B2B eCommerce Project Approach

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.

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. 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.

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 that 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. The roles included the following real-world assignments in the United Methodist Communications Project:

Project Communication Methods

Communications are keys to success in any agile development project, and with a company called United Methodist Communications, it’s easy to see that communications would play a critical role. In this project, the following lines of communication were used:

• A Basecamp was established to serve as a central repository for messages, communications and sharing documents
• Emails were only used under certain circumstances because development communications should be subject to security concerns. Another reason why emails aren’t used is that people often ignore emails when they’re occupied or unavailable.
• JIRA Is used for tracking issues that need to be fixed that are discovered in testing or after the development begins construction or goes live. Using this technology ensures that bugs are tracked until resolved.
• GoToMeeting enables screen-sharing among participants when conferencing on the phone or their computers. The technology enables users to record the meetings for later review.
• Phone calls were used in critical situations, but these don’t leave a record of what was discussed, so their use is only recommended for quick clarifications and one-to-one conversations about ancillary issues.

Change Management Monitoring and Implementation

Changes in projects are inevitable during the course of development. Best practices are to record those changes in a group repository like Basecamp for smaller adjustments and fixes. Larger changes should be documented in the latest version of the appropriate documents. Throughout the process, it’s easy to track every important decision, change, adjustment, process and feature for full development transparency, which is the gold standard for any eCommerce development project.

Choosing Your Team Based on eCommerce Goals and Business Model

Visitors to the 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 B2B customers. Most of the eCommerce companies that the website serves need a customizable and robust eCommerce platform to manage business-to-business 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 websites include the following business models:

Tips For B2B eCommerce & Integration Project Management

We understand the concerns of stakeholders at Clarity Ventures, but we offer an astonishing level of transparency such as this overview of a real-world project that our development team handled for Clarity and United Methodist Communications. At Clarity Ventures, we handle projects of varying complexity from major eCommerce platform integrations to delivering your desired upgrades. We use the agile approach for faster development because the method is superior for involving multiple stakeholders, fostering communications, matching development to many B2B models and customizing sites to perform efficiently and provide high-quality user experiences for each user. Our work serves many needs and is always completed in the most professional way while involving others deeply in the development process. Call or contact us today to request a quote, consultation or answers to your questions about our project approach.