It’s important to follow a standardized approach to Web development.
Dangerous Symptoms
The symptoms like projects going over-time and facing particular issues indicate that things are going wrong.
Adopt, Adapt or Build Your Own
There are three paths to choose from:
- Adopt an existing methodology
- Adapt from an existing methodology
- Build our own methodology
Evaluation Criteria :
Decide on the criteria by which you would evaluate like:
Complexity: Must be easy to understand yet should offer sufficient depth for guiding developers for custom web development
Size: A 10-page summary is better compared to 100 page document
Cost: The less money it required, the better it is
Risk: The methodology must not go wrong
Pragmatic: The solution must work, should not be based on theory
Methodologies Evaluated
Rational Unified Process
It has problems like:
- Large, complex and sophisticated
- Comprehensive but confusing
- High cost
Process Monitor: It was more compact than RUP.
In-House Methodologies: In-house methodologies borrowed from another organization, also don’t work in custom wed development.
Traditional Methodologies: They involved longer time frames and failed to consider “soft” aspects of software development.
Agile Methodologies: Feature Driven Development (FDD) in agile methodology was well suited to Web development but requires some fine tuning.
An Overview of FDD
- Process 1: Develop an Overall Model
- Process 2: Build a Features List
- Process 3: Planning
- Process 4: Design by Feature
- Process 5: Build by Feature
Why Apply FDD to Web Development?
The plus points of FDD were:
- Excellent reporting and planning
- Disciplined and clear
- Customer-focused
- Risk reduction
How to Manage the Transition?
Manage the transition by:
- Defining projects using features
- Planning development based on features
- Implementing new team structure, design and code reviews
- Conducting weekly project status meetings
FDD for Small Teams
There are two main aspects of FDD for small projects:
- Defining the project in features
- Tracking the project by features
FDD Overview for Web Development
The following is a high-level overview of FDD followed in Web Development (India):
- Project Overview
- Organization Purpose
- Project Purpose
- Project Objectives
- Project Scope
- Target Market
- Content
- Information Architecture
- Information Design
- Functionality
- Project Management
- Daily Wraps
- Progress Reports
- Project Website
Conclusion
FDD is good for Web development but does not have the complete answer.
Try a Successful Web Development Methodology