Spring Cleaning Tips for Home and Site/App

This will not be an exhaustive list, because your site/app is likely highly unique. This is intended as a periodic reminder that revalidating, retooling, resetting, and refreshing your site/app is a continual process, and there are many things along the way that can impact your site/app. Taking a special “timeout” to focus on spring cleaning your site/app can lead to process and operational improvements, realignment with the core mission and vision of the organization, and validation that your technology stack still meets your current and near-future needs.
I clean and organize my home regularly, but often life can be a balancing act to get everything done that we would like between work, family, volunteering, fitness, and valuable veg-out days. Things start to fall a bit behind. Things we had intended to do just kept getting pushed back a little more till it’s forgotten completely for a while. But, did you know that having a plan will save you so much time, money, and potential aggravation, both in your home and in your website or app?

Spring Cleaning Tips for Home and Site/App

With a little tongue-in-cheek let’s explore some commonalities between Spring Cleaning your home and your website/custom app. 

Tip Home Website/App
Clean – Improve – Purge From drawers, closets, basements, attic, garage, and storage sheds. Full backup, database tuning, purge unused tables, logs, files, plugins, code, images, and abandoned profiles.
Goals Clean, wash, fix, spruce up, weed, dig, plant, trim, strip, sand, paint, replace, etc. Clean/recode, bug fixes, feature enhancement sprints, site performance, site security.
Tools Have ample reusable rags, sponges, scrubbing brushes, latex or cleaning gloves, and paper towels on hand. A business analyst, project management support, technical support, and development team be it internal, external, or hybrid.
Resources Bleach, pine cleaner, detergent, tub/tile cleaner, grout cleaner, and other favorite cleaning products. sandpaper, paint, etc. Team members’ knowledge of organizational goals, business processes, and systems.
Timing Choose the best weekend. Gorgeous weather is key. One sprint push or multiple statements of work and support?
Environment Assuming good timing, toss open all the windows and crank the tunes. Always have at least 3 environments of development, staging, and production.
Human Need Plan your food and beverage. Keep it lite, quick, and easy. Sandwiches and fixen’s are always a good choice with easy sides. Be realistic in planning what can be done by when, while balancing budgets, work, and personal lives.
Let go Have boxes/bags on hand for sale or donation with a designated storage place until donated or sold. Know what is working and have the courage to call out what is not with the best of intentions to make it better.
Execution Room by room, closet by closet, cabinet by cabinet, and drawer by drawer – everything gets touched, reviewed, wiped, washed, dusted, or polished. For each item. A systematic review, listening, questioning, frequent communication, an iterative development cycle, testing, and documentation can produce a fresh validated system that meets today’s needs and is ready to support your growth.

When Spring Cleaning, I ask a lot of questions with a quick gut reaction. See Analysis Questions below to consider your technology platform.

Analysis Questions

When evaluating an item be it in your home or part of your website/app, quickly assess your response to these questions and other similar questions based on your need and direction. You’ll then have a strong understanding of what to keep, toss and make better in some way.

  • Is it still useful to me?
  • What purpose does it fill?
  • What does it do/provide?
  • Is it used often?
  • Have I used it within the past year?
  • How about two years?
  • Do I need to keep it?
  • Is it critical? Is it required?
  • Is it a must-have, a want-to-have, or a nice-to-have?
  • Is it worth taking up space and being maintained?
  • Is it underutilized and has greater use/value potential?
  • If/when I use it, is it still functionally meeting my needs and wants?
  • Is it time for an upgrade/replacement?
  • Can it be used elsewhere and/or in a new way?
  • Is this the best place for it?
  • Do I/we need more of it?
  • Can I let go of it?

It can be tough work or fairly easy depending on the current state, desired state, and resources allocated. However accomplished, Spring Cleaning is a great way to refocus, create order, refresh, and invigorate your home, website, or mobile app.

Open Professional Group is your partner whether needing a little website/app support or maybe you are dreaming of a SaaS data warehouse supporting and spanning multiple mobile apps. We have experience in many industries such as fashion, education, medical, entertainment, medical journals, member-driven associations, clinical trials, insurance, and many others. Our clients span private, non-profit, and government, OPG has the experience and talent to bring your vision to life. If you’d like to chat, reach out.

Spring cleaning your home… we’ll leave that to you and hope our tips help.

Written by Dennis Velco