Posted on April 14th, 2010Before you start a web development project, you need to understand the project milestones, and also all the different phases or steps that you will go through during the entire process. Most Web development projects have an ordered flow of development with distinguishable phases that, when properly followed, can simplify and streamline the entire development process. Here are phases in which most Web development projects should evolve:
1. Planning phase: It defines the purposes and goals of the site, build a site identity, specify what content should be published on the site, determine dynamic site requirements, and if possible figure out ways to draw in visitors to your site after it is officially published on the Internet. At this point you need to check the availability of the intended domain name.
2. Contract phase: In this phase, you draft and submit the proposal to your client, which clearly outlines the scope of the project in brief written form to allow both the developers and client have a better understanding of the prospects and outcome of this project, as well as time frame and financial agreements. Upon approval, your proposal becomes the official contract that all involved parties sign, and the deposit is given to the developer to begin the work.
3. Design phase: It categorizes your target audience; constructs an identity for the entire site; gather details about you target audience’s computer requirements; determine the benefits of your site to visitors; decides about the best structure, color, layout, and contents; and finally you need to build a design mock up and submit it to your client for approval.
4. Development phase: In this phase you need to convert the mock-up into HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript or other web programming scripts; organize web layout in visually pleasing ways; develop and optimize Web elements; add dynamic features to the pages with Flash, JavaScript and other web programming languages when needed; and ensure that your site look good and work well in major OSs, including Linux, Windows and Mac
5. Testing phase: Thoroughly test the site in a testing server under most common browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari at a variety of display resolutions. In this phase you should also validate the code; fix coding and spelling errors; and otherwise make sure new visitors can navigate through the entire site without problem.
6. Site Transfer: You should have your domain and hosting plan secured, upload the entire site to the host server, test it online thoroughly, and get ready for the official launch.
7. Site Launch: The site is officially delivered to the client and opened for public access.
8. Post-launch site maintenance: You should have periodical maintenance to ensure that the site works properly and has relevant and up to date content, and also making enhancements and other improvements to the site. A major site upgrade should be considered as a separate project, not a routine maintenance.
I think we can add a step which take place during the whole project: seo. Define the keywords and the internal linking during the design step, optimize the server and the code during the development phase, and build the net linking after the site launch.