At Blind Acre Media, we have been putting a lot of thought and time into our methodology for developing web applications.  Each project lends some form of revelation regarding how we can improve the planning and development processes.  While each of these 5 steps can be talked about in its own blog post, we have found (especially in a client/contractor relationship) that these 5 steps of the development process are the most critical.  If you’re blessed with smart developers then the brunt of the mistakes will fall within the project planning.  That’s why these steps are critical for a successful web development project.

1.) Create a Clear and Convincing Business Case:
Before starting your next development project make sure you do a thorough analysis of what business problem your new technology will be solving.  Get the ideas out to real customers to gauge their feedback prior to starting development.  Proper planning will allow you to set priorities once you start writing code.

2.) Create an Approval Process For Deliverables:
By establishing a consistent approval process for all proposed work (wireframes, user stories, and other functional requirements), you will save a vast amount of time and frustration.  You wont find yourself rolling huge iterations back because something was not considered in the planning process.

3.) Properly Define Scope Objectives:
You will also benefit from clear definition of scope and objectives, even though details are allowed to emerge throughout the development process.

4.) Create Realistic and Aggressive Expectations:
If the relationship between the web project owner and the web developer is a client/contractor relationship, both sides have to come to an agreement on budget and time constraints.  While it’s hard to avoid long nights at the end of any enterprise development project, it is possible to improve your ability to hedge against large setbacks.  Encourage short and regular iterations, developing the software and delivering a working product in small chunks.

5.) Establish an Accountability Plan and Product Owners:
Each project will most likely have several key product owners that need to be in place as key stake holders in the project from the client’s side.  This accountability team will act as Subject Matter Experts, lending their opinions and knowledge in the planning and building phases to ensure that all of the business dependencies have been thought through.  In most cases these key stake holders will also be in charge of signing off and approving on the deliverable scope items.  Their active participation in the project is vital.

Even with these 5 steps in place, it’s still possible to have mistakes along the way.  A common way of how things can still get off track is that there is not enough collaboration between project owner and the development team.  Even when you have an accountability plan in place, key stakeholders may be a reason for confusion and mistakes within a project.  One of the reasons product owners are unclear in traditional projects is because they are asked, often times too early into the project, for far more details than they can handle which results in them not being able to visualize an adequate solution.  You can help alleviate this by encouraging ideas from key stake holders.  Discussing each deliverable in depth will feel redundant but can uncover critical oversights sooner rather than later.

As you implement these 5 steps you will be able to continually refine your processes, and the efficiency within each project will continue to increase.