Introduction
Creating new projects can be super exciting, so exciting that you might get lost in all your features and get stuck trying to overachieve.
This is why having a development plan will be crucial if you want to make sure your project will be successfully finished!
This Blog will cover a few essential things you should think about when planning your next project, which are:
- Scope
- Tech
- Design
- Code
- Testing
- Tools
Tools For Project Planning
Don’t keep it all in your head, you need to use some tools in order to write down your ideas and track the tasks you have to do in order to complete your project!
Tools I Recommend:
- Notion
Perfect for taking notes and creating documentation, roadmaps, and lots more! - Trello
Ideal for tracking tasks and bugs for your project and keeping track of progress.
The Project’s Scope
The first step to any good project is defining what it should do. Ask yourself why you are creating the project? Who will use it? How will it help?
For This step, you should:
- Study the market for similar projects
- Establish a core functionality
- Create a clear, concise goal
Note: If your project aims to do 10 things at once, it will probably not do them well enough, so focus on few, good features
The Technology Stack
It’s important to do your research when you pick the technologies for your project, once you decide, it becomes much easier to stay focused on writing actual code.
For This step, you should:
- Pick technologies based on your needs
- Think about what libraries you want to use
- Pick technologies based on your project’s main goal and type (Fullstack/BE/ FE)
The Design
If you’re creating a full-stack or frontend app, you won’t want it to look outdated or bad when you show it to others, so in this case, design always matters!
For This step, you should:
- Design a prototype before coding it
- Pay attention to basic design concepts
- Design beautifully, but focus on utility
Note: You can use Figma to quickly create a prototype and/or wireframes to help your vision materialize quicker
Writing the Code
You’ve got a design, a solid concept, and all of the technologies you want to use, so now it’s time to put it all together! You will want to have a solid code architecture if you want to impress!
For this step, you should:
- Focus on reusability in your codebase
- Do things well, not fast
- Keep your files very well organized
- Establish a data model for your app
Note: You can split your codebase into different folders for utilities, assets, components, views and so on to ensure a good structure
Test your Project
Once you’ve created your features, it’s time to test them thoroughly. Your app needs to fail well, meaning it should have good error handling for all the possible cases.
For this step, you should:
- Handle the possible errors of your app
- Test edge cases to find bugs
- Get someone else to test it for you
Note:It would be ideal to also write unit tests for both your frontend and backend and get a high coverage on those
Part of the problem is the fact that you’re probably not creating a good enough plan in order to make sure you stick to it and have something really nice for your portfolio! Do not worry, this blog has you covered!
This is some advice that you should consider each time when starting a new project, and for the sake of your brilliant idea, please note it down and create a well-defined roadmap for it! We definitely need more good software in the world!
If you found this helpful, make sure to show your support with a clap, and if you want to help others plan their projects, a share would be greatly appreciated! Let me know what you think about this! Happy planning!
