Mobile version of Dnes.bg

I am very proud that I and my team were able to complete this huge project just 2 weeks before I left Investor.bg Group (IBG). It was a real challenge to project manage the idea, the design and the development of entire new mobile web site for the largest news portal in Bulgaria – Dnes.bg
Today, the mobile website is up and running, so please feel free to visit it at: m.dnes.bg

Project scope

- To develop a modern mobile web portal for Dnes.bg
- User friendly and easy to navigate home page
- Article page with various placeholders
- Comments functionality
- Listing pages
- Gallery page with thumbnails
- Horoscopes section
- Currency rates section
- TV and Cinema programmes sections

The main goal of the project was to design, develop and deliver a great mobile web site for the largest news portal in Bulgaria – Dnes.bg

Project team

Lubo – Chairman of the board of directors of IBG
Iana – OPS director (at IBG)
Alex – External UX/Design consultant - https://posteffects.bg/
Emarketing – External Web marketing agency - https://emarketing.bg/
Hristo – External Web developer
Dnes.bg Media team (at IBG)
Simeon – Project manager (at IBG)

The team consisted of IBG members, External UX/Design consultant, External Web developer, External Web design agency. I, Iana and Alex were responsible to elaborate the idea, I was responsible to write project specifications, project roadmap and to communicate with Emarketing and Hristo so they could deliver the final product. Emarketing were responsible to do the mock-up, the design and the front-end coding, and Hristo was responsible to do the development of the web site. Lubo acted as the manager who provided final approvals at the stages and Dnes.bg Media team supported the project once it was published live.

Project resources

Lubo, Iana, Dnes.bg media team and Simeon – employees of IBG
Alex – External consultant – hourly based cost
Emarketing – External/Web marketing agency – design & frontend. Fixed contract
Hristo – external web developer - hourly based cost

Costs:  ~100 000 EUR
Time: ~ 82 working days (4 months)

The costs calculations were done based on the fixed contract with Emarketing, the hourly based payment rate of Alex and Hristo and also the time that the IBG team members spent on the project. The exact number is confidential information, so 100k is just an example number.

The project checklist

Here is the checklist I used to manage the project. I also used project specifications document and my project/task list to write down notes about the project. Also a flowchart containing all the pages and functionalities (and the logic behind them) was created by me. The tasks were broken down using simple waterfall technique. The project roadmap was:
1. I, Iana and Alex discussed the project, the pages and the mock-ups with Emarketing.
2. Emarketing delivered mock-ups for the major pages.
3. We discussed the mock-ups at IBG and provided revisions.
4. Emarketing implemented the revisions and then authorization was granted to proceed with the designs of the pages.
5. Again, the designed pages were revised and approved after that.
6. The frontend coding was done by Emarketing.
7. The project and the project specifications were sent to Hristo for development.
8. The beta site was revised.
9. The site went live – and we (IBG team + Hristo) continued to monitor and maintain it.

After the new mobile site was launched live – we received tremendous amount of positive feedback. Our managers were happy but most importantly the users using the mobile web site were very happy about it. And all the team members were very proud that we managed to deliver such an outstanding product.

Project management checklist

Starting your new project? Executing new strategy plan? Or just managing the implementation of a new feature? In all those cases you are going to need a project management checklist.

Purpose of the project management checklist

The purpose of the project management checklist is to ensure that the project manager and the team members are aware of every detail regarding the project and every specific micro-task. The project manager should be responsible to create, update and manage the checklist. The checklist should clearly answer the following questions:
- What is the roadmap to finish the project?
- Which task should be done before, after or along with each task?
- Who is responsible to develop and do the task?
- What is the due date and the estimated time for each task?
- What is the ultimate due date to deliver the project completely?

You could use project management software like Microsoft Project to help yourself with breaking the project into tasks. Also, a simple Excel spreadsheet could be used to create your checklist.

Good project management checklist

I am providing an example of a checklist I did for one of the projects I managed. Here are several points to pay attention when creating your checklist:
- Prepare the tasks in the traditional waterfall methodology. The tasks that should be implemented first should go on the top of the other tasks.
- There should be an estimated time for every task.
- There also should be a separate field for the due date of every task. This should be the final due date when the task must be completely finished/delivered.
- There should be a responsible person or team (team leader) to deliver the task. You could also put supporting persons there.
- You could use colors to mark any due dates in danger or any due dates that were not met.
- You could leave a note field for every task. This, in no way should keep you out of filling details about the project in your project/task list note field.
- You need to get into details and break the project on relatively small tasks – that’s the purpose of your checklist.
- You need to manage your checklist and even add new tasks when they appear. Also update the project management checklist every time something happens with a related task.

What should you avoid doing in your project management checklist 

- Avoid overcomplicating your project management checklist. Your checklist is there to help you manage the project, not to be additional bureaucratic burden to you.
- Having a responsible person or a team and also getting proper estimates and due dates is the core data in your checklist. Always ensure that those fields are filled in.
- Avoid using your checklist to store very detailed notes regarding particular task. You should be using project management list to store detailed notes about how a particular project is going. It is easier to read and keep track of the notes there.