Transcript Website Dev - marcusgoncalves.com) is

Developing a Website
Boston University – MET
TM448 – Spring 2013
Marcus Goncalves
1
A Great Book
Many of the topics we will cover are based on a book that
I would highly recommend to anyone who is involved in
the process of developing or managing the development
of a web-based technology solution. This is a great
book. It is not too technical but it provides a good set of
guidelines for getting started.
The Book is “Web Style Guide” by Patrick Lynch and
Sarah Horton. The Second Edition is ISBN 0300088981
The book is free online at www.webstyleguide.com
Slide 2
Let’s try Something
An Experiment:
Let’s say you are tasked with building an ECommerce web site. Let’s work together as a team
to brainstorm on how to proceed.
What you know is that your company wants you to
build a web site to sell high-end children’s swing
sets.
Slide 3
The First Questions to Ask?
Given an assignment such as this, what
questions would you ask before you get
started with the project?
Slide 4
Questions
1) Identify ALL the requirements for the site
1)
2)
Including a complete understanding of how the store needs
to function, what limits and restrictions there are, etc.
Use Cases …
2) Identify the budget and resources available for the
project
Identify the Schedule Requirements
Identify Internal and External Dependencies such as
3)
4)
1)
2)
3)
Communication with External Networks and Databases
External Customer Interactions and Communications
Sign-Off Teams
Slide 5
How to get Started
• Review and Sign off on the Requirements Documents
• Establish a set of Processes for handling
– Project Plan/Schedule Signoff
– Spec Doc reviews and Signoff
– Reporting, Prioritizing and assigning Issues and Bugs to be fixed
– Communication and reporting to team members (email groups)
– Tools to use for Source Control and Bug Tracking and Schedule
Tracking.
– Document Standards
– Coding Standards
Slide 6
… and
• Assemble the team for a Kick-Off
-
Don’t forget QA, IT, Marketing, Release Management Folks
Establish Roles and Responsibilities
Schedule regular team meetings to review
- Task lists, Schedule, Issues that need to be resolved, etc.
• Put together a Schedule of tasks including:
-
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Time to write specs, test plans, test cases
Dev, QA, Release Management, Marketing, Training Tasks
Usability Studies, Beta Testing, Site Update Process
Milestones
- Give team members their first assignments
Slide 7
Project Plan Tasks
Given a typical web site, what are the
major categories of tasks you would
establish?
Based on those, what are some of the
more specific tasks you would add?
Slide 8
Typical Team
Typically, a Web Development team is comprised of:
• Someone from Marketing or Product Management Driving the
Requirements
• A Project Manager managing the daily tasks and tracking the
schedules
• Developers (Architect, Software and Database)
• Designer
• Release Managers (building and posting updates to Dev, QA, Stage,
Production Servers)
• IT Engineers to assist with network-related requirements
What are some other Team Members you would expect?
Depending on Budget, this team may be 1 person or 100.
Slide 9
First Decisions to Make
Now that you are ready to get started, what are some of the first
tasks that must be completed early in the process?
• Infrastructure Requirements (Hardware, Software, Security,
Network, etc.)
• Technology Decisions (OS, Web Server SW, Programming
Languages used for Client and Server-Side development, Database
Selection, Firewalls, Load Balancing, Web Hosting)
• Based on the Product Requirements (User Types, Browsers to
support, Internet Connection Speed Requirements, Languages to
support, Countries to support, etc.) You may have to plan ahead for
broader requirements in the future.
• Support, Training and Maintenance – Identify what resources will be
responsible for ongoing support and maintenance of the site.
Slide 10
Site Map
• One of the first projects should be to
establish a site map to make sure you cover
all topics and paths to meet the site
requirements.
• Make sure you have logical and complete
coverage of content and functionality.
• What is a site map and who uses it?
Slide 11
Getting Started with
your Site Map
I like to start a site map by selecting from a standard set of web
pages and expanding on them as needed. There are a couple
of categories of these pages
User Pages – pages the normal customers of the site use and
see
Site Administration Pages – Pages that site administrators
use to manage the web site
Hosting Administration Pages – Usually provided by the Web
Hosting Company – Setup Email, etc.
For a more comprehensive list of Typical Web Site Page
Options, See Handout.
Slide 12
More on the Site Map
• Try to keep the hierarchy of your site relatively
horizontal
• You should not have more than 7-10 primary
categories of pages on your site menu.
• You should be able to reach almost any page on
the site with a few mouse clicks. If you take the time
to categorize properly, you can achieve this.
• Consider easy ways to traverse the site map tree to
reach related topics
Slide 13
Design your Site
Start by reviewing and understanding the Requirements
and Site Map documents.
The site should be designed…
• for usability, functionality, visibility, use of colors,
shapes, graphics, load speed, traffic requirements, etc.
• for the appropriate user level
• to maximize the utilization of search engines
• so it is something that developers can actually develop
• so QA can test with automated testing tools
• so bookmarking pages on the site works as expected
• to work well with the colors and fonts of the company or
product logo
Slide 14
Design your Site (2)
Keep in mind that…
You want to be able to update the content
easily without disrupting service
You may have to localize your web site to
other countries/languages
You want a cool looking site that is not
boring
It is easier if you establish a standard page
layout for all pages to follow
Slide 15
Design your Site (3)
Also, remember…
To utilize some common standard elements on
each page (Links to Home Page on all Primary
Pages, Email Webmaster, Links to site map, privacy
policy, licensing info, Help, etc.)
Be considerate of Low Vision Users – Contrast and
Colors can make a big difference.
!!! Very Important! Make sure is it obvious to the
user how they can contact you to purchase your
products or ask questions about them.
Slide 16
Design Review
Have someone review your design for…
- Look and Feel
- Usability
- Functionality
- Complimentary Colors and Themes
And update as you see fit.
Then get signoff from the Team, Marketing or
the customer.
Slide 17
Specifications
• All development tasks should be documented with
specification documents. By analyzing the
Requirements your team should be able to assemble a
comprehensive set of specification documents.
• What items do you feel should be included in this
document?
• When is a Spec complete?
• Don’t forget to have a signoff.
Slide 18
Development
• Database Schema including tables,
indexes, default settings, etc.
• Database coding (Stored procedures,
interfaces)
• Front-End Web Page Development
• Back-End Scripting and Coding
• Server-Side Applications, DLL’s, etc.
Slide 19
External Entities
• Interface with Shopping Cart Software
• Getting an SSL Certificate
• Credit Card Processing Services
• Shipping Carriers and Rates
• Inventory Database
• Order Processing Systems (or is this
your OPS?)
Slide 20
Unit Testing
What is unit testing?
Give some examples of how unit
testing is performed.
Slide 21
Integration Testing
What is Integration Testing?
Who is responsible for this?
Slide 22
Technology Decisions
Server Side
• Server Operating System (Linux, Unix, Windows, Mac, and many
•
•
•
•
•
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others)
Web Server Software (Apache, Netscape, IIS, SunONE, etc.)
Database Engines (Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.)
Server-Side Scripting (JSP, ASP, PHP, Perl, CGI, Python, Cold
Fusion, etc.) using languages (JavaScript, Java, VBScript, etc.)
Programming Languages for Server-Side Applications, Applets,
Servlets such as Java, C++, C#, VB.Net and many more.
Client-Side (Browser) Scripting Languages (JavaScript, VBScript)
Client-Side (In the Browser) Helper Applications (Java Applets,
ActiveX Controls)
Slide 23
Hosting Decisions
• Firewall
• Load Balancing
• Failover/Mirroring
• Virus Scanning
• Servers (number, types, power,
speed, etc.)
• Dev/QA/Stage/Production hardware
Slide 24
Testing
QA should develop a test plan and a set of test cases that proves
that the site requirements and use case requirements are met. Test
the site and evaluate it for
Core Functionality
Spelling, Grammar, Look and Feel
Usability and Functionality
Broken images and links
Review the Code for
 Accurate documentation, Matching/Closing Tags, Syntax
Errors.
What Else...?
Slide 25
Release
• Install all database, application, web
page updates.
• Test on the production web site to
make sure there are no environment
variables that effect functionality.
• How to handle updates.
Slide 26
Inter and Intra-Team
Dynamics
Let’s briefly discuss some situations that may
occur as the teams interact with each other.
- Lack of Requirements
- Coders don’t want to document
- QA is left out
- Management wants screen shots right away
- Scope Creep
- Schedule Changes
Slide 27
Maintenance and
Updates
Maintaining the web site.
• Make sure the site is up
• Make sure the customers are not experiencing problems (review
error pages)
• Check for performance issues
• Check security, virus, hacking situations
Updating the site
Content, Products, Bug fixes, etc.
Slide 28
Questions?
Slide 29