You've got an idea, and you think it might be the next big website or application. How do you proceed without investing a ton of money?"

Turning a concept in to a marketable application or website is not as difficult or as expensive as you may think. If you have a great idea, you're more than half-way home. The difficulty comes only in developing the widgets and applicaitons around the core premise.

Keeping the idea focused increases your chances of success.

When you work with some develompent companies they help you to flesh out your idea, and add all the little things that build the website or application package. While this seems like a great idea the reality is it can often lead to mission creep and ultimately doom the project. This is not only because the cost gets out of hand, but that great idea you had gets lost in a huge mix of ancillary applications..

Many development companies stay away from this kind of work.

They are afraid to take on a project without a detailed scope of work and project plan. Because Intralink already develops scopes, and project plans, it's a bit easier for us . We also develop programs of this nature using rapid development. This affords you the chance to work much more closely with the programmers. This can be particularly true for off shore development. The communications difficulties can make it nearly impossible to efficiently develop your idea.

What are the steps for bringing an idea for a website or application to completion?

The first step is coming up with the idea.

The next step is to tightly focus on the core concept. Stripping out all of the extras gets you down to brass tacks and lets us begin the prototype phase.

During the prototype phase we use the rapid development process to build out the application paying particular attention to the presentation. This sounds complicated, but it isn't. What we mean by focusing on the presentation is not the graphics, and look of the application or website, but the flow and function. You need to know how the app will work and quickly bring it to a test level.

Prototype testing

We test the prototype with people who have never seen the application, and have no preconceived notions of what it should do, or how it should work.

Evaluation and refinement

After initial testing we evaluate the results and refine the little things, while splitting the development process before moving on to the detail and high level changes.

Split development phase

This is where we make our hay. At this point in the development process many great ideas come crashing down. Intralink has been in business since 1994. This is a long time and we've learned quite a bit that can help you avoid the pitfalls in this crucial phase of development.

What we do at this point is split off the detail level changes (administrative screens, widgets, etc.) from the sections of the app or website development that are deemed crucial to the success.

To do this we go back to the rapid development table and quickly build these additional core pieces. By taking this route we can quickly see how the changes or additions will integrate in to the overall application. It keeps the product clean and focused, which will greatly increase your chances for success.

Begin the marketing portion in earnest before finalizing the applicaiton. You probably already have an idea of your marketing plan, but you may need to adjust the plan, or add to the application some things that will tie it all together. This is best done before the final clean up phases is even started.

Finish development and testing and wrap up the app.