Managing Projects the Drupal Way (in Ireland)

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

Updated from DrupalCamp London to include the truisms I've learned about being a first-time project manager.

Transcript

1. Managing a Project The Drupal Way @emmajanehw drupal.org/user/1773
2. The best place to learn software development is in the Drupal community. Disclaimer.
3. The worst place to learn how to build a site with Drupal is the issue queue. (Another) Disclaimer
4. Avoiding project managers is iterative.
 It’s something we developers get better at every time. @adamculp
8. Drupal PM Survival Guide 1. Foster collaborative, cross-functional teams
 who stay with you for the entire project. 2. Find your gremlins sooner by deploying features
 from start to finish. 3. Build re-usable components, 
 and all their variants, from content “out”. 4. Emulate the drupal.org issue queue.
9. 1. Foster collaborative, cross-functional teams who stay with you for the entire project. Managing Projects the Drupal Way
10. Teams are immutable. 
 Every time someone leaves, or joins, 
 you have a new team, 
 not a changed team. @richardadalton
11. Be aware of job titles.
12. Web Projects • UX • Designer • Content Strategist • Backend Developer • Front End Developer Supportive Roles • Business Analyst • Project Manager • Quality Assurance • DevOps / Sysadmin Client-Side • Product Owner • Content Manager Drupal-Specific • Site Builder • Themer
13. Foster strong teams.
14. Moods are infectious. Project management truism.
15. Acknowledgement
 kindles effort. Project management truism.
16. Language matters. Project management truism.
17. Minor choice makes a major difference. Project management truism.
18. 2. Find your gremlins sooner
 by deploying features
 from start to finish. Managing Projects the Drupal Way
19. Prototype Component Design Component Build Custom Development Content Migration Theming Deployment Infra-
 structure
20. How long? • Developers know best. 
 But multiply it by 2 (and by 2 again). • On-boarding takes a week longer 
 than you think it should. • Sprints of 1-2 weeks are generally “about right”. • Half way through your project; 
 local environments will mysteriously break. • The “last mile” takes three weeks longer 
 than it should because of regressions and Features.
21. Adrenaline is finite. Project management truism.
22. Closure is important. Project management truism.
23. 3. Build re-usable components, and all their variants, from content “out”. Managing Projects the Drupal Way
24. Layout Functionality Component Content
25. 4. Emulate (some parts)
 of the drupal.org
 issue queue. Managing Projects the Drupal Way
26. Card: 
 Define testable outcomes.
 Demonstrate business value.
27. 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.
28. Conversation:
 Centralise, and be flexible.
29. Confirmation: Test, test, and test again.
30. Sort for yourself;
 format for others. Project management truism.
31. Moderate what you change; including your moderation. Project management truism.
32. Drupal PM Survival Guide 1. Foster collaborative, cross-functional teams
 who stay with you for the entire project. 2. Find your gremlins sooner by deploying features
 from start to finish. 3. Build re-usable components, 
 and all their variants, from content “out”. 4. Emulate the drupal.org issue queue.
33. Resources • A Developer’s Primer To Managing Developers
 https://austin2014.drupal.org/session/developers-primer-managing-developers.html • Things I Learned From Managing my First Project
 https://drupalize.me/blog/201312/things-i-learned-managing-my-first-project • Avoiding the Git of Despair
 https://events.drupal.org/losangeles2015/sessions/avoiding-git- despair • Git for Teams
 http://www.gitforteams.com
34. Books • User Story Mapping -- Jeff Patton • Agile Product Management with Scrum -- Roman Pichler • Essential Scrum -- Kenneth Rubin • Scrum Shortcuts -- Ilan Goldstein • Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your User Stories -- Gojko Adzic • User Stories Applied -- Mike Cohn
35. Managing a Project The Drupal Way @emmajanehw www.gitforteams.com