What are your best practices for web app development?

I fully agree with the emphasis on planning and design for web app development. However, it's crucial to add that reverse engineering similar apps is equally vital. This approach helps you learn from existing successes and mistakes, gain a competitive edge, work more efficiently, and create a user-centered interface. Combining both planning and reverse engineering is the key to a successful web app.

The best Advice for a pre-plan is to make sure that the project fits into the market's supply-demand, is there really a need for the product? are there any competitors with a similar product? and finally, will the product really answer the specific needs of this demand?

Below are the points I would consider as best practices for web applications or any other development practice: 1. Plan Before You Start 2. Responsive Design 3. Performance Optimization 4. Security 5. Testing 6. Code Quality 7. User Experience 8. Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) 9. Version Control 10.Documentation

In my experience we should be aware of our human resource and thier skills and their seniority. This is critical for meeting our deadlines.

Planning is an important phase for a web application development, in this phase the entire scope of the system should be finalised so that both DB, UX and SRS can be finalised in following steps which defines the systems progress.

A well said proverb is "Failing to plan is planning to fail". So totally agree on the 1st step as well plan your project. Whenever you start planning, think about next 5yrs-10yrs vision, just like if a civil engineer is planning a fly over, he thinks about future load of vehicle coming up to that. Similarly, you need to focus on future possibilities of audience or user load before start actual coding.

Analysis, Design and Documentation is the key for success of any web app development. Also keep the following in mind: Choosing right technology stack, keep it simple, follow both design and development coding standards, keep security in mind, develop for all devices, usability, attractive interface, optimise for performance requirements and check for any features that business' would require.

Benjamin Franklin wisely said, 'By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.' Knowing the problem you want to solve is really important. It’s key to figure out who will use your app and what they need and expect. However, remember, planning isn’t just a one-time thing. You need to keep going back and tweaking your plan to ensure it remains effective amidst any new changes. I totally agree with using helpful tools like user stories, wireframes, and mockups, and with following frameworks and methodologies like 'Lean Startup.' This approach helps us start small, learn fast, and make necessary changes. By doing so, we can continuously refine our plan and make the app as beneficial as possible for the users.

Our compact IT team has excelled in web app development, supporting 600+ employees across two firms, and this is how. Echoing LinkedIn's best practices, planning is key. We deeply understand our users and challenges before coding. Our standardized tech stack ensures performance and security. Adherence to coding standards ensures quality. Automation streamlines IT tasks, from onboarding to business cards to offboarding. Testing obviously to catch issues early, and we prioritize optimization and maintenance. More recently, AI has been pivotal, aiding in user feedback, code commenting, refactoring, and CI/CD, amplifying our production.

Choosing a technology stack is an important step and should be done carefully. You need to take the project needs in the account as well as your team's familiarity with the stack. It's always faster to develop using known technology than struggling with newer ones. What would be helpful for the team to capture alternative solutions and debate on technology choices. It should be a team's decision. Also a quick POC can be done before getting into a new technology to make decisions with confidence.

One of the main best practices is selecting and using the design patterns to address common problems so that it helps us a lot to design and develop a better solution with the expected qualities such as performance, and compatibility and also can address the other challenges throughout the development and maintenance phase.

In my experience we should have a vision in our project and it will help us in selecting the right technology. If we want to our project be scalable we should use the scale cube and it will help us in scaling our application. If we want to have more choices in recruiting programmers we should choose more popular stacks, eg: selecting PHP and Laravel as our backend.

Where possible choose tools and software that can be fully installed and configured programmatically, making continuous delivery and deployment automation easier. Investing in continuous integration and delivery early in the product life can offer significant productivity gains. Regularly deploying and testing in production-like environments also reduce the risks and stress at go-live.

Remember that there's no one-size-fits-all technology stack. Your choices should align with your project's specific needs and constraints. Regularly reassess your stack to incorporate new technologies and best practices as the web development landscape evolves.

While it’s crucial to select a technology stack that aligns with project goals, budget, timeline, and complexity, it's equally vital to consider the unique requirements and characteristics of the web app you’re building. Different projects might require different technologies due to varying demands in data processing, user interaction, real-time capabilities, or scalability. For instance, a real-time chat app may benefit from a different stack than an e-commerce site. Additionally, consider the long-term sustainability of the tech stack, looking at aspects such as support, future development, and potential integration with other systems. This approach ensures that the chosen stack remains relevant and adaptable to future needs and changes.

Choosing the right stack is crucial when starting a new project and sometimes we are tempted to use that brand new cutting edge magnificent framework that promises a lot but was released just past month... Choosing the stack is almost equivalent of choosing the people that will work on the project, so try your best to use well stablished frameworks and technologies with a healthy community, that will make easier to hire people for development and future maintenance

In my experience, I've found that a well-thought-out technology stack not only boosts development efficiency but also ensures the long-term sustainability of the application. Choosing the right stack is a critical decision that significantly impacts the success and scalability of a project. 🚀 I would also like to highlight the significance of considering the specific requirements and goals of the project before finalizing the technology stack. Tech changes rapidly, so it's crucial to stay open to adjusting your tech choices as your project evolves or better tools emerge. Regularly checking and updating your tech stack ensures your web app stays efficient, secure, and follows the latest industry standards. 🔍✨

Selecting the right technology stack is crucial for a web app's success. MEAN (MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, Node.js), MERN (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js), LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), and Ruby on Rails are popular choices. The decision should align with project goals, budget, and support availability, impacting performance, security, scalability, and maintainability. Of course, team skills matter when selecting a tech stack for the project.

For coding standards and code quality checkups are much better with the technology. Using technology in this type of stuff is the most convenient way to do quality code. One of the best examples is SonarQube, which integrates with your code editor and CI/CD pipeline. SonarQube provides suggestions and possible logical ideas to improve the quality. this tool also provides security hotspots and code smells, which is the best thing for your code at another quality level. Devs must follow this tool and its suggestions.

To guarantee code quality, the CI/D pipeline should include a static code analyzer, such as SonarQube. We are compelled to uphold code standards and conversions through this kind of technology. Otherwise, it will create build failure. This kind of static analyzer supports a wide range of languages and frameworks, which ensures avoiding typical security concerns as well as code smells.

Adhering to coding standards and conventions is essential for code quality and readability. This includes using clear and consistent naming, proper formatting, indentation, spacing, and adhering to language-specific best practices. I'm personally using SonarCloud is a Cloud-based platform that provides real-time code analysis and security testing for web applications. It offers features such as static code analysis, security vulnerability scanning, and Web application firewalls (WAFs). -- I configured it with my VS editor and help me before code commit share the code smell with me which i resolve and code duplication as well. Overall a best tool to use which is useful.

As Rejuan explained about SonarQube, that is good example of using technology to writeup a quality code. If you use VS, it by default provide many suggestion and inbuild tools like code analysis. Resharper is another one which can be configured as per your organization or project standards which every dev need to follow.

In my experience following standards and conventions will help us in maintaining our project. If we follow standards like Desing Patterns, SOLID, Clean Code and etc. then when we want to apply a change in our application it will be simple. Following standards will help new programmers to engage with our project easily. When we are working with some framework we should follow it's standards and it will help us in upgrading to newer versions in the future.

While adhering to coding standards and conventions ensures readability, consistency, and quality, it is also essential to foster a collaborative environment. Encouraging team members to actively participate in code reviews, share insights, and discuss best practices can contribute to collective code ownership and continuous learning. Furthermore, adopting automated code formatting and linting tools can help in maintaining uniformity and catching issues early. It’s not just about following rules; it’s about creating a culture of quality, collaboration, and continuous improvement in coding practices.

Web development is like most endeavours in life. It has the Dos and Don'ts you must adhere to to create top-notch websites. As a web developer, you must create a codebase that follows the standards in naming variables, functions and classes, space and indentation, comments and be consistent. For instance, as a developer, your function name should reveal what to expect from the function (e.g. getAllProducts() is more self-explanatory than getAll()). While these might not impact your web app performance, it improves readability, making your codebase easy to maintain with or without you.

For web applications which will continue to evovle (let's face it, for now that's all of them) coding standard and best practices I've found are specific to projects and/or companies. If you stray too far from existing code you will probably end up with bandaids. You might also be tempted to rewrite existing code which would be out of the project scope (90% of the time). You have to find a happy medium.

In the past years I learned to define, first at all, the layers of the web app: logical/functional (in general, under the scope of the customer) and physical/technical (in general, under the responsabilities of the developer: db, configuration etc) . In my projects, I start to think and design under the logical perspective and the easiest physical layer to build (ex: file instead of db) and , tests after tests, I refine the physical and the logical layers

Testing and debugging are crucial processes in software development, not limited to web apps, essential for ensuring high-quality outcomes across various domains. These processes validate and enhance software performance, user experience, and security, involving techniques like unit testing, integration testing, functional testing, and debugging tools such as debuggers and loggers. Implementing these practices throughout the development lifecycle is imperative for delivering robust and reliable software.

Red, green, refactor - Test Driven Design has proven time and again to be a far superior methodology then writing tests after the fact. Keep the code clean, write meaningful tests, and only write the code necessary to complete the tasks.

Testing and debugging are paramount in the software development lifecycle. Your web app should be subjected to all types of testing. Testing your code reveals errors, bugs and vulnerabilities that can adversely affect your site performance, security or usability. After testing, you proceed to debug all errors and bugs. You can look at these steps like a loop that continues iterating until no error or bug is left in your code. Let me explain in detail. You start with unit testing and can only proceed to integration testing if no error is found. If a bug is found during the other testing stages, you debug and start from unit testing. You continue this throughout the development process and before deploying to the production environment.

Without a technical / information architecture this is a moot point. I don't need to provide an example because EVERYONE has run across an app that doesn't work, leaves you lost or in a loop, has no feedback, or worse even you don't trust. There's two words but they bear repeating - QA Department. One of those and constant testing will give you the best product you can provide, but it has to be part of the project scope/cost.

Automate as much as possible when it comes to testing. Having people test software is critically important, but they are expensive and unreliable when it comes to highly repetitive work. A good quality test suite should be run on every commit, reducing the feedback cycling and catching errors early. Leverage high-value QA skills to define testing requirements and perform manual exploratory and accessibility testing. Errors caught downstream by QA or customers should be reproduced and fixed within your automated tests, ideally unit tests, to prevent them from reoccurring. Test Driven Development is a way to promote a good test suite, and often improves the software design by forcing developer to separate concerns and decouple components.

We all know writing tests might not be every developer's favorite part – it’s like eating vegetables, not always fun but good for you! Writing testable code from the start is like sneaking veggies into a smoothie; it makes the ‘not-so-fun’ part beneficial and smooth. Automating as many testing processes as possible and integrating them into your continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline can save time and resources, ensuring that testing is not a bottleneck but an enabler of quality and speed.

Test-driven development is a paradigm I use in my projects. Defining your unit tests really forces to you ask the most important questions about your function upfront: - What is the scope of responsibility of this function? - What are all the edge cases and how do I want to handle them - If the unit tests have too many different cases, probably the function needs to be multiple functions. By the time you're done writing your unit tests, the actual implementation will be a breeze because you've already worked out all the parameters of what it needs to do.

Testing and debugging form the backbone of successful web app development. While testing identifies errors through methods like unit and integration tests, debugging uses tools such as debuggers to rectify them. A pivotal approach I recommend is Test-Driven Development (TDD). In TDD, tests precede actual code, ensuring each function is rigorously tested. This often yields more resilient apps with fewer errors. Integrating Continuous Integration (CI) enhances this process, running automated tests with every code update, pinpointing issues swiftly. Emphasizing rigorous testing and systematic debugging, especially before deployment, is key to crafting top-tier web applications.

Having separate test environments for development, integration, and user acceptance testing enables parallel test iterations, contributing to on-time delivery. Best practice should also include UAT validation and sign-off before going live.

It's certainly important to test and debug. However, creating simple tests or best case scenario tests won't battle harden your code against the realities of the user demands of your software. You must immerse yourself in the perspective of the user and let go the natural pull of the developer to make things work. This allows you to find bugs quicker and code with prevention in mind.

Getting the balance right is super important. Optimizing a web app is kinda like adding salt to your food; it’s crucial, but timing is everything! Diving in too early – that’s what we call ‘premature optimization’ – can be like salting your food before tasting. It’s easy to miss what really needs fixing. The focus should be on building strong core features first. Once that’s solid, using tools to find and fix the real issues is the way to go. In short, it’s all about making sure the app works smoothly, without getting stuck on tweaking every little detail right from the start.

In my experience optimizing web app can be done by leveraging from CDNs like cloudflare because it will provide cache and security for your project.

Web app optimization is paramount for user experience. A key tactic I advocate is the Critical Rendering Path (CRP) prioritization, ensuring vital assets load swiftly, enhancing perceived speed. Utilizing bundlers like Webpack can automate tasks like minification and code splitting, streamlining app performance. Service Workers, when implemented, cache assets for quicker subsequent loads. Periodic audits, using tools such as Lighthouse, are crucial to pinpoint optimization areas. By incorporating these techniques and routinely evaluating app performance, developers can craft efficient, responsive, and user-friendly web applications, ensuring a balance between speed and functionality

A web application’s performance depends on its capacity to handle multiple requests and delivering proper response to appropriate user in time. It’s possible only by optimising the application by monitoring all its parameters like “Server response time”, “Initial rendering time”, “Cache retained time”.

In SPA application, if you can work some sizing checks into your repo pipelines, it's a great way to check that your team isn't adding any unnecessary bloat in imported libraries that will slow down the customer experience.

There are many factors if its web app, response time, time to first byte, responsive web design where your web app works and suites both large and small display sizes, compatibility with popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari. All these behaviours play crucial roles in user experience and how user perceive the web app and organisation reputation.

As a software developer, excellent user experience is what you strive for when working on a project. To achieve this, optimizing your web app is essential. Several tools like Chrome Lighthouse can give you insights on the necessary parameters and scores to aim for that can guide you on how best to make your web app more efficient and enhance your website's SEO. To optimize your web app, as a web developer, techniques such as lazy loading and code splitting are important when coding, automating minification with bundlers such as Webpack, utilizing CDN for caching, security and minification and configuring compression functionality on your server.

In my experience when you are using a framework for your application you should follow it's standards and then you can upgrade to newer versions by that framework's docs.

This is all great information, but you need to add in the customer experience. If issues arise they need to be taken seriously especially if your product is part of competitive web group. If one person has an issue maybe 100 do as well, but won't tell you.

Web apps often exist in a highly volatile ecosystem, compared to other types of software. Browsers are always evolving to improve performance, security, or user experience. Many of the tech stacks use scripting languages with other software that actually runs it. Most web applications are built using frameworks and 3rd-party modules. All of these mean that our web applications' behavior is always changing and will degrade over time if we do nothing. We should ensure all parts of the tech stack are current and supported throughout the life of the application. This includes our hosted services, OS and applications, language versions, and 3rd party frameworks and plugins. If the software lives long enough this might even mean replatforming.

Remember the Triple Constraint. On time, on budget and quality - you can have two out of three. Figure out which are the most important - for my 2 cents quality should come first.

Yesterdays, the infamous Iron Triad trade-off was Scope-Cost-Time. Beforehand, one was fixed and other was set as negotiable, while the third one would be considered to be malleable; that is, with no guarantees. Interestingly enough, quality was not discussed at this point. I guess it was because it was supposed to be a non-negotiable, intrinsic feature of the Software Development Life Cycle process / project.

Choose fresh looking layout colors and icons. Use title attribute where you think normal user will struggle to understand the interface. also provide alt texts and think of accessibility. Use local storage to save users progress where needed.