How to design/plan for web application development?

Question

I\'m interested in learning how to design/plan for web application development, in a multiple developer team scenario.

Assuming the role of \"Project Manager/Lead\":

Answer 1

Keep it as simple as possible.

A document specifying the core feature requirements is the first step.

Personally speaking, as web apps are nearly always database-based, I start off modelling the database based on the functionality requirements. The entities in the ERM diagram map usually 1-1 with classes in UML diagram, and already shows the basic relations.

Assuming a MVC architecture and well-documented code, the Model classes will be self documenting as they evolve (e.g. oxygen phpdocumenter ).

I find something simple like a wiki works best for writing docs rather than formal documents that can take longer to write than the respective code, particularly in an agile environment.