Managing a website build
This post is long time coming and is written from the perspective of someone who is tasked by his superiors to make a website happen. This person is given a budget and a timeline and is sent into the fray. I’ve done a few of these now and wanted to share some (learned the hard way) tips. FYI this is just the build, marketing the thing is a whole ‘nother deal 
The 2 project managers
Realize that there are really 2 project managers. The first one is the client side manager, the one who commissions the job. The second is the face of the executing team. As such, the client manager will always put pressure on the “executing manager” to allocate team resources in a way that will get the project finished better/faster/cheaper. The job of the executing manager though is to properly allocate all resources between multiple projects while providing the greatest average satisfaction. This means that if the client manager changes expectations or requirements mid project, the executing manager will need to reallocate resources. In some cases, no harm done, in others delivery times are affected.
The relationship between these two managers is a tough one. On one hand the client manager is the good cop that is the dictionary between the tech side and the money. On the other hand the client manager has to be a bad cop when something needs to be rushed. Being on the same page and over communication is KEY to making the relationship work.
The goal of the client manager is to build in certain “headache savers” from the get go. Here are ones that I now have in my arsenal… learned the hard way, of course.
Click “Read More” for the list!
