201hours on three projects
By month
- January86 h
- February115 h
Project management · E-commerce01 — 02.2023
201 hours
Three online stores for a digital agency
In January 2023 a digital agency that builds and develops online stores on 1C-Bitrix handed me three projects from its own project managers. I ran them for two months under the agency’s rules and processes.
3online stores in development
2months
201hours: 86 in January and 115 in February
Three online stores for a digital agency
- Client
A digital agency: custom development and growth of online stores. The name is not disclosed under the contract.
- ServiceOutsourced project management
- Timeline
January to February 2023.
- TeamProject manager: the agency’s founder
- Tools
the agency’s client stores
Clients paid for hours, each project had a monthly threshold.
The projects
These were three online stores of the agency’s clients in ongoing development: new features and changes on request. The projects had no permanent teams. Developers and designers worked in the agency’s shared pool, and people for the week’s tasks had to be booked in advance.
How the work went
We worked in weekly sprints. On Fridays I met each client, and we discussed what was done and what we would take on next. The team lead and I estimated the sprint in hours, I booked specialists from the pool for the week against that estimate and confirmed every day who was needed by whom tomorrow. I wrote up the backlog tasks myself, and when requirements were unclear I set up a separate meeting with the client.
Clients paid for hours, and each project had a monthly threshold. When the work approached it, I warned the client in advance, and they decided whether to continue or postpone until the next month. Every week the client received a report with running totals of hours per specialist, and the agency invoiced from it at the end of the month. I sent the agency a separate report on how much of each project’s budget had been used.
January came to 86 hours on three projects, February to 115, 201 hours in total.
What became part of how we work
The threshold warning and the weekly running-total report later went into my own agency’s way of working. Today these are alerts at 50, 75, 90 and 100% of the limit and a report with every statement.