Website Development Project Plan for ABC Trading Organization

This project plan outlines the development of a website for ABC, a trading organization. The plan follows PMBOK principles and covers five phases: initiation, planning, designing, implementation, and closure. Key elements include a statement of work detailing project goals, scope, and requirements; a work breakdown structure (WBS) identifying all work elements; a RACI matrix defining responsibilities; and a risk management plan to mitigate potential issues. The plan also addresses resource allocation, team management, scheduling, and budgeting, with a total budget of $100,000 and a timeline of six months. The project aims to create a fully functional website using WordPress, complete with user interfaces, content, and interactive features. The document concludes with acceptance criteria for each project stage and outlines the deliverables, ensuring a structured and well-managed website development process. Desklib provides more solved assignments for students.

Website Development Project Plan
Executive Summary
This project deals with the development of a website for an organization that is into trading
business. The company has been providing trading services support to investors and also
providing training to the brokers on various trading platforms. The company has business
pages on business networking platforms like LinkedIn but does not have a website which it is
planning to build. The paper presents a detailed project plan for the development of the
website. The project would be executed using PMBOK project management disciple in five
phases of development. The plan presents a statement of work, resource management, team
management, and risk management plans. The plan also presents a WBS that identified each
work element, RACI matrix for understanding of the distribution of responsibilities and a risk
management table to help project manager identify risks on the project and take appropriate
action for mitigation.
Contents
Executive Summary...............................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Project Management Plan......................................................................................................................2
Project Selection................................................................................................................................2
Statement of Work.............................................................................................................................2
Background...................................................................................................................................2
Project Scope.................................................................................................................................3
Work Requirements.......................................................................................................................4
Schedule........................................................................................................................................6
Budget...........................................................................................................................................6
Acceptance Criteria.......................................................................................................................6
Acceptance....................................................................................................................................7
Deliverables.......................................................................................................................................8
Team Management............................................................................................................................8
Risk Management............................................................................................................................10
Project Closure................................................................................................................................12

Conclusions & recommendations........................................................................................................12
References...........................................................................................................................................13
Introduction
ABC is a trading organization that provides trading support to investors and training to the
brokers getting into trading business. The company has been operating online through various
business networking platforms such as LinkedIn and other specialized traders’ platforms
where they are registered (Dinsmore & Brewin, 2010). However, the company realizes the
need to have a new website so that it can have a detailed presentation of services and
portfolios and engage potential customers on the website which is likely to give them more
conversion. The company has decided to use the open source content management system
called WordPress for it is one of the most popular systems across globe. The project is going
to be outsourced to a third-party development contractor (BENAIJA1 & KJIRI, 2013).
Project Management Plan
Project Selection
The company was approached by an organization that lists various types of businesses online
and the company had suggested ABC the allow them to register them for the services that
would allow creation of a webpage for the company that would look like a website. A
promise was given that the page will give the company more traction into the online space
(EU, 2005). After discussion with the team, management discovered that there was another
option which was to develop a full-fledged website for company instead of just a page. The
two project presented opportunities from which only one could be selected (AG, 2013). The
project selection was made using a scoring model in which the management representatives
were asked to score each project on certain criteria such that the project assuming higher total
score was selected. The criteria included cost of development, expected rate of return,
ownership, control, rate of conversion, exposure, quality of deliverables, timelines, strategic
alignment, and so on. The development of own website got a higher score in the process
which is why the same project has been proposed here (Baguley, 2008).

Statement of Work
Background
This project would involve development of a website for an organization that is into trading
business. The contract for the development has been awarded to an IT organization that acts
as an independent contracting agency (GALWAY, 2004). The website development project
would include development of user’s interfaces, website pages, graphics, and content
elements. It would have interfaces designed for the customers to connect to the brand through
chat and email functionalities. The project would take five phases for completion and these
include project initiation, project planning, website designing, implementation, and project
closure (Cliff COnsulting, 2007).
The project would begin with purpose of a domain name and webspace. Once these are in
place, a content management system called WordPress would be installed on the DNS
acquired. A plan would then be developed for executing the remaining project activities
needed to complete the project. It would include plan for the management of different areas
of project management including schedule management, budgeting, project scope
management, risk management, and resource management. A design would then be
developed for the website pages and then the project plan would be implemented (C.R &
Thomas, 2011).
Implementation stage would include development of the website features, interfaces,
graphics, and content. Once all these components of the website are developed, they would
be installed on the CMS and testing would be followed to identify any bugs in the website.
This statement of work defines all these activities that are in the scope of the project. The
project has been allotted a budget of $1,00,000 and the website development needs to be
completed in 6 months starting from initiation till the closure of the project (Leroy, 2012).
Project Scope
The project would be completed in five stages including initiation, planning, designing,
implementation, and project closure. In initiation phase, the independent contractor would
gather requirements for the project by interviewing the company representatives. The
requirements gathered would be used for planning and designing stages of the project
(Heerkens, 2015). Based on these requirements, the project would be planned and the design
would be developed for the website. After the approval of the design, actual website would

be coded and then tested. The project scope would define the outcome and deliverables of the
project (Dinsmore & Brewin, 2010).
Activities within the scope of the website development include:
 Procurement of domain name and webspace for the website
 Installation of content management system
 Creation of the design for the development of the website
 Development of website features based on the approved design (Ayyalaraju, 2017)
 Installation of WordPress widgets for development of planned features on the website
 Coding for the customization of the website features
 Testing of the website to identify bugs and eliminate them (Cliff COnsulting, 2007)
Activities that are not in the project scope include:
 Training the employees of the company on the use of CMS
 Launching the website for the public to see (Ayyalaraju, 2017)
Work Requirements
The project would have the following requirements to be fulfilled in each stage of the project:
Initiation: In this phase, the contractor would be selected and outsourced the work of the
website development. The contractor would get the DNS and webspace for the website
development and install a CMS on the space. Once that is done, the contractor would
interview the key stakeholders of the project to understand their requirements (Leroy, 2012).
Planning: In this stage, the contractor would develop the website involving installation of
plugins needed for the development of different website components including chat
functionality, home page slider, testimonials, feature boxes, and blog pages. It also included
development of codes for customization of website features and interfaces (Ayyalaraju,
2017).

Designing: A design would be developed for the website in this stage which would be based
on the requirements of the project and would form the basis for the development of the CSS
or PHP codes (Liu, 2013).
Implementation: In this stage, the plugins would be installed as planned on the website and
the customization of the website features and components would be done using the custom
coding done on PHP and CSS. In this phase, the developed website code would also be tested
to identify if there are any bugs. These bugs would be eliminated when found and the updated
code would be finalized for the website (AG, 2013).
Closure: By this stage, all the deliverables of the project would be completed and they would
be recorded in the project closure documentation by the contractor. This would include the
review of the project completion based on which the company head would take a decision on
the acceptance of the developed website. The acceptance from the client organization would
mark the completion of the project and the client would give a final sign off (Mushtaq, 2016).
The tasks would be executive in a sequence as covered in the Work Break Down Structure
provided below (Devi & Reddy, 2012):
1.0 Project Initiation
1.1 Contractor Selection
1.2 Set-up
1.2.1 DNS
1.2.2 Webspace
1.2.3 WordPress CMS installation
1.3 Requirement Gathering (Baguley, 2008)
2.0 Planning
2.1 Budgeting
2.2 Scheduling
2.3 Resource Management
2.3.1 Roles & Responsibilities
2.3.2 Team Management
2.4 Scope Management
2.5 Risk Management (Devi & Reddy, 2012)
3.0 Designing

3.1 Features
3.2 Functionalities
3.3 Pages
3.4 Graphics (Baguley, 2008)
4.0 Implementation
4.1 Website Development
4.1.1 Theme installation
4.1.2 Plugins
4.1.3 Content development
4.1.4 Uploading of Graphics
4.1.5 Custom coding (RCF, 2003)
4.2 Testing
4.2.1 System testing
4.2.2 Functional testing
4.2.3 Use Acceptance testing (RCF, 2003)
5.0 Project Closure
5.1 Project Acceptance
5.2 Project documentation
5.3 Project sign off (Devi & Reddy, 2012)
Schedule
Assuming the project starting on 1st Sept 2018, it would have the following milestones:
Task Finish Date
Contractor Selection 1st Sept 2018
Set-up 10th Oct 2018
Requirement gathering 17th Oct 2018
Project Management Planning 25th Nov 2018

Task Finish Date
Website design 28th Nov 2018
Website Design review & approval 30th Nov 2018
Plugins installation 27th Nov 2018
Content Development Uploading (Bruce &
Langdon, 2009)
31st Dec 2018
Custom Coding 25th Jan 2019
Testing 24th Feb 2018
Project Completion review 25th Dec 2018
Project Closure Documentation 28th Feb 2018
Project Sign off 5th Mar 2019
(Devi & Reddy, 2012)
Budget
The website development project has a budget of $1,00,000 in which all the stages of the
project would be covered. The budget would be released in portions depending on the
requirement of each stage of the project (SAEO, 2015).
Acceptance Criteria
The project would be reviewed at the end of each stage and only after the outcome of each
stage is accepted will the final project be seen as accepted. The criteria for acceptance at each
stage of the project are as follows (C.R & Thomas, 2011):
Initiation Stage acceptance criteria:
 Installation of DNS, web space, and CMS is completed
 Selected contractor has both capabilities and experience of working on website
development projects (Sabyasachi, 2018)
Planning Stage completion acceptance criteria:
 All key stakeholders have participated in the requirements gathering stage
 The plan explains how each of the following project components would be handled
(Cliff COnsulting, 2007)
o Budget

o Schedule
o Risks (Kärri, 2014)
o Scope
o Resources (Ponnappa, 2014)
 All the human resources have been assigned appropriate responsibilities
Design stage acceptance criteria:
 The design presented has all the components needed on the website (DESPA,
2014)All the needed functionalities and features have been identified and covered in
the design
Implementation stage completion acceptance criteria (OECD, 2014):
 All the required features have been installed on the website
 The website is able to provide all the required functionalities as identified in the
requirement gathering process
 Custom code has been implemented on the website successfully
 All the codes have been tested and corrected for bugs
Project Closure stage acceptance criteria:
 All the details of the project progress have been documented
 Project deliverables have been sufficiently reviewed by the client organization (Bruce
& Langdon, 2009)
Acceptance
The following company representatives have accepted that the project has been successfully
completed:
ABC Company Website Development Contractor
Company name Company name
Allen Booze Dale Williams

Full name Full name
CEO Project Manager
Title Title
Signature Signature
Date Date
Deliverables
The deliverables of this project include:
 Content management system installed on the new DNS
 A design suggesting features and components for a website
 Plugins installed on the website delivering required functionalities on the website
 Content uploaded on the website including the textual content and the graphics
(Langley, 2015)
 Custom codes delivered as per the needs of the company
 Positive testing completed to ensure that there are no bugs in the codes (Dinsmore &
Brewin, 2010)
Team Management
The team would be assigned the responsibilities for taking care of the development of the
project involved in various ways into different stages. There are five people in the team of the
contractor who would be involved in the development process and these include project
management, IT manager, developer, content writer, and graphic designer. The roles and
responsibilities of the team members are listed below (DESPA, 2014):
Responsibilities of the project manager would include:
 Coordinate with the client to collect the project requirements

 Ensure that project activities are completed within time and within the assigned
budget (Leroy, 2012)
 Coordinate with the team members and guide them to ensure smooth completion of
work
 Monitor project process and keep a tab on deliverables to ensure they are up to date
 Identify risks on the project and plan contingency and mitigation strategies to deal
with them (Heerkens, 2015)
Responsibilities of the IT manager would include:
 Procure licenses for DNS and webspace and ensure that WordPress is installed
 Ensure that the website also has required plugins for security, SEO, and backups
updated (EU, 2005)
Responsibilities of the developer would include:
 Identify required plugins and install them with appropriate content added
 Code plugins to add custom functionalities as per project requirements (Liu, 2013).
Responsibilities of the content writer would include:
 Identify needs of the content and write content for the website
 Deliver content as per the design on desired timelines
 Ensure that the content is copy cape tested and is well proofread and edited
Responsibilities of the graphic designer would include:
 Procure graphics and modify them as per the needs of the project
 Create illustrations wherever needed for the website
 Deliver graphics as per the design on desired timelines (Mushtaq, 2016)
A RACI Chart would help identify their responsibilities and accountabilities which would
help the project manager ensure that they are all adhering to their part and it would also make
it easy for the manager to identify who should be taking first action in case of any risks
appearing. The exercise would also ensure that everyone is made responsible for a task is also
accountable (EU, 2005).

Project
Tasks
Project
Sponsor
Project
Manager
Website
Developer
IT
Manager
Content
Writer
Graphic
Designer
Project
Planning
CI RAC CI CI CI CI
Scheduling A RAC CI CI CI CI
Budgeting A RAC I CI I I
Initiation A RAC I I I I
Website
development
CI RAC
(OECD,
2014)
R RA
(Mushtaq,
2016)
RAC RAC
Installation I CI RAC RAC I I
Coding I CI RAC RACI I I
Testing I CI RAC RAC I I
Risk
Managemen
t
CI RAC CI CI I I
Resource
Managemen
t
CI RAC CI CI I I
Time
Managemen
t
CI RAC CI CI I I
Project
Closure
RA
(Oracle,
2009)
RAC I I I I
(Langley,
2015)
Risk Management
Risk management involves identification of risks that can occur on a project and deployment
of the response plan to deal with them. Typical responses to any project risk would be

avoidance if possible, transfer of the risk to other party, mitigation of risk in the case of
occurrence, and ignorance if the risks is unlikely to affect the project in a major way but its
resolution can be a significant cost to the company. The choice of the strategy to use and the
risks that have to be prioritized would depend on the level of severity these risks present to
the project which would be calculated on the basis of their likelihood of occurrence and the
potential impact they would have on the project (Oracle, 2009). The table below identifies
some possible risks on the project as well as presents the level of severity and the response
plan. The table also identifies the person who would be responsible for ensuring that the
appropriate response plan has been taken. With this chart, there would also be a risk
registered prepared that will record all these details and would also record the actions actually
taken for the risks by the team as the project would progress. This would help the team keep a
tab on the risks and ensure that they do not impact the project deliverables much and are well
taken care of (GALWAY, 2004).
Risk Impact Probability Ranking Response Responsibility
Project going
overbudget
(Wickboldt,
2011)
Medium
High
(Ponnappa
, 2014)
6
Mitigate: Monitor
project progress and
control costs in case
they still escalate,
utilize a contingency
fund that has to be set
aside during
budgeting. In case the
funds are still
insufficient, take
approval for
additional funds to be
given from the
project sponsor
(Wickboldt, 2011).
Project
Manager
Content
delivery delays High
Medium 6
Mitigate: Put a
random content and
continue with coding
and development and
replace the content
with actual post
development (Oracle,
Developer