Once the hundreds of tests, “what-if’s” and team feedback sessions are incorporated into the core product, it is time to actually put users and members on the system and have them start using it.  The LAUNCH PHASE of the project is equally important as the development efforts.  Yet most projects have a plan/budget and an outsourced development task and then expect things to come together as planned……with disastrous results in many cases.

Getting the product into the hands of the user community is a CRITICAL milestone in the life cycle of a web application project.  Things SHOULD WORK as they were developed.  But they won’t mesh 100% of the time.  Minor glitches will occur and need appropriate correction.  Most importantly, however, the completed system from the user and their interaction with the software to the people supporting the users on the client’s operations staff need to be integrated into a comprehensive whole that deliver the product or service envisioned.

The Project Manager is the one person that has vision (and implementation responsibility) ACROSS the entire project. S/he understands the product that has been developed and ensures that it meshes with then needs and expectations of both the user community and the operations support community.