Let’s decribe what needed to build an ideal web development team for a small to medium sized e-commerce website.

With quite a number of requirements to fulfill, develop an e-commerce website is a highly critical task.

Visitors want simple yet interesting website with appealing graphics and user interaction. Some managers want a compelling fullblown-multimedia website. still development should consider various things, if the design is too busy or the pages take too long to load, it may lose potential customers. If the e-commerce site is not highly usable it might send away the not-so-intent customers due to usability problems encountered. If the e-commerce site is not highly accessible it may not be so friendly to all extent of visitors with range of browsers support. While a full text links website is overwhelming crowded yet not appealing. A good Web development team with insight into these and beyond matters is crucial to the success of the e-commerce website.

An e-commerce website may require daily, weekly or in some cases up to the minute updates, thus requiring round the clock attention. An ideal team may consist of web programmers, web designers, flash designers, system administrators and project manager.

Scheme: Functions within a development team of a small to medium sized e-commerce website

Web Project Manager:
The web project manager is key to a successful team. He or she is responsible for the whole web project, organizing and empower each team’s individual members and their communication & follow through. This position will benefit from its general proficiency on the server-side programming language, client-side scripting, web graphic & multimedia knowledge. This also means a long time experience on the ins and outs of website development surely required, a technical web-oriented background is highly desirable. Web project manager will be representing the team and hence should be able to communicate intelligently. One of the most important tasks is to gather & conclude the requirements of the site and understand the expectations of the corporate. He or she must understand the scope of the project to correctly convey the ideas to the team members. so good communication skills are essential, as are time management and organizational skills. They must possess the ability to lead team members, manage resources and be poised and confident to speak to management and clients regarding the progress of the team.

Web Master:
A web master must have good copy writing skill, be responsible for correcting grammar and spelling, implement or troubleshoot some XHTML & Javascript source code as well implement some web graphic or Flash movie. He or she should work closely with the project manager and the rest of the team to determine the content of website and its layout. A successful web master should be familiar with producing valid XHTML code related to search engine optimization point of view, also be familiar with the operating system used, the web server applications run on the server and an understanding of the SQL database and how it communicates with the web server application. Three to five years of experience is typical for a qualified Web master.

Web Programmers:
The web programmers are responsible for developing server-side functionality for web-based applications (working with all aspects of the server and database), as well as, client-side functionality (javascript, DHTML, AJAX) which happened on the visitor’s side. Excellent at producing extensible, reusable (Object Oriented Programming) and fully commented code in some common web programming languages such as PHP, ASP, ASP.NET, Java, Phyton, Ruby, PERL or CFML. Understanding of IP networks, highly knowledgeable in database development and an understanding of the operating system are essential. They must be able to work with the web project manager to analyze and interpret the client requirements and recommend solutions, sound technical, strong problem-solving and analytical skills are essential. Depending on the complexity of the applications, web programmers should have at least two to five years professional experience.

Systems Administrator:
The site is only good if it can operate in a secure and stable environment. System administrator is generally responsible for building, maintaining and securing the operating system, its web server, web applications and database servers on the production server. A Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) with a background in Internet Information Server has the appropriate skill set for system administration in a Microsoft environment. On Unix environment, individual with Linux, firewall and Apache web server background, along with 4-6 years of network administration experience, should possess the necessary skills to complete any web team.

Graphic Designers:
Graphic designers produce artworks and other graphical needs of the development project. Expect a minimum of a four-year degree in fine arts or related field, and least two years of graphical design experience in a web environment. Proficiency with multimedia tools, some knowledge of web layout, composition and color theory as well as experience with HTML is a plus.

Web Designers:
Web designers may assist in the creation of web images and other web graphical needs of the development project. He or she can convert the artwork produced by graphic designers to its web version with clean, lean & valid XHTML code. Expect a minimum of two to four years of web graphical design experience. Additionally, should be proficient with the latest multimedia tools, such as Flash animation, web video streaming, etc. Excellent knowledge of web layout, website composition and website color theory, experience constructing CSS, producing valid XHTML, ability to tweaking some javascript or server-side scripting is a desirable.

Project Management
A solid plan is critical to accomplishing this task. The plan must be detailed, straightforward, and easy to understand.

Regular project updates should occur so the members may interact and discuss various tasks in depth. Keep in mind, just as the web project manager must provide the medium to communicate openly, all team members have a responsibility to be actively involved in the project. Most importantly, involve the members in the planning from the beginning. If not, we run the risk of team members not understanding the scope and the required result. A hardcopy of the plan should be readily available to each member, and displayed in an easy to reach area. Manage time table with a software like Microsoft Project as an in-depth tool in the creation of the project plan is quite helpful. It allows to create a calendar, Gantt chart, flow charts, and to track resources, plus other valuable features.

The importance of communication among the members of any project team. Without clear guidance and leadership, project may be abandoned. Without constant communication, details may be missed and tasks may be incomplete.