How to Build a Great Web Application for Your Business

This practical guide walks through how to build a great web application for your business, explains the main requirements, and highlights common issues that may appear along the way.

1. Ask the Right Questions

When building a web application, don't wait for surprises--because surprises mean delays. Ask the right questions before you start building the app. Don't focus on internal-facing questions. The project may get approved faster, but it won't be effective. These are the questions you should ask yourself:

• How will users be authenticated? Your web app will probably require users to identify themselves. Your company may have a user-authentication system which may need to be integrated into the application.
• What's the hosting environment? When you know the hosting environment, you can replicate it on the development server, decreasing the chances of incompatibilities later on.
• How will the app back up data? Most web applications store valuable data, so it's important to have a strong back-up plan
• How will legacy data be migrated? Many organizations have a lot of legacy data. It's important for the app developer to come up with a plan for migrating the data to the new system.
• Focus on User Tasks

A web application must solve a business issue and make it easy for the users to do particular tasks. Spend time with the end users and observe how they complete the tasks you are trying to simplify. You'll understand their needs better than you would by reading a specification document.

Make user testing part of the process throughout the entire development cycle. You can get three or four users to test the web app and give their feedback. The app's features must help users to easily complete tasks.

2. Don't Try to Solve Everything

Stay focused on user needs and business goals or things will quickly get out of hand. Many web apps suffer from scope creep, and scope creep can significantly increase the costs of developing the web app--causing you to look for financing sources like an auto title loan. People in your organization may start suggesting ideas once they see the potential of the app, but you'll never get done if you keep listening to them.

It's hard to tell how users will respond to your application, that's why it's so important to start simple. Don't spend a lot of money building features no one will use. At the beginning, write the key performance indicators you'll use to determine the success of the app. Combine them with user feedback to get an idea of what you should do next.

3. Make It Flexible

The web app is likely to change over time based on user feedback and business goals, so it's important to make it flexible, especially if you haven't added all of the desired functionalities. Making a web app flexible isn't easy, but you can make your job easier by adding plug-in infrastructure at the beginning. That way, changing it over time becomes easier. Understand from the onset of the project that it's vital to make the app flexible.