The Web Development Team
The author speaks of a "functional area" approach where work is done in various departments, each passing it along to the next, doing steps in order. He suggests this "assembly-line" approach that has its place, but it is not particularly useful for software development.
Instead, he advocates a team approach, which brings together individuals from various specialized departments into a team that is dedicated to the project, start to finish.
He sells the benefits of this approach - fundamentally, that it's much more nimble and flexible, facilitates cooperation and concurrency, and engenders a commitment to the project rather than interdepartmental competition.
For Web development tasks, the author suggests several critical roles:
- Project Manager - More of a coach than a team player, the project manager leads the team, keeps them on track, reports to management, and performs administrative duties that are necessary, but not directly related to the task
- UI Designer - Manages the design of the user interface (the pages with which the user will interact).
- Graphic Artist - The graphic artist creates the visual elements described by the UI designer and contributes aesthetic talent to present alternative approaches.
- Programmer - the software engineer is a back-end programmer who develops or configures systems to deliver the require functionality behind the scenes
- Data Analyst - This is a really odd title, but I think what he's describing here is hands-on front-end Web development: gathering content and getting it to the proper format for use, making sure that standards such as file naming conventions are followed.
- Software Tester - Manages the testing process to ensure that the software is functional and usable.
- Marketing Representative - Not documented, but listed on his diagram
- Content Editor - Ditto
He indicates that these are roles rather than people. A single person may fill multiple roles (data analyst/programmer, designer/artist, etc.), and it is not uncommon to have, or develop, overlapping skills, such that an individual may fill different roles in different times for different projects.