"to do" list - Programmer
lessons: 1 :: 2 :: 3 :: 4 :: 5 :: 6 :: 7 :: 8 :: 9 :: 10 :: 11 :: 12 :: 13 :: 14 :: 15 :: 16 :: 17 :: 18
Week 1 - Introduction
Team roles have not been assigned so you need to refer to the "to do" list included in the introduction lesson.
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Week 2 - holiday
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Although we have no formal class meeting, teams will be assigned at the beginning of the week.
Team Responsibilities
Please coordinate the ice breaker activity assigned to you by your Project Manager.
Week 3 - Teams Assigned
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Team Responsibilities
Help the PM establish a mailing list and phone network by contributing your contact information in a timely manner. List dates and times when you can meet with client and with your group.
Contribute your ideas to the development of a communication plan. I advise you to err on the side of communicating too much instead of to little. If you have work, family, or school time constraints that make it impossible to meet face to face or check email at certain times, LET YOUR TEAM KNOW. Review the communication plan page for more information on this subject.
Client Responsibilities
Prepare for the first client meeting. Before meeting with the client you will need to develop a programmers sampler which you can use to show the client the various programming options. This page will not only help you with the current client, it will help you if you decide to do freelance Web Development. Clients often do not know what they want until they are shown an example.
Please note, if for some reason your client changes their minds and decided they do not want to use Web programming at their site, you can still work on the following projects:
1. Develop a testing instrument which will be used by the class, client, and typical users to evaluate the site. The testing form will be a web page, the answers will be written to a database and the results will be displayed as a web page.
2. Help the client with the acquisition of a domain name and research hosting options
3. Perform hardware and Software testing for the client site.
Your team will need to develop a Web Planning Questionionairre, your PM will send out an email with suggested questions, provide feedback on the questions and add any that need to be asked regarding the programming for the site. Also let the PM know what portion of the meeting you would like to lead.
Website Planning Questionnaire - TLT: PM Jeri Hastava
another resources is
Estimate Request Form - Word File from Professional Business of Web Forms
Please note that one example shown above is displayed as a web page. Your questionnaire will probably be sent to the client as a Word documents or email message, which the client can send back to you with their answers. i recommend you send the questions to the client 3-5 days before the face to face meeting, if your team has the answers during the meeting it will make things go smoother.
week 4 - roles defined
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Attend the meeting for Programmers which will be held from 8-9 pm on the third floor of Maggini Lab. Before attending the meeting review this web page
Roles Defined - Programmers
Watch the video:
What does a Programmer do?
At the meeting you will be asked to give an overview of what the team has done so far, and ask any questions that have come up after your reviewed the Web pages and movies.
Class Milestones
The deadline for the first client meeting is today. Please send me an email if there has been a problem in meeting this milestone.
week 5 - guest speakers
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This week we will be joined by two guest speakers:
Michael Slater from Webvanta who will share his development software which makes it easy to incorporate database driven content into Web site development.
Cameron Huff - Security issues in Web Programming, problems and solutions.
Your attendance in class is required.
Project Site
Expand the "project site" which began as a single "contact.html" page and should now have an "index.html" page which has links to all the elements of the site (even if the pages have not yet been created). Send me the URL for this site so I can link to it from the "team" page. If you need help with the site, please let me know.
Web Proposal
Begin writing the Technical Brief, contribute to the development of the list of deliverables, production standards, and storyboard. If you have signed up for domain name and hosting responsibilities, work on those issues now. If you have signed up to create forms, use a web database, or create search capability at the site, research existing scripts and resources you can use, to deliver these scripts Even though you may not have the actual client data, you can make a simulation of a web form that writes to a database and then displays that data on a web page.
week 6 - Holiday / Dreamweaver Q and A
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This week the campus will be closed for the President's Day holiday. I have material and videos which explain how the Content Developers take the template (XHTML, CSS and images) provided by the designers and use Dreamweaver to insert the content from the shell site into the template.
It is not a class requirement that anyone on your team use Dreamweaver, however I am often asked questions about the process and wanted to provide some instruction in the basics of using Dreamweaver. The Dreamweaver Q and A lesson may prove useful
If you have experience in Dreamweaver, please post your comments at the class forum > "Dreamweaver Support" posting.
Web Proposal Responsibilities
Continue to work on your portions of the Web Proposal.
week 7 - comps reviewed
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This week I will be meeting with the Designers to look over their ideas for the look of the home page, second level pages, and any third level pages. You do not need to attend these meetings.
During the class meeting time I will review how to take a Photoshop image of a Web page and convert it to XHTML, CSS and web images. If you feel this information would be useful to you I invite you to review the Comps. to Templates Lesson.
Web Proposal Responsibilities
Determine what needs to be done in order to complete your portion of the Web Proposal. If what you needs comes from the client or a teammate, send them a note, give them a specific deadline and offer to answer questions.
week 8 - site standards
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This week we will be discussing how to use the Firefox Web Developers toolbar to test for XHTML and CSS2 standards, as well as 508 accessibility standards. We will also discuss the use of color, screen size, and consistency of the design across browsers and platforms.
All of these standards apply to the hardware and software testing that you will do later in the class. Your attendance in class is optional however I recommend that you review the class materials which are a part of the Standards Lesson
Web Proposal Responsibilities
Contact your PM to let them know what time slots work best for you.
Review the Web Proposal Lesson to confirm what your areas of responsibility are. If you have any questions, send your PM a note. If you want me to review your portion of the proposal before the actual meeting, send it to me at least 3 days before your group deadline.
week 9 - Web Proposal
The PM will bring a copy of the proposal for me and one for the team. Remote members will also need to have a digital or printed copy of the proposal.
Attend the team meeting either face to face or remotely using skype.
The client needs to sign the contract and initial the comps, storyboard, and list of deliverables. The team needs to sign the contract (remote members can send email signatures)
week 10 - 14 web site production
As soon as the client has approved the technical aspects of the project, begin producing them. Test them as you proceed. If you have problems please send me a note. I can contact the PHP, Java, ASP.net, and SQL instructors and ask them to help.
Reminder - HTML exams are due 3/29
Team and client productions are due 4/2
SEO forum discussion is due 4/11
Visit the homework page for online forms.
week 15 - testing begins
You will be responsible for "hardware/software" testing. For more information review the testing page.
week 16 - freelance options
Gather testing results and begin to create the testing report, assist team in interpreting test results. Explore freelance resources found in lesson 16.
week 17 - handoff
Begin planning the handoff process. You will be asking the client if they want you to load the site onto the web, if they will do it with you, or if it will be done by someone else. Begin compiling the client manual.
We will also have a "post mortem meeting" this week where we explore what worked and what didn't work for the project.
week 18 - make final CD
Finish up the client manual, place the manual, the project site, the client site, and all PSD or Flash files on a CD or DVD. Create copies for the client, the instructor and the team.
week 19 - final exam
Come to class, present the site and your team during the final presentation of projects. Give everyone the final CD or DVD.