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5 Tips for Successful IT Project Management
Welcome to our blog on 5 tips for successful IT project management! Discover essential strategies to drive your IT projects to success.
Introduction
Welcome to our blog on 5 tips for successful IT project management! In today's fast-paced and technology-driven world, efficient management of IT projects has become crucial for organizations to stay competitive and deliver successful outcomes. Whether you're overseeing the implementation of a new software system, a website development project, or an infrastructure upgrade, effective project management is the key to ensuring smooth execution, on-time delivery, and meeting business objectives. In this blog, we will share valuable insights and practical tips to help you navigate the complexities of IT project management. From defining clear project objectives to fostering effective communication and managing risks, we will explore the essential strategies that will empower you to drive your IT projects to success. Let's dive in and discover how to make your IT projects shine with effective project management practices!
What is IT Project Management
IT project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and overseeing technology projects to ensure their successful execution. It involves managing the various aspects of a project, including defining project objectives, allocating resources, establishing timelines, and monitoring progress. The role of an IT project manager is to lead the project team, facilitate effective communication, and mitigate risks to ensure that the project is delivered on time, within budget, and meets the desired outcomes.
In today's technology-driven world, IT project management plays a crucial role in organizations of all sizes and industries. It enables businesses to leverage technology to drive innovation, streamline processes, and achieve strategic goals. Effective IT project management requires a combination of technical knowledge, leadership skills, and the ability to navigate the complexities of technology projects.
As an IT project manager, you are responsible for defining clear project objectives, identifying project stakeholders, and ensuring their alignment with the project goals. You must possess strong communication skills to facilitate collaboration among team members, stakeholders, and vendors. Additionally, you need to have a solid understanding of technology and its implementation process to make informed decisions and effectively manage project risks.
Successful IT project management also relies on effective resource management, including allocating resources based on project requirements, tracking resource utilization, and ensuring their availability throughout the project lifecycle. Additionally, you must be adept at managing project timelines, identifying and addressing potential bottlenecks, and adapting to changes or unforeseen circumstances that may arise during the project.
By embracing the principles of IT project management and mastering the necessary skills, you can navigate the challenges of technology projects and deliver successful outcomes for your organization. In the following sections, we will explore five key tips that will help you excel in IT project management.
Now that we have established the fundamentals of IT project management, let's dive into five essential tips that will set you on the path to success. These tips will equip you with the knowledge and strategies to effectively manage your IT projects and deliver exceptional results. From project planning to team collaboration and risk management, these insights will help you navigate the complexities of technology projects with confidence and achieve your project objectives. Let's explore these tips in detail.
Tip 1: Define Clear Project Objectives and Scope
Defining clear project objectives and scope is the foundation for successful IT project management. It sets the direction and boundaries for your project, ensuring everyone involved understands the goals and deliverables. Here's how you can effectively define project objectives and scope:
- Establish Clear Goals: Start by clearly articulating what you aim to achieve with your project. Define specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals that align with your organization's overall strategic objectives. This will provide a clear vision and purpose for your project, guiding all subsequent activities.
- Create a Project Charter: Develop a project charter that outlines the project's purpose, objectives, stakeholders, and high-level requirements. This document serves as a reference point throughout the project, ensuring that everyone is on the same page. It helps in establishing project governance, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and obtaining necessary approvals.
- Conduct Stakeholder Analysis: Identify key stakeholders and their roles in the project. Engage stakeholders early on to gather their input, address concerns, and ensure their expectations are aligned with the project's objectives. By involving stakeholders from the beginning, you can gain valuable insights, foster collaboration, and manage potential risks or conflicts more effectively.
- Define Project Scope: Clearly define the boundaries of your project, including what is included and excluded. Document the project's deliverables, features, and functionalities, as well as any constraints or limitations. This ensures that everyone understands the project's boundaries and avoids scope creep, which can lead to schedule delays and increased costs.
- Develop a Scoping Document: Create a detailed scoping document that outlines the project's scope, objectives, deliverables, timelines, and resource requirements. This document serves as a comprehensive reference for all project participants, providing a clear roadmap for project execution. It helps in managing expectations, communicating project requirements, and facilitating effective decision-making.
By defining clear project objectives and scope, you establish a solid foundation for your IT project. It provides clarity, direction, and alignment, enabling your team to work towards a common goal. With a well-defined scope and objectives, you can effectively manage resources, mitigate risks, and deliver successful outcomes.
Once you have established clear project objectives and scope, the next crucial step is effective project planning and scheduling. In the next section, we will explore Tip 2, which will provide valuable insights on how to plan and schedule your IT project to ensure smooth execution and timely delivery.
Tip 2: Develop a Robust Project Plan
A well-defined project plan serves as a roadmap for successful IT project management. It encompasses various crucial components that contribute to project success.
Firstly, a comprehensive project plan outlines the timeline, setting clear deadlines and milestones for different project phases. This helps keep the team on track and ensures that tasks are completed within the designated timeframe. Additionally, the plan identifies key deliverables, outlining the specific outcomes expected from the project. This clarity enables effective monitoring and evaluation of progress.
Developing a detailed project plan offers several benefits. It enhances communication and collaboration among team members, ensuring everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. A clear plan also helps manage resources effectively by identifying the necessary personnel, equipment, and budget required for each phase of the project.
Creating realistic project schedules is essential for successful implementation. Consider the complexity of tasks, potential dependencies, and the availability of resources. By managing dependencies effectively, you can mitigate risks and ensure smooth progress throughout the project. Regularly monitor and update the project schedule to adapt to any changes or challenges that may arise.
In summary, a robust project plan sets the foundation for successful IT project management. It provides a clear roadmap, improves communication and resource management, and allows for effective monitoring of progress. In the next section, we will discuss Tip 3, which focuses on effective communication and collaboration strategies to keep your project team aligned and engaged.
Tip 3: Effective Communication and Collaboration
Communication is the lifeblood of successful IT project management. Open and transparent communication among team members and stakeholders is crucial for project success.
Clear communication ensures that everyone is aligned and working towards a common goal. Regular team meetings provide an opportunity to discuss project progress, address challenges, and brainstorm solutions. These meetings foster collaboration, allowing team members to share their insights, ideas, and concerns. Additionally, status updates and progress reports keep everyone informed about the project's status, milestones achieved, and any potential roadblocks.
Maintaining effective communication channels is essential. Utilize project management tools and platforms that facilitate real-time collaboration and information sharing. This enables seamless communication, regardless of team members' physical locations.
To foster collaboration, encourage an open and inclusive work environment where team members feel comfortable expressing their opinions and sharing their expertise. Foster a culture of trust and respect, encouraging active participation and valuing diverse perspectives.
In addition, establish clear channels for feedback and encourage regular communication with stakeholders. Keeping stakeholders informed about project progress and involving them in key decisions fosters a sense of ownership and engagement.
By prioritizing effective communication and fostering collaboration, IT project managers can build strong relationships, ensure transparency, and drive project success. In the next section, we will explore Tip 4, which focuses on risk management and mitigation strategies to anticipate and address potential challenges in IT projects.
Tip 4: Risk Management and Mitigation
Effective risk management is essential for successful IT project management, as it helps identify and address potential challenges before they escalate. By proactively managing risks, you can mitigate their impact on project timelines, budgets, and deliverables. Here are some strategies and tools to implement effective risk management:
First, it is crucial to identify and assess potential risks that may arise during the project lifecycle. Conducting a comprehensive risk assessment allows you to understand the probability and impact of each risk. Tools like risk registers, SWOT analysis, and brainstorming sessions can aid in capturing and evaluating risks effectively. Maintaining a RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) log is also valuable, as it provides a centralized repository to track and monitor all project-related risks.
Once risks are identified, developing a risk management plan becomes paramount. This plan outlines the approach for mitigating and responding to risks throughout the project. Consider utilizing risk assessment matrices, failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA), and agile risk management frameworks to prioritize and manage risks efficiently. Regularly review and update the risk management plan to ensure its relevance throughout the project lifecycle.
Contingency planning is another critical aspect of risk management. By anticipating potential disruptions and having backup plans in place, you can minimize the impact of unforeseen events. Establishing clear communication channels, defining escalation procedures, and having a response strategy for different risk scenarios contribute to effective contingency planning.
Remember, risk management is an ongoing process. Regularly monitor and reassess risks as the project progresses, and adjust your mitigation strategies accordingly. Agile methodologies, such as Scrum, incorporate risk management activities within their frameworks, enabling teams to address risks during sprint retrospectives and adapt their approach.
By implementing robust risk management practices, maintaining a RAID log, and utilizing appropriate tools and frameworks, you can proactively identify, assess, and mitigate risks, ensuring project success.
Tip 5: Monitor and Evaluate Project Performance
Keeping a close eye on project performance is crucial for successful IT project management. Monitoring progress, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), and conducting regular project reviews allow you to assess the project's health and make informed decisions. Here's how you can effectively monitor and evaluate project performance:
Reviewing Burn-up and Burn-down Charts: Burn-up and burn-down charts provide visual representations of project progress. Burn-up charts show the cumulative completed work over time, while burn-down charts track the remaining work. Regularly reviewing these charts helps you gauge if the project is on track, identify potential delays or bottlenecks, and take proactive measures to keep the project on schedule.
Assessing Resource Utilization: Monitoring resource allocation and utilization is essential to ensure optimal project performance. Reviewing resource usage reports and analyzing if resources are allocated efficiently helps you identify potential overutilization or underutilization. Adjusting resource allocation accordingly ensures that the project has the necessary capacity to meet its goals while avoiding unnecessary strain or idle resources.
Evaluating Documentation and Deliverables: Regularly reviewing project documents, such as project plans, requirements, and design documents, ensures their accuracy, completeness, and alignment with project objectives. Additionally, assessing deliverables against predefined quality criteria helps maintain the desired level of quality throughout the project lifecycle.
Tracking Risks and Issues: Continuously monitoring risks and issues is vital for effective project management. Keep a RAID (Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies) log to document and track potential risks, known issues, dependencies, and assumptions. Regularly reviewing the RAID log allows you to proactively manage risks, address issues promptly, and minimize the impact on project progress.
Implementing Effective Change Control: Change is inevitable in IT projects. Establishing a change control process ensures that any modifications or additions to project scope, requirements, or deliverables are properly evaluated, documented, and approved. Regularly reviewing change requests and their impact on project objectives helps maintain project focus and avoid scope creep.
By regularly reviewing burn-up and burn-down charts, assessing resource utilization, evaluating documentation and deliverables, tracking risks and issues, and implementing effective change control, you can monitor and evaluate project performance effectively. These practices enable you to proactively address challenges, ensure project alignment, and deliver successful IT projects.
Conclusion
In conclusion, successful IT project management requires a combination of skills, knowledge, and experience. To thrive in this field, consider obtaining key certifications and courses that can enhance your project management capabilities. Here are some valuable certifications and courses to consider:
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certification: This globally recognized certification demonstrates your proficiency in project management principles, techniques, and best practices.
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification: This certification focuses on Agile project management methodologies, enabling you to effectively manage projects using Scrum frameworks.
- PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner certification: PRINCE2 provides a structured approach to project management, equipping you with valuable tools and techniques for successful project delivery.
- Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification: This certification is ideal for those starting their project management journey and provides a solid foundation in project management principles and terminology.
- ITIL Foundation certification: ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a framework for IT service management and can be beneficial for managing IT-related projects.
Investing in these certifications and courses can expand your knowledge, validate your skills, and boost your career prospects in IT project management. Stay updated with the latest trends, methodologies, and tools in the field to continuously enhance your expertise.
At Digital Grind, we understand the significance of seamless project delivery and the critical role of project managers in achieving that goal. Our team consists of certified project management professionals who are well-versed in industry best practices and methodologies.
By partnering with Digital Grind, you can benefit from our expertise in IT project management. Our project managers will ensure the smooth execution of your projects, from initiation to completion. They possess the necessary skills to effectively manage resources, mitigate risks, and maintain clear communication throughout the project lifecycle. With their guidance and support, you can achieve project success while focusing on your core business objectives.
Get in touch today to discover how Digital Grind can assist you in delivering successful IT projects. Let our experienced project managers take the lead, allowing you to concentrate on driving innovation and growth within your organization. Together, we can navigate the complexities of IT project management and achieve your desired outcomes.
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Technology has been evolving rapidly over the past few decades at an extraordinary speed most of us never thought possible. Technology currently has infinite uses and has impacted and improved the lives of global citizens, whether at home, work, in classrooms or leisure activities.
During 2020, businesses had to come face-to-face with the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects it had on all our livelihoods. For some, going through an intense digital transformation was the only way to allow employees to work remotely and maintain productivity in response to the lockdowns restrictions.
Software developers were at the forefront of this change, and their teams had to start incorporating functionality that enabled social engagement. Some of them had their work cut out for them, having to quickly adapt in such an agile environment to their customers' new and growing needs.
Now that we’re in 2021, more people have grown to appreciate the importance of software development. There are a number of trends that have been seen in the software development industry. We’ll discuss some of these below and the future outlook.
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Rising demand for developers
The increasing demand for digital solutions by businesses around the globe meant companies had to hire developers to transform their business models, particularly through e-commerce. Developers increased in demand by 25% between 2019 and 2020, and job portals around the globe are continuing to see a rapid recruitment boom.
While other industries and sectors started to teeter on the brink of collapse, software development continued on an upward trend during the pandemic. This trend is expected to continue over the next decade as new opportunities continue to come out of this industry.
In fact, what is evident is that developers who upskill themselves in various emerging technologies will benefit most from this trend. The top skills that will be in demand going into the future will be IT automation, and AI and machine learning. With the number of tech startups also on an upward trend, the future looks promising for software development.
A hybrid and flexible work environment
Due to the pandemic, businesses everywhere were forced to both digitise and digitalise. Software developers had to respond to this call and became more flexible by collaborating on projects more remotely than ever before.
Where developers were used to running projects mostly in person, they had to now adapt to a hybrid work approach. This has seen a reduction in meeting lengths as teams aim to become more efficient in the wake of increasing workloads.
Things are constantly changing, as the year 2020 has shown. This has necessitated the use of an agile approach on workstreams. With the emerging in-demand coding skills, self-teaching is becoming another major trend in the industry to keep up with the rapid transformation.
Growth of the Cloud
As software teams are now working remote-first, most development projects have now moved to the cloud, incorporating social and collaborative tools. Value stream management software will help drive agility right now and going forward. The cloud computing market is forecast to grow 18% in 2021, with the trend set to continue over the next five years.
The focus on cloud-native skills will gain more importance going into the future and this will be supported by virtual colocation infrastructure which allows for scalability to cope with the increased agility. The scalability offered by the Cloud is allowing developers to adjust to ever changing demand.
Sectors such as tourism, travel and hospitality experienced reduced demand. Scalability allowed some to reduce their server needs without bearing the full costs of a physical data centre.
Agility and the shift to cloud infrastructure has led to an increased demand for full-stack developers to support the flexibility requirements and increasing software development needs. If you haven’t already migrated to the Cloud, then this is the best time to start looking at some options that can benefit your organisation.
Low-code and no-code adoption
As organisations scrambled to adopt digital solutions in 2020, developers were left with higher workload. This led to an increase in low-code products that could be quickly deployed and free up developer capacity.
These low-code solutions are easily scalable and components can be reused on multiple clients. This is particularly useful given that the demand for developers is surpassing the ability of recruiters to fill vacancies. One example of these solutions is the Bubble platform.
Low-code and no-code allow for rapid development and deployment of web apps primarily. People with great ideas will benefit mostly from these developments, speeding up their implementation. Going forward, this market segment is expected to continue on a positive uptick, powered by the Cloud.
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AI and automation
Trends currently show that AI and machine learning will be at the forefront of software development automation going into the future. This will particularly be of benefit in test automation, helping to identify problems faster through natural language processing.
AI helps make more informed decisions as it can provide predictive analytics, ultimately improving user experience. You may need to start thinking whether you think you might need to find a software developer to help incorporate AI to speed up business processes and get ahead of your competition.
5G is here to stay
What is certain is that 5G was one of the most talked about topics in 2020, mostly for all the wrong reasons. Now that the dust has mostly settled, 5G is set to contribute to the rapid growth of software solutions.
5G is expected to have a 15% share of the global mobile industry by 2025. The outstanding speeds that can be achieved using this mobile technology, among several benefits, provide endless possibilities for developers.
For those looking to incorporate AR and VR in their business, the speeds provided by 5G will be a perfect fit as they are resource-intensive technologies. In addition, the growing trends of progressive web apps and IoT will continue in 2021 and beyond. Their development and use will be enhanced even further by 5G technology.
The technology trends we witnessed starting in 2020 are expected to continue to grow in the long run. One thing for sure is that life will never be the same again as before the pandemic.
Are you future-looking and thinking of jumping onto one of these trends for your business? If you were searching for software development experts, then look no further. Whether it’s app or web development, e-commerce solutions, AR and VR, or getting insights from your data, to name a few, talk to Digital Grind. We’ve got you covered.
When it comes to brand visibility, you can’t go wrong with a solid search strategy in place. After all, it involves small tweaks that will help users find you if and when they need to. Of course, there are other elements at play, like your marketing strategy and specific business objectives, but a universal goal is growth and awareness, and that you’ll find on the search engine results pages - if you know-how.
Search engine optimization is split up into two main categories in terms of the logistics. The first is on the backend, where the structure of your site and aspects of your code help determine visibility and give Google the lay of the land. Typically SEO specialists need to interact with this backend to ensure that pages are structured and categorized correctly, that duplicate content is marked as “invisible” to crawlers and that the site loads quickly enough for it to be convenient to users.
These are just a few basic and oversimplified examples for context. However, you don’t need to be a fully-fledged tech expert to make a significant difference to a site’s ranking - as there’s a whole nother element to gaining search cred.
What is on-page SEO?
On-page SEO relates to activities you can do on the front-end to improve your site’s ranking, support link-building strategies and make content more inclusive and easily indexable. It’s also a good place to create mechanisms for users to engage with what you’re publishing and be able to process it all quickly and easily.
Why is this so important? Because it helps search engines like Google and Firefox determine how relevant your content is to a specific search query, which means the people who are looking for your products and services are more likely to find you. In fact, 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine. (BrightEdge)
In order to start improving your presence online and making the necessary changes to become more visible, it’s important to master the basics. Here’s how:
- Use keywords thoughtfully: Conducting basic keyword research using a keyword planner, can give you a good indication of what users in your segment are searching for, in relation to your brand. You can use the search volumes to determine a list of keywords by priority - primary, secondary and tertiary or thematic keywords.
These keywords go into the metadata but also have special placements in the copy, on-page. You can show topic hierarchy by using the primary keyword in the title, and first and last 100 words of the page, the secondary keyword in the first subheading, and thematic keywords sprinkled throughout. - Get meta: Creating metadata for your pages and posts is a good way to optimise what users see when they search for your brand pages or related keywords. In the CRM you can write custom titles and descriptions for your page, using your primary keyword which is the keyword most searched for by your audience. Descriptions are usually truncated at 155 characters, so keep them short and engaging.
This way users are more likely to read the whole thing and click through to your site. Plus, it has the added benefit of showing Google and other search engines what the page is about, as their technology indexes keywords. If you don’t create a custom one, it will automatically showcase the first few lines of text on the page. Pro tip: keep your primary and most important keyword close to the beginning of your title and description. - Create scannable content for users: Search engines allocate a readability score to content that determines how easy it is for users to consume. This is based on factors like scannability of content, sentence length, and language use.
Optimising your pages for better readability means formatting your pages with subheadings and bullet points, for example, considering language use and ensuring clean, well-written copy that takes punctuation, grammar and spelling into account. - Be inclusive: When uploading images onto your site, you can include alt tags and captions that describe images and give them context. This serves two functions. First, it makes the images more inclusive for the visually impaired interacting with the site, as these tags and captions are read via audio channels. Secondly, it allows search engines to index the images more thoroughly and gives them a thematic context in the same ways as keywords do. From here, they can determine relevance to search queries.
- Make it meaningful: The quality of your content is what’s going to ultimately keep readers on your page, which means fluff won’t cut it. Similarly, by linking to reputable sources you can up the credibility of your work. The key to great SEO is simply creating genuinely good content that serves a purpose and fits a theme. So allocate the necessary resources to create something that meets needs and offers the reader more than what they expected.
- Share it: The more traffic that goes to your site, the more likely it is to rank higher in the SERPs (MTU Edu). A good way to drive traffic is through sharing your content on social channels. By adding social icons, you can also encourage users to share with their audiences, helping you generate a larger readership on your site.
All told, basic on-page search knowledge is a must-have for any marketer or creative working particularly in the digital copywriting space - but it’s also an important part of your content strategy.
Without at least some consideration for search queries, you won’t get the most value from your site, which means wasted resources, missed leads and simply taking up space online. We can help you formulate better on-page strategies and drive new business to your digital doors. Speak to us for more information.
Since the beginning of the digital age, circa the mid-20th century, society has slowly begun to harness the power of information technology. When computers became more portable and cheaper to manufacture, this meant that more people could access them. Mobile phones and device miniaturisation are continuing to make web accessibility more possible today.
Current statistics show that about 15% of the world's population is considered to be living with some sort of disability. While this is a significant proportion of the human race, it’s quite apparent that most technology is designed with the 85% in mind.
Not only that, the web should be fully functional for every single person trying to access it, regardless of their software, hardware or location. Meeting this goal ensures accessibility isn’t exclusive to the majority.
What is web accessibility?
Web accessibility refers to the design and development of websites that are accessible to people living with disabilities. While there are various types of disabilities, there are some that make it difficult for some to access certain types of web content.
Such individuals at times have to use assistive technologies to access it. Examples of these include screen readers, text-to-speech, screen enlargement, voice recognition and word prediction technologies. However, these technologies only work if the principles have been applied by the website creators.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are some web accessibility guidelines provided by the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The current version of these guidelines is WCAG 2.1, although the newer versions 2.2 and 3 are still under draft.
Why web accessibility is important
People living with disability face a variety of disadvantages in their day-to-day living; one of these is web accessibility. When some individuals aren’t able to fully access the web, particularly due to its design, they are considered a part of the digitally excluded.
Disability inclusion aims to address the barriers posed by information and communication technology as this infringes on some of their basic rights. A person living with disability has a right to access any web service just as much as an able bodied individual.
Improving accessibility for your website helps to address any discrimination that it can potentially pose on people living with disability. Web accessibility means “that people with disabilities can equally perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with websites and tools.”
The four principles: POUR
There are four principles that should be the baseline for the design or development of a website to ensure accessibility. They can also be applied to any other information technology as well. A website should be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust:
- Perceivable: When it comes to perceivability, this means that the content and user interface elements can be identified using human senses. Generally, vision is the primary one, since websites are usually meant to be read. Secondary senses include sound and touch.
A website or app should be built in a way that ensures that there is alternative access through other senses that may be diminished or missing. This is why there are video captions for those who are partially or completely deaf, for example.
- Operable: A website’s user interface components (e.g buttons and controls) and any of its interactive parts should be accessible through multiple input tools. The site or app should not have interactions that the user is unable to perform.
The website should also allow for errors, making sure that the user has ample time to fix them. One example of operability is that a website should cater for those who might use only a keyboard, for example, and cannot use a mouse.
- Understandable: This refers to a website having consistency in formatting and having predictable patterns. Users should also be able to understand and remember how to navigate the website or app.
In addition, it should provide feedback to users, helping them with any errors. In fact, any potential errors a user may experience should be mitigated against through contextual help.
- Robust: For this principle, a website needs to be able to be interpreted well by multiple platforms, devices and other technologies, taking into consideration the functional limits of each of these. Users should have choice with regards to the technology they desire to use to interact with a website or app. Also, the coding needs to be clean to prevent errors.
How to become AAA compliant
There are currently three levels for web accessibility guidelines, according to the WCAG. These are levels A (basic), AA (intermediate) and AAA (optimal). The majority of organisations aim to achieve AA status. Compliance level AAA encompasses the standards of all three levels.
- Level A aims to meet 25 criteria and is relatively easy to meet. However, these websites are usually difficult for people living with disabilities to use. In general, requirements include the ability to navigate using only a keyboard and having alternative text for content.
- Level AA has 38 criteria that the majority of people with or without disabilities have the ability to use. It includes criteria such as having a colour contrast of at least 4.5:1. In addition, alternative text should have meaning.
To become Level AAA compliant, you have to meet all 61 success criteria as provided by the WCAG. To help you, the WCAG provides a checklist.
AAA sites are mainly aimed at maximising users and the criteria is very strict. This compliance level is aimed at enabling access to individuals with audiovisual impairments.
Some of the AAA criteria include having a colour contrast level of at least 7:1. In addition, there should be sign language interpretation of media content. Having a variety of accessibility tools is commonplace on AAA sites.
If you are considering a level of compliance you would like to meet, first try and figure out who your target users are. For example, if your website or app is meant for elderly users or those living with disability, then AAA compliance is the way to go.
So, choose a compliance level that suits the needs of both you and your audience. Start taking steps to understand what changes you need to make to your website using the chosen compliance level and watch your audience grow, while better serving your current users.
Author: Brandon Busuttil, MD, Digital Grind
