Managing Web Projects, Continued

Quality Assurance

Consider all the things that can go wrong on a web site: bad links, images that don't load, missing ALT tags, typos, Javascript errors, cross-platform or cross-browser incompatibilities, technical glitches, server crashes, network outages. With all these potholes to worry about, why is quality assurance the first thing to be sacrificed when a project runs over schedule?

If a web project is worth doing, it's worth doing well. Most users won't come back if the site sucks... and neither will the client.

The testing process
The first basic principle of the testing process is that whoever built it shouldn't test it. I agree with this to a point. There's a ton of preliminary testing that the developer ought to do just in order to make the site or application ready for testing. When it goes to testing, the developer ought to feel that it's as clean as he or she could make it.

Once a site or application goes into testing, the tester should have a checklist to test against. That checklist might include:

• Testing forms and scripts
• Proofreading text
• Checking performance across browsers and platforms
• Confirming consistency with previous site style, where applicable
• Surfing with images off to check for missing ALT tags
• Checking links
• A variety of application-specific tasks, such as performing a search, changing personalization settings, etc.

Standards
Underlying the testing process is the assumption that there are standards for quality, performance, and style. Take the opportunity to build a style guide for each new or redesigned site you build. And take the time to set quality and performance standards early on.

The question of performance across browsers, for example, depends heavily on the site's audience. For example, a site that's aimed at a general "mass market" audience should look good in AOL's browser. Sites geared for the library or education market should be functional on Lynx. For other sites, consistent performance on 3.0 and 4.0 versions of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft IE might be more than sufficient.

The period between project kickoff and quality assurance testing might be ten days or ten months, but the mission of the project manager is the same: to successfully orchestrate the process of development. Of course, you could always leave success to chance... but why put your hard work at risk? The support and direction offered by a project manager can help stack the deck in your favor.

• Take the project management survey or just view the results so far.
• Talk about project management issues in the discussion forums.
• Find related business and industry titles in the bookstore.
• Browse related web resources in the Web Index.

Sara Fleming is an Internet Project Manager based in the Boston area.

view a printable version of this article