Table of Contents

• Agenda
• Understanding the client’s requirements
• Design and Mockups
• Considering the possibilities of hiring skilled developers
• Deciding which technology to leverage in frontend as well as backend stack
  • Frontend Technology Stack
    • Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
    • Javascript Technology Stack
  • Backend Technology Stack
  • Database Technology Stack
  • Web Servers
• Testing
• Deployment
• Maintenance
• Key Takeaways
• Conclusion

Agenda

Developing an enterprise web application is no easy task. It requires a lot of effort, time, skill and patience. And theirs also responsibility to keep the application running and solve major security loopholes. Web Technology fields keep on evolving every time with some new to learn.
In this post, we’ll guide you step-by-step in developing web applications and also software requirements which will help you to get started quickly.

Understanding the client’s requirement

Before you can start designing and coding we must follow a certain process. But in this process understanding the client’s requirement in a very important step.
This single step will eliminate other unnecessary issues in miscommunication and misinformation between software company and client.
This step provides many advantages some of them are mentioned below.

• It helps in bringing clients into confidence that developers and designers have understood what the client is asking for.
• Companies can also decide on costing and development time.
• Companies technical team can consider which technology stack will be feasible and optimal with respect to development time and maintenance.
• Companies can also how much priority they need to provide on the project.

Design and Mockups

Photo by Alvaro Reyes Unsplash.
After technical got a full grasp of what clients needs then the next step is to proceed in developing a static design and wireframe model of the application.
This consists of all the details taken from the client during the second stage. Using all this information UI/UX designer create a mockup model and then
presents it to higher management to take the appropriate decision.

The process of designing and mockups goes as below.

• Firstly, a wireframe design is developed and based on client requirement revision takes place.
  The wireframe is a sketch drawing showing a graphical representation of multiple design elements.
  Most commonly wireframe designs are in black and white colour, other colourful wireframes are also available.
• After this design is approved it goes to the next stage that is designing a mockup of application. Which is a rich colourful representation of application showing how elements look in real life.

Considering the possibilities of hiring skilled developers

Photo by Headway Unsplash.

After all the mockup designs get approved a development company must now take a step in setting up a dedicated team which works on those projects.
Here companies can have other information such as hiring skilled developers from inside or from an outside company or else hire some credible third party team of developer who has all the required skills and experience to develop such applications.

Deciding which technology to leverage in frontend as well as backend stack

If you are building a web application than as a team lead you must strictly consider the technology stack to be used.
While building a website or web application they are two key technology stack which can be sub-divided into frontend technologies and
backend technologies.

Frontend Technology Stack

Photo by  Daniel Korpai Unsplash.
Frontend stack is also called as Client-Side Programming which involves in the view displayed to the user’s browser. In web developments, there is much different technology stack you can use for developing frontend of your web application.
We will go through all the client-side technologies one at a time.

Hyper-Text Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Both HTML and CSS are used in the browser that is client-side which are used to render website pages. HTML is considered as main/fundamental structure for creating a webpage which allows us to create form controls, display paragraph, headings and images also play videos etc.
And CSS which is a used to change HTML attributes such as size, colour, background-colour and many more. It is a stylesheet language for the web.

Till now the latest version of HTML is HTML 5 and for CSS is CSS3 which is its latest version.

Javascript Technology Stack

Javascript can be considered as omnipresent programming language considering its application in various parts of software development.
It is used for building a modern website, web application, desktop application, native mobile apps and data science etc.
This programming language has quickly developed into very prominent language.

For building a web application javascript provides libraries and frameworks to work with which make developing and deploying web application easier.
Some of these technologies are explained below.

Jquery

Jquery library makes working and manipulating HTML document very easy and simple. This is the most commonly used javascript library for web development.
This library is also comes equipped with event handling, animating and API which sends and receive data from the server. To use this library goto Jquery.com
In downloads menu, you will find all the information to install jquery click here to goto jquery download page.

React Js

Another library that is trending is the React js library. which is used for single based application and make complex dynamic web development tasks very simple and easier.
Changes in HTML DOM (Document Object Model) structure is very easy and using these feature developers can create beautiful and interactive UI designs. React js works on a component-based logic concept where each element itself is a component and each component has its own state which is reflected in DOM when its data is changed or modified. To start creating web apps using react js click here.

Other than these are other frameworks such as Angular JS, Ember JS etc are some of them.

Backend Technology Stack

The Backend stack are those technologies which power or provide support to client-side languages these are also called as server-side programming languages and in field of web development there are plenty of server-side programming languages to work with and we’ll also provide a list of all those prominent programming languages with companies who use these.
This server-side application provides logical, validation support. They also have capabilities to access database and send information requested by the client.

The developer will face challenges in considering which of the server-side programming language is best for them. We have mentioned some of the top contenders of this field.

• Python (Django, Flask used by companies link Rackspace, Pylons)
• Ruby (Ruby on Rails)
• PHP (Laravel, Zend, Codeigniter)
• Java (Spring)
• Javascript Node JS (Express JS)

Note: The above technology stack information is taken from Stack-Share website.

Database Technology Stack

Every web application needs a database to safely store data into the database. On every request by the client, the server accesses the database and retrieves as per the query given. The information is then processed and returned to the requested client.
There are fast and scalable databases available. Databases are divided into two types they are Relational Databases and Non-Relational Databases.

Relational Databases

• MySQL
• MSSQL
• PostgreSQL

Non-Relational Databases

• MongoDB
• Cassandra
• Redis

Web Servers

These web servers play a prominent role in sending requested page safely to the client. These servers send web page requested by the client which is then rendered into the browser.
Some of the common web servers are :

• Apache
• Nginx
• IIS
• Gunicorn

Testing

Photo by freestocks Unsplash.
After the development of application comes to a certain stage all its features and capabilities are to be tested before hosting it on the server. There are different testing libraries available for both client and server-side programming languages.
Team of developers need to address the many different challenges in real-life such as compatibility across the different size of devices, making the sure application can handle huge traffic very gracefully, also prepare for worst-case where the application may break down and developer must handle it, data entered by users must be validated and special characters must be filtered and sanitized.

The most commonly used testing libraries are mentioned below.

• Python Django framework has its own built-in testing library
• PHP has PHPUnit, Codeception etc
• Java has JUnit, Selenium etc
• Ruby has test-unit

Deployment

During the deployment stage, there will be two applications one will be for production use that is the application used by customers and other development use which is used by developers to test and upgrade new features.
Have two different application provides benefits for developers to test without taking the main application down. These two different applications can be deployed in single and two different hosts this decision is taken by the company has there is a price for hosting application which is of commercial purpose. But if you are a developer and want to test new technologies than you can go for free hosting services which provide limited features.

Some of the top hosting platforms are Amazon, Google Cloud, Godaddy, Hostinger, Heroku.

Maintenance

Maintainance stage in a regular and periodic task which developers perform tests and making sure that the website is up to date and works perfectly. Any errors which are not identified in development and testing stage are traced and bug fixing is also done.
The maintenance of application depends on how large and heavy is the application, whats are its issue which is regularly faced by many customers. Some complaints and tickets raised by the customer will also be address and their issue will be resolved.

Key Takeaways

• Client requirement is very important this will reduce unnecessary issues in miscommunication and misinformation between software company and client.
• Wireframe design and mockups are very helpful as they give look and feel of the application to developer and clients. It is like viewing project development from a different perspective.
• Determining the technology stack is the responsibility of senior developers.
• Before considering technology stack all its pros and cons are considered.
• Testing stage reduces and catches any new bugs and error in the application. Which leads to better reliability and efficiency.
• Deployment of application is done when the development has reached its target and new field or real-time trails are to be done.
• Maintainance stage promotes applications reliability and when done in a regular and periodic task which developers perform tests and making sure that the website is up to date and works perfectly.

Conclusion

Hey, this was the end of the post on topic Web Development process and software requirements. Companies and their team of developers work very hard to bring better and reliable solutions to clients problems.
If you like our post then share and if you would like to request new topic comment below.

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