Simple process for PHP projects

In this section, we will look into a process model that we can use as a starting point for the PHP projects that we are working on. The process is designed with the MVC framework based design model in mind, which we have discussed in the previous chapter. It is assumed that the workload is broken down based on the Model-View-Controller pattern, and team members are assigned to work on each layer based on that breakdown.

The process model clearly depicts how the separate concerns such as the data layer, the business layer, and the presentation layer can be worked on in parallel, and at the same time, how those separate concerns fit with each other to form the entire system. If you carefully evaluate this process model, there is no activity for system integration. So one might question how the separate layers would be integrated with each other. However, if you pay attention to the design and implementation details of each layer, you will notice the dependencies mentioned in each layer, which lead to the integration. For example, business logic implementation requires the concrete database design, as well as the data access layer. The final user interface implementation would be done on top of the business logic implementation. Therefore, the integration of these independent layers happens seamlessly, along the way, in the process. If the team follows the process as it is, the integration would result in naturally.