Talk to most investors in web businesses and they tell you that they assume everything will cost twice as much and take twice as long as the worst case scenario. Even sites with the most brilliant and thorough planning often fail to perform as expected on the Internet. You can stress test sites, view on every different size monitor and resolution, optimize for all the major operating systems and yet when you run for real, there is at least a 50% chance that you will experience a problem serious enough to warrant crisis management.
Why is this?
The answer is that the technology behind the web is still very young and rapidly evolving. Just how many Windows patches are there? And each new version changes the playing field. So what you assumed and planned for yesterday, may not work today.
What can you do?
First, never think you are finished with a site. Consider it a constant work in progress. Second, you must have in place 24-7 monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities. Third, never rely only on in-house expertise to keep you up-to-speed on changes and development. And finally, ask everyone you know to use the site and watch them. As crude as it may seem, real life experience of even a few honest friends can give you as good data as spending thousands on sophisticated market research.
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