The web site is to be the repository of all project materials.
While you may use it to keep track of early drafts of documents,
it is only necessary to keep the latest, most current version.
You may build your own web site
or use any existing tools.
I strongly recommend using an existing tool and infrastructure.
Why?
You have plenty of work to do and don't really need to build a web site.
Tools that have been used for the web site include
If at all possible, I prefer that the site be hosted on the UNC Wordpress space.
In this way, your project information will be archived. If you have a reason to use some
other tech, please discuss it with me.
I will get the site URL from you (by email) and make that a link on the
team page so we can all see the progress of your project as the semester progresses.
You should consult with your client to assure that is alright for them.
(They may have a site that they want you to use or be concerned about
public availability.)
You simply need to identify the url.
If you are using a system that requires login to post to,
the professor must be a registered user.
It is the simplest way to give you feedback and assures that I have
appropriate access.
For most of you, this will be a public website and you need to be considerate of such use.
If there are confidentiality issues
with a client or subjects, they need to be honored on this site.
The contents and appearance of the web site reflect on your team, on the
class, and on the university.
Do not post anything that you do not want the world to see.
This is also the place that you can share design,
code, and techniques with other teams.
This is a living document and needs to be kept up to date.
Feel free to put anything out on the web site that helps the team.
Specific elements required on the web site are as follows.
They are listed in the approximate order that they will be added.
The first 4 items and the behavioral team rules are to be posted
when the site is established.
-
Project Introduction.
This is a high level description that introduces the casual observer to the project.
A visitor to your website should be able to
read this description or and understand what you are doing and why.
Treat it as a "sales pitch".
You want to excite the reader and make him want to learn more about the project.
-
Team Roles.
Identify your client manager, project manager, tech lead, etc. Think over
what different tasks you anticipate for the semester and see if any can be
primarily concentrated in one or two team members. All members will be coders,
but some may do more coding than others based on experience in general or with
specific technololgy. Some may do more web work that others. Some may do
more client contact that other, or more team contact and meeting management
that others.
-
Contact Information.
Include your team, your client, and any consultants.
Also, you should include one click email to the entire development team;
this is a major convenience for the instructor.
-
Schedule of Regular Meetings.
Include meetings with professor/manager, client, and team meetings. Also
include any other events of major importance (such as demo or client
acceptance testing).
- Team Rules.
-
Journal of Meetings and Decisions.
This is the place to capture decisions that have been made and
discussions that have been had.
Capturing the information will help
assure consistent understandings and (hopefully) reduce the number of
times the same point will be rediscussed.
You should have an entry for every team meeting, as well as for every client
meeting and every meeting with the professor/manager.
A meeting entry is not meant to be a complete "minutes" but rather a succint
summary... what issues were being considered, what problems worked on,
what solutions made, what action items decided for team members to pursue
for the next meeting, etc. The instructors will use this information
as prep for the manager meeting.
NOTE:
Please keep this list (and others as appropriate) in reverse
chronological order. This way we can see the most recent meeting
at the top of the list without having to scroll down through past meetings.
-
Related Links.
These are any useful external resources that the team may need.
They may include links to similar projects that you can learn from,
domain-specific content that will frequently be referenced, and
pointers to the technology that is being used.
For example, if you find good publicly available tutorials for technologies,
this is a good place to maintain those links.
Please do NOT post any links to materials that have questionable IP rights.
-
Repository for all deliverables, both intermediate and formal,
as listed on the
Deliverables page.
Make your site as shallow as practical.
We want to find the information we need to see with few clicks... preferably one.
We don't want to have to click-click-click down deep to get to items that we reference frequently.