If you are building a website, a set of web pages, an online application, survey, or any other web-based resource that must operate in realtime, it is crucial that when it goes "live," it works the way you want it to. If not, users may not learn from, interact with, or supply the correct information through that resource, which ultimately wastes your time and effort. So recognize that web-based, "live" resources require careful planning and step-by-step implementation.

This is a project plan template to help you develop a web-based product or resource. You can use it as a guide for your own, tailored plan. If you'd like a copy to use in your office's wiki space, contact the Center for Online Learning & Innovation, who would be glad to make a copy for you.

Define the Project

Begin with the end in mind. Basically, what would you like your internet-based product to be or do?

Use the rubric below to develop a description of the product and factors involved in it's completion. Some questions may be easy to answer or even irrelevant. But consider all carefully in order to ensure the success of the project.

Start Date
Project Description and Goals	Who are my clientele: audience, participants, respondents, and so on? What kind of information am I broadcasting? What kinds of information am I collecting? How will my clientele become aware of my product? How will they access it? What must my clientele do to use, interact with, or provide information to my product?
Deliverables and Completion Dates	How can I briefly describe my finished product: what form will it take? How will it function? When must the project be completed? When does "up-time" begin? Is my timeframe realistic for the product I'm going to produce?
Stakeholders & Interdependencies	Who will approve this project, the resources or actions required, and the operation of the finished product? What other offices, departments, or individual might see their work effected by this project? Outside our office or division, who else will need to perform actions or supply resources and efforts to complete this project?
Project Team Development	Who within my office will be developing the product? Who will maintain, modify, and employ data from the product? How frequently can we expect turnover among those using the product? What steps can we take to help turnover go smoothly? What tools, software, and procedures must team members learn to build the product? What tools, software, and procedures must team members and stakeholders learn to operate or use results from the product?
Resources	How do costs compare with budget limitations? What resources, including software, access to information, or even hardware do we require? How might we obtain resources we do not have immediately available for the product? Are there additional resources, such as tutorials, support events, partnerships we must develop to help clients learn to use or understand our product?
Risks	How sensitive is some or all of the information you are working with? What steps must we take to secure it? How important is "real time" capability? Will my product be available to clients at certain times, or all the time? Are there phases of the project where we cannot (practically) make changes to it?

Project Plan

Develop a phased plan, detailing step by step the actions to be performed to complete the product. This is your master plan. Below it is the "Pilot Plan," which should be incorporated into one or perhaps more of the phases in the master plan.

Phase	Description	Dates

Pilot Plan