January 27, 2015
Web Development involves a combination of constant communication with clients and expert knowledge in many distinct fields. This is of course a simplified explanation of a more complicated yet common approach that a lot of agencies employ. There are many variations on the roles required to construct a successful site. The examples below are based on modified roles involved in Agile Methodology.
Agile Methodology is a way to develop software that focuses on delivering critical functionality to the stakeholders in a timely manner. Each delivery cycle, the stakeholders and Product Owner re-evaluate the proposed features to be worked on in the next cycle. This provides flexibility to the stakeholders and enables them to re-prioritize work based on a changing market.
For companies that utilize Agile Methodologies, it is common to have all team members on a project contribute in requirements discussions to ensure a unified vision. They will also commonly work on their portions of a feature at the same time and come together at certain points.
The Project Owner meets with clients and determines their business needs for a project. The Project manager then meets with the team and comes up with estimates. The client collaborates with the Project Owner to determine the Minimum Viable Product. This is communicated with the team and turned into Sprints.
Once Sprint deliverables are decided the various team roles come into play:
Designers create wireframes and mock-ups based on desired functionality from the client. This involves more than just how a site looks. User Experience Design (UX) is also considered to ensure user navigation is as consistent and easy as the functionality allows. It is often necessary to go through several rounds of wireframes and mockups to discover the best workflow for a site.
Frontend Developers take a wireframe or mock-up from the Designers and create a working experience through languages such as HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, Javascript, jQuery, and Angular. The code a Frontend Developer produces is often hard-coded to always do the same thing and to give the impression of a fully working product.
Backend Developers engineer database schemas, create server-side code, and ensure that websites are able to persist data from user interaction. The languages they utilize can include PHP, ASP, C#, C++, and many more. Sometimes Backend Developers also manage deployment systems to move code from a development environment to the production systems.
Once all features of a website have been designed and developed, they are ready for testing. After testing they can be moved to a client staging area. Once the client has signed off on the staging version of the site it can be moved to production and is viewable to everyone.
Creating Websites and Web Applications involves a mixture of specialties and a lot of communication. A strong process is something to look for when shopping for a Web team to create and support your vision. Make sure to ask for an explanation of the development workflow and the times that stakeholder feedback is needed to move forward.
Are there roles that we didn't mention that you think are important when constructing a website? Comment in the section below, email us at [email protected], or tweet us @Perfect_Search!