How can webmasters get along well with production companies? (Corporate website edition) ~Introduction~

Hello, this is Kamii from the production department.

This is the 9th installment of the "Professional Manager School" series.
In the 7th and 8th sessions , titled "QCD of Design and Projects," we introduced the design process that has been practiced in the construction industry.

In the construction industry, projects are carried out in the following steps: basic planning (planning)," basic design (general design and construction cost calculation)," detailed design (implementation design)," and "manufacturing and construction," which is similar to the system development process (software development model).

It turns out that the way projects are put together is the same regardless of field.

<Diagram> Construction industry process

*In public works projects, contracts 3 and 4 are generally ordered separately due to the principle of separation of design and construction. However, in recent years, there have been cases where contracts 3 and 4 are ordered together in order to utilize the unique technology of the contractor.

<Figure> System development process

Now, from this point on, I would like to return to the field of web production, which is what we at Monosus are involved in.

Rapidly Growing Divide in Internet Usage Environments

I started to develop and create websites 17 years ago when I moved from the construction industry to a systems development company. This was when ADSL became widespread and people began using the internet on their PCs even at home, and with the exception of major companies, schools, and government agencies, most corporate websites were just a few to 20 pages long, replacing company brochures with web sites that served as business cards.

In this environment, there has been a growing trend for mid-sized companies and schools to utilize web systems, such as corporate websites that dynamically disseminate product information by converting data used for business management into a database, independently developed e-commerce sites, and school websites with message board functions for parents, and we have been involved in building these systems.

After that, I moved to the web production department of an advertising production company, and then to Monosus, a web production company, where I continued to be involved in web production and development. At the advertising production company, I worked with the system development department to carry out PM work and front-end PL work on projects linked to infrastructure construction and system development, such as building an instant win campaign site for PCs and feature phones, renovating a member site with tens of thousands of registered members, and renovating sites that involved replacing CMS for major manufacturers and their affiliated sales companies.

Around this time, it became common to create PC websites in accordance with "web standards" recommended by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). This trend toward standardization prompted many companies and organizations to review and renew their own websites. It also had an impact not only on website production, but also on the specifications of applications such as browsers, which continues to this day.

Then, with the appearance of the iPhone 3G ten years ago, mobile phones rapidly shifted to smartphones, and the difference between mobile and PC internet use disappeared. As mobile internet use shifted to smartphones, it became possible to consolidate PC and mobile sites into a single site. Additionally, while PCs are still the mainstream for corporate users to use the internet, smartphones are becoming the mainstream for general users.

As such, the Internet usage environment is rapidly becoming polarized, and today's websites are being called upon to meet the demands of both.

From a client-receiver relationship to a "team"

With the spread of web standardization and the popularity of smartphones, it is now possible to create sites for PCs and mobile devices using a single HTML document. Compared to preparing a site for feature phones separately from one for PCs, the hurdle for building a site for mobile devices has become lower.

However, compared to the previous situation where only a PC site was built, the technical difficulty has increased and the production time has also increased.

Looking at the environment surrounding the Internet, the technical level required in various fields related to the Web is becoming more difficult, leading to increased specialization and the segmentation of job functions. (Servers, networks, security measures, system development, database construction, coding, screen design, UI/UX design, screen design, site design, SEO, content creation, content planning, etc.) In addition, the threat of cracking and nuisance activities by malicious third parties is increasing, making security measures more important.

In order to deal with all of these issues, website renewal requires knowledge and the ability to respond to multiple technical fields. For this reason, it seems that website renewal projects are increasingly leaving some issues unresolved. Of course, there are problems on the production side, but sometimes the client's webmaster thinks, "If only they had understood this, things would have gone more smoothly."

To make a web renewal project go smoothly, cooperation between the client's webmaster and the production project manager is necessary. Without a doubt, it is most important for the production side to understand the client's requests and be able to control the project team. However, to make a production/development project go smoothly, the understanding and cooperation of the client is essential.

In this short, intensive series, I would like to share with you, the webmasters on the client side, what they should keep in mind not only as clients and contractors, but also as co-leaders of the project team.

What I'll be sharing in the future

From next time, I will be sharing five main points.

1. How to create a budget

When renewing a corporate website, it is becoming common to select a production company through a nomination competition.
In such cases, it is common for the order to be placed on a lump-sum contract basis based on the estimate submitted at the time of the competitive proposal, but this poses significant risks.

<Figure> Lump-sum contract ordering

After a project has started, if a detailed understanding of the current situation and design process requires a different response from the production conditions stated at the time of order, this can lead to disputes between the client and the production company regarding revisions to costs and schedules.
I would like to talk about this in the next article, "Part 1: (Tentative title) QCD Accuracy and Budget."

2. How to submit a request

Even if a project is started and planning and design are carried out according to the required specifications outlined in the RFP when participating in a competition, and an agreement is reached, it is not rare to be asked to change the required specifications during the production and testing stages.
Rework can have an impact on costs and schedules, but if changes are made to specifications that the assigned engineers cannot handle, it can also lead to serious problems such as arranging resources.

3. How to organize your schedule

Regarding the problems mentioned in 1 and 2, we feel that in many cases, these are caused by the client not checking things thoroughly during the design process or not following the approval procedures properly.

We will cover "2. How to submit requests" and "3. How to create a schedule" in "Part 2: (Tentative title) How to proceed with the upstream process (design phase)."

4. Balance between risk response and cost

The threat of cracking and nuisance activities by malicious third parties is increasing, making security measures more important. Because the technology that supports the Internet is constantly changing, it is commonplace for bugs and unknown vulnerabilities to remain in server operating systems, middleware, system development languages, web applications, browsers, and more. The policy for dealing with these risks must be decided by the webmaster, who is responsible for managing the site.

In Part 3, "Security Response, Maintenance, and Operations (tentative title)," we will discuss how to respond to risk while taking into account cost balance.

And in Part 4, "(tentative title) The role of webmasters in the upstream process and the skills required of designers," we will be summarizing Parts 1 to 4.

In the next instalment of this series, we will be looking at how webmasters, who are the clients, and production companies can work together to overcome these risks.