Core Skills for Websites

Computer applications, and companies in the Information Technology (IT) industry in general, are so diverse that it is often hard to identify "who should be doing what".

There is a great diversity of skills in the computer industry. Coupled with the fine line that exists between specialist computer skills and general computer skills, it can sometimes be very difficult to manage a project that requires computer skills.

As with most activities in business, matching people’s skills with their duties is an important part of being cost effective. This same equation applies to web development, however due to the complexities, the equation can seem almost impossible to solve.

Often computer skills can be transferred from one application to another. However, the further away someone moves from their core competency, the longer it takes them to achieve the desired outcome. In addition to this, the quality of the finished product can suffer. For this reason, it can cost more to get a poor result.

For example, it may not be wise to have an ISP (Internet Service Provider) build your website. The core business of an ISP is connecting people to the Internet. To do this well they need people with technical ability. Some ISP’s only have people with technical ability and therefore, offer poor customer service (but that’s another story). If an ISP ventures into web development, with the same people that run the ISP, the result can be an expensive website that excels technically but fails in every other area of web development. They have more technical skills than are needed (and you pay for these) but fewer non-technical skills (graphics, marketing etc.) than required, to build an effective site.

If you can afford it, the best answer is to pay for someone to manage the selection and implementation of the whole web development project. At the very least, you should be aware of the necessary skills to build an effective website.

Core Skills that make a website work.