How do you plan your development projects?

I generally start on paper since it is the fastest and most flexible way for me to get ideas down. Also I like to do it away from my desk where there are less distractions. Every one in a while I get a more challenging project and transferring the diagrams and notes from paper to the digital realm can sometimes be a challenge.

Back when I worked in a group office we had a huge whiteboard that we used that was great since it was big and always visible. That was a long time ago.

I was wondering if there is any software that could help with planing development of applications? Stuff like designing a data flow. Does anyone use anything like this?

In my work I’ve been lucky enougth not to have to worry about this as I just get given the end design and told what to build it in ( IE: Shop, Modx CMS etc ).

This changed recently when I started a project of my own which will see a network of sites indexing business across the country.

I first started with the idea ( this came to me sat in the Pub lol ), I had a little think about it and how I would approch it then started to build the site ( design and aded to modx ). I soon realised that this approch wasn’t going to work because I was thinking of new features every day and trying to add them, then the site just became too crowded and the design started to suffer.

This has now put me back about 3 months, plus all the time wasted building the sites etc.

I have now scrapped everything I did and have approched it again, with what I hope will end with a great result:

1: I sat down one night with a pad and pen whils watching TV and just made a not of every feature I want to have on the sites.
2: I then thought about what competing sites have and how I can improve on these features, adding more useability and new features.
3: I then crossed referanced everything and removed features that I felt brought nothing to the site.
4: I found about 10 sites that I like and documented every aspect of what I liked and the reasons why.
5: I then crossed referanced these with the features I wanted and removed everything that wouldn’t work (IE: theres no reason to have a fancy top navigation if the sub nav’s are going to be shown on the parent page.).
6: all this info has now gone off to the designer, and hopefully I will have the finished design by the end of Febuary after it’s been bated back and forth.
7: once I have the completed design It will be built in modx.
8: Next is for the test site to go live for the selected few to go through a "beta" period, where the users will document on userbility and the flow of the site etc.
9: once this period is over I will review what they have said and inplament what I think is relevent.
10: this will then result in another few days testing and hopefully result in the final goahead to go live.
11: After everything the Sites will be built and rolled out at a rate of 1 a month for about 2 years.
12: During the 2 years of rollouts I will be using some of my time for marketing the sites and managing the clients pages, invoicing etc.
13: (OHHHH thats a unlucky number to have this in) After 2 years I hope to be in a position to finish my full time job and just work on my own sites.

paulp: thanks for sharing your method. Looks like a good plan with a down to earth time frame. Did you do it all on paper or did you somehow diagram in in the computer?

I think that a tool like Visio could be helpful with planing a application development. I can’t afford Visio since I would only use it from time to time and it doesn’t run on mac.

This looks to be an interesting thread.

Generally I am very much a visual person and the fist thing I do is work out how the site will look. This can involve a quick sketch but creating a Photoshop file with many layers is the main method I use.

I then carve up the site into separate graphics and dump those into a folder.
I then create the overall markup with XHTML. I make sure to use a Strict doctype and make sure the code validates.
I then use the markup and the images folder to build the CSS.
If its a static site I am done.
If its a dynamic site I now use MODx and use the markup to build my own template. Getting the various MODx pieces to function the way I want to has been the challenge but I am getting much more used to it now.

But even if the site will have fancy javascript of specific navigation or dynamic functionality I still focus on the design and how the whole things looks overall. Photoshop is still my dominant go to tool...

Max

PS: I may have strayed away from the "development" aspect to the original question here, but this is pretty much how I approach any site project...

Did you do it all on paper or did you somehow diagram in in the computer?

First time was just by building it and seeing how it developed but that didn’t work.

This time all the notes ect were just put on to paper as I thought of them, then I put everything I had onto a word document and sent it to my designer, who, thankfully has a good knowledge of Modx, so I know the design I get back will actually be acheavable.

The one area I lack is the design site, I just cant put the colors together,get the layout right ect, so I think in future personal Projects I’ll be using the same system, and probabley implament a few more stages from this thread.

Yes, very timely and interesting topic.

I’ve been thinking about my end to end development process on recent projects. Of course it gets revised each time, but I’m settling in on this as an approach I’m striving to follow. Depending on the size and complexity of the project more or less time and formality will be spent on each item. However, particularly in the planning activities, I try to document and review with the client the answers to the topics to ensure agreement & understanding on my part as well as the client. I also make a task list and track my time for each one.

Design / Development Process

High level discussion

• What is the client’s business/industry?
  Who are their competitors?
  What does the client want for their site?
  What are their initial ideas for what the site should do and how it should look?
  Identify other sites they like or dislike or have features they want

Identify or define goals

• What is the primary goal of the site? (sell product, increase subscribers, provide information, etc.)
  How does it fit into the business/organization (point of client interaction, reference, sales mechanism)
  What are the goals of the site visitors? (buy product, get information, share information)
  How will these goals be measured? (page visits, # new clients, increased sales)
  Who are site visitors / target audience (demographics, interests, skills, etc.)
  How do site visitors find the site? (searches, referrals)
  Who are site content owners/editors.
  What are skills and goals of site owners/editors
  Prioritize all identified goals

Identify functional requirements

• What functions are required to meet client business goals
  What functions are required to meet site visitor goals
  Email forms, shopping cart, blog, maps, photos, slideshows, event / news, etc.
  Translate functional requirements into technical requirements (snippets, chunks, plugins, modules, e.g. three ditto calls, two maxigallery, direct resize, treasure chest module, manager manager, number of templates, required TVs, etc. editor requirements/access)
  Identify host environment
  Define preliminary site layout (e.g. one, two or three columns, sidebars, footers, etc)
  Document and map functional requirements back to business goals, site goals and visitor goals, check for gaps or unnecessary requirements
  Develop plan/approach to measure site/client/visitor goals

Define content plan

• Develop list of all types of content (existing and to be developed, source of data, frequency of change, etc.)
  Organize content
  Develop initial site map
  Identify owners of content (existing or tdb)
  Develop approach or plan to develop new content
  Document and map content back to business goals, site goals and visitor goals, check for gaps or unnecessary content

[b]Develop visual design

• Develop preliminary sketches/mockups based on client input and examples
  Review with client and revise
  Review for usability against client and editor demographics as well as business/sitevisitor/editor goals
  Specify specific colors, fonts, graphic elements, etc.
  Finalize design and page specific differences
  Develop preliminary design mockup in html and CSS
  Review revise
  Obtain client approval

MODx development

• Install MODx in local server (wamp)
  Install specified snippets, plugins, etc.
  Create MODx templates, snippet calls and TVs
  Build out sample pages according to content plan and technical requirements
  Review for usability against client and editor demographics as well as business/sitevisitor/editor goals
  Test & validate
  When initial page builds are complete, review with client for feedback and changes
  Add client content on selected pages per the content plan
  Test & validate
  Finalize technical & visual build
  Develop user guide
  Provide initial orientation to content editors

Move to sever

• Move site to server
  Assist content editors to begin loading their existing and new content
  Monitor & advise
  Review for usability against client and editor demographics as well as business/sitevisitor/editor goals
  Final test & content proof

Close out

• Review overall process & experience with client

Thought people might find this tool useful: http://www.xmind.net/

It’s a good diagramming & brainstorming tool that can be used for developing ideas and diagramming workflows/ sites/ concepts etc...

Try Oversite http://taubler.com/oversite/

After brainstorming and sketching on paper, you can do the wireframes, basic sitemap and the path flow
on this little program... and you can also export in some formats to send it / show it to your clients....
I like it a lot!

Oversite looks cool, but I was not able to download xMind for some reason. I will try again later.

@ dev_cw:

You can download XMind from Sourceforge.
For some reason the links in the XMind site are not working.