How do you plan and manage your web application development project?

A great way to control scope is to break up a project in separate engagements. I have often found that having a separate Audit, Definition, Implementation and Launch Support phases will allow for better alignment and lower risk of overruns. Leveraging Agile practices, each engagement has its own goals, scope and corresponding SOW, that is informed by the outcome of the previous engagement.

Start with a clear problem statement. Clearly articulate the problem your web app will solve, as this will help you focus on the right features and avoid unnecessary development. The idea that everything must be defined before coding. While defining goals and scope is essential, agile development allows for flexibility and iterative progress, where not all details need to be decided upfront I’ve seen a successful project where the development team started with a minimum viable product (MVP). They defined a few core features that solved the main problem and gradually expanded the app based on user feedback. This helped them avoid scope creep and align with stakeholders throughout the process.

Before starting any web development project, it's essential to understand the client's requirements. I have seen many junior developers get this thing wrong. They jump right into coding without analyzing the client's needs. A developer must identify the client's pain point and find the right approach to solve it. After you properly understand the client's needs, it's time to define the project scope. You have to be very clear on the goals and outcome of the project before initiating it. This way, you can avoid unnecessary changes and prioritize what you have to build.

The primary goal should be: Develop a web application that meets the specific needs of the target users and stakeholders, ensuring it is user-friendly, reliable, and scalable. Then Secondary Goals: UX: Provide an intuitive and seamless user experience. Performance: Ensure the application is fast and responsive. Security: Implement robust security measures to protect user data and application integrity. Scalability: Design the application to handle growth in users and data.

Plan your web application development by defining clear goals with stakeholders, creating a detailed project plan with tasks, timelines, and dependencies. Assign roles based on team strengths, adopt agile for iterative development and feedback. Use robust project management tools, hold regular meetings to assess milestones, and adjust plans as needed. Test thoroughly before launch, ensuring ongoing maintenance for optimal performance post-deployment.

In the past 10 or so years, tech stacks have been replaced with comprehensive frameworks and platforms as parts of larger ecosystems. For instance, a decoupled Drupal backend + React frontend, leveraging AWS as the CDN for media assets, coupled with a robust DevOps solution.

Choosing the technology stack is also an important part. Now we have our feature sets, development plan, and guidelines. So we need to consider what tech stacks we will use. Normally we will need backend, frontend, and sometimes mobile. My favorite tech stacks for developments - For data-intensive and real-time features, I will use Node stacks like Express, Fastify, or Nest. - Most of the time I will use Laravel for the backend and React or NextJS for the frontend. - And for the mobile, Flutter or React Native will be a good choice. - We can use Laravel for both frontend and backend with the TALL stack since it supports full. - We can use filament for admin panels and sometimes even for the app since it will make development times shorter.

The stack you choose should be stable allowing for backward compatibility when new versions are released. It should also have a reasonably large user community making it easy to get support and debug issues as they come up.

After you have analyzed the requirements, it's time to choose the right tech stack for the project. A small thing to remember here: your client wants to develop a website because it can add value to their business. Don't complex the technology stack just because you want to charge more for the project. You can choose a popular CMS like Wordpress or use MERN Stack or Laravel with Vue.js or XYZ. Your client doesn't care about the tech stack; they came to you in the first place because you are the expert. That's why you have to properly analyze the requirements first and get a clear understanding of what your client wants to build. Then, choose the right tech stack to make the website live in the given timeframe.

If it were a perfect world we could always choose the precise tool to solve the problem. Reality imposes time constraints on learning new technologies that tend to group developers into tech stacks that work well together and there might be some variation but a tendency to stick with what we know. This is why the book Pragmatic Programmer recommends learning a new language/technology every year...to prevent RUTS That said, I think AWS and similar cloud ecosystems are going to prove to be the more robust development "stacks" for compatibility, scalability, security and performance.

Similarly, most platforms are already architected to utilize object oriented programming (OOP). So, while it is a good idea, as a developer to get a grasp of how your platform of choice is sewn together in terms of MVC, it is often less necessary to re-invent the wheel, and rather defer to using established patterns withing the existing platform's architecture.

When planning the web architecture, you should consider?a few things, like how many people will visit the website and how to make sure that the load is balanced during peak times or sales periods. Then, you need to decide if you want to use monolithic?architecture for the project or if you want to implement?microservices?for some parts of the web app. After that comes the hard part of?deciding?which database system to use. You can use an SQL database like MySQL or PostgreSQL, or you can go for a?no-SQL database like MongoDB. Your web architecture solely depends on the project requirements and your client's needs. However, it's essential that you design the proper architecture before you start coding the website.

Designing your web app architecture involves creating a blueprint for how different components interact. You might use MVC or microservices patterns. The step helps organize code improve maintainability and enhance reliability.

Most of the time we applied OOP for developing the web apps, I think we can use an MVC pattern for the backend and MVVM or other clean architectures for the frontends and mobiles. We also need to consider testing. Do we use manual testing or automatic testing?

Actually, I disagree with the idea that designing web app architecture is just about improving maintainability and enhancing reliability. It's also crucial for ensuring that when things inevitably go wrong, the problem can be isolated quickly without causing a total system meltdown.

Automate where possible!. In my experience automated testing would save you a ton of work and time. Also ensure tests data is as close to production as “permissible” because failure to do this can lead to very bad outcomes in production.

Now comes the part I love the most: writing code and developing the web app. Developers need to keep scale in mind during the development phase. At the start of your project, you should follow appropriate?design patterns, write clean code, and set up automated testing. If you don't, you will definitely suffer later on when bugs appear everywhere in your code, and you don't know what you did wrong. It's essential to follow design patterns, make your code easy to read (so another dev can understand), give your functions meaningful?names, comment on your code effectively, and use an automated CI/CD pipeline for hassle-free development.

In the development times, we can apply the coding standards of the library or frameworks we use. We can also apply community conventions for better collaborations and maintenance. Also, we need to write the codes with best practices that are accepted by the community.

Based on the scope and architecture of your project & also the tech stack, firstly define the project structure of the application, Then start off with developing the frontend views and pages, this will make it easier to understand where, what & how the data will be displayed, that in turn will help you write your APIs and backend files. This process helps me to streamline my dev process. Now for the testing part, automation tests are a helpful and easy way to make your application bug-free. I've worked on automation myself and trust me it is very easy and effective to automate your tests. Saves time and helps you pinpoint where the big has occured. Overall dev+testflow=>frontend=>APIs+backend=>automation tests=>cleanup & other stuff.

Developing and testing your web app involves several key steps: 1. Development: Write clean, modular code following best practices. Use version control systems like Git to manage changes and collaborate with your team. 2. Unit Testing: Test individual components to ensure they work as expected. Use frameworks like Jest or Mocha. 3. Integration Testing: Verify that different modules work together seamlessly. 4. User Testing: Conduct usability testing to gather feedback from real users. 5. Performance Testing: Assess the app's performance under various conditions. 6. Bug Fixing: Identify and fix any issues before deployment.

Deploying and monitoring your web app involves several crucial steps: 1. Deployment: Choose a reliable hosting service like AWS, Azure, or Heroku. Set up your server environment and deploy your code using CI/CD pipelines for automated deployment. 2. Monitoring: Implement monitoring tools like New Relic, Datadog, or Prometheus to track performance, uptime, and errors. 3. Logging: Set up logging to capture and analyze application logs for troubleshooting. 4. Alerts: Configure alerts to notify you of any issues in real-time. 5. Regular Updates: Continuously update your app to fix bugs and add new features.

This is where partnering with a good hosting provider is key. Your solution should include support for multiple environments, deploymemt triggers, load balancing and monitoring as a service. Point being that it is usually not as efficient to fully staff and manage your own servers.

The operations team often handles the deployment part, but as a web developer, you must know how to deploy your web app to a server. This can be a shared hosting, a VPS, or a cloud service like AWS, Azure, or Digital Ocean. A moderate understanding of the Linux system and some bash scripting knowledge is now essential. When deploying, remember to pick a server closer to your user base. For instance, you live in the US, but most of your users are from Australia. Now, if you pick a server in the US, your users will have to deal with a lot of latency and slow loading speed, which can often be a bad experience. So, the best thing to do for optimal speed might be to choose a data center close to your users.

Be sure to automate your deployment process as much as possible. It's critical to make deployment a natural part of the software development lifecycle, and it will help to minimize the possibility of human error. We recommend taking the time at the beginning of a project to realize a continuous deployment paradigm.

Deploy your web app using a suitable hosting service or cloud platform ensuring security performance and availability. Configure encryption caching load balancing and backup. Continuously minor metrics like traffic error response time and logs to identify and fix issues promptly.

Publishing your web app to the internet doesn't mean the end of the development lifecycle. Maintaining is very important for ensuring a seamless user experience. That's why it's essential to monitor website health regularly and encourage users to give feedback about new features and continuously apply security patches. Integrating your web app into an analytics service such as Google Analytics is essential if you want to gain some insights into user actions, and you can analyze this data and provide regular updates to your web app. As technology is moving faster, you have to remember that your application will become obsolete without proper updates and bug fixes. So you have to focus on this area as well.

Plan your web project: Set objectives, gather requirements, form a skilled team, establish a realistic timeline, choose the right tech stack, create wireframes, break tasks, use version control, conduct regular meetings, define a testing strategy, document code, address scalability and security, deploy with a rollback plan, provide user training, implement monitoring tools, involve clients, prioritise code quality, track expenses, and plan post-launch support

Building a web app from scratch can be stressful, but if you plan it right, it can be worth it. You need to thoroughly analyze the requirements, figure out where the problems are, and then take the right action based on that. Keep in mind that you should always communicate clearly with your clients at every step of the development process. Do not keep them guessing. In case you're having trouble understanding some of the requirements, you can just ask them what they want to achieve with these features and then take action. Communication is one of the most important parts of completing a project on time and on budget.

Effective web application development depends on meticulous planning and streamlined management. Set clear project goals, do thorough market research, and create detailed user profiles. Develop a user-centric interface that aligns with the business's aims and objectives. Develop a comprehensive project plan that integrates agile methodologies to improve adaptability. Highlight the importance of clear and open communication, meticulous version control, and comprehensive testing at each phase of the development process. By adhering to these guidelines, you can proficiently deliver web applications of exceptional quality.

We need to understand that developing a web application is a process and the web app will take it's shape and have its own downfalls (bugs/errors) but the thing is to resolve those errors and continue the process. Best wishes.