Our guide to project efficiency

How to save money on your project.

We are obsessed with efficiencies. Inefficiencies can become the biggest cost to a project.

Project efficiency

• saves you time
• saves us time, therefor saves you money
• makes it easier to deal with complexity
• can teach you new tools and processes to also work more efficently
• reduces stress

Main areas that we focus on are:

• Tools
• Indecisiveness
• Clear communication
• Keep the ball rolling
• Deadlines
• Support and Task Delegation

Tools

We use simple, free tools.

Asana (Project Management)

• This is our primary tool. We only use basic features and not the entire toolset
• Tasks are logged, discussed, actioned and archived
• If a task is not in Asana, it will not be actioned
• We use Asana to replace email, however it can also send email notifications and you can respond to task discussions via email.
• If you email or phone a task, it will be migrated into asana at your cost.
• Always place one task per task. Multiple tasks will be split up at your cost. This allows us to discuss, action and archive specific tasks
• We may store passwords, contacts and some project resources in Asana
• Asana has mobile apps.

Not using Asana correctly will blow costs out substantially and we expect that you understand how to use Asana. If you do not know this tool, you may have a play to figure it out, learn online or allocate a little time for us to train you. Here is the online guide https://asana.com/guide

Video Conferencing

• For when things get a little too complex for asana, for project management meetings, training and workshop type stuff.
• Instead of using a phone as it allows us to text chat at the same time. So we can share copy, codes, web addresses easily whiling discussing.
• Sometimes we may mirror our screens to show you stuff or mirror your screen to see what you are seeing.

We prefer Zoom. We can use an alternative tool if you have a better one that supports these features.

Filesharing

We use dropbox, google drive, amazon etc  to share larger files and website content if needed in a project.

Email

Yuck. Everyone has too much email. We try to restrict email use to the period of starting a job, for rare messages and for discussions unrelated to the project. Asana is far more efficient. Searching for a task or piecing together a conversation amongst multiple email is a great way to burn time and money and create confusion.

Phone

Some parts of building websites are really complex and if we receive a call while in the middle of long stint of writing code, we are likely to be:

• dopey (unless you can talk in code)
• grumpy (if the code is really hard)
• likely to have no idea about where your project is at or are able to help you.

It can sometimes take a long time to get back into the code, increasing costs for everyone, especially you. Sometimes phones are efficient and we only use the phone by appointment. This allows us to get out of the code, do a check of your Asana so we understand where we are up to with your project and focus on you.

If it is really urgent, please email requesting a phone call. We check our email lots and lots (we are nerds remember). Sometimes we can go days without checking our phones for missed calls and messages.

General Messaging

We keep our messages as short as possible. We treat email like SMS. Shorter is better.

We upset people sometimes as this is interpreted as “blunt” or we are “upset”. Nope, we work efficiently on our work stuff to leave more time for people. We would prefer to hang out with you over a beer and casual chat, rather than burn time writing “polite” messages. We feel that email just isn’t the medium for being personal and so don’t use it in this way.

If we have any issues, we will schedule a zoom chat to discuss them, as video is a far more personal medium.

Indecisiveness

There are phases in every project where we explore ideas, review things and change stuff around. This is the time to make changes and also ensure that all stakeholders have their say. Then you will give us the approval to start production.

When we enter build phases and especially finishing stages, changing the specifications will increase costs. In some cases it will force us to scrap all the work done and start from scratch. That sounds expensive and yes, it is.

Random Additions

Adding small features, sometime can cause major parts to be rebuilt or existing work to be scrapped.

Flexibility

We prioritise flexibility, scalability and minimisation where ever possible. The nature of customising work for specific needs, reduces this flexibility. Generally, the more customisations, the less flexibility.

Clear Communication

Due to the complex nature of building websites, clear communication is even more important. If we misunderstand you, costs can incur quickly through

• spending time trying to work out what you are asking or where the problem is
• changing things that don’t need changing (more cost)
• making incorrect changes to functionality
• causing project management delays while we work to understand your issue

Clear Instructions:

• log tasks individually in Asana
• if referring to a webpage or example, add the link so we can go straight to it
• explain what is wrong and how you are expecting it to work
• browsers and systems vary so we may be seeing something different to us. If this may be possible, take a screenshot so we can confirm we are looking at the same issue
• let us know what browser and system you are using
• if the error is part of a process, explain the steps that you took to cause the issue, the error and your expectations.
• if you have any insights or ideas of the cause, let us know

Keep the ball rolling

Keep the time between us contacting you with a request and then receiving the information really short. This enables us to keep working on your job and keep focused.

When jumping in and out of a project, a lot of time is lost re-focusing on your specific solution. Long lags also mean that we will start working on another project, and the agreed completion date will be pushed back.

Deadlines

Extending deadlines usually increases the total hours required to complete the project.

The longer the period between working on a project means it requires more time for us to focus on your specific project when we resume work, especially if it is a complex solution. Additionally extended deadlines come hand in hand with ongoing random additions (see above).

Support

Different people and projects require different levels of support. Some people may require more time to explain things. Have a think about whether you will need this support and budget for it.

We are a service based organisation and we are more than happy to spend a heap of time supporting you in various areas. We charge for our time so think about how you are using our time so you are getting the best value for the money you spend.

Task Delegation

Some projects require tasks that should be done, or able to be done by the client or through client resources. Think about what tasks can be done in-house to save our billable time and try not to delegate tasks that you should be doing.

Make sure you have enough hours allocated to allow you or your staff to assist us to complete this project. We will happily make you a coffee, however it will be an expensive coffee and probably not that great.

For tasks that are time consuming and lower skilled, we are happy to guide you on how to hire or contract someone directly to do this work, saving you our management costs.