How to Build a Magento Agency - Workshop (Meet Magento Netherlands 2013)

We shared our experiences in various areas of running a business over the last few years and what our ideals are. It was a great opportunity for others to discuss how they work and I think people will agree it was a very productive hour with topics ranging from scoping techniques to when to hire, to development methodologies.

Thanks all that attended, I really appreciated how involved the workshop attendees were.

Workshop held by Tom Robertshaw

Transcript

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2. How to Build a
   Magento Agency
   Tom Robertshaw
   Darren Belding  
   Meanbee
   @bobbyshaw @darrenbelding1 @meanbee
   

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3. Meanbee
   •  Comp Science - University of Bath, UK
   •  First Magento Build in 2008
   •  Graduated in 2011
   

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4. Meanbee
   •  Over 30 Magento builds
   •  Also custom extension development
   •  Certified
   •  Doubling the team size in 2013
   

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5. eCommerce Survey
   

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6. Workshop Aims
   •  Confession: I don’t run the perfect agency
   •  Sharing experiences helps us to grow
   together
   

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7. Workshop Topics
   •  Business Development
   •  Requirements Gathering
   •  Financials
   •  Development
   •  Testing
   •  Deployment
   •  Continuous Integration
   

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8. Workshop Topics
   •  Logs & Exceptions
   •  Project Management
   •  Maintenance
   •  Hiring
   •  Community Involvement
   •  Company Development
   

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9. Business Development
   •  Email/Phone Requests
   •  Questionnaire
   •  Proposals
   •  Contract
   

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10. Requirements Gathering
    •  Balance between completeness and
    effort.
    •  Ideal is to be paid for scoping after initial
    proposal
    

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11. Requirements Gathering
    •  Specific and unambiguous
    •  Living Document
    

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12. Financials
    •  Billing Systems
    – Xero
    – Freeagent
    •  Payment Milestones
    •  Track Time
    

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13. Development
    •  Use an IDE
    – Code Type Hints
    – phpdoc
    •  Code Review
    

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14. Development
    •  Version Control
    – Gitflow
    •  Add static content to DB migrations
    

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15. Development
    •  Keep profiler on
    •  Add profile statements to your code
    

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16. Testing
    •  PHPUnit
    – Clarifies requirements
    •  MageSpec
    •  Cross-browser
    – SauceLabs
    – VMs
    

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17. Deployment
    •  Don’t allow deployed code editable
    •  Auto-deploy to staging
    •  Auto clear cache and re-index
    

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18. Continuous Integration
    •  Automatic Code Checking
    – Lint
    – Mess Detection
    •  Deploys if build passes
    

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19. Logs & Exceptions
    •  Easily search logs with services
    – http://loggly.com/
    – https://papertrailapp.com/
    •  Exception handling with http://airbrake.io/
    •  Avoid touching the production server
    

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20. Project Management
    •  Ticketing System
    – Codebase
    – Jira
    •  Client-focused staff members
    •  Tell client early when project is delayed
    

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21. Project Management
    •  Gantt Charts
    •  Internal and Client Deadlines
    •  Be realistic with estimates
    

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22. Maintenance
    •  Regular Money
    •  Needs to be factored when managing time
    •  Maintained clients are happy clients
    

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23. Hiring
    •  Don’t hire too soon
    •  Don’t hire too late
    •  Surround yourself with people that are
    better than you.
    

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24. Hiring
    •  Make work place attractive
    •  Perceived value of work benefits
    •  Internal/Personal Development Fridays
    

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25. Community Involvement
    •  Help others, in turn they’ll help you
    •  You’ll develop your own skills
    •  It helps build your reputation
    

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26. Company Development
    •  Monthly review
    •  Get Feedback
    •  Be honest
    

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27. Company Development
    •  Focus on your strengths
    •  Delegation
    •  Don’t work, lead.
    

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28. How to Build a
    Magento Agency
    Tom Robertshaw
    tom@meanbee.com
    @bobbyshaw
    Darren Belding
    darren@meanbee.com
    @darrenbelding1
    Meanbee
    @meanbee
    

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