Managing Projects the Drupal Way

You're organised, you love spreadsheets, you're a great cheerleader, you handle a backlog with superhero skills, and now you're faced with managing a Drupal project and everything just feels foreign. It's not you, it's Drupal. The mix of site building, front end development, backend development, and over 20,000 contributed modules makes project management for Drupal exceptionally frustrating for people who've not worked with Drupal before.

This session will cover:

the basic Drupal development workflow (from a developer's perspective, but without using developer jargon)
writing useful tickets which developers can accomplish
estimation tips for multi-discipline tickets (design / back end / front end)
ideal team structures -- and what to do if you can't get them
Bring your questions, and bring your experience -- plenty of time will be left for discussion at the end of the session.

Transcript

1. Managing a Project The Drupal Way @emmajanehw drupal.org/user/1773
2. Avoiding project managers is iterative.
 It’s something we developers get better at every time. Adam Culp @adamculp
3. Workflow
4. Workflow Infra-
 structure
5. Workflow Prototype Infra-
 structure
6. Workflow Prototype Component Design Infra-
 structure
7. Workflow Prototype Component Design Component Build Infra-
 structure
8. Workflow Prototype Component Design Component Build Custom Development Infra-
 structure
9. Workflow Prototype Component Design Component Build Custom Development Content Migration Infra-
 structure
10. Workflow Prototype Component Design Component Build Custom Development Content Migration Front End Design Infra-
 structure
11. Workflow Prototype Component Design Component Build Custom Development Content Migration Front End Design Deployment Infra-
 structure
12. Features Content
13. Features Component Content
14. Features Functionality Component Content
15. Layout Features Functionality Component Content
16. Content: nouns • Data model • Entities (types of content) built from Fields • Migration of content into the system
17. Component: adjectives • Extending the content type • Filtered lists -> views • Display formatters
18. Functionality: verbs • Contributed modules • Custom modules
19. Layout • Components into Layouts • Display
20. Features
21. Layout Features
22. Layout Features Functionality
23. Layout Features Functionality Component
24. Layout Features Functionality Component Content
25. Teams are immutable. 
 Every time someone leaves, 
 or joins, you have a new team, 
 not a changed team. Richard Dalton @richardadalton
26. Job Titles • UX • Designer • Content strategist • Site Builder • Backend Developer • Front end Developer • Content Manager • Quality Assurance Testing • Project Manager
27. Team Skills • Peer review • Knowledge sharing • Collaborative research (LMGTFY) • Brainstorming • Rubber ducking • Morale boosting • Accountability
28. Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all. Peter Drucker
29. Writing Useful Tickets • Standardised your format. The 3Cs from Agile work well. Except when they don’t. • Groom the backlog frequently. No matter what tickets you write, you will miss some things, and duplicate others. • Push conversations into tickets. Diagrams, testing notes, conclusions from discussions.
30. Card: 
 Define testable outcomes. • As a ___ I want to ___ so that I ___. • For example: As a user, I want to filter the search results so that I can more easily find people with the verified role assignment.
31. Conversation:
 Provide context • As a project manager, or analyst, be descriptive; not prescriptive. • Provide annotated screen shots; and screen casts of the problem. • Allow for alternate interpretations of the conversation so long as it accomplishes the user story. • Track everything. Get the conversation out of email.
32. Confirmation: Provide testing notes. • Give the step-by-step testing instructions in support of the user story. • Require testing notes and screen shots from the developers.
33. Estimation • Developers know best. But multiply it by 2 (and by 2 again) regardless. • On-boarding takes a week longer than you think it should. • Half way through your project; local environments will mysteriously break (automated upgrades). • The “last mile” takes three weeks longer than it should because of regressions and Features.
34. You can get a great deal done from almost any position in an organisation if you focus on small wins and don’t mind others getting the credit. Roger Saillant
35. Moods are infectious.
36. Tracking a trend requires empirical data.
37. Language matters.
38. Closure is important.
39. Sort for yourself; format for others.
40. Adrenaline is finite.
41. Minor choice makes a major difference.
42. Acknowledgement kindles effort.
43. Moderate what you change; including your moderation.
44. Managing a Project The Drupal Way @emmajanehw