DRUPAL PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Transcription

1 DRUPAL PROCESS MANAGEMENT Table of Contents Drupal Process Management 1 Table of Contents 1 Process Management 2 Classic process: 2 Developer s revenge: 2 Drupal Process Management: 2 Plan 3 Strategic Brief: 3 Kick-Off Meeting: 3 Competitive Analysis: 3 Content Types: 3 Site Map: 4 Wireframe: 4 Design 5 Creative Brief Delivered: 5 Creative Brief Feedback: 5 Homepage Designs Delivered: 5 Design Feedback: 5 Design Revisions and Internal Page: 5 Final Design Feedback: 5 Final Design: 5 Develop 6 Prototype Build: 6 Content Input: 6 Custom Code [As Needed]: 6 Prototype Build Complete: 6 Theming: 6 Verify 7 Train 7 Support 7 This document was derived from notes taken by Alejandro Chaux of UCAR Communications while attending the Drupal Process Management session held at Drupalcon 2009 in Washington, DC. The presentation was given by Drew Gorton of Gorton Studios. The presentation was presented under the Creative Commons license: Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States. 1

2 PROCESS MANAGEMENT Classic process: Plan, Design, Develop, Verify, Launch, Train, and Support. Prior, you had to design prior to developing because the designed was mashed in with the code. Designers really drove the classic process. That is no longer true with CMS. For example, the Intro was an experience pushed by designers, most people wanted to skip the intro. Leads to long term degradation of the site. They don t think about upgrade paths, administrative ease of use, scalability. It s not the designer s strength. Developer s revenge: Develop before design can backfire as well. Leads to long term disinterest. Ends up boxy and clunky in the design. Drupal Process Management: Need to get designers and developers to talk to each other and work in synch with each other. PLAN DESIGN DEVELOP VERIFY ALPHA LAUNCH TRAIN SUPPORT 2

3 Plan STRATEGIC BRIEF: Introduce the organizations to each other, establish big picture goals, and use as an ongoing reference. Led by: Account Exec. For: All Approved by: Client Lead KICK-OFF MEETING: Introduce the teams, get a sense of excitement going, clear project goals, and get client stakeholders talk to each other. If there is more than one stakeholder, there will probably be disagreement, so important to get them all in one room. Be assured they have not talked to each other about the important stuff! Developer team should be listening and give technology recommendations given feedback. If there are disagreement among the stakeholders, this points it out and they have to figure out how to work going forward. Led by: Project manager Attended by: All client stakeholders, Account Exec, Wireframe lead Optionally attended by: Prototype lead (Developer/Configurer), Creative lead (Designer), Verification lead (Detail person) COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: See Wikipedia for a good description. Done by: All Client Stakeholders CONTENT TYPES: Develop a content types documents, ingredients for the site. The document should be relatively low-fi. Example: Partners should have an organization name, image, url, teaser, body, contact information and address. Other things to include are non-cck type info: What is going to appear on the home page, automated by date. Led by: Project Manager or Wireframer Approved by: Client Project Manager 3

4 SITE MAP: Also very low-fi. No need for flow charts. A good site should facilitate connections in many ways, not linear as in an org-chart. Show loose hierarchical structure. Also identify taxonomies to be used. Secondary navigation for site. Led by: Wireframe lead Reviewed by: Project Manager Attended by: Client PM WIREFRAME: Final document in the planning phase. Allows design and development to happen in the same time. Take content types and established organization principles and arrange it on the wireframe page. Emphasize that it is not to scale. Serves as the defining document, starts to define the web site. You can give variations for all the different possible pages that can appear on the site. Define all major types of pages with wireframe example. Led by: Wireframe lead Reviewed by: Project Manager, Design Lead, Development Lead Approved by: Client Project Manager 4

5 Design With wireframe in hand, hit design track running. CREATIVE BRIEF DELIVERED: Describes the design process to the client, what the thought process is. Who is the main audience? Who is the competition? What is unique? What are the key objectives? Design direction: progressive, bold, clean and clear. Once agreed upon, then actual designs. Led by: Design Lead Approved By: Project Manager, Client Project Manager CREATIVE BRIEF FEEDBACK: Once there are designs, there is feedback from the client. Sometimes can be difficult, but and you have a piece of paper, the creative brief, to refer to and keep design on track. What about that, you said it was important during the creative brief??? (CYA) HOMEPAGE DESIGNS DELIVERED: This is tied in with the creative brief feedback. Give a couple of designs that the client can pick from. Having more than one option allows you to pick elements that they like which may be spread across the designs. Led by: Design Lead, Design Team Approved by: Project Manager, Client Project Manager DESIGN FEEDBACK: DESIGN REVISIONS AND INTERNAL PAGE: FINAL DESIGN FEEDBACK: FINAL DESIGN: 5

6 Develop PROTOTYPE BUILD: Site Skeleton o Drupal core o Contrib Favorites o Minimalist theme (Yahoo YUI Reset + Drupal Regulars) o Database development Content types built Wireframe dissected for views Actual Content Entry o Verification o Training Prototype Basically text HTML in blocks. Do not show to client, will probably scare them thinking you are building them a site in MSDos! Led by: Development Lead, Development Team Approved by: Project Manager (Internal Only) Kept Honest By: Verification CONTENT INPUT: CUSTOM CODE [AS NEEDED]: PROTOTYPE BUILD COMPLETE: THEMING: 6

7 After design is finalized (design can continue to be refined as needed): PRESENT ALPHA ALPHA FEEDBACK [LAST] PRESENT BETA LAST OPPORTUNITY FOR FEATURE FEATURE FREEZE BETA FEEDBACK [LAST] COMPLETE BETA FEEDBACK LAUNCH QA LAST OPPORTUNITY FOR CONTENT CHANGE REQUESTS CODE FREEZE/CONTENT FREEZE DELIVER LAUNCH CANDIDATE CLIENT REVIEW LAUNCH TRAINING MANUAL TRAINING Most effort goes into presentation of the Alpha, after that, Beta and Launch should be relatively easy, low pressure events. Verify Train Training materials are essential. You and they should have printed versions that you can refer to when they call with questions. Go to page 7, see the body area? Click on the image icon, select the image, and when done, select post to front page and hit submit Support 7