eCommerce

B2B Project Approach for eCommerce

Updated  |  6 min read
Key Takeaways
  • It's vital for business-to-business projects to have a clear goal in mind so that milestones can be reached.
  • Once a plan is in place, continued analysis is necessary to ensure the project is still on the right track.
  • Team members from the company building the software must work closely with specific team members from the company requesting the business-to-business project.
  • Project documents—which can and will change over the course of the project—must be carefully kept so that everyone is familiar with each stage of the plan.

A Business-to-Business Project Approach

One of the keys to understanding how the development process works is studying an example of how a real project worked in practical terms. As a representative example, Clarity Ventures offer the following analysis of one of its projects where skilled team members worked on a project that involved customizing Clarity's eCommerce development platform for the United Methodist Communications Phase 1 Project. A collaborative B2B eCommerce project approach is critical when developing these project processes:

  • Lifestyles and Milestones
  • Documents
  • Roles
  • Role Assignments
  • Communications
  • Management Monitoring, Supervision and Change Authorizations
How to Build Your High-Performance B2B eCommerce Team

It's critical to see proof that an eCommerce developer can deliver on promises, collaborate with multiple stakeholders, do the work, and develop an integrated and comprehensive website. To that end, Clarity Ventures offers this example of how its staff managed the process for United Methodist Communications.

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Project Lifecycle and Milestones

During development, the project employed many agile project features, iterations, regular communications, and testing. In larger development projects, some phases of B2B eCommerce development can be divided into subcategories that follow their own lifecycles.

Development efforts that require a continuous process can use a full agile methodology. The slightly altered semi-agile process used for the United Methodist Communications Project followed this lifecycle: Lifestyles and Milestones, Documents, Roles, Role Assignments, Communications, & Management Monitoring, Supervision, and Change Authorizations.

Inception of the Project

1. Project Proposal Document

The preliminary planning phase consisted of creating a summary document and reviewing it with agile methods that allow each stakeholder to comment on the process, suggest revisions, and reach a group consensus.

2. The Project Handoff Meeting

During the handoff meeting, different parts of the development are handed off to team specialists. Frequent handoffs can cause delays, so best practices include involving people in areas other than their specialties. Working in different areas of the project helps each stakeholder better understand the process by learning a little about each area of development.

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The Initiation Process for Business Clients

In the United Methodist Communications Project, four areas were covered during the initiation process: preparing a more detailed Project Summary and Scope of Work and Project Approach documents and hosting a Project Kickoff Meeting with the client and one with the Clarity development team.

Ongoing Analysis

1. Discovery Meetings, Group Activities and Exercises

As the project progresses, daily meetings, group meetings, creation of design mockups, stakeholder interviews, preparing inventories of features, mapping connections, and other analyses were common. The agile process includes meetings where each group discusses its progress, answers questions, and defines how its work relates to other aspects of the project.

2. Project Requirements Document

Ongoing preparation of an updated Project Requirements Document keeps everyone informed about the project's current status so that no stakeholder is surprised or blindsided. On large projects, one team can easily lose track of what others are doing, and this agile technique keeps everyone continuously updated.

Design Phase

During the design phase, teams map everything that's needed on the site, show how pages will connect, and produce wireframes or blueprints that show functionality in detail. After those are approved, the following documents and design features are prepared:

  • Technical Approach Document: The design process includes writing a preliminary document, getting it reviewed by the group, and incorporating needed changes. The technical approach covers the coding and technical details of the development process.
  • Functional Design Document: This record follows the same process as above but concentrates on development functionality and design features in the finished construction.
  • Technical Design Document: This document is prepared when feasible, but not every project includes this effort for various reasons such as security concerns, protected information, and other contraindications.

Constructing Platform Changes

The construction process is where Clarity Ventures works with development teams to build the B2B eCommerce platform or needed customizations to an existing platform. Throughout the agile process, the following three activities, if applicable, occur simultaneously:

  • QA Test Plans: Each completed function is tested exhaustively during the build, and iterative refinements are made.
  • Software: Software applications, integrations, and performance issues are also subject to testing, code refinements, troubleshooting, and performance on the many devices that customers use when accessing the Internet.
  • Administrator and User Documentation: These are usually focused on keeping administrators informed and follow the same iterative development and QA testing used concurrently in preparing documents. However, this deliverable is not always available for every project.
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Testing and Quality Insurance

Testing and quality assurance efforts continue until the final testing. One session involves the development staff, and a separate testing session is arranged for the client and executive decision-makers who sign off on the development.

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Implementation Strategy

During the implementation phase, as anyone involved with development knows, unexpected trouble spots arise in most projects. That's why Clarity Ventures offers an extraordinary level of service at this stage to train staff, validate the project, and deliver documentation and source code. The process includes the following steps:

  • Setting up hosting
  • Offering staff and stakeholder training in using the features
  • Installing the build
  • Performing final validation checks
  • Providing source code and project documentation through all stages of development

Project Documents

During the design phase, teams map everything that's needed on the site, show how pages will connect, and produce wireframes or blueprints that show functionality in detail. After those are approved, the following documents and design features are prepared:

  • Project Proposal: This document defines estimates of the work involved for all proposed activities and features.
  • Project Summary and Scope of Work: The document file covers project goals, planned solutions, work activities, and features that the project will deliver. The paper introduces EP Task IDs for each work story that can be compared with development progress at later stages.
  • Project Approach: The Project Approach Record defines all work processes, how work will be divided, technical details, and assignments of project roles and user stories.
  • Project Requirements: This document covers the deliverables that development will generate including software capabilities, documentation, testing plans, special features, and other functions.
  • Technical Approach: The technical aspects of the project are covered in this document which includes the tools, technologies, third-party resources, open-source code, and other details of how the software will be built.
  • Functional Design: This document includes a detailed schematic, mockup, or prototype of every relevant website function, design element details and connective functionality, and real-world business users often review this source document. The record serves as the blueprint for the build and is used by developers, documentation writers, staff, marketing people, and quality assurance analysts.
  • Technical Design: This record covers technical designs from an engineering overview and is offered in larger development projects that involve more complex developments and integrations. Smaller projects normally use Functional Design and Technical Approach documents to cover the necessary overview of their developments.
  • Test Plans: This documentation covers how developments will be tested by Quality Assurance staff throughout the development process.
  • Project Re-Estimates: Updates to projects, changes, cost overruns, and even unexpected economies and faster progress can result in changes to project completion times, costs, and other design parameters. Re-estimates are provided periodically throughout development.

Project Roles and Assignments for the UMC Project

Project roles ensure that every stakeholder literally has a seat at the table, takes part in the development process, argues on behalf of vested interests and constituents that he or she represents, and can review and comment on each iterative development through enhanced communications, collaboration, reviews, and regularly scheduled group meetings. In some projects, more than one role might be served by the same person, while other employees are specialists. The roles included the following real-world assignments in the United Methodist Communications Project:

  • Development Project Manager (Clarity — Craig Zmarzly)
  • Customer Manager (Client Representative)
  • Team Architect (Tim Heimsoth)
  • Technical Manager (Chris Reddick)
  • Business Analyst (Craig Bauer)
  • Back-End Developer (Chris Reddick, Tim Heimsoth, James Gray and others as needed)
  • Front-End Developer (Matt Tate, Eric Adam and others)
  • Documentation Writer (TBD)
  • QA Analyst (Raeanne Harshfield)
  • Training Coordinator (Craig Bauer)
  • Specialist in Operations and Accounts Receivable (Kristin Wagner)
  • Graphic Specialist (Will Swain)

Choosing Your Team Based on eCommerce Goals and Business Model

Visitors to Clarity Ventures can examine the company's portfolio to view recent work by its development team to get a picture of development best practices for different types of business-to-business customers. Most of the eCommerce companies that the website serves need a customizable and robust eCommerce platform to manage business-to-business eCommerce sales, showcase products, provide sales leads, heighten customer experiences, manage real-time inventory updates, offer services, locate dealers, distributors, and manufacturers and enable better third-party integrations with distributors, vendors, shipping carriers and other services. However, other types of B2B company websites include the following business models:

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E-Procurement Websites

B2B procurement websites function as sites where purchasing agents can manage requests for proposals, submit product bids, and eventually buy products after negotiating the contract. These sites usually specialize in fulfilling orders for niche markets or specialized industries.

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Broker Sites for B2B eCommerce

B2B eCommerce broker sites bring together suppliers and buyers in a particular industry. They act as a safe, secure, and efficient broker for any purchasing transaction, taking the headache out of B2B transactions and earning a profit in the process.

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Infomediary Sites

B2B eCommerce infomediary sites help uphold industry and trade standards as they provide industry information about specific companies. These sites broker information about companies within a given industry and often serve as clearinghouses for industry standards and best practices and trade standards for niche markets.

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Vertical B2B Portals within Company Websites

Industry vertical B2B portals serve a broader purpose than other B2B websites. Vertical portals provide information about products in a niche market or industry. Users can inform each other in discussion forums or view a variety of product listings.

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Retail Operations with a B2B Sales Arm

Many B2B eCommerce sales also have wholesale and B2B operations. These eCommerce websites generate multiple development demands and integrations for skillfully managing both types of operations. With the right software, a retail and wholesale eCommerce platform can be one and the same.

Most B2B operations fall into one of these categories, but customizations call help each one to achieve its goals, craft personalized customer experiences, connect with customers and resources, manage operations, and build a world-class platform.

Tips For B2B eCommerce & Integration Project Management

Our work serves many needs and is always completed in the most professional way while involving others deeply in the development process. We're here to help one business sell to another on both a small and large scale, and we're ready to help you.

Call or contact us today to request a quote, free discovery, or get answers to your questions about our project approach. Get in touch today!

Get the Best B2B eCommerce Platform

Whether you're just getting started or already in the race, Clarity can develop and optimize the best eCommerce platform for your business according to your specifications and guide you on best practices.

Get in touch today for a free, no-obligation demo or discovery session with our experts to go over your needs and find out what solutions would work best for your B2B organization.

FAQ

 

Development work on a business-to-business project for a B2B company involves the creation, improvement, or customization of products, services, or systems specifically designed for other businesses. It encompasses activities such as software development, product design, supply chain optimization, process optimization, and infrastructure enhancement, tailored to meet the unique needs and requirements of B2B clients that sell online.

Development work in this context typically focuses on delivering solutions that enhance productivity, efficiency, and profitability for the B2B company's customers. It involves thorough analysis, testing, and iterative refinement to ensure the final outcome aligns with the business goals and provides a competitive advantage in new markets.

 

The Agile methodology is an iterative and flexible approach to project management and software development for an organization. It emphasizes adaptive planning, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Agile projects are divided into small increments or iterations called sprints, where cross-functional teams work collaboratively to deliver functional and valuable increments of the project.

Agile promotes customer involvement, frequent feedback, and the ability to respond to changing requirements throughout the project lifecycle. It prioritizes adaptability, transparency, and delivering high-quality products or services in a timely manner.

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Autumn Spriggle is a Content Writer at Clarity Ventures who stays up to date on the latest trends in eCommerce, software development, and related topics to provide readers with the latest and greatest. She strives to help people like you realize the full potential for their eCommerce business.