How to Successfully Tackle a Digital Project

What is a Digital Project?

To set up a digital project, you first need to understand what we mean by a digital project. The answer is actually quite simple. As soon as the 'end product' of your project includes a digital element, it is considered a digital project. This ranges from basic digital facilities, such as a website or CRM system, to innovative applications like a digital exhibition or app.

In this 'long read,' we cover all the steps involved in a digital project within basic services. By this, we mean the recurring, structural services that are part of the core of your organization, such as implementing existing internal systems or updating existing digital tools.

This means a digital project could be, for example, a new software system, online document management, a collaboration platform, a new (corporate) website, or an administrative system (planning system, accounting system, etc.).

For a digital project as part of your basic services, you can clearly define the desired outcomes and the impact the project will have on the organization in advance.

Setting Up a Digital Project for Your Basic Services

To successfully tackle a digital project, you need to go through three standard phases: preparation, execution, and follow-up.

Preparation involves clearly articulating the "why" and setting up a project canvas. Think of this as a compact visual representation of a project, where you structure key elements quickly and clearly. This is useful for brainstorming, discussing, and planning your digital project. A project canvas can help you think through the questions you need to answer before starting your digital project.

1. Preparation

Go directly to Execution and Live

a. The Project Canvas as a Tool for a Digital Project

Such a project canvas is a tool and a precursor to the briefing you eventually communicate to a technical partner. It’s a kind of preliminary research. In a project canvas, you answer questions like: why do you want this digital project, what problems are you solving with it, and who is the digital project intended for? Using DEN’s project canvas template and step-by-step plan, you can systematically map out these questions and their answers. This gives you a clear starting point for a digital project.

b. How Can User Stories Help Me?

In a project canvas, you often work with user stories. A user story is literally: a user’s story. It’s a short description of a user’s need in the form of a brief narrative. User stories help you identify what you’re solving for whom and why with your digital project. Use our template for user stories within a digital project.

c. How Do I Determine What’s Important in My Digital Project?

The MoSCoW Method

While creating your project canvas and working with user stories, you’ll need to prioritize: what’s important and what’s not? To prioritize effectively within a digital project, you need to list: which elements are nice to have but not essential? What’s desirable but currently at the bottom of the priority list? And what will we consciously leave aside for now?

There’s a simple method to distinguish these items: the MoSCoW method. With this method, you differentiate between Must-have (mandatory), Should-have (really should), Could-have (nice but not necessarily now), and Won’t-have (leave it for now). Here’s the difference between the four.

Must-have

The Must-have list contains elements crucial to starting the project. For example, hardware or privacy-protecting software.

Should-have

The wish list includes items you want to deliver in the medium/long term. These items are not yet essential for the first phase of the project (short term). For example, using a Large Language Model trained only with proprietary data.

Could-have

A Could-have list essentially says: it’s nice to have, but maybe something for later. For example, a new CRM system that can ‘talk’ to the CMS.

Won’t-have

This one is clear: (currently) not needed. By distinguishing these four categories, you have clear priorities and know what’s essential and what’s optional. This list also helps in a concrete conversation later with your future technical partner.

d. Change Management: How Do You Involve Users in a Digital Project?

One way to make change easier and more successful is the Prosci method*, a well-known change management methodology. We guide you step-by-step through the Prosci method for change management.

Implementing a new system takes quite some effort. You can build it, but it also needs to be used. How do you ensure this? And how do you reduce or prevent resistance in a digital project? Change management can help. Change management is the point where you actively involve everyone affected by the digital trajectory. We guide you step-by-step through the Prosci method for change management so your digital project is well-received by all your users.

*Prosci is a globally leading methodology for change management, focused on the human side of change. It uses the well-known ADKAR model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) to guide individuals and organizations through transformations.

e. How Do You Write a Good Briefing?

For almost all digital projects, you need an external party. A project canvas is usually too brief for a discussion—it’s more of a strategic summary. Therefore, it’s important to create a clear briefing before searching for a tech partner. In it, you specify what you expect, estimate the budget, outline a rough deadline, and indicate who internally needs to be involved.

f. How Do I Choose the Right Technical Partner for My Digital Project?

Which technical agency would suit your digital project? Ask yourself the following questions during orientation: is this company familiar with your sector, and have they developed a similar product before? Does their way of working align with your organization? Is their approach to setting up projects also suitable for you? Would a large or small agency be a better fit?

You can, of course, work with an agency you already know, but you could also get to know new contenders or organize a pitch.

You’ve Chosen Your Tech Partner, Now What?

You’ve selected your agency. Now what? Often, you first decide whether to go for an existing solution or a new product. The first step is deciding if you’ll opt for an existing solution (possibly with modifications) or a new product; usually, the working method will be determined by the agency you’re collaborating with.

They have experience building the product and can determine if it works well in the context where you want to use it. Together with your tech partner, you ultimately decide: final working methods, final budget, planning, and the project team.

• The Phases of an Existing Solution

If you choose an existing solution in the market, you can often first agree on a pilot with your technical supplier. This is like a trial period. You don’t have to buy the solution immediately or purchase a long-term license, but you use the software for, say, three months to test it. Afterward, you can often tweak and customize (adjust) to achieve the optimal result.

• The Phases of a New Digital Product

Are you building a new digital product? Then you almost always go through four phases: exploring, developing, testing, and implementing. But there’s a fifth! Adapting and updating. This is sometimes forgotten but is an integral part of your digital product.

For each phase, it’s important to schedule measurement points and decision moments. You can document this in a work plan or roadmap.

2. Execution

Go directly to phase: live

You’ve chosen the right technical partner, sharpened the briefing, and completed the preparation—it’s time to really get started. In the execution phase, everything comes together: plans become tangible steps, ideas are built, and your collaboration takes shape. Together with your tech partner, you define not only what is being built but also how you’ll work, with which team, what budget, and within what timeframe. In the following sections, we guide you step-by-step through this process so you can make clear choices and maintain control over what happens along the way.

a. What Are the Phases of Executing a Digital Project?

b. Determine Your Work Method

As you move forward with your digital project, you’ll need to decide how you want to work. There are various project methodologies for your digital project. You can work with the waterfall method, agile/scrum, or hybrid.

What Are the Different Project Methodologies (and What Is Scrum)?

What If My External Supplier Wants Agile/Scrum, but My Organization Is Used to Traditional Planning?

Discuss with your supplier what the possibilities and limitations are for your organization. Get informed about the expectations the supplier has for you in an agile/scrum trajectory. Experience shows that a mixed form often works well, so waterfall in your organization and scrum at the design company can work fine, as long as the process is well discussed beforehand and expectations are clear. Make sure to document this to avoid misunderstandings.

c. How Do I Determine the Budget for My Digital Project?

The next step is determining the final budget. How much does a digital project cost? Often, it helps to reverse the question and ensure your request doesn’t become endlessly large and complex. Then the question becomes: how big is this digital project for your organization, how much budget and team time can you allocate to it? With this question in hand, it becomes much easier to arrive at a budget because it makes the question more concrete and starts from the available resources.

Step-by-Step Guide to Determine Your Budget

d. Planning

What does a planning look like? In a digital project, there are three components of planning that influence each other:

1. Time (the amount of time available/can be allocated)
2. Scope (what you’re creating)
3. Resources (technology, people)

This is known as the scope triangle.

If you change one of the three, it almost always affects the other two. In an ideal world, time, scope, and resources are always balanced. In practice, there are often one or two that take precedence. So keep in mind that one or two of these focal points in your project will influence your planning.

e. Assemble Your Project Team

How do you assemble a project team for your digital project? In digital projects, there’s almost always a project team that exists both within and outside the organization. We explain how to determine who you need internally and externally. At the very least, the roles of product owner, UX/UI designer, developer, content specialist, and tester should always be represented.

What Roles Exist Within a Digital Project?

3. Live

Your digital project has been built, tested, and users can start working with it. What’s the first thing you do after your digital project goes live? Celebrate successes! Take a moment to reflect on what has been achieved and the positive changes that will occur.

You now have a great new system that will help you further in the process of digital transformation. It’s important not to view the end of the implementation period as the final destination. Therefore, there are a few steps you can (and should) take.

Properly organize your organization to manage and optimize systems. Technical management, an innovation working group, and knowledge building are important.

a. Set Up a Support System for Users

Once your digital project is live, it’s important for colleagues to know where they can go with questions. Not just for technical support but also about the new way of working. Provide a clear point of contact or team to answer such questions. Think of: internal colleagues for answering functional questions and an external helpdesk for technical questions. The most important thing is that people know who to contact with which question. IT systems can support this, but they are merely tools; the core is a clear organizational structure for support.

TIP: Set up an online FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list that provides answers to common questions and clearly indicates who to contact if you can’t find the answer.

b. Collect Feedback from Users After Going Live

There are various ways to collect feedback from users. Focus on what suits your organization and consider the size of the group you want feedback from.

A Small Group?

The smaller the group, the better it is to do this verbally in a meeting. Prepare your questions in advance. To ensure everyone has a chance to speak, you can use a tool like Mentimeter (www.mentimeter.com).

A Large Group?

If the group is large, you can use an online survey and/or engage key users or ambassadors: these are representative colleagues who gather feedback from

c. Development, Management, and Optimization

A digital project is never truly finished. You need to not only maintain the project technically (comparison: your phone also regularly receives updates) but also make room for further development. Needs and possibilities will change.

Which Three Aspects Should You Monitor for Management and Optimization?

d. A Digital Project as Part of Digital Transformation and Digital Strategy

Your digital project is now live—great work! But this is, of course, not the end of your cultural organization’s digital journey. Digital projects contribute to a larger, ongoing process: digital transformation. Digital transformation is a change process where you continuously make choices, learn, and adjust.

Digital transformation means having a vision where digital projects fit into a broader digital strategy. A good digital strategy has concrete goals that contribute to changes valuable to both the public and the organization. With a well-thought-out digital strategy, your cultural organization becomes resilient and future-proof in an ever-changing digital landscape.

e. How Do I Measure the Impact of My Digital Project?

It’s natural to wonder about the impact of digital activities; how they contribute to social, educational, or artistic goals. This is also part of your digital strategy. You formulate impact goals for your project or organization in advance.

Next, you determine which (digital) activities contribute to these goals. You measure this impact by testing your assumptions after implementing the new systems. Collect data about your audience, both qualitative and quantitative. For example, age categories and people’s reactions about their experience. This gives you insight into what truly works in practice. Based on these insights, you can make strategic decisions, adjust, and allocate resources more effectively in the future.