B2B eCommerce Project Approach

Inception of the Project

1. Project Proposal Document

The preliminary planning phase consisted of creating a summary document and reviewing it with agile methods that allow each stakeholder to comment on the process, suggest revisions, and reach a group consensus.

2. The Project Handoff Meeting

During the handoff meeting, different parts of the development are handed off to team specialists. Frequent handoffs can cause delays, so best practices include involving people in areas other than their specialties. Working in different areas of the project helps each stakeholder better understand the process by learning a little about each area of development.

The Initiation Process for Business Clients

In the United Methodist Communications Project, four areas were covered during the initiation process: preparing a more detailed Project Summary and Scope of Work and Project Approach documents and hosting a Project Kickoff Meeting with the client and one with the Clarity development team.

Ongoing Analysis

1. Discovery Meetings, Group Activities and Exercises

As the project progresses, daily meetings, group meetings, creation of design mockups, stakeholder interviews, preparing inventories of features, mapping connections, and other analyses were common. The agile process includes meetings where each group discusses its progress, answers questions, and defines how its work relates to other aspects of the project.

2. Project Requirements Document

Ongoing preparation of an updated Project Requirements Document keeps everyone informed about the project's current status so that no stakeholder is surprised or blindsided. On large projects, one team can easily lose track of what others are doing, and this agile technique keeps everyone continuously updated.

Design Phase

During the design phase, teams map everything that's needed on the site, show how pages will connect, and produce wireframes or blueprints that show functionality in detail. After those are approved, the following documents and design features are prepared:

• Technical Approach Document: The design process includes writing a preliminary document, getting it reviewed by the group, and incorporating needed changes. The technical approach covers the coding and technical details of the development process.
• Functional Design Document: This record follows the same process as above but concentrates on development functionality and design features in the finished construction.
• Technical Design Document: This document is prepared when feasible, but not every project includes this effort for various reasons such as security concerns, protected information, and other contraindications.

Project Documents

During the design phase, teams map everything that's needed on the site, show how pages will connect, and produce wireframes or blueprints that show functionality in detail. After those are approved, the following documents and design features are prepared:

• Project Proposal: This document defines estimates of the work involved for all proposed activities and features.
• Project Summary and Scope of Work: The document file covers project goals, planned solutions, work activities, and features that the project will deliver. The paper introduces EP Task IDs for each work story that can be compared with development progress at later stages.
• Project Approach: The Project Approach Record defines all work processes, how work will be divided, technical details, and assignments of project roles and user stories.
• Project Requirements: This document covers the deliverables that development will generate including software capabilities, documentation, testing plans, special features, and other functions.
• Technical Approach: The technical aspects of the project are covered in this document which includes the tools, technologies, third-party resources, open-source code, and other details of how the software will be built.
• Functional Design: This document includes a detailed schematic, mockup, or prototype of every relevant website function, design element details and connective functionality, and real-world business users often review this source document. The record serves as the blueprint for the build and is used by developers, documentation writers, staff, marketing people, and quality assurance analysts.
• Technical Design: This record covers technical designs from an engineering overview and is offered in larger development projects that involve more complex developments and integrations. Smaller projects normally use Functional Design and Technical Approach documents to cover the necessary overview of their developments.
• Test Plans: This documentation covers how developments will be tested by Quality Assurance staff throughout the development process.
• Project Re-Estimates: Updates to projects, changes, cost overruns, and even unexpected economies and faster progress can result in changes to project completion times, costs, and other design parameters. Re-estimates are provided periodically throughout development.

Project Roles and Assignments for the UMC Project

Project roles ensure that every stakeholder literally has a seat at the table, takes part in the development process, argues on behalf of vested interests and constituents that he or she represents, and can review and comment on each iterative development through enhanced communications, collaboration, reviews, and regularly scheduled group meetings. In some projects, more than one role might be served by the same person, while other employees are specialists. The roles included the following real-world assignments in the United Methodist Communications Project:

• Development Project Manager (Clarity — Craig Zmarzly)
• Customer Manager (Client Representative)
• Team Architect (Tim Heimsoth)
• Technical Manager (Chris Reddick)
• Business Analyst (Craig Bauer)
• Back-End Developer (Chris Reddick, Tim Heimsoth, James Gray and others as needed)

• Front-End Developer (Matt Tate, Eric Adam and others)
• Documentation Writer (TBD)
• QA Analyst (Raeanne Harshfield)
• Training Coordinator (Craig Bauer)
• Specialist in Operations and Accounts Receivable (Kristin Wagner)
• Graphic Specialist (Will Swain)

Tips For B2B eCommerce & Integration Project Management

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