Best practices for portal projects

Here I want to give some notes about best practices when starting portal project. Of course, every software development project is unique, but here is my thought's about it.

Team Composition

1. have a business sponsor!
2. select best available project manager
3. involve various disciplines, but keep core team small:
4. portal architect
5. developers

Business Value (must be clearly understood before portal project is started)

1. Quantative Measures
2.    Page hits
3.    Portlet hits
4. Qualitative Measures
5.   Surveys

Gather Requirements

1. Define target audience
2. Interviewing the right people
3. Conduct workshops
4. Document requirements
5. Clearly define project scope, objectives and goals!

Planning

1. Don´t overkill your project planning with details – it will change
2. Based on outcome requirements workshop
3. Involve experienced project staff
4. Defining tasks/roles
5. Estimates (always ask for optimistic and pesimitic estimate)
6. Decompose in manageable pieces
7. Test functionality and performance at defined milestones
8. Ensure alignment with expectations
9. Avoid unnecessary complexity
10. Validate the Plan

Design Concepts

1. Remember- the Simpler the Better
2. The information being communicated should be the primary focus
3. Good Looks are Simple
4. Determine your target audience's screen size
5. Limit Browser support
6. Limit use of graphics
7. Minimize “Wasted Space”
8. Keep the design consistent across all pages
9. Keep the layout simple
10. Avoid placing portlets in rows, use columns only
11. Restrict the maximum number of portlets on a page (max. 5)
12. Keep lightweight portlets on pages everybody accesses
13. Heavier portlets go on pages users select
14. Carefully manage amount of content and complexity
15. Involve designers who understand the functional capabilities of the portal to leverage those capabilities instead of working around them
16. Include bread crumbs!
17. Avoid more than 3 or 4 navigational levels