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9-2 Chapter 9 Website Development Process McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

9-3 Chapter 9: Website Development Process Questions answered in this chapter: –What are the steps involved in building a website? –How is the user experience definition created? –What is the architecture design process? –What is the implementation process? –What is involved in the test process? –What factors are involved in launching a website?

9-4 Website Development Process The goal of website development is to present functionality and content through some type of visual interface.

9-5 Three External Forces That Shape This Goal: Time: –What is the deadline for this project? –Is the deadline flexible or nonnegotiable? –Can the site be phased in over time, or do all of the desired features have to be built immediately? Budget: –How much money has been allocated to the project, and how was that number derived? –Is there enough in the budget to hire additional staff if the deadline is too tight? –Can the project be outsourced in part or entirety? Resources: –Does the organization have the right mix of skills internally to deliver the project as specified? –Does it have enough of each type of skill given the timetable that has been laid out? –Are these resources available, or could the resources needed be pulled off another project—and what is the relative importance of this project to the organization versus the other project?

9-6 Exhibit 9-1: Process for Building a Website Strategy Formulation User Experience Definition Architecture Design Process Implementation Test/Fix Launch

9-7 Process for Building a Website from Scratch Important aspects that need to be known or in place: –A well defined set of business objectives for the site –Executive support –A general definition of the audience segments –A clearly articulated project plan –A succinct definition and description of the relevant branding systems –A competitive analysis for the industry and the product/service offered by the site –a budget –development resources –a steering committee of senior stakeholders and executives

9-8 Process for Building a Site from Scratch (cont’d) User Experience: refers to how a user perceives and interprets the website Functional Specification: provides a highly detailed guide to what every page on the website does Change-management Process: a framework for identifying problems within the project (e.g., software bugs or a change in site requirements), prioritizing these problems, assigning the task of resolving these problems, and tracking the progress of the tasks until all problems are resolved Project Plan: Lays out the checkpoints, milestones, and resources that are expected to be required to move the project forward to completion

9-9 Process for Building a Site from Scratch (cont’d) Discipline Areas key to successful site development include: –Business Strategy –Functional/subject-matter expertise –Information architecture –Content development/writing –Visual design –Interface design –Technical architecture –Database administration –Data modeling –Technical development –Quality assurance team lead –Quality assurance testing

9-10 Exhibit 9-2: Project Plan

9-11 User Experience Identification By developing the online offering through: –Identifying the scope of the offering –Identifying the customer decision process –Mapping the offering to this decision process The following can be defined: User types: The discrete types of users who will use the site User intentions: What tasks users want to accomplish when they visit the site User personas: Fictitious, archetypal examples of real users that allow the development team to focus on the collective core needs of the users within a group Use case: Describes how a user and a system interact to accomplish a specific goal, typically a step-by-step guide describing all the actions that the user takes, and what the system does in return

9-12 Exhibit 9-3: User Profile Personal Profile Age: 20 Education: 4 years of high school Car: Saturn SC1 Shops at: Old Navy, Starbucks, Abercrombie and Fitch, Gap, Newbury Comics, Tower Records Occupation Job: Full-Time Student Company Size N/A Company Industry: N/A Typical Task on Acme.com: Product Research and Purchase Familiarity with Acme: Somewhat familiar: Cindy has seen Acme's adds, and a few of her friends have computers from Acme. Usage Scenario Description: Cindy needs a computer, but is uncertain as to what her options are—she is a bit afraid of the whole process, to be honest. Her parents have agreed to buy her a computer, but have told her that she needs to do the research. Reason for choosing to work with Acme: Recommendations from her friends, cool-looking computers, good price, and Acme appears to be an easy, no-pressure company to buy from—a company that will take care of her. Desired Experience: Cindy wants to be able to research her computer options, understand the pros and cons, and buy a computer. But, she wants to buy a computer that is at least as cool as her friends‘ computers, so she would like to be able to make a case to her parents for a slightly better computer than what she might actually need. When she decides what to buy, she would like to understand the financing options available to her. Key Points: User Profile: Cindy the College Student

9-13 Exhibit 9-4: Intentions Matrix

9-14 Exhibit 9-5: Functional Matrix vs. Functional Specification Functional Matrix Purpose: –Define project scope, used to build project plan –Communication with executives, project team, any external contractors –Track enhancements as they are discovered during development –Plan future release functionality—by priority

9-15 Exhibit 9-5: Functional Matrix vs. Functional Specification (cont’d) Functional Specification Purpose: –Provide detailed design of system processes and pages –Provide details of the life cycle of different objects (search, payments, etc.) –Defines the details of each page (list of fields on a page, their validation requirements, their data sources) –Defines all actions on each page (save shopping cart, send , update account, checkout)

9-16 Architecture Design Process At this point the team needs to generate the next set of important documents: The Site Map: –Typically a hierarchical view of the proposed website and encompasses all the primary pages, or templates, to be developed. –Allows the development team to logically group content into content areas and to understand how different content types relate and link to one another –The challenge is to develop a navigation system that is meaningful to the user and also fits within the visual design of the site Page Schematics: –Simple drawings or diagrams that serve as a conceptual layout for what each page on the site will look like –The schematic provides the team with a way to brainstorm how and where certain functionality and content will appear on a particular page

9-17 Exhibit 9-6: Sample Site Map

9-18 Exhibit 9-7: Page Schematic

9-19 Technical Discovery The technology vision is strongly informed and structured by many elements, including the following: –The business objectives for the site –User persona –Existing technology –Internal skill set –User intentions –Time and budget –Traffic –Uptime requirements –Security requirements

9-20 Technology Discovery (cont’d) The technology summary document should detail the following: –Existing corporate systems, including relevant back-end systems and databases –How the proposed site differs from those of the company’s competitors –Conceptual technical architecture to support the site –An analysis of and recommendations for the software components to be used during the development process

9-21 Experience Definition and Architecture Design Outputs At this point, the development team should be able to create the following outputs: –User experience and functional definition document –User type definition document –User intentions definition document –User persona definition document –Functionality matrix –Content matrix –Use cases –Site map –Page schematics

9-22Implementation Validation –Finalize the visual design of the site –Create a functioning prototype

9-23 Implementation (cont’d) Build Phase The building process boils down to some very simple steps: –Design the technical infrastructure –Design the technical components so that they will be both flexible and extensible –Build the components (both visual and functional) that will make up the website –Integrate those components so that they work together as expected –Test those components, both individually and after they have been integrated –Refine the system and components based on these tests –Launch the website

9-24 Implementation (cont’d) Development Environment Deciding which language should be used is guided by a number of factors: –Available skills –Portability –Scalability/enterprise features –Cost

9-25 Implementation (cont’d) Page Design Unique pages: are pages that have a design that is different from any other page on the site Template pages: the design and layout of these pages are repeated more than once, usually on a section of the site that has multiple pages of similar content (e.g., press releases)

9-26 Implementation (cont’d) Interface Development The choice of which technologies to implement within an interface is difficult because not all pages require the same set of functionality or deliver the same type of information The success of an interface is determined by whether its users are successful in getting the information they need and understanding the information that is presented to them

9-27 Implementation (cont’d) Application Development The application development is shaped by the functionality matrix and the functional specification The team creates modules that meet all the capabilities the website needs to have

9-28Test/Fix Steps in the testing process: Unit testing Integration testing Systems testing Load testing

9-29 Exhibit 9-8: Number of Bugs Over Testing Days

9-30Launch Basic issues that need to be solved before launching a site: A hosting facility/ISP must be selected The servers must be built and tested The connectivity of the site must be tested The security of the overall system must be audited