The 6-Step Web Development Process at MVST
Web development is a complex and dynamic field that requires careful planning and execution to create high-quality and user-friendly websites. A well-defined website creation is essential for successful projects as it helps ensure that the project is completed on time, within budget, and meets the expectations of all stakeholders.
Having a process in place allows for a clear understanding of the project's goals, responsibilities, and timelines. It provides a roadmap for the development team to follow and ensures that all tasks are completed in the correct order and that there is consistent communication between all stakeholders. This helps minimize confusion, delays, and errors and helps ensure that the final product meets the standards set forth at the start of the project.
Additionally, a process allows for consistent documentation and record-keeping, making it easier to review progress and make changes as needed. It also helps to ensure that best practices are followed, resulting in a more user-friendly and accessible website.
In conclusion, a well-defined web development process is a critical aspect of successful projects. As a design-driven software development studio, we want to show you what that looks like at MVST. This is our 6-step guide for MVSTs web development process! Take a look at how our Design Team, Developers, Product Managers and Marketing Team work together.
Step 1: Product Definition
Product Definition is an important step in the web development project, where product management plays a crucial role. This phase involves a deep understanding of the client's vision and ideas for the project, as well as their needs and goals.
To start, MVSTs project management conduct a workshop with the client. This is a collaborative session where the team listens to the client's needs and provides feedback on how best to meet those needs within the constraints of the project.
Information gathering between the product managers and the client is key, and Slack is an effective tool for this. Slack allows for real-time communication and collaboration, making it easier for the team to stay informed and up-to-date on the client's needs and expectations.
To ensure that all ideas, visions, plans, and next steps are recorded and organized, our product management team uses Notion. Notion is a powerful organizational tool that allows the team to keep all project information in one place, making it easy to access and review at any time. This helps to ensure that all parties are on the same page and that nothing is forgotten or overlooked.
In conclusion, product definition requires collaboration between MVSTs product managers and the client. The use of workshops, Slack, and Notion helps to ensure that the client's vision and needs are understood and that all ideas, plans, and next steps are recorded and organized for future reference.
Step 2: Product Architecture and User Flows
In this stage, product managers at MVST focus on creating a solid foundation for the project by establishing the product architecture and defining user flows.
To start, the team creates first wireframes and an information architecture in Figma, which is MVSTs favorite design tool that allows the team to visualize the user experience and layout of the web application. The wireframes help to provide a clear understanding of the structure of the website and the relationships between different pages and elements.
Next, the product managers decide on the roadmap and milestones for the project. This involves setting clear goals and deadlines for each phase of the project and determining the tasks required to reach those milestones. The roadmap helps to ensure that the project stays on track and that all stakeholders are aware of the progress and status.
To track and manage the project, the product management team uses Jira, which is an app that allows teams to track issues, manage projects, and automate workflows. Jira helps to ensure that all tasks are completed on time and that the team is aware of any issues that need to be addressed.
MVST uses Notion, Jira, and Slack to communicate and collaborate with all stakeholders. Notion is used to organize and record all project information, Jira is used to track and manage the project, and Slack is used for real-time communication. By using these tools, the product management team can ensure that all parties are informed and up-to-date on the project status and that any issues are quickly resolved.
Step 3: Product Design
This is the step where the product design team works to create a visually appealing and user-friendly website design.
Weekly meetings with the client are held to showcase the design and receive feedback via Figma. This allows our product managers to stay in close communication with the client and ensure that the design is on track to meet their expectations.
MVST is a design-driven software development studio. And since design is such a leading part in our projects we put our hearts and souls into the web design step.
The process includes the following steps:
1. Understand & Research:
The first step is to understand the customer's needs and formulate the problem they have. Our User Interface design team conducts research to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and the customer's needs. Then it looks at all the competitors, screens dribbble and other sources for ideas and inspirations, and conducts interviews with all people in the customer's company who may be needed.
2. User Experience:
The next step is to define the user flows and functions. MVST designers focus on creating a seamless user experience, ensuring that the design elements are easy to navigate and use.
3. Prototype:
They then test the flows and functions of the frameworks and conduct user interviews and user testing to gather feedback and make any necessary adjustments.
4. Design:
The design phase includes creating a moodboard and inspiration, plugins, selectings fonts, exploring and conceptualizing the graphic design, and creating the UI design and style guide.
5. Interactions & Animations:
MVST then designs interactions and animations to enhance the user experience.
6. Handoff:
Finally, our designers prepare for the handoff of their templates to development, present the design to the team, and hand over the design files for the web page.
In conclusion, product design is the step where the product managers team and designers work together the closest to create a visually appealing and user-friendly design for the website. The use of Figma and a thorough design process helps to ensure that the design meets the client-side vision and needs and that the website is of the highest quality.
Step 4: Development (Sprints)
Development is a crucial step, because that's where the developers work to bring the design to life and build a functional website. In this stage, the developers focus on writing code to implement the user stories and ensure that the website meets the requirements and vision of the client.
Developers at MVST follow a series of steps to ensure that the development process is of the highest quality:
1. Check the design and user flows for each story:
Here our front-end developers review the design and user flows for each story to ensure that they understand the requirements and vision of the client.
2. Code the user story:
MVST developers then write the code to implement the user story, following best practices for coding and ensuring that the code is efficient and maintainable. At MVST the developers mainly work with HTML, Javascript, CSS and other popular programming languages.
3. Check for edge cases:
We test the code for edge cases, where the user may interact with the website in unexpected ways, to ensure that the code is robust and handles all scenarios.
4. Write tests:
Then our backend developers write tests to prevent functionalities from breaking, especially with business logic, to ensure that the code is reliable and that future changes do not cause unintended consequences.
5. Code reviewing:
The full-stack developers at MVST review each other's code to ensure that it is of high quality and that all best practices are followed.
6. Automatic deployment:
Finally, the latest version of the code is automatically deployed, allowing the testers to access the latest version of the website, take a look at the all over compatibility and provide feedback.
The development life cycle is an iterative one, following the agile methodology loop, where the developers continuously refine the code and make improvements based on feedback.
Product management is responsible for organizing and structuring bi-weekly sprints and keeping track of the development stage and sprint goals. They ensure that the development process is aligned with the client's vision and that the project is on track to meet its goals.
When all the needed information about the project is gathered, our marketing team starts to write web content and syncs it with the website layout. They create the wording for a nice and clean home page to hit the SEO ranking scores.
Step 5: Quality Assurance
Quality assurance is an indispensable step in the web development process. Here MVST ensures that the website meets the client's requirements and expectations, and that the user experience is of the highest quality.
Our product managers play a key role in the quality assurance process, by testing, and improving the website. They conduct weekly check-ups with the client to gather feedback and ensure that the current process is aligned with the client's vision. This ongoing feedback loop allows the team to continuously refine the website and ensure that it meets the client's expectations.
MVST developers are also responsible for ensuring that everything is working and flowing the way it should. They follow the steps outlined in the development section to ensure that the code is robust and reliable, and that the user experience is of the highest quality.
In conclusion, the quality assurance process involves ongoing testing and improvement, with the goal of delivering a successful website that has a nice look and feel.
Step 6: Post-release Support
Post-release support is an extremely important part of the whole process, as it ensures that the website continues to work as it should and make adjustments after launch.
Our developers ensure that the technology stack for development, including the frontend and backend, is up-to-date and functioning properly. They are responsible for troubleshooting and fixing any technical issues that arise after launch, and for updating the website as needed to keep it running smoothly.
MVST product managers are responsible for handing over the product to the client, along with all relevant documentation. This includes technical specifications, user manuals, and any other information that the client may need to use and maintain the website effectively.
Our marketing team also plays a role in post-release support, by promoting the project on social media and MVST’s website. They may also reach out to clients for feedback and use the feedback to improve the website and enhance the user experience. They always got their eyes on the target audience and making sure to reach them using SEO (search engine optimization) tools, content management systems and e-commerce. Additionally, marketing always writes showcases for our website and social media to demonstrate the success of the project and highlight its unique features and capabilities.
In conclusion, post-release support is a critical part of the web development process, where developers, product management, and marketing teams all work together to ensure that the website is successful and provides value to the client for years to come.
Wrap Up
In conclusion, the web development process is a dynamic and exciting journey that requires a combination of technical skills, creativity, and collaboration. Having a defined process in place helps ensure that each project is completed efficiently, effectively, and to the highest standards. Whether you are a designer, product manager, developer, or marketer, the web development process is an opportunity to put your skills to the test and create something truly remarkable.