Web Site Development - Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML - page 404

Analysis
The Analysis phase involves meetings and interviews with key client personnel. Analysis
is usually completed by the project manager, information architect or other analyst, and
the client's marketing representative and related personnel. The network administrator
and database administrator may be interviewed depending on the scope of the project.
Common tasks completed during the Analysis phase follow:
● Determine Information Topics. Organize the information to be presented on the
site into categories and create a hierarchy. These information topics will be used
later as a starting point for developing the site navigation.
● Determine Functionality Requirements. State what the site will do, not how it will
do it. For example, state “the site will accept credit card orders from customers,”
not “the site will perform order processing using Active Server Pages to look up
each price and sales tax information in Oracle databases and use real-time credit
card verification supplied by somewebsite.com.” Note the difference in the level
of detail of these functionality requirements .
● Determine Environmental Requirements. What environmental requirements , such
as hardware, operating system, memory capacity, screen resolution, and band-
width will your site visitors be using? What type of hardware and software
requirements will the Web server need? (See Section 10.3 Web Hosting and
Section 10.4 Choosing a Virtual Host for help with this question.)
● Determine Content Requirements. Does content already exist in another format—
brochures, catalogs, white papers? Determine who is responsible for creating and
repurposing content for the site. Does the client company or marketing department
have any content requirements that must be met? For example, is there a specific
look and feel or corporate branding component that must be present on the site?
● Compare the Old Approach to the New Approach. Perhaps you are not creating a
new Web site, but modifying an existing one. What benefits or added value will
the new version provide?
● Review Your Competitors' Sites. A careful review of your competitors' Web pres-
ence will help you design a site that will stand out from the crowd and be more
appealing to your shared customer base. Note the good and bad components of
these sites.
● Estimate Costs. Create an estimate of the costs and time involved to create the
site. A formal project plan is often created or modified at this point. Often, an
application such as Microsoft Project is used to estimate costs and plan project
schedules.
● Do a Cost/Benefit Analysis. Create a document that compares the costs and benefits
of the site. Measurable benefits are the most useful and most appealing to clients.
In a formal project environment, a document that details the results of this
cost/benefit analysis must be approved by the client before the team can proceed.
Design
Once everyone knows what is needed, it is time to determine how it can be accom-
plished. The Design phase involves meetings and interviews with key client personnel.
Design tasks are usually completed by the project manager, information architect or