Define Requirements for a Web Site
Documenting Business, Content, Functional and Technical Requirements
Before any code is written for your site clearly define business, content, functional and technical requirements.
Whether building a web site, or an application, it is critical to clearly define the requirements for that site or application. Otherwise the site or application will not operate as needed to meet the business objectives. There are four categories of requirements that need to be documented: business, content, functional and technical.
Business Requirements Defined: A web site is designed to help a business market themselves and increase sales. Business requirements document the business functions that the web site will support. They do not necessarily document the functions the web site should have, but instead enable an analyst to determine what parts of these business functions can be made available through the web site.
- The process to create product information for the web site
- The process to sell products from start to finish
- The process to order products or materials from suppliers
- Customer service processes
Other business requirements can include items that are not processes but need to be considered during design phases:
- Look and feel standards
- Usability guidelines
- Legal and security guidelines/issues
Content Requirements Defined: All web sites have content. So it’s necessary to capture all the types of content that will be used on the site. For each type of content identify the following:
- What is the purpose of the content? Is it related to any other content?
- Does it exist in web copy today?
- Does it exist in some other format (i.e. Word, xls, PDF, graphic)?
- Who owns it?
- Who maintains and updates it? Is there any workflow associated with it?
- Who is the audience for this content?
- How often is it updated?
- Is this content static, or does it need to be available for only periods of time?
- If the site is bilingual, is the content translated? Does it need to be?
Functional Requirements Defined: The web site must do certain things to support the business objectives. These functions need to be clearly defined:
- Personalization Functions: Registration and Sign-In, Welcome Back, enabling a user to sign up for newsletters, etc…
- Transactional Functions: Shopping Cart, integration with backend systems like financial software, reviewing and selecting products
- Security Functions: Creating a secure registration page, ensuring passwords are secure, secure shopping cart payment information
Technical Requirements Defined: In order to ensure the web site will support the number of users who will visit it and ensure the functionality works properly, technical requirements needs to be document such as:
- Expected volumes of users
- Expected peak periods of use
- Types of content that will create high load (like video and audio files)
- Security Requirements (is the site a secure site, rules for passwords)
- Performance Requirements (i.e. page load time)
- Operating availability (i.e. 24/7 availability), including maintenance periods
- Support requirements
- Database Sizes (for storing content)
- Types of Browser to support, including browser resolutions
The more requirements that are defined and documented up front, the more likely the web site will be built properly. By not clearly defining requirements, a web site may not provide the proper functionality or support the volume of users who visit it. The next step is to take these requirements and begin to design an Information Architecture and a Web Site Functional Specification.
