August 2002

By Jeannine Gailey

When it's time to outsource a Web development project, how do you manage it? Discover how FrontPage 2002 can help simplify the process with workflow properties and reports.

Introduction

Out of necessity, most small-business people become masters of multitasking. However, no matter how talented at multitasking you are, there comes a time in every small-business person's life when you realize that you need to delegate some tasks to specialists. Even people who feel very comfortable working with their Web site using the Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Web site creation and management tool may need help when it comes to back-end programming or designing a menu button layout.

When is it time to outsource your Web site?

How do you know when you need to outsource? When your company image is suffering because you don't have the time to make regular updates, or the graphic presentation of your site lacks individuality and punch, or you need to build e-commerce functionality or a feedback form into your site and you don't know how, it is time to outsource.

Here are some common reasons to hire Web designers and developers for your Web site projects:

• A new site  Launching a new site is design intensive, and even those of us with a few graphic design classes under our belts can benefit from a trained, experienced graphic designer's advice and aid. It is also the time when hard-core coding needs to be done. During this phase, you will want the person in charge of graphic design and the coding expert to work together to build working prototypes to help you see what kinds of features and overall attitude you want your site to have.
• Rapid or irregular schedules  When a project deadline hits your plate, you don't want to worry about fixing that major bug on your site that's causing you to get negative fan mail. Also, if you want to add several features to your site at once, say, within two weeks, you'll probably need to outsource. Your customers expect frequent Web content updates—otherwise, they will see your site as stale, a stigma nobody wants. And sometimes updating your site with company news just isn't your highest priority. You can delegate that responsibility to an outsourced team member who has the time and expertise.
• New technologies  It's hard to keep up with the latest and greatest Web development technologies: XML, XHTML, JavaScript, DHTML, SOAP. Who has the time? Web developers make it their business to know about the newest standards for the next version of Microsoft Internet Explorer and whether or not to have rollover menus or drop-down boxes for usability.

How to work with external teams

1. Define what your tasks are. This includes breaking down projects into their actionable pieces and organizing the priority of each piece. Getting a schedule together up front is a must; obtain feedback from your vendors on what a realistic time frame is for each section of the project. It may not be realistic for you to expect a brand-new design for your site in 24 hours.
2. Divide up the tasks to the appropriate team member or contracted Web designer or Web developer. Remember, some tasks will need to be worked on by more than one team member.
3. Avoid conflicts by assigning the task to one team member at a time, and keep track of who is working on what task and on which part of the site using FrontPage 2002.
4. Track the status of tasks. Manually organizing and tracking tasks can take up a lot of valuable time that you would rather spend with customers or working on your core business. I recommend using a Web site tool to automate some of the process.

How FrontPage improves the process

The complexities related to managing an outsourced Web project can be overcome by using FrontPage 2002. FrontPage includes the ability to assign workflow properties to individual files in a Web project, which makes it easier to categorize, track, and maintain files throughout the development process. FrontPage even allows you to assign properties to multiple files at the same time. The following properties can be assigned to any file in your Web project:

• Assigned To—This property enables you to track who is working on a file at any point during the project. When files are handed off, this property should be set to the new owner.
• Review Status—This property allows you to track files through the production process. For example, when an outsourced file has been approved, the status might be changed from "at vendor" to "ready for production."
• Categories—Instead of grouping related files by location, you can group files by assigning them to one or more categories. For example, instead of placing all banner-related files in a separate folder, you can assign them all to a Banner category. That way when it comes time to update the banners, you can quickly find all of the related files.
• Do Not Publish—This attribute allows you to control when files in a Web project get published.

Once you have assigned workflow properties to your files, you can use workflow reports to filter and select based on these properties. FrontPage generates the following workflow reports:

• Review Status
• Assigned To
• Categories
• Publish Status
• Checkout Status

Note  The Checkout Status report applies only when you are using the source control feature of FrontPage.

Putting it all together

Let's look at an example of how to assign workflow properties to files and then use workflow reports to view our project files based on these properties.

To assign workflow properties to files

1. Open a Web project in FrontPage.
2. On the View menu, click Folder or Navigation. Either of these views will allow you to select one or more files.
3. Select one or more files to assign properties.
4. On the File menu, click Properties. This displays the Properties screen for the selected files. Click the Workgroup tab to display the workgroup properties for these files.

   Note   If you select multiple files, the fields may be blank or unavailable. This means that not all of the files have the same property set.

5. Set or change the properties for these files as appropriate.

Finally, let's view a workflow report to see how these properties make it easier to manage your site.

To view the Assigned To workflow report

1. On the View menu, point to Reports to display a list of reports. Point to Workflow.
2. On the Workflow menu, click Assigned To.
3. To sort the files in the report by the Assigned To property, click the Assigned To button at the top of the corresponding column.
4. To filter the displayed files based on the Assigned To property, click the arrow above the Assigned To column and select the appropriate filtering statement from the list.

For example, if you were interested in quickly finding all of the files in the project that were outsourced to a particular vendor, you could create a filter using the name of the vendor in the Assigned To column.

This same procedure can be repeated for the other workflow reports.

Conclusion

Even though you have delegated portions of your small business's Web projects to others, creating, assigning, and keeping track of tasks is your responsibility. FrontPage 2002 automates this process so that there is less confusion and there are fewer problems with your vendors and fewer headaches for you.

Jeannine Gailey, owner of Webbish6.com, author, and Web consultant