Agreeing on What Finished Means

The project that is nearly done

The new website was due in March. It is June, the site sits on a test address, and everyone describes it as almost finished.

The web company is waiting for photographs and a decision on the services page. The business is waiting for changes it asked for three weeks ago. Each side thinks the other is holding things up.

Meanwhile the old site is still the one customers see, with last year's prices and a staff member who has since left.

Nobody did anything wrong, exactly. Nobody agreed at the start what finished would look like, so there was never a moment when it could be.

Why projects stall at the end

The first weeks of a website project are full of visible progress: a design, then pages, then something that looks like a website.

The last weeks are different. Each review turns up small things, and seeing the site makes people think of everything else it could do.

Without an agreed finish line, every idea feels as if it belongs in this version. The list grows as fast as it shrinks, and the launch date drifts with it.

The answer is not working faster. It is writing down, before the last stretch, what has to be true on launch day and what can wait.

What a finish list contains

A finish list fits on one page and reads like a checklist, because that is how it will be used.

• Pages, named one by one, that must exist at launch.
• Content, with who supplies each text and photograph, and by when.
• Things that must work: forms, bookings, payments, tested start to finish.
• Devices, meaning the phones and browsers it must be checked on.
• The move: redirects, email, Analytics, the old site retired.
• One approver, named, who confirms each item is done.

The last item matters more than it looks. A list that anyone can add to and nobody can tick off is just a longer email thread.

Launch and later are separate lists

Good ideas will keep arriving. The second list exists so they have somewhere to go other than the launch.

Call it later, or phase two. Anything the site can launch without goes there, with a note of who asked for it and why.

A map of past projects, a blog, new staff photographs: all worthwhile, and none of them needed on day one.

The later list also keeps the conversation friendly. Moving an idea to the list is easier on both sides than turning it down.

One person confirms

Projects with several decision makers stall the most. Each one reviews separately, and some of the notes contradict each other.

Name one person who confirms. They collect everyone's comments, settle disagreements inside the business, and send the web company one combined answer.

Everyone else still has a say, but early: at the design stage and at the first full draft, not the week before launch.

That person needs the authority to say yes. If every decision has to wait for a meeting, the finish line moves to the next meeting date.

A worked example

A forestry consulting firm with three partners and a small field staff commissioned a new site last autumn: services, project examples, staff credentials and a contact page.

The design was approved in November. By spring the site was still on its test address, and the firm was still paying to host the old one.

Each partner reviewed drafts in their own time. One wanted every block of timber the firm had ever surveyed shown on an interactive map, another kept rewriting the services page, and the third had not opened the link.

The fix was an hour-long meeting and one page. The partners named one of themselves to confirm, agreed eleven items for launch, and moved the map and a news section to the later list.

The project photographs nobody had chosen went to a field technician with a date. The site launched within a month, and the map became a separate project with its own brief and price.

How confirmation happens

Confirmation works best as a session, not an email. Both sides open the site together, on a computer and a phone, and go through the list item by item.

Each item is done, not done, or moved to later. Nothing new is added during the session; new thoughts go straight onto the later list.

When every launch item is ticked, the approver says so in one short email and the launch date is set. That email is what finished means.

Content is part of finished

The most common reason a site stalls is not design or code. It is the text and photographs the business agreed to supply.

Put each piece of content on the finish list with a name and a date. A services page waiting for the owner's wording is a launch item like any other.

Where a piece is genuinely stuck, decide early whether the site launches with a shorter version or the web company drafts it for approval. Either is better than waiting.

Defects and changes after launch

Agreeing on finished also settles what happens next. Something on the list that does not work properly after launch is a defect, and fixing it is part of the project.

Something that was never on the list is a change. It goes on the later list, or into the maintenance arrangement, and is priced and scheduled like any other request.

The counter-case

A very small site, a few pages built over a couple of weeks, may not need a formal list. A short email confirming the pages and the launch date can do the same job.

Some projects change direction for good reasons, such as a new service or a move. Then stop, rewrite the list and agree a new date, rather than pretend the old finish line still applies.

And finishing does not freeze a website. Sites keep improving after launch; the list only marks the point where the new one takes over.

For any project longer than a few weeks, though, write the list before the final stretch, with one approver and a separate list for later.

Before the next review

1. Write the launch list on one page.
2. Name each page that must exist on day one.
3. Give every missing text and photograph a date.
4. Name one person who confirms for the business.
5. Start a later list for new ideas.
6. Review together on a computer and a phone.
7. Confirm in writing and set the launch date.

Step four is the one that ends the drift. Without one person who can say yes, every review produces more comments than decisions, and the site stays almost finished indefinitely.

Agreeing what the job is before it starts is covered in three website quotes that cannot be compared.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.