Planning a website

Image for this section Before building a website, take the time to analyze, plan, and design the entire system that supports the website. You must plan not only the website, but the web content system that manages the website and the infrastructure required for the system. You must also define in advance the roles and users that are involved in building the website and installing the infrastructure.

Defining the project
It is important to have an understanding of the objectives, deliverables, and scope of a web content system. Your project definition outlines the what, why, and who of the project and can be used throughout the life of your web content system.
Human resource planning
These roles are examples of the type of work performed by the people who create and manage a website. A single person can be responsible for more than one of the roles outlined in this section. The roles you implement in your organization to support your website are determined by the size and complexity of the system being deployed. Not all the following roles are required for every website, but all aspects of these roles must be considered during any system deployment.
Creating an analysis document
An analysis document is used to record the information gathered from stakeholders that determines the design of the website, its content, and its features.
Designing a prototype website using HTML
Before you create a design document for your web content system, it can be useful to create a prototype of your site using HTML. This prototype should be based on the outline defined in your project plan and the data gathered in your analysis document. The site structure, design, and HTML code you develop for your prototype can be used as the basis for many of the items defined in your design document.
Creating a design document
After defining the project and creating an analysis document, you define the requirements of your web content system in a design document. The design document outlines what types of content will be needed for your site, how they will be structured, how content will be authored, and what the final website will look like.
Road map to building a web content system
To build a web content system you need to deploy hardware, configure servers, design an authoring system, configure a delivery environment and enable syndication. Get an overview of the steps required to build your web content system. Keep in mind the analysis and design documents developed during the planning phase of a project as you review the road map.