The creation of a technical specifications document is a vital stage in the initial developmental process of a website. Technical specifications are drawn up when the web developer and client collaborate in order to finalise the exact nature of the website being built and the technical solutions required to fundamentally deliver the final product to the end-user over the Internet. Applying the use of technical specifications to the development of a website proves a clear standards-based approach. A well-designed and maintained website infrastructure is key to the ability of delivering highly effective results, and so the technical specifications of a particular website needs to put focus onto information which includes:

• technical solutions
• scope and nature of content to be included
• functionality and interactivity on the site for the end-user
• the graphics and information design as well as the navigation parameters and rules to make it easy for the end-user to browse effectively through the final website
• documentation and training deliverables
• the costs related to each aspect of the construction and final delivery of the website in its final stage
• the payment and development schedule for the website

Technical Specs

A technical spec can be defined as that which describes not the functionality but the approach and technologies to be made use of in the layout and markup of an individual website. Technical specs address issues such as whether a website will have cascading style sheets, will be database-driven, require plug-ins, or be optimised for a specific screen resolution, browser, colour depth, or platform. The following production issues with regard to the creation of a website therefore need to be emphasized and discussed in relation to technical specifications:

• Considering the maximum acceptable count under the budget, how many pages are to be included in an individual website?
• What are the special technical and functional requirements needed for optimum site usability?
• What is the available budget to work from?
• Including potential milestones and dates, what is the production schedule?
• Who are the developers of a specific website and what are the individually defined roles and responsibilities?

The most important function of technical specification, or a technical spec, can be discussed as being to fundamentally design a functional program. Technical specs therefore include and describe in minute detail how a final product is meant to work. Failure to write a technical spec might possibly be the single biggest risk unnecessarily taken in the development of a web-based product because without the possession of detailed technical specifications it is impossible to make a functional and useful schedule for the development process.

The benefit of writing technical specifications is that because a website is accordingly designed in a human language, it will consequentially only take a few minutes to think up possibilities for the product, to revise, and improve the overall design. Through this, time is saved on communicating because when writing a technical spec, you only have to communicate how the final product is supposed to work and nothing else. To elaborate, it is vital for a business to know the time duration of certain processes because product development is costly and having in-depth knowledge of technical specifications means inevitable savings on these potentially threatening costs.

Website Development

With consideration to the creation of a website, or the creation of any web-based project for that matter, the development process must never be leapt into before an understanding of what is to be fundamentally accomplished with a specific project is established, or before a realistically stable technical specifications document has been developed for daily use. The fact is that the more carefully you plan, the better off you will be when the development process eventually takes flight. Plans need to be carefully made with the firm integration of schedule, budget, and scope and hereafter, closely stuck to. Projects will hereby be prevented from becoming unhinged from the real constraints of money, time, and the quality desired for the final product.

Technical specifications are therefore important for the adequate and successful development of a website. Because human interaction is mainly face-to-face, websites need to portray a human and friendly feel. The website development process therefore needs to keep in mind the needs of a specific community as well as maintenance requirements in order to produce a website design which serves its desired purposes. Site and technical specifications need to give a basic definition of the content scope, budget, schedule, and technical aspects of a particular website project. They are best when short and to the point and should contain a goals statement derived during the planning phase as well as the structural details of the project to be developed.

The benefits of establishing site and technical specifications before a project even begins allows a business to keep ahead of the competition and keep ahead of the game. These benefits can be listed as:

• A concise statement of intention, values, and goals, providing the ultimate policy direction for what comes next in the development process and ensuring no hiccups occur for quick and smooth completion of the project.
• For the reason that designing a website is a costly and time-consuming process a well-written specifications document can be used as a powerful tool for judging effectiveness and making sure that a particular website project is kept on track.
• Herethrough, focus of the website development process will be kept on the initial goals and purposes.
• Technical specifications can be used as a daily reference point to settle conflicts, measure progress of development, judge the potential of new ideas as they arise, and to keep the focus on the goals initially defined at the start.

How Can Intoweb Help?

Intoweb makes use of well-structured and highly reliable technical specifications which can be applied to the majority of our clients websites as they are adaptable and able to provide the desired results of each and every client with whom we deal. The goals and strategies of Intoweb, or in that case any website development company, is to determine the goals and strategies of a particular client so as to develop a top quality website by asking:

• What is the mission of a particular client?
• How will creating a website support their enterprise's mission?
• What are the main goals of a client for their website?
• Who is their primary targeted visitor?
• What impression needs to be created when visitors leave their website?
• Which web-related issues will be able to best aid in the achievement of initial goals?
• How will the success of a website be measured?
• How will the website be affectingly maintained for ensuring the provision of up-to-date information to all visitors?

To obtain more information on the great benefits which come from defining technical specifications of a website before the development process in fact begins, then Contact Us