Building a web development team

Building a web development team


A web development team need not necessarily be an in-house affair as it can also
be an outsourced team. The object of forming a web development team is to
streamline your website, carry out SEO techniques and increase traffic to help you
enlarge your business. As all of us are aware that millions of people utilize the
Internet services on a daily basis and therefore to properly maintain the website, it
calls for a competent team of qualified professionals. The process of maintaining a
successful website can at times be strenuous and this the reason why many people
opt to outsource at least certain tasks to a professional web development team. All
of us know web design and development is a relatively new activity. Web
development calls for professional competence to combine all media activities
with data processing applications. What special skills do people need for web
development and how to bring together the people with those skills to form a
useful web development team?

The key factor for putting up a web development team is balancing the IT
technical skills with creative skills. Quite often there may be a conflict between a
technically perfect design and one that is aesthetically attractive as the two may
seldom combine. It usually becomes evident from a causal glance at a web site as
to how the web team is balanced. One way to develop a well-balanced web team is
to rely on tools to provide the technical framework, to which creativity can be
added. The problem with this approach is that current frameworks provided by
web authoring tools are limited and considered by many as technically inefficient.
Web designing and development, for it to be perfect, requires both technical and
artistic skills. While forming a web development team, do not just include one
group of people in the corporate headquarters. Think of all staff members spread
throughout the organization who occupy key positions in the functioning of the
organization. It is better to include them before they feel isolated and work not in
consonance with the corporate strategy.

More and more people are beginning to feel that web development is best suited
for outsourcing. Either wholly or partly the processes can be contracted out but
care must be exercised not to outsource it to your IT supplier, who may not have
the required skills. Web design can be carried out by a remotely located team,
interacting over voice and e-mail. The web server can be remotely located, or even
if locally located can be remotely maintained. It is believed that a web team which
is partly in-house with few external members is particularly effective, provided the
means of communication and expected response time are clearly understood by
both the sides.

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The software industry has long known that at least half the total cost of software
over its full life-cycle is in the maintenance phase. The same logic and arithmetic
applies to web sites. To maximize the initial investment in a site, it needs to be as
up-gradable as possible. How easy will it be to keep the appearance of the site
fresh, even after the original web development team is no longer around to
maintain the website and how easy will it be for new members of the web
development team to add content, or functionality - are the questions to be borne
in mind.

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