Best Practices For Planning And Executing The Development of Websites

[blmg2009]

Hi Guys, 

 

I'm fairly new to website development and I'm fully self taught. Since many people are now self taught within the industry we seem to lack the know how about how to effectively plan a website or web project. 

 

Being self taught I often plan things in my head then note things down, I kind of go with the flow. However much time can be wasted in doing this as I find myself thinking of what to do next, or even making mistakes because I haven't properly planned my web project. 

 

I have bought many books on website planning and done research into stages of development such as wireframes. 

 

However there is a lot of things to go through and many of the books contradict each other with there methods and processes.

 

I'm asking for ideas of what sort of things I need to be looking at to successfully plan and execute and entire dynamic website with a database. (Kind of like how a professional company would for one of it's clients.) 

 

 

[QuickOldCar]

Mistakes are part of the learning process.

Everything does not always go as planned, might need to compromise or make adjustments.

 

What's written in those books are a persons opinions.

Whatever makes you more proficient and comfortable doing this while getting a completed project done per clients specifications is the right way.

 

Many website developers I know use a cms versus starting over each time. Some use frameworks while others develop their own cms.

Is also clients that want a certain premade cms in which you have to modify for their needs.

There is so many aspects of website development and different methods to go about it is mind boggling these days.

 

It seems that each client has a priority what is more important to them and their website, is something will have to find out or convince them your ways are the best  to go about it. Some think they know but actually do not.

 

I concentrate on the backend functional aspect of the website first and any css, jquery, javascript, ajax, etc would be later unless is required.

Create a basic layout and style to manipulate and test your data.

 

A basic plan of what you need is fine.

create your websites so they can be modified in many ways without editing lots of code

separate the coding logic from the display

create databases for what you need, content data,users

login system with permissions (I personally use a 0-9 scale)

administration area

navigation and link to scripts performing specific tasks

inserting,fetching and updating content to the database

website frontend and display data

users account/profile area

any additional requirements you may need

design and style it

add in any flashy features you want

 

I've seen piles of sites that look fantastic and have no functionality, in the same respect have seen fantastic working ones that looked horrible.

You have developers,designers and then you have website developers which need to be able to do both fairly well.

 

Is there any particular trouble areas you have trying to get something working together?

I find the biggest issues are the hosting or outdated coding versions the client is using.

 

For the record I've been programming and developing for 36 years and have done all sorts of freelancing. I can not say I have seen it all, but I've seen a lot.