Laying Out the Foundations
Now that you’ve convinced the client that you can create a cool web site to complement the client’s store activity, it’s time to stop celebrating and start thinking about how to put into practice all the promises made to the client. As usual, when you lay down on paper the technical requirements you must meet, everything starts to seem a bit more complicated than initially anticipated.

It is strongly recommended to consistently follow an efficient project-management methodology to maximize the chances of the project’s success, on budget and on time. Most project-management theories imply that an initial requirements/specifications document containing the details of the project you’re about to create has been signed by you and the client. You can use this document as a guide while creating the solution, and it also allows you to charge extra in case the client brings new requirements or requests changes after development has started. See Appendix B for more details.

To ensure this project’s success, you need to come up with a smart way to implement what you’ve signed the contract for. You want to make your life easy and develop the project smoothly and quickly, but the ultimate goal is to make sure the client is satisfied with your work. Consequently, you should aim to provide your site’s increasing number of visitors with a pleasant web experience by creating a nice, functional, and responsive web site by implementing each one of the three development phases described in the first chapter.

The requirements are high, but this is normal for an e-commerce site today. To maximize the chances of success, we’ll try to analyze and anticipate as many of the technical requirements as possible, and implement the solution in way that supports changes and additions with minimal effort.

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