Website development with a clear specification and handover
Website development for the functions your business needs
Not every website problem needs a rebuild. A form that fails, a booking rule, a product rule, an order that has to reach the accounts or a quote request that should land in your CRM are each a piece of development. The requirement sets the size of the work, and the first job is to describe it well enough that the result can be tested.
It starts with a look at what is there
A new function lands in a site that already has code, add-ons and connections. We review the existing site before we take responsibility for changing it, so we know what the function has to work alongside and what might break.
The review also tells you whether the function needs building at all. Many requirements are met by an existing maintained tool configured properly, and we say so when that is the better answer. The recommendation names the route, the work involved and who does it.
A specification you can test against
A good specification says who uses the function, what should happen and how you will know it worked. It also says what happens when information is missing or a request fails, because those are the cases where untested functions break. A booking abandoned halfway through, a product with no price and a payment that times out all need an answer before the first line of code is written.
We write the specification with you from real examples, then test the finished function against them.
The awkward cases, answered first
A booking abandoned halfway through
Answered before coding
A product with no price
Answered before coding
A payment that times out
Answered before coding
The kinds of work
Business website functions
Editable content structures, bookings, forms and enquiry routing help a customer or a staff member finish a task. The specification names the information involved, where it has to end up and who is told when it arrives.
Online store functions
Product rules, checkout behaviour, stock, fulfilment and accounting connections decide how an order is handled from the basket to the invoice. Example transactions turn those requirements into something we can run and check.
Connections to other software
Accounting, CRM, email and booking systems each hold information the website needs or produces. We define what passes between them, in which direction and what happens when one side is unavailable, so nothing is silently lost.
Custom functions
Where no maintained tool fits, we build the function inside the development project. Its compatibility with the rest of the site, who owns the code and who maintains it are written down before the work starts.
Platforms we build on
Our development work is on WordPress and WooCommerce, and we have been building on both for more than ten years. The platform pages describe the specific work for each.
From the requirement to a working change
The work runs through review, specification, development, testing in a staging environment and an approved release. Nothing reaches the live site until you have seen it work on the examples in the specification. Afterwards we document what changed, where it lives and who maintains it.
We deliver the development in-house. You provide the business rules, the access and the approvals, and the proposal sets out the responsibilities and the dates.
Nothing reaches the live site untested
- Review
- Specification
- Development
- Testing in staging
- Approved release
What this does not include
Repairs to unrelated faults, migrations and ongoing care are quoted separately in the private proposal when the project needs them.
Questions about development
Can you work on a site you did not build?
Yes, once we have reviewed its code, add-ons and connections. The review sometimes finds a fault that has to be fixed first, and we tell you before quoting.
Do we need a new site for this?
Usually not. The review says whether the function fits inside the existing site or whether the site is the problem. A rebuild is proposed only when the requirements call for one.
Who maintains the function afterwards?
The proposal names the owner. Where we maintain it, the work sits inside hosting and site management. Where your own team does, the documentation tells them what it does and how to check it.
Can our own developer do part of it?
Yes. The specification assigns each task to a person, and the plan states who implements it and how the result is checked.
Tell us what should work differently
Send us your website and one real example of the problem, such as the order that never reached the accounts. We will get back to you.