When developing a website, proper planning and preparation is essential to ensure that you have an end product finished and online within your desired timeframe. Taking a shortcut now and again is liable to come back and haunt you somewhere along the line, hence why doing things right the first time is crucial.
Unfortunately, I am subject to an absolute lack of planning on a daily basis, with clients frequently asking for advice on how to turn their ideas into reality. Although I will not claim to be a professional consultant, or anything more than an enthusiastic hobbyist with some years under his belt, even I can see that the vast majority these plans are doomed from the start.
Only recently was I approached by a young entrepreneur who wished to create something of an online community site. Think MySpace, with a touch of YouTube and more additional features than you could shake a stick at. I admire ambition, but the sheer size of this particular project was mind boggling to say the least, and would ultimately require significant planning and funding. However, when asked about a plan, specification, platform and budget, I was greeted with a vacant stare.
Only then did it occur to me that this guy seriously underestimated the extent of the work needed to realise his vision. After a little further discussion, I had to break the news to him that there was practically no way he would be able to develop such a site with his current budget. I can only assume that had he sat down with a pen and paper and worked through what was required, he would have come to the same conclusion as me.
This is just one of the many examples of a distinct lack of planning and research I have come across over the course of my time on the web. Fortunately, this project never got any further than the idea phase, so no money was actually spent attempting the near-impossible. Other developers arent quite so lucky, and may spend 6 months developing a site to discover that their budget has been exceeded and the project is nowhere near complete.
If you have an idea, the first thing to look at is feasibility. Do you have an adequate budget available? Are the relevant resources available for you to create the feature list you want? Are you able to manage the project alone or would you be better served outsourcing the development? Before you even consider putting pen to paper, you should be able to at least have a grip on whether or not the project is possible. If you cant justify it in your own mind, youre going to have a job justifying it in others.
When you come to writing your plan and specification, decide whether or not you really need each and every feature. Be as thorough as possible, as you will be sharing this plan with fellow developers, programmers and graphical designers. If you are wanting a similar feature to another site, include the link in your plan as a reference.
Once you have a good specification and plan together, you can look at costing the project. This will only be a rough indicator, and you should ensure that you have additional funds available should further problems be encountered. Do not forget items such as advertising there is not much use spending a small fortune having a fantastic site developed only to not have funds available to advertise it. Although this may seem a long way off at this stage, the whole point of a plan is to have some idea of what is going on every step of the way and what needs to be done.
Do not underestimate the necessity of planning when it comes to developing a website. Whether it is a small portfolio site, a large e-commerce solution or a multimedia extravaganza, you should approach each project in the same manner. Get into good habits from the off and you will find that projects, no matter how large, run that bit more smoothly. Insist on doing things right the first time to avoid headaches in the future it may cost a little more and delay the launch of your new site, but if it saves two weeks of downtime in 6 months time, surely it makes sense?
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