subject: 11 Steps Of Web Development: A Simplified Workflow [print this page] Today many of the web development companies have successfully established themselves and provide web based solutions to small and large sized businesses and to wide variety of clients across the world. This article explains how to develop Websites through various steps.
A Websites success depends on a lot of factors and requires clear strategy and detailed specification. Custom web development maximizes the potential of your website by attracting new web users and offering an experience that delights the intended audience.
Steps Involved in Web Development
The steps in each project are:
Project Inception
Project Launch Meeting
Project Requirements Document
Discovery Documents
Information Availability Flowchart
Website Flowchart
Prototype
Prototype Approval
Working Production
Final Production
Testing & Final Approval
Project Inception
This is the first and most important step involved in custom web development. In this step, the parameters for the creation of the site are considered.
Project Launch Meeting
This is the first official step in the development of a site. Its a brainstorming session. Here no decisions will be made, but the things discussed here are colors, fonts, logos, hierarchy, navigation structure, and who the site will target.
Project Requirements Document
This document summarizes what the team currently thinks the project will look like and when its completed. At this point certain decisions are made, following client meetings.
Discovery Documents
These documents are used by any web development company at the point at which you start to get down to the real nitty gritty. These documents helps in working out who your target audience is, what they want, the sections of the site, and what they will contain, etc. This will become the true roadmap for the project.
Information Availability Flowchart
This is a really great tool for a highly database-driven site that incorporates many different independent systems. It outlines which types of information will be available and where.
Website Flowchart
The flowchart is one of the most useful and least-used tools. It sets out:
Information flow
How systems talk to one another
Points at which authentication occurs, and more.
A well-made flowchart will not only define how the site will work, but it often allows you to write high-end code and distribute tasks.
Prototype
The prototype turns the documents into a reality. It is a visual that you can show the client
Prototype Approval
This phase is involved as most of the work is client-centered. It will give the clients a vision of the informations provided. However, prototype approval is just as essential for internal projects as it is for client work, as it gives everyone a chance to see and critique where the site is at, providing both designers and developers with valuable feedback and information theyll need in order to go forward.
After this step, the team of any web development company will split up into two groups: designers and developers. The designers have enough visuals to produce a final copy, and the developers have enough information, examples and forms to lay down some incredible code.
Working Production
Here the designers design and the developers develop. The database is laid out, the ASP and PHP are done, all compiled components are written, the design is finished, and the navigation and headers are the best this side of the new millennium.
Final Production
This is the final .The code is cleaned from the Working Production, the design elements are sharpened, JPEGs into GIFs are turned and vice versa. Then ensure that your final output is as standards-compliant as possible. Lists of the current weaknesses in the system which need to be addressed before you can release the system are pointed out.
Testing & Final Approval
Allow tones of people to use the site. Take their comments into consideration. This is also the stage in which you fix your final codebase, make the code modular so you can reuse it later, and give each other bruises from too much patting on the back.
Putting it all Together
This article is not a Perfect Guide for Website development. Including steps on usability studies, focus group testing, writing documentation and doing a maintenance evaluation study would prove to improve these processes.
