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As the website development market continues to diversify and specialise, many client projects are now subject to rigorous procurement and tender processes. The result is that more large scale website builds are handled by more than one organisation. While this approach is not ideal for the integrity of the solution, it is now a widely accepted reality. It is therefore commonplace for one agency to be tasked with defining the site design, another with building the site and then a further external or internal team employed to maintain it. This approach usually results in the design agency being asked to provide user-based research and strategy, information architecture, interface guidelines, site copy and HTML templates, which are then all handed on to the third party build team.

Whether the third party is an internal team of developers or another agency, the client (usually in a corporate communications team) is left to oversee a multi-disciplinary project, which is no small task. Although the documentation provided by the agency will be comprehensive and logical, as the realities of this technically complex project kick in, project creep and change requests all combine to alter the shape of what was originally conceived and documented. With the design agency long gone and no one monitoring changes to the overall vision, the quality of the final product can, against all the best intentions, end up severely compromised.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Your sparkling edifice
This approach is akin to a large scale construction project where the architect for a prestigious new corporate headquarters hands over the blueprints to the client and their builders, then proceeds to never visit the site or supervise the construction. The problem is that the original requirements can all change so quickly, one of the key stakeholders' businesses expands and demands a new wing to the building, another insists on a radical redesign of the foyer to reflect the new brand and before you know it your original post-modern vision looks like the Elephant & Castle shopping centre (maybe this is what happened to the Barbican?).

Of course all large construction projects are presided over by the firm of architects that designed them, ensuring that quality and usability remain as originally envisioned, all the while managing and accommodating inevitable client changes as they arise. And it makes sense to apply the same approach to large scale website projects. This is where the ‘build advocate’ comes in.

So what is a ‘build advocate?
Put simply, a build advocate is someone from the agency that designed the site, who works with the client and development partner to ensure that the build conforms to the functional specifications, brand and interface guidelines provided. This role is usually performed by one or more individuals from the design and development teams, usually the lead IA and/or development consultant, depending on the size and complexity of the site.

So what value does the client receive?
The value of a build advocate is that they ensure that the site is built to the specifications envisaged by the client, design team and the requirements stated in user research, a vision that is not held by the build team. They help translate between the client side corporate communications team and the build team, because they speak both of their languages.

So what the client receives by employing a build advocate is someone who has a holistic view of the requirements, identifying issues as they arise and resolving them as required. And what they save is costly time delays and wasted budget on putting right incorrectly implemented specifications at late stages in the development lifecycle. But ultimately it’s the often immeasurable value that a well implemented solution brings to the clients brand that is the biggest gain.

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