PWPM Wiki

Web Application Development Project Checklist

This is a practical guide to building a project checklist for a web application development project — a step-by-step checklist covering the project from start to finish, adapted to the realities of building a custom web application.

What a Project Checklist is

A project checklist is a step-by-step checklist covering the project from start to finish. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Project Management Checklist. On a web application development project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.

Why it matters for a Web Application Development project

Web Application Development projects live or die on building a custom web application. A well-built project checklist gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how web application development projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.

What to include

  • Initiation checks
  • Planning checks
  • Execution checks
  • Closure checks

Web Application Development-specific considerations

Tailor the project checklist to the risks that most often derail web application development projects:

  • Unclear or shifting requirements
  • Technical debt
  • Security and performance at scale

Example

On a real web application development project, the project checklist would be shaped by building a custom web application. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — unclear or shifting requirements, technical debt, security and performance at scale — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.