I’m helping a client at the moment build an E-Commerce application. After 4 years of development and a nice hefty price tag, the client is left with a system that is barely functional.

I stepped in as project manager at the end of last year, but I think it was too little too late. All is not lost though, we have learnt a couple of lessons from this experience.

Lesson 1: Get the basics right.

If you can’t get basic things working right in the beginning, your entire application will fall apart when you try and do something a little more advanced later on. Advanced features in any application is dependent on the application having a solid foundation. So rather spend some extra time on the foundational elements of your application. Don’t rush it. If you need an application ready at the end of the month, you’re gonna make a hash of it.

Lesson 2: Assume Nothing.

If you are outsourcing development, assume nothing. Don’t assume that the source code is yours, just because you’re paying a premium rate. Don’t assume that it’ll work in all the browsers. Don’t assume that code will be commented. Don’t assume that it’ll use a style sheet. I’ve seen this happen on a few different projects. Just because something is the standard doesn’t mean your developer is going to do it that way. No matter how stupid you sound, or how obvious the question seems, make sure you ask and put it on paper.

With the application I’m working on at the moment, I can only work with it under Windows in VMWare on my Mac. When I questioned the developers on this, they said “no one said it should work on Firefox or Safari, so we made it Internet Explorer only”. You cannot argue with that afterwards, no one asked them, everyone just assumed. So make sure you ask all the stupid little questions up-front.

Lesson 3: Make it as simple as possible.

Don’t try and an be fancy. Really, you won’t impress anyone. Build a simple, functional web application, and make sure it works well. People may not rave about it, but you’re building a web application to server a purpose, not a pretty site to impress a supplier or customer. This also applies to the functional layout of the site. In our case we’re building an e-commerce platform. Stick to what works for the other e-commerce sites. Amazon, Ebay, Kalahari.net etc. Look at what they do, and do the same thing. It works for them, and it’ll work for you.