The success of a website is dependent on the range of people involved in its development, and how well they work as a team. Typical profiles of team members follow:
These will be senior managers who will effectively be paying for the system from their budgets. They will understand the strategic benefits of the system and will be keen that the site is implemented successfully to achieve the business objectives they have set.
‘Ownership’ will typically be the responsibility of a marketing manager or e-commerce manager, who may be devoted full-time to overseeing the site in a large company; it may be part of marketing manager’s remit in a smaller company.
This person is responsible for the planning and coordination of the website project. He or she will aim to ensure that the site is developed within the budget and time constraints that have been agreed at the start of the project, and that the site delivers the planned-for benefits for the company and its customers.
The site designer will define the ‘look and feel’ of the site, including its styling through CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), layout and how company brand values are transferred to the web.
The content developer will write the copy for the website and convert it to a form suitable for the site. In medium or large companies this role may be split between marketing staff or staff from elsewhere in the organisation who write the copy and technical member of staff who converts it to the graphics and HTML documents forming the web page and does the programming for interactive content.
This is a technical role. The webmaster is responsible for ensuring the quality and connections to company databases. In small companies the webmaster may take on graphic design and content developer roles also.
The impact of the website on other members of the organisation should not be underestimated. Internal staff may need to refer to some of the information on the website or use its services.
While the site sponsor and site owner will work within the company, many organisations outsource the other resources since full-time-staff cannot be justified in these roles.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012. Digital marketing: strategy, implementation and practice (Vol. 5). Harlow: Pearson.