The quest for consistency

I have been working in the Instructional Design field for over 20 years and I had the opportunity to participate in all phases of the instructional design process but it is no secret that my favorite parts of the process are development and quality assurance.

One of the biggest challenges I still encounter is the "monster" projects that rely on multiple developers. How do you ensure that a project comprised of several modules developed by multiple pairs of hands still looks consistent?

Projects with more than one developer require careful preparation, or "pre-production" work. If the project requires customized templates, icons, logos, style guides, etc. those have to be ready before the development phase begins. Another important point is to keep all style guides, graphic standards, etc. in one place for easy access. You are probably calling me Captain Obvious in your mind, but it those little common-sense measures are not all that common.

Ideally, the developers should meet before they start developing the modules, and go over the templates and other standardization materials. Oh, no... another meeting??? I know, but it is worth it. Making all developers aware of the standards before the development phase starts avoids countless edits down the road.