Over the years we’ve developed a repeatable, efficient process for developing small to medium sized web sites. These web projects are usually completed in one iteration in about 2 to 3 months.
The process we’ve developed involves considerable interaction with and feedback from the client throughout the project. We’ve broken up the project into 6 or 7 mostly overlapping phases:
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It’s important to note that the UI design is determined about half-way through the project. This helps ensure that the design is driven by the business need and functionality instead of the other way around.
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•Client Planning Meeting (discuss process and schedule meetings)
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•Stakeholder Identification
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Create Website Requirements Survey and Send to Client
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•Client Completes and Returns the Survey
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•Survey Analysis
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•Client Kick-off Meetings (Discuss Business, Branding, Technical)
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•Goals (of project/website)
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•Scope List
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User List (Primary. Secondary & Tertiary)
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User Objectives
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Use Case List
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Design Needs (Look and Feel)
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Search Engine Optimization Analysis (Current state, if any, and future needs)
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Seed Keyword List
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Competitor List
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•Company Strengths & Weaknesses
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Key Messages
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Technical Requirements
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•Assumptions
Functional Definition Phase
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Competitor Analysis (Navigation, Messaging)
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Site Map
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Page List
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Navigation Elements
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Wire Frames
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Messaging
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Creative Brief
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UI Design Concepts
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Prioritized Target Keyword List
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Alignment of Use Cases to the Site Map/Page List
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Alignment of Keywords to Page List
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Forms (Fields & Validation)
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Technical Operating Environment Definition
Development
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Page Template Creation (From UI Concepts) (HTML/CSS)
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Template Image Creation (category specific images, etc.)
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CMS & Database Setup for Development
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Style Guide
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Custom Client Specific Coding (Functionality Not Available in CMS)Â
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Configure Content Management System to create categories, pages, menus, lists, etc.
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Seed Content
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Page Content Creation & CMS Integration
Testing & Go Live
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Integration Testing (plugins, content, etc.)
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User Acceptance Testing
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Deploy Solution to Production Environment
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Turn Site Live
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Training
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Support
Every project is unique. So expect to modify your plan with each and every project. Hopefully, this plan will give you a decent baseline to start with.
September 23rd, 2008 at 7:55 am
Hi, I am a web designer by proffesion.
I like your article and would like to request you to use your article in my webpage.
Kind Regards,
Ed
March 31st, 2009 at 7:54 am
I liked your article very much. Thanks for sharing…
October 26th, 2009 at 9:28 am
I like your structure, one thing I would like to suggest is to mention the “Maintenance Phase” which becomes most difficult to some.
October 28th, 2009 at 8:51 am
Great article! Only as a project manager I would say to the last comment I would not include maintenance as a phase, because a project is finite and maintenance is ongoing (a process).
November 1st, 2009 at 3:55 am
Hi,
It was helpful in preparing a project development gantt chart for me..
November 29th, 2009 at 7:37 am
It is very helpful indeed , Thank You.
November 29th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Great article. Thanks for sharing.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:46 am
I am impressed with your site. I entered in all the required information to download the project management paper, and it is not responding. Please advice, thanks!
February 15th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Very succinct structure, thanks. If you care to dive deeper, in more complex systems, I typically break out Content Design (early) from UI Design and allow UI Design to wrap up after functional design is completed, allowing final UI Design to accommodate functional and usability paradigms.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Jeff, Could you pls. elaborate a bit on that cause it is a very interesting point that you raised.
Thanks,
Amir
March 23rd, 2010 at 12:35 am
Bookmarked and Pinged > Website Project Plan – http://www.forwardleap.com/effective-website-development-project-plan
June 24th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
I’m learning so much. This is great
July 31st, 2010 at 5:21 am
Wonderful read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing some on-line research on that. And he actually purchased me lunch for the reason that I uncovered it for him grin So allow me to rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!