Technologies of the Web 1st

To a certain extent, project management is project management, regardless of the industry. As an
established discipline, project management has its eternal truths, systems that
work no matter what project you're managing. In theory, project management is portable from industry to
industry; however, project management is more than a theory, it's a practice. The project manager's
practice involves communication, problem solving, and decision making, all of which require a solid
technical grasp of the field. Even in the role of facilitator and motivator, the project manager needs
technical knowledge to earn the credibility and respect of team members.
This chapter introduces some of the basic technology underlying websites and website development. It is
meant as a jumping-off point. To those new to website development, this discussion will at least help you
become conversant in the technology and know the sorts of questions you should be asking. It will also
help you identify the gaps in your knowledge. It's up to you to bring yourself up to speed, whether through
outside reading, classes, seminars, or workshops. Project managers of websites often grow into the
position from a specialty within the development process and boast detailed technical knowledge within the
specialty. As for the specialized skills plied by others on the team, they may possess only superficial
familiarity. The systems analyst, for instance, may be an expert on the architecture of a database but may
have no understanding of what the designer has done to prepare image files that go into it.
CLIENT-SERVER SYSTEMS
The Internet is sometimes referred to as a network of networks, a grand and complex system of clients and
servers. In a world where computers and networks are ubiquitous in all sorts of organizations, the terms
client and server are bandied about regularly, but they are not always clearly understood. The operating
premise of a network is that computers are called on to perform specialized tasks.
The client requests and uses a specific service. The server provides the service. The World Wide Web, and
the Internet in general, at its essence is a series of platform-independent network protocols that enable
identification of remote machines, connections between those machines, and the transfer of files back and
forth.
INTERNET PROTOCOLS: HOW FILES TRAVEL THE INTERNET
The many clients and servers that constitute the Internet can cooperate because they speak the same
language. Beneath the many operating systems and software programs working the Internet is a lingua
franca, specifically a series of protocols. For instance, when you surf your way to a new site, your Web
browser is using HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) and a URL (uniform resource locator) to identify a file to
be retrieved. TCP (transmission control protocol) and IP (Internet protocol) route the request to the proper
server.
You can think of the protocols at work in the Internet as a series of layers . Protocols such as
FTP (file transfer protocol) or HTTP work at the application layer. TCP and IP work closely together to
create logical channels to the application layer. Messages are broken into datagrams or packets routed
across networks, then reassembled.