Phases for Any Project

1. Business Goals
   At the very beginning of the project, the business manager needs to define the business goal or goals of the project which all of the other work will support. This can be as simple as a mission statement, or as detailed as a business plan with accompanying financial plan.
   
   
2. Discovery / Information Architecture
   After the business goals are defined, the project implementation needs to be planned and documented, either by the whole team or by information architects. Documents should be reviewed by all team members. Documents include:
   
   A. Project goals
   B. Site map
   C. Feature list
   D. Database schema/object schema
   E. Technical specifications
   
   
3. Design
   The designers should create a number of concepts for the business manager to review, with one or more rounds of revision. Concepts should be reviewed by the developer for technical suggestions. Once the business manager selects a final concept, the designer will produce graphical assets to hand over to the developer.
   
   
4. Development
   The developers need to implement the project according to the documents produced in the Information Architecture stage and to the approved design concept.
   
   
5. Quality Assurance
   The work of the designer and developer should be thoroughly tested for scalability, user acceptance, and adherence to specifications. Load testing should be performed at this stage.
   
   
6. Maintenance
   All projects need continued maintenance to accommodate changing business needs and to correct any issues which use by customers will inevitably reveal.

 Return to Resources