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Introduction
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Building a website is similar to building a house. A contractor would never construct a house without a blueprint, nor should a web developer design or build anything without a clear project blueprint.
We urge you to take a few minutes and become familiar with the production process we have developed over many years and hundreds of websites. Even if someone else is building your website, you will be in a much better position with an understanding of how an Enterprise level production process works.
This production process is designed to build a website as well and efficiently as possible.
We realize that this is a rather long chunk of information, but sincerely hope you will take the time to read and understand a successful production process.
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Pre Production
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We will detail where we are going and how we will get there. The larger the website, the more planning will be required to stay on track.
The first steps are to determine what the site's functionality is. Why will the site exist? What will its purpose in life be? Knowing that, a site map can be developed.
For example, a bookstore's website would probably exist to sell books, and that would be its primary purpose. Anything that does not support the site's purpose of selling books probably should not be a part of the site.
It is also important to learn as much as possible about the site's visitors and craft the design spec according to that knowledge. In our bookstore example, the largest group of visitors would likely be represented by the general internet public, meaning people using PCs and Internet Explorer 5 or newer, many with a 56k modem. They would have a fair amount of web experience and probably have purchased items online before. Being people interested in buying books, it is also likely that a significant number of the site's visitors would be more technically savvy and web experienced than the general public. This secondary group would probably be more likely than most to compare prices at several sites before making a purchase.
If a site is to be database driven, the data structure must be outlined at this point.
Armed with all this, and information about the company and what they do, we can develop the site map. The navigational structure and folder structure will be developed. All levels of navigation items are identified, as well as entry page (and sectional entry page) links to 'one-off' destination pages. This document becomes the roadmap for all the work that will be done on the site.
Also, all this information is needed in order to create an estimate for the client. It is impossible to know how many hours it will take to build a site until it is known *what * will be built!
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Alpha Stage
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This is when the visual designs are created. These designs are created in Photoshop as static images then submitted to the client for approval/revisions. Typically 1 or 2 rounds of revisions are sufficient to arrive at a design that everyone is excited about. Upon client approval of an Alpha design, we move on to the next stage of development.
If the site is to be database driven, we will start developing the data structure concurrent to Alpha design.
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Beta Stage
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The first page of the site is created, usually the entry page. For Flash sites, this page will typically retain 95% or more of the Alpha design's appearance. For HTML sites, 85% or more of the Alpha design's appearance is usually attainable. The code or Flash movies developed here will serve as a template for the rest of the site. In the case of Cold Fusion sites, the templates for recurring items such as navigation bars, headers, and footers will be in use across the rest of the site. This page becomes the basis for the design spec for the rest of the site. For smaller sites, it is usually not necessary to write a formal design spec, as there will only be a handful of people involved in the development process. Larger sites often require a formal design spec be written at this point, detailing colors, fonts, spacing, etc. Upon client approval of the beta page, we begin building out the site.
With smaller to medium sized websites, getting to this point often takes by far the most time and effort. It is often natural to become concerned as the deadline for completing the site is approaching rapidly and there doesn't seem to be a single page yet completed! For smaller and medium sized websites, once the beta stage is done the rest usually goes very quickly.
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Construction
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This is where the bulk of the site is built. All of the planning and designing has been done, now we are just getting down to business! This is straightforward work, simply building web pages according to all that was done in the previous stages of development and pre production.
For smaller to medium sized websites, this phase often goes very quickly, often done in a few days, or even a single day.
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Database/Backend
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Backend development is often concurrent with all stages of front end development, and usually starts at the same time as Alpha development.
This will often include a blueprint of the database, called a schema. This schema becomes the foundation for all database driven functionality.
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Forward is good...and imporatant...and saves you money
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It is useful to keep in mind that this process is linear. If we are in the final building phase, and a change to the basic design is requested, much work may need to be done again. Much as the site map becomes the blueprint for the structure of the site, the approved Beta design becomes the blueprint for all of a site's visual elements.
Building a website can be compared to building a house. If after the house is nearly complete it is decided that the kitchen should go where the garage is, much of the house will need to be torn down, and it may even be faster to start over!
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Client Deliverables
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There are often client deliverables. These can include things such as logo, page content ('copy' in the print world), photos, etc. For larger sites, we will set up a production schedule that relies on our receiving these items by the time they are needed. Please remember that delays here can delay the entire project or increase the budget required to complete the project.
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