How many times have you sat down with a client to discuss a project, then later the headache starts to come and you wish it would all go away? How could I let this happen you're thinking. So you said you'd deliver on time and your a little overdue, that can be compromised. Not delivering what a client expects, neither party wants that outcome. There are a few things we can do to avoid these disasters, a project if planned correctly will never fail.

Consider these steps to ensure that your project is not a failure:

1. Planning. Every project needs to be planned, even more so if it involves members of a team or group. Otherwise nobody would know what to do or who was doing what. So it is the project coordinator's job to sit down and get his team together to get the work under way. An overall discussion of the project is presented and each member should make his own set of notes as guidelines to his involvement in the project.
2. Assignment. Each member gets assigned the tasks they need to complete for the project. This tasks and only general there are no specifics in detail, it is up to him to come up with the solution and present it to the project coordinator for approval or modification. The client doesn't need to know the specifics of how the project works, but it must provide him with all the information he needs for him to achieve his tasks.
3. Documentation. Ideally the project should be documented, then approved by the client as conformity. This should be detailed as much as possible and clear for anybody who is looking at it. Each member of the team should provide the necesary documentation in relation to what his role in the project is in order for it to be complete.
4. Design & Programming. Two important things although very different they must work together as a team.Now you may think to yourself, the designer doesn't need to know how the code works for his design, but the programmer need to code for the design, right? Well wrong! A programmer doesn't care what the design look likes, if you want to know how many apples are on a tree, do you really care what the tree looks like? Neither need to know what the other looks like or how it works. They must accomplish the task described in the documentation. If that is not the case, then that is failure.
5. Development. The project gets underway with everybody doing their tasks at hand. It is recommended you always allow yourself thet little extra development time just in case un forseen issues should occur, and you don't wanna delay not only your own work but the later stages of the project. 
6. Implementation. With all the pieces to the puzzle in the box, whos gonna glue it together? As I mentioned before "TEAM", everyone participates in one way or another. usually the programmer gets to grips with it first, the designer can then tidy up the mess. The project coordinator always needs to be on hand with his team and keeping close contact during development stage.
7. Testing. The pieces are all glued and it's looking great but does it actually work or are there any broken pieces? It is important to provide the Testing period and make the client aware of this period. Ideally say your project was planned for completion in 8 weeks, that last week would be your Testing period. So you don't want your client kept in the dark any longer, provide him access to test it himself, make clear to him it is not the final release and any bugs found during that period would be corrected.
8. Completion. The day has come, the project is finished. The final release is being handed over to your client. He is happy, he has everything he asked for, it works for him, he knows he has your support behind him should any issues arise and you provided everything within the agreement before the project began.

Some other notes you should consider when building projects is that these may want to grow at some point. A client could come back to you a month or so later and say, can you add this on for me or could you make it do this that and the other. We both know what answer the client is expecting, baring in mind it is a reasonable request. If you was to build a robot dog that walks and barks, the client says he would now like it to lay down or sit. A well planned project would allow you to implement this additions quickly and effectively.

Every team member has his own points of view regarding the way a task can be done, it's not a context of who can do it better but what is best the the project.

Send me your feedback of successful tips you have on project planning and management. 

There is much more to web standards than just creating a "table free site" or "valid code". A site built to web standards should adhere to standards (HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, XSLT, DOM, MathML, SVG etc) and conply to best practices (valid code, accessible code, semantically correct code, user-friendly URLs etc).

Here is a summary of what you should be asking yourself to make your website part of the norm:

• Quality of code
• Degree of separation between content and presentation
• Accessibility for users
• Accessibility for devices
• Basic usability
• Site management

By failing any of these main issues, your site will not be Web Standard. The Max Design can provide you with detailed information reagrding Web Standards and the compliances.

Being a programmer not only means using great code, knowing good css is also beneficial. Ever been stuck creating that perfect, user friendly gui? the markup just couldn't handle the code? What should you do? Quick fix the markup or make your code a little dirty? If you actually answered either of those as yes. I'd though the book at you!

I am a sitepoint member and I discovered a very interesting book I'm reading "The Art and Science of CSS". It has been written by Cameron Adams, Jina Bolton, David Johnson, Steve Smith & Jonathan Snook. This book covers the fundamental elements of the web page, such as headings, images, backgrounds, navigation, as well as applied styles such as those used in forms, rounded corners for content boxes, and tables. These exercises will encourage you to address the questions of art and science in all the design choices you make, not just for the end user but as a technological asistant.

This book is ideal for anyone that wants to takee there CSS skill a step further and improve the applications. I very important issue that every developer faces is browser compatibility. After viewing and practicing a few of the examples you find in this book will assist you in taking steps closer to solving those issues during development time.

Yes designers, you will also find amazing stuff in this book to get those designs looking perfect and not having to tweak the design to accommodate the markup or code.

Take a trip over to Sitepoint now and check out this book

KS Computer Systems are now an authorised agent of Hostytec. The only company to provide Internet Hosting, Domain Registration and many mores services, exclusively to authorised partners. Hostytec don't provide any services to End Users, which lets agents handle their clients directly. Hostytec are located in Valencia and have over 1500 Agents. Being a partner for one of the top Hosting companies allows us to provide better service to our new and existing clients. Karl Snares, owner of KSCS, feels this partnership to be of great value to the company and his clients.

KS Computer Systems are now officially an AVG partner, offering Antivirus Solutions to all clients, home users and small to large businesses.

Don't leave your computer at risk to viruses and online threats.

Over 60 new viruses get created on a daily basis, an estimated 12 mins of being connected online, you are likely to receive a threat of some kind, virus or spyware.

We provide 2 solutions to keep you safe, AVG Antivirus and AVG Internet security.

AVG Antivirus is ideal for the home user or small buiness for everyday use without compromising sensitive data.

For that added protection and protection AVG Internet Security is everything you need, including firewall and spam blocker for all those unsolicited emails.

Our support team can assist you installation and configuration if necessary.

Not sure? Bring your computer in and we will provide you with a 30 day trial so you can test drive it yourself. 

Microsoft aren't the usual ones to sit back and let there software fall behind, so here it is IE8 Beta. Yes hereing the word Beta means it's unstable, buggy, unpredictable? Yes well, being a programmer that is no real surprise nor is it for the general public. But as humans as we are, our focus are on very diferent levels. An end user wants it to work, they want to browse the web, explore... Microsoft provide the tool just for that. A programmer like myself would be more interested in the actual software package, does it support css, javascript, will my site work in this browser? How fast will it load my site or even will it crash...We then move on to explore its new features, plug-ins, etc. We want to get meesy with it!

Ok, so what can we expect to find in IE 8, let's take a look:

Web Slices, keep track of updated sites without revisiting them frecuently.

Compatibility View, allows you to view websites that were designed for older browsers.

In Private, browse sites without them getting added to your browsing history.

Search Suggestions, enhanced instance search box.

SmartScreen Safe, new security feature to block malicious websites that could compromise your data.

ACR (automatic crash recovery), in case of a broswer hang or crash it is designed to restore your web pages.

These are only a few of the new great stuff been packed into this application. If you can't wait for the final release I would recommend you have a steady backup of your system before you install this, as I would recommend with any new software thats still in development stage.

Let's see if it can stand up against FireFox and Opera. 

 

 

Well it's been a year now since the front doors opened, so to improve services, we have launched ournew website ventas.kscomputersystems.com. Online availability of stock where you can view products, add to your cart and purchase products online. Get the latest in offers, computers, laptops, etc.

Check it out now, your feedback is welcome.