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Case Upon - Common Mistakes: Functional Web Specification
Many success coaches and speakers are out there charging thousands of dollars and giving valuable information about using your potential, making money and becoming successful. The fact is, the underlying theme is to take action. You can start now and create an online business (most of you already have) and then improve your site over time. You can go ahead and create a web page about your product, add some testimonials, add a payment gateway, create an autoresponder and pay for your pay-per-click adds and you’re in the game. Better to start now then improve as you go along. The effort you put in for a day or two (for me it’s much longer, I have to be honest) will bring in repeated profits and it’s the best way to leverage your time. Sorry to bore you if you’re more experienced and have heard all the pep talk before.The principle I want to talk about is
Planned functionality not aligned with internal resources: Many companies look at site functionality only from a site visitor perspective (e.g. facilitation of searching information or performing transaction) and corporate benefits (e.g. financial benefits of self-service features). However, there is a third dimension the impact of site functionality on internal resources. Site functionality that can heavily impact internal resources are for example:
- Web sites: providing news, online recruitment, online support, etc.
- Intranets / portals: providing content maintenance functionality for business managers.
It is crucial for the success of site functionality that the Web committee analyzes the impact and takes actions to ensure operat
Most people who try their hand at affiliate marketing never even get one check in the mail. The problem is that when people put affiliate links on their site they do not get very much traffic and they end up giving up before they make any money. But then there are some people who get the same amount of traffic and they do get paid, why is that. If someone is getting the same amount of traffic as your site but their pulling in the commissions then there is one reason and one reason only that they are generating profits and you are not. They are doing a better job at convincing their visitors to purchase through their link. It all comes down to good copywriting skills.No Need to Fret If Your Are NOT a Master CopywriterBut copywriting is a skill that is learned overtime. It takes trial and error and practice. But while you are learning copywriting
Too vague or incomplete functional specification: This is the most common mistake that companies do. Everything that is ambiguously or not specified at all, developers do not implement or implement in a different way of what site owners want. This relates primarily to Web features that are considered as common user expectations. For example, HTML title tags, which are used to bookmark Web pages. The Web steering committee may specify that each page contains a page title, but does not specify that HTML Title tags needs to be implemented as well. Web developers therefore may do not implement HTML Title tags or implement them in a way, which differs from site owners' visions. There are other examples such as error handling on online forms or the definition of ALT texts for images to comply with the disability act section 508. These examples look like details but in practice, if developers need to modify hundreds or even thousands of pages, it amounts to several man-days or even man-weeks. Especially, the corrections for images as business owners need first to define the image names prior that Web developers can implement the ATL texts. Ambiguous functional specification can result due to the lack of internal or external missing usability skills. In this case, a one-day usability best practice workshop transfers the necessary or at least basic usability skills to the Web team. It is recommended, even for companies that have usability skills or rely on the subcontractor's skill set, that an external and neutral consultant reviews the functional specification. Especially, as such reviews relate to marginal spending as compared to the total Web investments (e.g. about $10 K - $15 K dollars for a review).
Future site enhancement not identified or not communicated: It is crucial that the Web committee identifies at least the major future site enhancements and communicates them to the development team. In the best case, the development team knows the roadmap for the coming three years. Such an approach allows the development team to anticipate implementation choices to host future site enhancements. It is more cost effective on mid- or long-term to invest more in the beginning and to build a flexible solution. If Web teams do not know or even ignore future enhancements, the risk for higher investment increases (e.g. adding new functionality in the future results in partially or at worst in totally rebuilding existing functionality). Looking at the financial delta for a flexible solution versus a solution just satisfying the current requirements, the flexible solution has proven to be more cost-effective in practice from a mid- and long-term perspective.
Planned functionality not aligned with internal resources: Many companies look at site functionality only from a site visitor perspective (e.g. facilitation of searching information or performing transaction) and corporate benefits (e.g. financial benefits of self-service features). However, there is a third dimension the impact of site functionality on internal resources. Site functionality that can heavily impact internal resources are for example:
- Web sites: providing news, online recruitment, online support, etc.
- Intranets / portals: providing content maintenance functionality for business managers.
It is crucial for the success of site functionality that the Web committee analyzes the impact and takes actions to ensure operati
Everyone knows that an agenda is the key to an effective meeting. But an agenda that consists of a list of nouns, such as budget, software, and picnic, is useless. Here’s how to prepare a real agenda that puts you in control of the meeting.1) Goal. Every real agenda begins with a goal that describes the result wanted at the end of the meeting, such as: find a way to reduce travel costs by 10%. Ideally, this goal should be stated so clearly that someone else could use it to design a meeting that achieved the result.2) Outcome. This describes the benefit of achieving the goal, and thus tells why you are holding the meeting. For example, the benefit of reducing travel costs might be that you will keep spending within budget.3) Activities. This provides a blueprint (or set of instructions) for the meeting. Ideally, this contai
Future site enhancement not identified or not communicated: It is crucial that the Web committee identifies at least the major future site enhancements and communicates them to the development team. In the best case, the development team knows the roadmap for the coming three years. Such an approach allows the development team to anticipate implementation choices to host future site enhancements. It is more cost effective on mid- or long-term to invest more in the beginning and to build a flexible solution. If Web teams do not know or even ignore future enhancements, the risk for higher investment increases (e.g. adding new functionality in the future results in partially or at worst in totally rebuilding existing functionality). Looking at the financial delta for a flexible solution versus a solution just satisfying the current requirements, the flexible solution has proven to be more cost-effective in practice from a mid- and long-term perspective.
Planned functionality not aligned with internal resources: Many companies look at site functionality only from a site visitor perspective (e.g. facilitation of searching information or performing transaction) and corporate benefits (e.g. financial benefits of self-service features). However, there is a third dimension the impact of site functionality on internal resources. Site functionality that can heavily impact internal resources are for example:
- Web sites: providing news, online recruitment, online support, etc.
- Intranets / portals: providing content maintenance functionality for business managers.
It is crucial for the success of site functionality that the Web committee analyzes the impact and takes actions to ensure operat
Ever wondered why Walt Disney never got sued for intellectual property theft?C’mon, the guy ripped off so many Hans Christian Anderson and Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales! And he never paid the said authors any royalty fees! Granted that they’re dead, but shouldn’t their families be entitled to proceeds from their works? Such would be a small price to pay, considering the accumulated wealth of Walt Disney’s billion dollar enterprise.But alas, Mr. Walt Disney, you see, is a marketing genius. He knew how to exploit the allowable usage of public domain information, and he built for himself an empire in the process.And if Walt Disney can do it, so can you! After all, we all have access to public domain information. We don’t even need a touch of that famous Disney magic. We just have to weave our own creative spin on things.But first, the b
Future site enhancement not identified or not communicated: It is crucial that the Web committee identifies at least the major future site enhancements and communicates them to the development team. In the best case, the development team knows the roadmap for the coming three years. Such an approach allows the development team to anticipate implementation choices to host future site enhancements. It is more cost effective on mid- or long-term to invest more in the beginning and to build a flexible solution. If Web teams do not know or even ignore future enhancements, the risk for higher investment increases (e.g. adding new functionality in the future results in partially or at worst in totally rebuilding existing functionality). Looking at the financial delta for a flexible solution versus a solution just satisfying the current requirements, the flexible solution has proven to be more cost-effective in practice from a mid- and long-term perspective.
Planned functionality not aligned with internal resources: Many companies look at site functionality only from a site visitor perspective (e.g. facilitation of searching information or performing transaction) and corporate benefits (e.g. financial benefits of self-service features). However, there is a third dimension the impact of site functionality on internal resources. Site functionality that can heavily impact internal resources are for example:
- Web sites: providing news, online recruitment, online support, etc.
- Intranets / portals: providing content maintenance functionality for business managers.
It is crucial for the success of site functionality that the Web committee analyzes the impact and takes actions to ensure operat
There is an old saying in Kannada (a South Indian language) which roughly translates to: "It takes a year for the pot maker to make a pot, but hardly takes a minute to break it with a rod". Its so true when it comes to Sales. Getting a customer requires hard work and can take ages, but to lose one you don't have to do much. It's hardly time consuming.Let's take a look at 5 tips that can help you turn your prospects into loyal customers.1. Be ProfessionalYour first impression with your prospective customer is very important. People say the first impression is the best impression. But remember, in sales every meeting you attend demands a professional attitude from your end. Your attire, body posture and effective communication can set yourself apart from your competition. Always keep in mind that you are the face of your company. Any
Planned functionality not aligned with internal resources: Many companies look at site functionality only from a site visitor perspective (e.g. facilitation of searching information or performing transaction) and corporate benefits (e.g. financial benefits of self-service features). However, there is a third dimension the impact of site functionality on internal resources. Site functionality that can heavily impact internal resources are for example:
- Web sites: providing news, online recruitment, online support, etc.
- Intranets / portals: providing content maintenance functionality for business managers.
It is crucial for the success of site functionality that the Web committee analyzes the impact and takes actions to ensure operat
From the Eye of the Potato: Train the people that deal with your customers.I called a support number the other day—I got the message! A recorded female voice said that I must call during a certain time period and "goodby."My first impression was: My this lady hates working for a living—and me!Then I thought: She can't be that bad—just not properly trained.Maybe she should listen to the telephone message systems of big corporations:"Thank you for calling Big Corporation. Your call is very important to us. If you speak English, press one. Si usted habla espa?ol, toca dos"This may go on for French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese. In fact, you could swim to China by the time you get to a live person. But still, your call is important to them so you sit there listening to music you hate, waiting, waiting…I C
Planned functionality not aligned with internal resources: Many companies look at site functionality only from a site visitor perspective (e.g. facilitation of searching information or performing transaction) and corporate benefits (e.g. financial benefits of self-service features). However, there is a third dimension the impact of site functionality on internal resources. Site functionality that can heavily impact internal resources are for example:
- Web sites: providing news, online recruitment, online support, etc.
- Intranets / portals: providing content maintenance functionality for business managers.
It is crucial for the success of site functionality that the Web committee analyzes the impact and takes actions to ensure operations of the planned functionality. For example, providing the content maintenance functionality to business owners and product mangers with an associated workflow. This functionality is effective and can generate business benefits such as reduced time to market. However, in practice, business owners and product managers will need to write, validate, review, approve and retire content. This results in additional workload. If the Web committee has not defined in the Web governance (processes, policies, ownership and potentially enforcement), it may happen that this functionality is not used and hence becomes useless.
Wish lists versus actual needs and business requirements: The functional specification is not aligned with user's needs or business requirements. This is more common for internal applications such as Intranets or portals. In many cases, the project committee neglects to perform a sound internal survey and defines functionality by generalizing individual employees' wishes without any sound proves. Capturing the feedback of internal users across the organization allows determining the critical functionality. To effectively perform a survey a representative set of employees need to be questioned. Further these employees need to be categorized into profiles. The profiles need to be characterized by for example, frequency of usage of the Intranet, estimated duration by visit, usage of the Intranet to facilitate their daily tasks, contribution to the business, etc. Based on this information the Web team can then prioritize the functionality and choose the most effective and relevant functionality for the next release. Less critical or less important functionality may be part of future releases (roadmap) or dropped. If such a sound decision process is not performed, it may happen that functionality is developed but only used by few users and the return of investment is not achieved.
Not enough visual supports or purely text based: Textual description of Web applications can be interpreted subjectively and hence leading to wrong expectations. To avoid setting wrong expectations, which may are only discovered during development or at worst at launch time, functional specification need to be complemented by visual supports (e.g. screenshots or at best HTML prototypes for home pages or any major navigation pages like sub-home pages for the major sections of the site such as for human resources, business units, finance, etc.). This allows reducing subjective interpretation and taking into account the users' feedback prior development. Such an approach helps setting the right expectations and to avoid any disappointments at the end once the new application is online.
We have observed these common mistakes, independently if companies have developed their Web applications internally or subcontracted them to an external service provider.
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