Front-End Delivery Challenges in Agencies (Honest Reasons)
It’s common for agencies to experience delays in the delivery of their front-end, which can be a source of frustration for everyone involved. Clients are anxious, teams are under pressure, and the common reason given for the slowdown is “slow development.”
In fact, the vast majority of front-end development agencies delays are not caused by slow development on the part of the developer, but instead by gaps in the agency’s process, decisions that are made late in the process, and unclear expectations that come up during development (which could have been avoided had those expectations been made clear from the outset of the project).
This article explains the true reasons why development delays occur in agencies’ front-end delivery. And provides an understanding of how to avoid them, regardless of whether the front-end work is done internally, by a vendor, or in a shared capacity.
What Causes Front-End Delivery Delays in Agencies?
Delays in front-end delivery at partnering agencies are usually attributable to incomplete design handoff, changes to scope during development, late feedback cycles, unclear ownership of quality assurance, and unrealistic expectations regarding pixel-perfect implementation.
All of these items represent process-related factors versus developer-related factors, and preventing these hurdles is possible through improved upfront clarity and alignment.
1. Why Incomplete Design Handoffs Slow Front-End Development
Incomplete design handoffs are a leading cause of front-end project delays. This is not a criticism of the design quality; most agency-created designs appear polished and ready for presentation to clients. However, it has become evident that many designs meet presentation-quality standards but not build-quality standards.
Examples of common omissions from designs that are presented for development include:
- No responsive layouts for tablet or edge cases
- No defined styles for hover, focus, or active states
- No consistency in rules for spacing and sizing
- Unclear or inconsistent typography behaviors across breakpoints
- Components that appear to be similar but function differently
In cases where your design does not include any of the above items, the developer may be forced to stop working, ask questions, or make assumptions about your design. As a result, the developer goes back to the points that have been completed and waits for feedback so that he/she can make any necessary revisions after receiving that feedback.
How to Prevent it:
Consider creating a checklist of the items in your design that the developer needs to complete prior to beginning work on the final version of the design. The more decisions that you can make before the developer begins work on the final version of the design, the quicker the developer can deliver the project.
2. How Small Scope Changes Delay Front-End Delivery
Changes in the design scope while developing the front-end of your project can throw off your timeline.
For example:
- “Could you please modify the padding on all screens?”
- “Please add another breakpoint.”
- “Can you change the animation on this screen?”
- “Can I use this component with only a little bit of restructuring?”
Because the front end is an integrated system, even a minor visual change can cause unforeseen consequences for all connected components, layouts, and breakpoints.
- When scope changes occur during development:
- The completed work will need to be re-evaluated.
- The QA process will start over from the beginning.
- The timelines will continue to lengthen without any apparent reason.
This additional time isn’t caused by an unwillingness to work with you; this delay is the direct result of the ripple effect created by the change in the design scope.
How to Prevent it:
To minimize these types of delays, establish layout, breakpoint, and component behavior early on. Any future design changes that you request should be considered to be a new design, not just a quick adjustment.
3. Why Treating Front-End as the Final Step Causes Delays
For many agencies, work on the front-end starts after all the following have been completed:
- Strategy
- User Experience (UX)
- Visual Design
- Content
- Client Approvals
This means that once the work starts on the front-end, the timetable has already been heavily constrained.
Because of this, the following occurs:
- Developers receive upstream delays.
- Understanding of expectations does not change.
- Added and increased pressure in the third phase of a project.
- Front-end work becomes a ‘catch-up phase’, when in reality, this is where precision and testing are important.
When there are delivery delays during this phase, it creates the feeling of failure; however, the root cause is usually structural timing, not performance.
How to Prevent it:
Involve the front-end in concepts as early as possible. Even with limited technical guidance during design, it is possible to eliminate rework and lessen the impact of delivery timelines.
4. How Late QA Creates Front-End Bottlenecks
Giving feedback is very important; however, feedback that comes in after the fact can cost a lot to fix.
- At any point when there are new stakeholders who are seeing the project for the first time, this delays front-end delivery.
- Giving clients access to working code earlier than expected
- Asking for alternative solutions from the internal team after implementation
When you give late feedback, you make the team go back to square one and reevaluate what has already been finished.
How to Prevent it:
Before developing the product, work to align on what your key stakeholders want and limit the number of communications based on essential changes needed while building.
5. Why Late Stakeholder Feedback Slows Delivery
It’s important to give feedback, but feedback given too late can cost time and money.
On a build, slowdowns in front-end delivery are due to:
- New Stakeholders looking at the build for the first time
- Clients receiving working code earlier than expected
- Internal Teams requesting alternatives after the build is complete
When teams are given late feedback, it causes them to restart the decision-making process and reevaluate the work that was already completed.
How to Prevent it:
To help avoid this problem, align the most important stakeholders before starting the build and restrict any type of feedback during the building process to essential corrections.
6. Why Pixel-Perfect Expectations Increase Timelines
“Pixel Perfect” is one of the most Common Misconceptions associated with Frontend Development, as it can lead to Unreasonable Expectations.
What it doesn’t mean:
- Recreating the Original Design in Its Entirety on each type of Device
- There is No Difference in Typography or Rendering of Type
- There is No Interpretation of the Original Design During Implementation
Differences in Rendering Methods through Browsers, Devices, and Font Types, combined with the fact that Developers have to rely on Engineering Judgment to achieve Overall Consistency, result in these Expectations being Unreasonable:
- Developers striving for “imperceptible differences.”
- Peer Review of Deliverables becomes Highly Subjective
- Project timelines are being unnecessarily extended
Important fact: Pixel Perfect is an Achievable Outcome – Not a Quick Fix!
How to Prevent it:
Define what Pixel Perfect means for your Project; get agreement on what your Tolerance Levels are, and as to what is most Important for Accurate Representation.
Common Front-End Delivery Delays and Their Causes
| Issue | Why It Slows Delivery | How to Prevent It |
| Incomplete design handoff | Developers wait or guess | Use a build-ready design checklist |
| Scope changes | Rework multiplies | Lock components early |
| Front-end is late in the process | Compressed timelines | Involve developers earlier |
| Undefined QA | Bugs stack at the end | Assign QA ownership upfront |
| Late stakeholder feedback | Review cycles restart | Align reviewers early |
| Pixel-perfect assumptions | Subjective revisions | Define tolerances |
Agencies consistently create faster front-end projects, typically:
- Have a checklist for build-ready designs before developing
- Lock-down & finalize all breakpoints, spacing methods/rules, and components
- Have previously defined Quality Assurance (QA) ownership and acceptance criteria
- Only make mid-project feedback on critical issues
- Educate clients on trade-offs and limitations.
- Fast delivery is a result of “clarity” as opposed to “pressure”.
The key to outsourcing your frontend development successfully is to have a clearly defined project scope, complete the design handoff, and agree on the quality standards before the developer starts work. Clear communication and a short path are also very important.
The benefit of having a dedicated team for frontend development isn’t cost; it’s the team’s ability to stay focused on the project with less context switching, fewer workflow interruptions, and more systematic processes.
This only works when all parties (developer and agency) have agreed to the project specs in their entirety, with no confusion.
The cause of many agencies’ frontend delivery delays is not that their developers work slowly. Most of the time, the root cause of these delays are because of poor planning, late decisions made on the project, changes of the project scope after development has begun and the many gaps between the various processes when developing the frontend for a project.
Once these are taken care of, the delivery times for frontend development become much shorter and considerably more predictable.
Conclusion:
Frontend delivery issues at agencies are not about poor performance; rather, they arise from:
Assumptions are made too late in the process.
- Decisions procrastinated.
- Communication barriers.
- Unrealistic timeline expectations.
Agencies that have figured out how to speed up delivery times simply make their decisions much earlier and much more honestly once they learn the causes that slow down development of the frontend, and have that understanding before they begin working on the project, the project delivery process becomes much smoother, quicker, and far more predictable.
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