We are going to review the processes of building and maintaining websites from a project-management point of view.

Firstly, we need a project manager. If there’s no one qualified for the job, pick the most experienced person in the team, or, if it’s a solo show, you will be the project manager and the web programmer. However, I will try to explain how a professional team works on the project.

The Customer is the one who establishes the requirements. Actually, requirements is not the appropriate word to use here because it simply represents the customer’s desires. Most customers have no idea about the process or technologies in building a website, so they can only express their desires or their needs. This is done at first in a friendly conversation with the project manager who will give an approximate final price.

Analysts are the next to talk to the customer. They will discuss customer needs in more detail in order to express the requirements in a more appropriate way. They also try to establish the structure of the content so they can build a database. The analysts’ job is concluded after they come up with a document with the functionality of the site and the database tables and relations.

The Project Manager establishes timelines and prices for the project, and then signs a contract with the customer if he or she agrees with the analysis, the timelines, and the budget. He or she will assign functionalities to programmers and pick a designer.

The Designer creates a few layouts and shows them to the customer. He or she will agree with the customer on the website design.

Meanwhile, the Programmers start coding the parts of the application they are assigned. They work with the designer to establish the variables’ names.

When the site is ready, the customer tests the functionality according to the analysis. This is usually done on a testing platform. The project manager then must propose a hosting solution. If it’s an in-house hosting solution he or she must assign a System Administrator to handle the installation, the security of the system, and remote tools for programmers and designers.

The website must contain tools for content administration. This way, the customer will manage the content of the site him- or herself so there will be no further need for the programmers or designers on this project, unless the customer decides he or she wants changes in business logic or in presentation.

Website maintenance will be the system administrator’s responsibility.