Test Post 1234

Author Bill Hogan says the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. We’ve found that creating a website project plan and conquering the website rebuild are just the same — one sprint at a time.

As a marketer looking to revamp your website, choosing a creative agency that not only does great work but also makes the entire process seamless matters. Sprints have become an essential part of our proven process for custom website design and development, as we’ve uncovered many benefits for both our team and for the client.

What is sprint planning?

A sprint is a defined portion of a larger project that has set tasks, deliverables, and due dates that lead up to the entire project’s completion. The goal is to take on a complex project in segments, which helps keep the entire project moving.

Designing and developing a new website requires many phases, from creation to revisions to approvals. Planning the project in sprints creates bite-size pieces that can make a project feel more manageable for the agency and the client.

How sprints are set up in a website project plan

To create a website project plan, our team starts by building the new site’s information architecture, also known as a sitemap. We review the current website in-depth with a client, note any pages that are essential and eliminate those that aren’t. We also discuss and make a plan for pages that will be new to the website. In the end, we’re left with a list of necessary pages organized into a sitemap.

We review the current website in-depth with a client, note any pages that are essential and eliminate those that aren’t.

The next step is to break the sitemap into sprints by bucketing groups of pages. This can be done in many ways, but we typically batch pages by priority. Grouping the homepage and 2-3 other primary pages into sprint 1 allows the design team to create the website’s look and feel and explore how that aesthetic plays out on pages with varying content needs. Remaining pages are organized into the following sprints as needed.

After the sprints are planned, sprint 1 is designed, reviewed, approved, and then moved into development. Once the first sprint is in the hands of our web developers, sprint 2 begins to work its way through the design process and then moves into development. This cycle continues until the website is fully developed, allowing portions of the website to be in different phases during the website project timeline.

• After the sprints are planned, sprint 1 is designed, reviewed, approved, and then moved into development.
• After the sprints are planned, sprint 1 is designed, reviewed, approved, and then moved into development.
• After the sprints are planned, sprint 1 is designed, reviewed, approved, and then moved into development.

The benefits of working with an agency that uses sprint planning

After working on many website project plans, we’ve discovered there are several key benefits to sprint planning that marketers should care about when looking for an agency to create their new website.

Your website project plan will maintain momentum

Planning a website project in sprints allows the site to be designed and developed simultaneously, rather than designing the entire site and then moving forward with development. The latter often results in the entire project coming to a screeching halt once it’s time for stakeholders to review all designs for the new website. When the goal is approval on all pages, the review process is much longer, which prevents the project from moving into development, and ultimately can extend the overall project timeline. With sprints, once designs for a sprint are approved, those pages can start being developed while design work begins on the next sprint.

All phases of the project become more manageable for stakeholders

The website process isn’t just a big undertaking for an agency but for the client too. Stakeholders are often part of many planning meetings, reviewing designs, writing pages of new content and more. They too benefit from tackling each phase in sprints – planning the structure of 3 pages at a time is much easier than 20 and so is leaving feedback. A deadline for website copy for a quarter of the pages may feel less daunting than a deadline for all website copy. Overall, your stakeholders may appreciate having the ability to segment work throughout the months-long project.