Project Management - Web Based Application development

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. Your team must build a website for the school library in six weeks. Where do you even begin? Today we will learn project management for a web based application, step by step, so your project finishes on time and actually works.

Let us first learn four terms. A project is a piece of work with a clear goal, a start date and an end date. Project management means planning, organising and controlling that work so the goal is reached on time. A web application is a program that you use through a web browser, like online ticket booking or a school result portal. The client is the person or group for whom the project is built, like the school librarian.

A web application has four main parts. The front end is what the user sees and clicks, built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The back end runs on the server and does the logic, written in a language like PHP, Java or Python. The database stores data, like book records, and MySQL is a common choice. The web server sends pages to the user's browser, and Apache is one example.

Every project is limited by three things, called the triple constraint. Scope asks, what exactly will we build? Time asks, by which date must it be finished? Cost asks, how much money, people and equipment can we use? If one changes, the others are affected, so adding features usually needs more time or more people.

A web project moves through six phases. First, plan the project, which means fixing the goal, the team and the dates. Second, gather requirements, which means finding out exactly what the client needs. Third, design the page layouts and the database tables. Fourth, develop, which means writing the code. Fifth, test the application and ask, does any test fail? If yes, fix the bugs and test again. If no, deploy it, which means putting it live on a server, and then maintain it.

Let us look at planning closely. Begin with a one line goal, like, let students search and reserve library books online. Then break the big work into small tasks, like the login page or the search page. Give every task one owner and one deadline, so nothing is forgotten. Finally, mark milestones, which are important checkpoints, like design finished or testing finished.

Here is a simple six week schedule for our library project. In week one, Riya collects the requirements from the librarian. In week two, Aman designs the pages. In weeks three and four, Aman and Neha write the code. In week five, Riya tests every feature. In week six, the whole team deploys the site and writes the report. A bar chart of such a schedule is called a Gantt chart.

Now, gathering requirements. Talk to the client and also to real users, like students who borrow books. Functional requirements say what the app must do, for example, search a book by title. Non-functional requirements say how well it must work, for example, a page loads within three seconds on a phone. Get this list approved by the client before you design, so the scope does not keep changing.

Next come design and development. A wireframe is a rough sketch that shows where the menu, search box and buttons will go on each page. Design the database tables, like a Books table and a Members table, with their fields. While developing, finish and check one feature at a time instead of everything together. Save versions of your work often, and keep a backup, so a mistake never destroys a week of work.

Testing finds mistakes, called bugs, before users do. A unit test checks one small part alone, like the login form. An integration test checks that parts work together, like searching a book and then reserving it. A system test checks the complete application on different browsers and phones. User acceptance testing means the client uses it and agrees that it meets the requirements.

Pause and predict. In week five, the librarian asks for a brand new feature, an online fine payment. The deadline is still the end of week six. What should the team do? This changes the scope, so the team should discuss it with the client. Either move the deadline, or add the feature in a later version, instead of rushing and breaking the app.

The last phase is deployment and maintenance. A domain name is the website's address, and web hosting is space on a server that is always online. You upload the files and the database to that server, and the site goes live. After launch, maintenance means fixing new bugs and adding small updates. Take regular backups, so data can be restored if something goes wrong.

In a real company, different people take different roles. The project manager plans the work and tracks progress against the schedule. The designer decides how the pages look and how easy they are to use. The developer writes the front end and back end code. The tester checks the application and reports bugs, and in a school team one student may take more than one role.

Let us revise what we learned today. Project management means planning and controlling work so a goal is reached on time. Every project balances scope, time and cost. A web project moves through planning, requirements, design, development, testing and deployment. Every task needs one owner and one deadline. And test the application fully before you deploy it, then keep maintaining it.