Set some simple rules and keep your eye on the ball. There is a constant flow of both vital information coming into the development team office and pages of this massaged and formatted information going out. The deadlines are not only daily, as at a newspaper office, but can be hourly or even more unreasonable. Seeming chaos in such newsroom environments is normal and perhaps even desirable. Actual chaos, on the other hand, is an insidious disease that quickly robs any development effort of efficiency and timeliness.
Actual chaos demoralises the troops and costs money.
One of the biggest enemies of such a project is momentum. Projects like this gain both positive and negative momentum and take on a life of their own. Without clear plans and procedures being adopted early in the process, the press of daily 'must do' activities makes it almost impossible to improve workflow once bad workflow habits are endemic. Management by crisis becomes the norm rather than the exception. Making decisions early on to embrace open standards as much as possible will make both small and large ongoing site development projects easier to implement and manage.