Websites these days can range from a simple brochure website detailing the products and services of a business through eCommerce platforms to the website being used to manage customers / clients or even company workflows.
What is amazing is that even in 2013, the planning, build and rollout of new websites can still appear to be an amateur process. In the USA earlier this month 
the website providing the ability for millions of uninsured Americans to shop and apply for a health insurance plans was launched.
You would have thought that 3 years to plan, build and test the website for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which passed into law in 2010 by Mr Obama, would have meant a faultless launch. On the contrary, the website has been plagued by glitches with especially long wait times to sign up and serious flaws on the back-end where customers’ data is processed and sent to insurance companies.
What appears to be a complex requirement – in the Obama Healthcare example – actually appears, to a large extent, to be that there has been a lack of understanding (or analysis) of the customer journey through the website from their first visit through to submitting their details and requirements on the site and finally through to how their details are then handled by the back-end. Understanding this at the higher level should have made the technical implementation relatively straight forward.
As with a lot of technology projects not all hurdles can be anticipated at the planning stage. That being said what is important, when looking to commission a website or web application, is that you choose a development company that understands the importance of the analysis stage of the project and runs through what-if scenarios to weed-out possible post-launch issues and complications.
If you are interested in reading more on the Obama healthcare website issues you can do so here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24752064
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Pass Fail Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net / Stuart Miles
