PWPM Wiki

Website Development RAID Log

This is a practical guide to building a raid log for a website development project — a consolidated log of Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies, adapted to the realities of designing and building a new website.

What a RAID Log is

A raid log is a consolidated log of Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependencies. For the full concept and how it works in general, see RAID Log. On a website development project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.

Why it matters for a Website Development project

Website Development projects live or die on designing and building a new website. A well-built raid log gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how website development projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.

What to include

  • Risks
  • Assumptions
  • Issues
  • Dependencies
  • Owners and status

Website Development-specific considerations

Tailor the raid log to the risks that most often derail website development projects:

  • Scope creep from stakeholder requests
  • Content readiness delays
  • Browser/device compatibility

Example

On a real website development project, the raid log would be shaped by designing and building a new website. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — scope creep from stakeholder requests, content readiness delays, browser/device compatibility — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.