Professional CodeIgniter®

2.4. Gather Your Requirements While You May

For the purposes of this book, you are working with a hypothetical customer who wants to build an eCommerce site. That's really all you know when you agree to meet with the customer. The customer's name is Claudia, and she runs a thriving retail store devoted to "all things kids." She only has a very basic web presence that gives the name of the store (Claudia's Kids) and some basic contact information. This is not a lot to go on, which is OK, because, unlike when using predictive methodologies, you want to adapt to the customer's needs.

2.4.1. The First Day

When you meet Claudia, she turns out to be an energetic 30-something who started her retail store 4 years before. The store was funded in part with credit cards, the severance from the high-tech job she was laid off from, and a loan from various friends and family. It took almost 2 years for her to claw out a decent profit in the store, but by catering to a specific market (moms who would pay anything to provide their kids with branded clothes and toys), Claudia has made a success of it.

Claudia's pretty sure it's time to expand. It didn't take long for her phenomenal growth to flatten out, but there isn't enough money coming in to expand to a second brick-and-mortar store. Nor does she feel comfortable with the costs associated with a mail order catalog. This is where you and CodeIgniter come in. Although she has no idea how to code an eCommerce site, she knows that a transactional ...