new and challenging technological concepts, thereby facilitating for new learning
- Executing requirements to the satisfaction of the client
- Delivering a website that is fun and highly interactive from a user’s perspective
- Achieving the goals that were set by the client in terms of measuring whether the project was a success
- Being able to refine and develop our in-house processes as a result of this experience
Whether you enjoyed working on a project obviously doesn’t determine whether the project was successful or not. I would suggest, however, that if a project comprises at least some the characteristics mentioned above, it will have a greater chance of satisfying the following criteria:
- The project was delivered within budget
- The project was completed within the stipulated time frames
- The requirements of the project have been satisfied
And these are surely considered to be The Holy Grail when measuring a successful project….