Achieve Digital Excellence With Axelerant’s Tailored Web Platform Audits

Introduction

According to a study by Deloitte, a mere 0.1 second improvement in retail website speed can raise conversion by 8.4% and lower bounce rates by 5.7%.

Both of these improvements will further enhance digital experiences, leading to better customer satisfaction and overall business growth.

But to maintain a high-performing, secure web platform, organizations need to conduct reliable and regular audits.

Axelerant’s web platform audits provide actionable insights, ensuring immediate improvements and long-term success.

Why Should You Conduct A Web Platform Audit? 

Even the most well-designed sites can develop issues over time due to outdated code, security vulnerabilities, or changes in user behavior. Regular audits help identify these issues early, allowing organizations to address them before they become significant problems.

Audits also offer a fresh perspective on the platform, revealing gaps that may have been overlooked during routine maintenance.

By performing a web platform audit, organizations can achieve: 

• Strategic alignment of the platform with key business objectives. This helps ensure measurable success and long-term growth, thereby future-proofing the web platform for continuous growth.
• Engineering-focused overview of the platform's architecture.
• MoSCoW-prioritized recommendations for a clear action roadmap.
• Identification of documentation gaps with actionable items for smoother maintenance. 
• Custom code recommendations focusing on security, performance, and industry standards.
• Infrastructure enhancements that boost efficiency while driving down costs.
• Proactive identification of risks on critical business paths.
• Highlighting automation opportunities to enhance quality assurance.
• Recommendations that will improve the performance of the site.
• Recommendations to boost efficiency and improve daily operational effectiveness.
  

The experts at Axelerant use a reference baseline to provide these web audit recommendations.

How Axelerant Performs A Web Platform Audit

The steps followed by the experts at Axelerant during a web platform audit are mentioned below.

Step 1: Finalizing The Audit Scope

The audit is tailored to the client's current priorities as outlined in their Continuous Development and Maintenance (CDM) package.

• For clients in the Sustain package, the focus is on ensuring platform stability during transitions. 
• In the Elevate package, the goal is to strengthen the foundation for improved user experiences. 
• In the Thrive package, the emphasis is on driving continuous innovation for peak performance.

While the default audit covers the web platform, infrastructure, and related systems, the team also assesses any additional needs, such as targeted infrastructure audits for self-managed environments like AWS or GCP.

Explore Axelerant's Continuous Development and Maintenance (CDM) packages

Step 2: Timing The Audit

Axelerant’s experts carefully determine the optimal timing for the platform audit by considering several critical factors.

• Key Timeframes: Analyzing whether there is any specific time frame that necessitates the audit. These time frames can include a vendor transition, an evaluation of the current platform, or the onset of major site changes.
• Existing Challenges: Accounting for known significant issues that make site maintenance difficult and highlight the need for an immediate audit.

By considering these factors, Axelerant delivers a thoroughly planned audit. This ensures impactful results and a strong foundation for the business's future.

Step 3: Establishing An Audit Workflow

With the scope and timeline established, it's crucial to begin gathering data to ensure a seamless audit process. Axelerant’s predefined audit template serves as the foundation for this critical initial phase.

Axelerant’s Audit Template

Axelerant’s audit template is meticulously crafted to equip the team with the right tools and structure to effectively initiate the platform audit. This template forms the backbone of the audit outline and serves as the first draft, ensuring that all major aspects of the platform are thoroughly examined.

The audit template also provides a comprehensive starting point, laying the groundwork for the customized approach that follows. The following areas are covered in the audit.

• Executive Summary

This section summarizes key findings, aligning the audit with the business and engineering setup. It covers critical short and long-term recommendations to inform strategic actions. This allows stakeholders to quickly grasp high-level issues and actions needed.

• Detailed Audit Report

The detailed audit report provides two types of documentation. 

• Technical Documentation: This section reviews the adequacy of technical resources to help developers understand the system's architecture and core components.
• Business Documentation: This section assesses how well business processes and workflows are documented to align the technical and business teams.

• Site Audit

The following steps are followed for completing the site audit.

1. Generating Automated Reports

The team starts the web platform audits with automated reports tailored to the specific tech stack in use. For example, in Drupal, tools such as Site Audit, Unused Modules, Security Review, and Hacked are used to generate initial insights.

These reports are backed by Axelerant's code quality checker, offering a thorough analysis of the system’s performance, security, and overall code health.

2. Generating Custom Code Reports

Next, the team works on creating the custom code reports, where experts identify deeper issues such as missed coding standards, security vulnerabilities, improper configurations, unoptimized code, deprecated elements, and redundant comments.

These factors not only hinder system performance but also increase operational inefficiency and technical challenges.

3. Identifying Additional Vulnerabilities

Axelerant’s experts also assess the platform’s security by checking for necessary patches and identifying vulnerabilities. The website’s performance is evaluated by using Google PageSpeed scores. These scores are used to provide device-specific optimization recommendations.

The audit also covers server infrastructure, where the team reviews the hosting setup and offers actionable suggestions to improve deployment efficiency and overall system resilience.

4. Conducting A Manual Site Review

The experts conduct a manual site review to uncover issues from an end-user perspective to ensure that the platform delivers an optimal experience. This includes recommendations for essential improvements, quick fixes, and "nice-to-have" features.

The platform’s readiness for the next major version upgrade is also assessed.

5. Reviewing Past Releases

Finally, past releases, identifying bugs and recurring issues that could impede future development are reviewed. This process not only helps in resolving present challenges but also lays the groundwork for more sustainable and efficient development practices in the future.

• Engineering Baseline

The Engineering Baseline review is a thorough assessment of key engineering practices and their health, ensuring that projects meet quality, reliability, and scalability standards. It aligns closely with the guidance provided in Axelerant's Engineering Handbook.

It evaluates each of the audit template components from an engineering perspective and identifies areas of improvement to maintain engineering excellence across the platform.

Step 4: Review Past Audits

The final part of the audit is review of past audits to ensure those findings are also accounted for in the report.

Next Step: A Formal Audit Walkthrough

Axelerant’s experts provide a formal walkthrough to the client. This walkthrough goes beyond the written report, offering insights into the approach and the thorough care taken to address the specific needs.

The team ensures that all questions related to the audit are thoroughly answered, and they actively seek feedback to align with the findings. This collaborative approach allows our experts to refine the audit results and prioritize backlog items based on their importance.

It also helps determine if any area, like Accessibility, UX, or SEO, requires more in-depth analysis.

Unlock Your Web Platform’s Full Potential With Axelerant’s Customized Audits

Conducting a web platform audit is not just a routine check, it's a strategic investment in your business’s resilience and long-term success.

Axelerant’s Audit Customizations

Customization makes each audit unique, transforming it from a standard checklist into a bespoke evaluation aligned with the client's specific needs. 

The experts at Axelerant tailor the audit based on several key factors.

• Business Alignment: The audit outcomes are aligned with the identified business priority.

• Future-Proofing: If a redesign or major revamp is planned post-transition, the experts assess whether the code adheres to the ETC principle (easy to change) for those sections.

• Critical Areas: The team identifies and scrutinizes the critical parts of the platform essential for the business, addressing any vulnerabilities or weaknesses.

• Strategic Fit: An evaluation of whether the platform is robust enough to support the business objectives and roadmap for the next 6 to 12 months is done.

• Tech Stack Relevance: The audit’s focus is adjusted to prioritize elements that matter most to the web platform’s specific tech stack.

Once these customizations are designed, the experts collaborate internally with all stakeholders to ensure they align with the audits’ objectives. After alignment, the audit outline is updated to incorporate the identified customizations.

Whether your focus is on maintaining stability, elevating the user experience, or driving efficiency and innovation, our thorough approach ensures that your platform is not only meeting today's requirements but is also ready to support your future growth. 

Reach out to the experts at Axelerant to know more about our web platform audit services.