Strategic

• Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. Their mission is to "improve the competitiveness and performance of U.S. organizations". Getting there is considered to be one of the most challenging but beneficial undertakings of organizations that have been honored with this distinction. Criteria are built upon a set of 7 core values essential to any team or undertaking whether professional or not including development of a website or page.


• International Organization for Standards (ISO). ISO is an international body maintaining standards for businesses, governments, and society itself. Standards are the backbone of communication and transmission of knowledge / expectations. Clear communication of expectations to a team is a cornerstone of any operation. Many aspects of ISO will be beneficial to your website.

Tactical

• Database. Many websites are tied to some sort of database. We prefer MySQL which is considered to be the world's most popular open source database. And a great resource we've enjoyed is "MySQL - Your Visual Blueprint to Open Source Database Management" by Michael Moncur because it has practical solutions to commonly encountered needs. There's also a massive resource online at mysql.com.


• HTML. Pretty much every website developer needs to know HTML. It's a simple mark-up language so sometimes taken for granted, but you must know it. One of our favorite resources is "Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 24 Hours" by Dick Oliver and Molly Holzschlag. There are also many HTML tutorials online.


• PERL and CGI. Finally, you'll need a way to connect your HTML front-end with the database. We like to use PERL and CGI, and a resource commonly utilized is "PERL and CGI for the World Wide Web" by Eilzabeth Castro which shows exactly how to handle common programming tasks. We prefer this over other texts that seem to ramble on about theory and so on.