The Development Process
Audience: Small Business Owners
Purpose: This article gives an overview of the concerns addressed by an effective web developement process.
Author: Jonathan Bailey — © Bailey & Hall 2006 Article Date: 2006-09-14
Last Updated: 2007-03-06
This is not a technical article about how to build a website, what technologies to use, project management or any of those other geeky concerns.
It's a plea — a cry from the heart if you will. One of the major obstacles to the success of software projects large and small is the desire to do too much at once.
Defining every feature that needs to be on your website is an invaluable exercise for you and the development team. However, when it comes to actually building the site remember this acronym KISS (Keep it Simple Sir).
In practical terms this means taking your top priorities and building those first. When you are satisfied that they are complete (and this usually means they are being used by real, live customers), move on to the next set of priorities.
At first glance this may seem like an inefficient way to work, but experience has proved the opposite. It is very rare that a project goes from beginning to end without changes along the way. The act of taking ideas and translating them into something concrete teaches us great things about those ideas, how they work, how they don't work, how they can be extended.
Spending three months on a project only to find out that, through nobody's obvious fault, its not quite going to work can be depressing . Much better to spend one month creating something that can actually be used and then rethinking the next step.
To summarize: Don't be greedy. Bite off small chunks, chew thoroughly and swallow before reaching for more.
Back to Top