A clear path to leading web development projects without going it alone

In a previous post, we covered the fundamentals of website project management, how to set priorities, prevent scope creep, and manage teams effectively. But understanding what makes a great project manager is only the starting point. The real challenge is execution: taking a rough idea and guiding it through to a successful launch without losing momentum, alignment, or trust.

In this guide, we’ll walk through the web development workflow from early discovery to post-launch optimization. Along the way, we’ll cover essential tools, collaboration strategies, and leadership habits that help project managers run smoother projects, build stronger teams, and grow into true project leaders.

Workflow: From planning to execution

Web development project lifecycle flowchart
Illustration with Dall-E by Kevin T. Boyd / CC0*

A well-designed web development project management process follows a structured workflow, but that doesn’t mean it’s rigid. The best teams strike a balance between process discipline and iterative flexibility, ensuring that projects stay on track while adapting to new insights and challenges along the way.

Each phase of a web project, including discovery, design, development, testing, launch and post-launch, has its own set of priorities, dependencies, and potential pitfalls. A project manager’s job is to keep everything aligned, prevent roadblocks, and make sure decisions are made at the right time.

Discovery phase: understanding business goals and setting up a roadmap

Illustration with Dall-E by Kevin T. Boyd / CC0*

The discovery phase sets the foundation for the entire project. It’s where strategic objectives meet execution planning, and where we figure out why we’re building something before we start figuring out how to build it. Preliminary scoping can begin before any copy is written, but should never be declared final until the copy has been drafted and reviewed. Having template documents for briefs, executive summaries, pre-production reports (e.g. data research), wireframes, low-fidelity mockups or slides and so on can make everything much smoother, predictable and consistent.

• Define the business problem – What’s the goal? More conversions? Better engagement? A stronger brand presence? How much? From where to where?
• Identify key stakeholders – Who needs to be involved? Who makes final decisions? Who could block if not consulted?
• Scope the project realistically – What’s the minimum viable version of success? What constraints do we need to account for? How long did it take to complete a similar project, and how does that predict timelines for the current one?
• Plan for future iterations – What features are critical now, and what can wait for a later phase? Should we test variations at deployment?

Skipping or rushing through discovery is one of the biggest reasons projects fail. Without clear objectives, teams waste time debating priorities mid-project, and stakeholders change their minds after development is already underway. A strong discovery phase prevents that chaos.

Design and development: coordinating UX/UI, front-end, and back-end teams

Illustration with Dall-E by Kevin T. Boyd / CC0*

In a Waterfall project, the build team is often presented with work that is already planned out in sequence, from strategy to execution. Agile and Agile-light projects tend to grow more organically. Most projects begin with a stakeholder conceiving of a campaign or action, at which point a brief is expected that explains the intended action, what motivates it and what are its measures of success. Even in an Agile environment, the most efficient process is sequential. Under pressure, some parts of a project may be able to move in parallel. More about that in a moment. First, let’s look at the normal sequence:

• Collaboration strategy – How will you gather your forces, deploy and direct them? Establish weekly rituals or ceremonies, e.g. meetings, based on your methodology: Sprints have a recommended set of rituals, including sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review and retrospective; in Kanban, or any of the Agile methods, it is extremely helpful to have at least one weekly “standup” meeting for stakeholders and process managers, to plan ahead and to address blockers as they come.
• Content strategy – Copy, media, and messaging need to align with user needs and business goals; ideally all strategy, copy and UX ideas are worked out in a wireframing text document that contains all the copy and UX specification, reviewed and approved before proceeding.
• UX and UI design – Wireframes, mockups, and prototypes shape the visual and interactive structure, reviewed and approved by the stakeholders before moving to development.
• Back-end development – Databases, APIs, and CMS platforms handle functionality and integrations; not every project involves back-end, but many do, especially when custom code, server or API functions are needed.
• Front-end development – HTML, CSS, and JavaScript create the user-facing experience, optimized for mobile and tested in multiple popular browsers.
• Post deployment review and maintenance – The least respected of the steps is often the most important for the long-term health of the team. This is the best time to review what went well and poorly and to make adjustments to process and documentation; measuring the practical results of the project is also essential to finding and focusing on what works best.

A project manager’s role is to keep these teams aligned and ensure handoffs happen at the right time. If designers and developers aren’t working in sync, teams risk building something that doesn’t match the vision, or discovering too late that a design isn’t technically feasible.

This is where clear communication and structured collaboration tools (Google Docs, Figma, Jira, Notion, etc.) can help keep everyone on the same page. However, and this is important, no tools can solve people problems by themselves. Someone has (or ones have) to lead, and everyone has to collaborate for any project to succeed. If you are new to the group, be sure to take time to get to know all of the key players and as much team history as possible, and to address any collaboration issues holding the team back. Identify them frankly as process issues and do what you can to arrange the process so that collaboration happens intentionally.

Testing and QA: ensuring usability, functionality, and performance

Illustration by Kevin T. Boyd with Dall-E © 2025

Good testing isn’t just about catching bugs, it’s about ensuring that the final product actually works for users.

Testing should be:

• Planned early – QA shouldn’t be an afterthought. Testing criteria should be built into the roadmap.
• Comprehensive – Check usability, accessibility, mobile responsiveness, and performance across multiple devices and browsers.
• Stakeholder-inclusive – Marketing, design, and product teams should have visibility into testing, not just developers.

A web page can be changed after formal deployment, and minor fixes are not uncommon. It is also not uncommon to launch with a minimum viable product (MVP) and follow up quickly with a more enhanced or full version. Or to launch one version and follow up quickly with an A/B test of a second version. But this is not at all the ideal. A rushed testing phase leads to post-launch embarrassments, and expensive fixes that could have been avoided. When A/B testing is planned, it’s usually better to deploy both versions at the same time.

Launch and post-launch monitoring: measuring success and optimizing further

A website launch is a milestone, not the finish line. The real question is: Does the site actually achieve what it was built to do?

Post-launch, we monitor:

• Performance metrics – Page speed, load times, and mobile usability.
• User behavior – Heatmaps, click tracking, and session recordings.
• Conversion rates – Are users taking the intended actions?
• SEO and search visibility – Are we ranking for key terms?

If we’re not seeing the expected results, we iterate. That’s where A/B testing comes in.

Case study: Contact Us button A/B test reveals important visitor preferences

Illustration with Dall-E by Kevin T. Boyd / CC0*

A/B testing is often framed as small, incremental improvements, but sometimes, it reveals unexpected insights that challenge conventional wisdom.

One of our first A/B tests was a classic button color experiment. The defender was a visually light outline button placed at the right end of a standard horizontal navigation menu. The challenger was a stronger, solid-colored button in a warm, attention-grabbing hue.

Everyone assumed the solid button would win. It didn’t.

Instead, the outline button performed better, which raised an interesting question:

Does less visual emphasis actually drive more clicks?

To test this theory further, we tried even lighter buttons in two different positions. The result? Less was, in fact, more. Conversions across the site were better with the smallest possible Contact Us link in the menu. On some level, visitors were dissuaded by that big “Gold” button and converted less when it was there.

The final takeaway:

• Ultimately, the Contact Us link we deployed was the same size and style as every other link in the menu.
• Instead of demanding attention, it blended into the navigation, making it feel like a natural next step rather than an advertisement.

This insight changed how we approached CTA design and placement moving forward, not just for buttons, but for site-wide conversion strategies. This discovery led me to a set of ideas I call Lighter Touch Marketing that I will write about soon.

The workflow matters

Illustration with Dall-E by Kevin T. Boyd / CC0*

A well-executed web project isn’t just a series of tasks, it’s a structured, repeatable process. Without clear workflows, projects turn into a scramble to fix issues at the last minute. That’s why it is so useful to document your repeatable processes in as much detail as possible. Use your ticketing system as your primary source, but abstract the process to Google Docs, Sheets or Slides and give everyone on the team access. Depending on the tool, you should also be able to template your ticketing for each process so new tickets automatically follow the documented process.

At Signifyd, because there were a variety of takes on how processes should run, and because stakeholders created their own tickets, we ended up with a lot of variations on processes, none of which was ideal for templating. Abstracting the process into specific deliverables and then the tasks needed each for copy, design, development, deployment and exploitation steps via Google Sheets made it much easier to organize the process, have it reviewed and bought into. With a formally documented process, template creation and use went more smoothly, and projects became more predictable.

How the web project manager fits into modern digital teams

Web development at any scale is a team sport, and like any good team, everyone has a defined role. But in many organizations, the lines between project managers, technical leads, and product managers get blurred, leading to misalignment, duplicated effort, or worse, nobody taking ownership of critical decisions.

A well-structured team ensures that each function supports the others without stepping on toes. Here’s how web project management fits into the bigger picture.

The role of a web project manager vs. a technical lead

By Kevin T. Boyd © 2025

A web development project manager ensures the project moves forward on schedule, within scope, and with the right resources. A technical lead such as a developer, on the other hand, focuses on how the work gets done, making key engineering decisions, reviewing code quality, and troubleshooting complex development challenges.

Where responsibilities split:

• Web project manager: Aligns stakeholders, manages priorities, mitigates risks, and keeps everything moving.
• Technical lead: Sets engineering standards, guides implementation, and ensures scalability and maintainability.

Think of the web development project manager as the navigator and the technical lead as the chief engineer, both are critical, but they serve different functions. That said, it is not unusual for one person to fill both functions on web projects.

Collaboration with product managers: understanding the overlap

By Kevin T. Boyd with Dall-E © 2025

Web development projects often involve product managers, especially in SaaS and e-commerce. This can create friction if ownership isn’t clear.

At a high level:

• Product managers define the “what” and “why” – They focus on user needs, market fit, and feature prioritization. Often they are the key source of content about the product or service on offer via the website. A deeper understanding of technical capabilities will make them more effective.
• Web project managers drive the “how” and “when” – They coordinate execution, workflows, and delivery. A deeper understanding of the product’s features, benefits and go-to-market (GTM) strategy will make them more effective.

Who owns what?

• Timelines, execution, and stakeholder communication → web development project manager
• Vision, strategy, and user experience → product manager

A good working relationship between project management and product management ensures that business goals translate into actionable development plans, without endless back-and-forth.

Choosing the right methodology for your team

Illustration with Dall-E by Kevin T. Boyd / CC0*

No single methodology supporting project management for web development fits all web teams. Some teams thrive with Agile sprints and daily standups, while others need Kanban-style continuous delivery.

The right framework depends on:

• Team size – Smaller teams can move fast, while larger teams need structure.
• Project complexity – Are we iterating on an existing site or launching something entirely new?
• Stakeholder expectations – How often do business teams need visibility?

Common methodologies used in web development:

• Agile/Scrum – Best for fast-moving teams working in iterations
• Kanban – Ideal for continuous deployment and rapid updates.
• Waterfall – Works for projects with fixed requirements and regulatory constraints.

Agile resources

The following articles can give you a much more detailed look into Agile and how different practitioners think about it.

• What is Agile? – Atlassian
• What is Agile? – Agile Alliance
• What is Agile? – Asana
• What is kanban? – Atlassian
• What is Waterfall? – Atlassian

The key is to pick a methodology that matches how your team actually works, not just what sounds good in a meeting. In my experience many teams say they want Agile, but end up with “Agile-light” or a hybrid of Agile and Waterfall. Kanban falls nicely in the middle, as it can serve either methodology, although it is better known to Agile. As long as the project can be broken into distinct phases, work groups or sequences of actions, it’s a good candidate for Kanban.

Balancing flexibility and structure in real projects

One of the biggest challenges in web project management is knowing when to be flexible and when to hold the line.

Example: A large-scale site redesign was moving along smoothly, until a key stakeholder requested major design changes two weeks before launch. Instead of agreeing to a rushed, last-minute overhaul, we:

1. Assessed the request: Was it mission-critical or a nice-to-have? It was critical.
2. Provided options: Can launch be delayed? No, it could not. Could we launch with the current design and iterate post-launch? Yes, we can.
3. Escalated appropriately: Leadership aligned on the decision? Yes, they were.

The result? We kept the launch on track while ensuring the stakeholder’s concerns were addressed in a later phase. This is the balance every web development project manager has to strike, being flexible enough to accommodate real business needs, but structured enough to prevent chaos and scope creep.

How to build a career as a web project manager

Illustration with Dall-E by Kevin T. Boyd / CC0*

Web project management isn’t a one-size-fits-all career path, people come into it from different backgrounds, whether technical, creative, or operational. A certified professional project manager (PMP) might fall into web operations by hire or transfer. Some web project managers start as developers or designers and shift into project management for web development over time, while others come in from business, marketing, or IT.

Regardless of how you start, success in this role comes down to a mix of technical understanding, process discipline, and leadership skills.

Education and certifications: What matters (and what doesn’t)

Formal project management training can be valuable, but it’s not always a requirement for web development PMs.

The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, issued by the Project Management Institute (PMI), is one of the most recognized credentials in the industry. It’s designed for highly structured, large-scale project management environments, and while it’s not essential for web projects, it can be a useful asset, especially for those working with enterprise teams. So, why do so many project managers work without one? Qualifying for the PMP requires a significant commitment of time, effort and money.

For those looking to go deeper into Agile project management, certifications like Certified Scrum Master (CSM) or Professional Scrum Master (PSM) can be helpful, particularly in organizations that follow Agile and Scrum methodologies. Whether you get certified or not, you should know what Agile and Scrum are all about, and be ready to take ideas from that stack and use them in yours.

Many successful web development PMs never get formal certifications, they build their expertise on the job by running projects, refining processes, and learning from experience. On the other hand, project managers with a PMP certification typically earn more than those without. About half of project management professionals feel the need for formal qualifications. Especially if you are just starting in project management early in your career, you should consider investing in the certification.

Technical skills: The importance of understanding web technologies

A web project manager doesn’t need to be a developer, but they do need to understand how websites are built, deployed, and maintained.

Web project managers need to know about:

• CMS platforms – WordPress, Drupal, AEC/AEM, Joomla, headless CMS systems; Hubspot and Wix also count.
• Front-end technologies – HTML, CSS, JavaScript and frameworks.
• SEO and structured data – How search engines interpret content.
• Performance optimization – Site speed, caching, and mobile usability.
• Third-party integrations – APIs, CRMs, analytics tools.

Technical literacy prevents bad decisions and helps keep projects grounded in reality. The more experience you have managing web projects, the better you will be at scoping technical requirements knowing what can be done, in what timeframe, with what level of difficulty. Even if you have direct experience with a technology, a wise web project manager will check in with the developers who will build it before committing to scope and timeline.

Soft skills and leadership development: what really separates successful project managers

By Kevin T. Boyd with Dall-E © 2025

In web development, hard skills get you in the door, but soft skills make you effective. The best PMs aren’t just task organizers, they’re leaders who align teams, manage expectations, and keep projects moving forward.

The most critical soft skills include:

• Clear communication – Translating between technical teams, stakeholders, and leadership.
• Conflict resolution – Managing competing priorities and negotiating trade-offs.
• Decision-making – Knowing when to push back, when to escalate, and when to adapt.
• Empathy – Understanding the challenges different teams face and balancing their needs.

Strong leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room, it’s about creating an environment where people can do their best work. Being consistent, and following through on promises goes a long way to establishing your personal brand and gaining allies.

Career progression paths: Moving from developer or designer to project manager

My own path into project management wasn’t planned, it evolved.

I started as a designer, who learned to code, which led to development work, and eventually, leading web projects. Over time, I found myself taking on more responsibilities outside of coding, managing teams, coordinating timelines, and solving operational challenges.

• As a designer, I learned how users interact with websites, design processes and what makes an effective experience.
• As a developer, I gained an understanding of technical constraints, development processes, performance optimization, and scalability.
• As a project manager, I focused on strategy, process efficiency, and keeping teams aligned.

This transition wasn’t about stepping away from the work, it was about understanding the bigger picture and ensuring projects ran more smoothly, efficiently, and effectively. Both the stonemason and the architect can be quite satisfied with what they build. One has the knowledge that eternity is in the details, the other that a grand building will challenge the sky.

When you’re one of the cogs in the machine (i.e., not the PMP)

Not every web project manager sits at the top of the org chart. In many teams, PMs don’t have formal authority, they have to influence without direct control.

If you’re managing a web project but don’t have a leadership title, you can still shape priorities, guide execution, and drive successful outcomes by:

• Building strong relationships with developers, designers, and stakeholders.
• Creating clarity through documentation so expectations are aligned.
• Identifying gaps in process and proposing structured solutions.
• Keeping a problem-solving mindset, don’t just track issues, actively work toward solutions.

Good project managers earn trust by making things easier for the team, not by enforcing rigid structures or overcomplicating workflows. Regardless of your authority, operate from a place of humility and utility: Just getting things done here, folks. Make and maintain connections to the people in the team. Have regular office hours and attend standup meetings.

Best tools and methodologies for a web project manager

Good project management isn’t just about strategy and leadership, it’s also about using the right tools to keep teams aligned, processes streamlined, and projects moving forward efficiently.

Over the years, I’ve tested and used a wide range of project management, collaboration, and development tools. Some have been essential, while others just added noise. Here’s a breakdown of the tools that actually help get things done when managing web development projects.

Project management software: structure without excess friction

The best project management software fits the way a team works, rather than forcing teams into rigid workflows. Different projects require different approaches, and tools fall into a few key categories:

• Bug tracking/ticketing – Tools like Jira and ClickUp support sprint planning, backlog management, and issue tracking. There are many competitors, as seen in G2 for bug tracking software. Each has additional project management features, strengths and weaknesses.
• Kanban and visual task management – May or may not be built into bug tracking. It works well for teams that prefer a visual board approach to track progress. Jira includes Kanban capabilities. tools like Trello and Monday.com focus on intuitive, card-based workflows.
• Task-oriented and deadline-driven tools – Ideal for content and marketing teams managing deliverables, timelines, and approvals. Asana, Trello and Wrike provide structured workflows to track projects efficiently.
• Open-source and bug tracking alternatives – For teams that want more economy, customization or control, tools like Bugzilla and Redmine offer lightweight issue tracking with developer-friendly flexibility. Tools like this typically need to be hosted on your own servers, so there is some IT overhead to this choice.

Choosing the right tool depends on the complexity of the projects, team size, and preferred workflow, not on a brand name. I have direct experience with several ticketing systems and market awareness of others and can comment on their strengths and weaknesses.

I started with Bugzilla, which I think was the first generalized software bug tracking software. It’s been around since 1998, is a bit quirky and doesn’t have a lot of features, by the intention of the developers.

Atlassian is the 800-pound gorilla in development ticketing, with a suite of products to support project management, including Jira and Confluence, two integrated industry standards. Fun fact: the developers of Jira named it after Bugzilla, which they were using themselves; “jira” is a fragment of “Gojira,” the Japanese name for Godzilla. Jira remains the most-used project management tool among engineers in 2025, according to the Pragmatic Engineer Survey, ranking even higher than VS Code and AWS. While many developers have mixed feelings about it, it’s still the industry default. Jira has a number of powerful project management features, and two primary modes of process management: Kanban and Scrum. Tickets nest in a hierarchy, with Initiatives or Epics at the highest level, nested project tickets within them, and sub-task tickets nested within those.

Checklist 1: Project Management Tools

Our Kanban Board is largely for processing creative projects, so we have Initiatives, which nest Deliverables, which nest Tasks. All are referred to as “Issues” in Jira. Issues move through the system based on status settings. Only the Deliverables show on the Board, so it’s relatively easy to keep track of how they progress. And the Deliverables concept is a really useful one for the creative pipeline. If your main unit is one solid chunk of marketing, a web page, a report pdf, an A/B test or an email blast for example, you can gather multiple deliverables into an Epic or Initiative, and each Deliverable will have tasks to accomplish it. In this way, complex work is broken up, sequenced and worked by all participants. If you are developing software, you are more likely to be focused on user Stories than Deliverables, but the idea is basically the same.

I have also worked with Wrike, which does a lot of what Jira does, but has more features. Structure is more open than Jira, with the ability to put a ticket of any type at multiple levels, or structure tickets any way desired. As a result it is more complicated to manage and to use. It has task dependencies and progress tracking. It’s an excellent tool, but a bit more expensive than Jira. However, if your organization is large, add-on features you may need for Jira may make the more comprehensive toolset of Wrike more competitive.

Asana is an excellent choice to look at, especially for small teams of ten or fewer, as there is an entry-level freemium account model. It includes task and project management features and a broad array of use cases. Jira is probably better for software development teams with complex workflows and agile methods, while Asana is better suited for general project management across different or larger teams. Trello is a strong competitor in this space as well, and as of this writing has freemium accounts for up to 10 users, and is favored by small teams with simpler projects who want to use Kanban.

Collaboration and documentation tools: keeping everyone aligned

Documentation and real-time collaboration tools eliminate confusion and keep teams in sync, no matter where they work.

• Messaging and team communication – Best for quick, real-time discussions; Slack and Microsoft Teams streamline conversations and integrate with project management platforms. The new AI browser Deta Surf has a chat tool.
• Knowledge bases and structured documentation – Essential for long-term documentation and internal knowledge sharing. Tools like Notion and Confluence allow teams to build wikis, organize decisions, and store key project details. Confluence integrates directly with Jira. According to the 2025 Pragmatic Engineer Survey, Confluence is among the top content and collaboration tools used by engineering teams.
• Real-time content collaboration – Cloud-based platforms like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides enable teams to collaborate on content, reports, and data without versioning conflicts. Ubiquity in most offices makes it the go-to choice for document sharing, especially at the planning, briefing, wireframing and results analysis phases of projects. Microsoft of course has alternatives in Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive.
• Asset storage – A lot of teams start out with Google Drive, but eventually outgrow it and move to a more robust DAM system for long-term asset management.

A well-documented project is easier to maintain, hand off, and iterate on, even months after launch. I’ve worked extensively with Google Workspace tools and see it as useful to just about any project management organization; everyone knows how to use it and most people have it, either paid or free. Slack is another tool I’ve seen become essential for team alignment. It’s not just for quick chats. It often becomes the real-time nervous system of a project. According to the 2025 Pragmatic Engineer Survey, Slack remains the most widely used communication tool among developers.

Checklist 2: Collaboration & Documentation Tools

There are a number of worthy competitors in digital asset management software. I have experience with Bynder and Frontify, but there are many others, including Adobe, who have written an article reviewing a bunch more DAMs. There are a number of factors to consider, including cost, account basis (by seat or by active users). We wanted a system to both store assets in a stakeholder-accessible library, and serve them to users as a permalink publishing system for PDFs integrated into our marketing stack. Between you and me, I would look very carefully at the publishing features of any system you are considering. We were disappointed in the PDF player for Frontify and ended up developing our own local solution via API.

Development and web design project management tools: bridging creative and technical execution

Web projects require seamless collaboration between designers, developers, and marketers. The right tools help teams work together efficiently. For example, Figma continues to be a key player in design collaboration. According to the 2025 Pragmatic Engineer Survey, it ranks among the top collaboration tools used by developers—not just designers—which makes it a natural bridge between visual and technical teams.

• Version control and development collaboration – Essential for tracking code changes and managing releases. While I started with SVN, Git is now the leading version control methodology now. GitHub and GitLab allow development teams to review code, merge features, and maintain version control. Git management tools like GitKraken and DeployHQ make development and deployments more efficient.
• UI/UX design and prototyping – Helps designers and developers stay aligned. Figma and Adobe XD provide real-time design collaboration for faster iteration.
• User behavior and analytics – Reveals how users interact with a site to inform design and UX improvements. Hotjar captures heatmaps and session recordings for optimization insights.
• SEO and performance tracking – Provides insights into search visibility, technical SEO, and competitor benchmarking. Tools like SEMrush help identify opportunities for organic growth and performance improvements. Google Analytics is the market leader for search performance tracking, but competitors like Heap and Adobe may have different views of your site data.
• Design collaboration – Tools like Miro and Lucid provide design thinking and collaboration spaces useful for brainstorming, planning, visual collaboration and design process documentation. Miro and Lucidchart, in particular, show up in the 2025 Pragmatic Engineer Survey as top collaboration tools used by engineering teams, not just designers.

Checklist 3: Design Collaboration Tools

The best tools don’t just help individual teams work more efficiently, they facilitate collaboration across disciplines, making the entire web project run more smoothly.

AI and automation: The evolving role of AI in managing web projects

AI is starting to embed itself into everyday project management for web development, not as a replacement for human decision-making, but as a way to automate repetitive tasks and surface insights faster.

AI is now being used for:

• Analyzing market and business data – AI is increasingly driving marketing decisions and strategy.
• Automating task assignments – Smart suggestions for workloads based on past projects.
• Predicting project risks – AI-powered analysis of potential bottlenecks.
• Content optimization – AI-assisted keyword research, metadata suggestions, and copywriting.
• QA automation – AI-driven testing to catch usability issues early.

What’s missing? A centralized AI-driven project management system that connects all the moving parts. Right now, AI is being added to individual tools, but businesses still struggle with siloed data and disconnected workflows. That’s the next frontier.

You may be aware of a bit of hand-wringing in development culture over AI replacing us for creating websites. While it is true that AI can make developing websites go faster, I don’t see them completely taking over either the web development or the web project management processes. Humans are and will continue to be needed to make wise decisions about what to do and when.

Checklist 4: Analytics & SEO Tools

The future is bright for web project managers

Web development isn’t slowing down, and the way we manage projects has to evolve with it.

Some of the biggest shifts ahead:

• AI-driven project workflows – AI will stop being just a “feature” inside tools and become the glue that connects project data across platforms and developers will code more effectively with AI assistance.
• Remote and distributed teams – Time zone challenges will force teams to rely more on asynchronous workflows and automated reporting.
• Continuous optimization and experimentation – The best web projects won’t just launch and be done, they’ll be constantly refined based on user behavior and data.

My approach? Observe, Understand, Transcend, Repeat (OUTR). That’s how project managers stay ahead of the curve, not just keeping up with changes, but learning from them and turning them into advantages.

You’ve got this

Being a successful web project manager isn’t just about keeping projects on time, it’s about making sure they deliver real results. A great PM doesn’t just check tasks off a list, they create an environment where teams can do their best work.

If you’re looking to build a career in web project management, focus on:

• Mastering communication – Be the bridge between teams, not just a task tracker.
• Understanding the technical side – Even if you’re not a developer, know how web technologies work.
• Building structured, repeatable workflows – Process makes everything run smoother.

Whether you’re already managing web projects or looking to step into this role, investing in the right skills, tools, and methodologies will set you apart.

I hope these guides to website project management have been informative and helpful to your understanding of this realm. Please comment to me via my web form if you would like to share any feedback about the posts, ask any questions, or to share relevant job opportunities.

* Copyrights

Generative artificial intelligence was used in the writing editing and illustration of this article, all of which was carefully directed, edited, and produced by a human. All words and images are © Copyright 2025 Kevin T. Boyd, except where noted as Creative Commons, which works are in the public domain under CC0. All available rights are reserved.

Feature illustration by DALL-E and Kevin T. Boyd