Discover a strategy for ensuring successful outcomes of WordPress projects of any size. In addition to being a powerful Blogging Platform and Content Management System, WordPress is an incredible development framework allowing you to use thousands of existing tools (plugins) to speed the development of your projects.
This session will quickly review common Project Management strategies, as well as go more in depth into how expanding your knowledge of WordPress will require you to change some of those existing practices. I will not be promoting any specific methodology (Waterfall, Agile etc), however there are of course vital components of each that are necessary for completing a project.
The most important step in ensuring a successful project is defining what success actually means to the stakeholders. This session will be successful if everyone leaves with the understanding of how outcomes of past projects could have been changed, or at least one thing they’ll change in future projects.
Intended audience:
This session is geared towards anyone who is ready to start a WordPress project or towards those coming off a not-so-successful one. Project Leads, Project Managers, WordPress business owners, Business Analysts, or anyone involved in managing or constructing WordPress project teams.
6. INTRODUCTION
■ Matthew Dorman
■ Background in Development / Computer Science
■ Run the Open Source Practice at NorthPoint
■ Projects Managed (not all WordPress):
2
7. INTRODUCTION
■ Matthew Dorman
■ Background in Development / Computer Science
■ Run the Open Source Practice at NorthPoint
■ Projects Managed (not all WordPress):
2
30. SET SOME STANDARDS
■ Use Source / Version Control System
■ Code Reviews / Local Environments
6
31. SET SOME STANDARDS
■ Use Source / Version Control System
■ Code Reviews / Local Environments
■ Performance Metrics
6
32. SET SOME STANDARDS
■ Use Source / Version Control System
■ Code Reviews / Local Environments
■ Performance Metrics
■ Leverage WordPress’ API Library
6
33. SET SOME STANDARDS
■ Use Source / Version Control System
■ Code Reviews / Local Environments
■ Performance Metrics
■ Leverage WordPress’ API Library
■ Reduce / Eliminate Custom SQL
queries
6
34. SET SOME STANDARDS
■ Use Source / Version Control System
■ Code Reviews / Local Environments
■ Performance Metrics
■ Leverage WordPress’ API Library
■ Reduce / Eliminate Custom SQL
queries
■ Plugin Review Process
6
47. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Before Project Begins
■ What is the launch date? What is driving that date?
9
48. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Before Project Begins
■ What is the launch date? What is driving that date?
■ What are the business goals and drivers for the project?
9
49. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Before Project Begins
■ What is the launch date? What is driving that date?
■ What are the business goals and drivers for the project?
■ How many resources do I have, how much money?
9
50. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Before Project Begins
■ What is the launch date? What is driving that date?
■ What are the business goals and drivers for the project?
■ How many resources do I have, how much money?
■ Who edits or maintains the site now, and have they used a CMS
before?
9
51. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Before Project Begins
■ What is the launch date? What is driving that date?
■ What are the business goals and drivers for the project?
■ How many resources do I have, how much money?
■ Who edits or maintains the site now, and have they used a CMS
before?
■ Is there an easier solution?
9
52. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Before Project Begins
■ What is the launch date? What is driving that date?
■ What are the business goals and drivers for the project?
■ How many resources do I have, how much money?
■ Who edits or maintains the site now, and have they used a CMS
before?
■ Is there an easier solution?
■ Where are we hosting?
9
53. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Before Project Begins
■ What is the launch date? What is driving that date?
■ What are the business goals and drivers for the project?
■ How many resources do I have, how much money?
■ Who edits or maintains the site now, and have they used a CMS
before?
■ Is there an easier solution?
■ Where are we hosting?
■ When will designs be final?
9
56. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ While Project is Running
■ What are my teams blockers, and how are they affecting the
schedule?
10
57. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ While Project is Running
■ What are my teams blockers, and how are they affecting the
schedule?
■ Where can I get a list of all the current site URLs?
10
58. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ While Project is Running
■ What are my teams blockers, and how are they affecting the
schedule?
■ Where can I get a list of all the current site URLs?
■ Do we really need X number of plugins to do this piece of
functionality?
10
59. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ While Project is Running
■ What are my teams blockers, and how are they affecting the
schedule?
■ Where can I get a list of all the current site URLs?
■ Do we really need X number of plugins to do this piece of
functionality?
■ That plugin is still in (dev/alpha/beta), do we have time to fix
10
62. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Launch Planning
■ What is our rollback plan, has it been tested?
11
63. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Launch Planning
■ What is our rollback plan, has it been tested?
■ What is our cutover plan? Who is responsible for each step?
11
64. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Launch Planning
■ What is our rollback plan, has it been tested?
■ What is our cutover plan? Who is responsible for each step?
■ How long is the TTL on the domain?
11
65. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Launch Planning
■ What is our rollback plan, has it been tested?
■ What is our cutover plan? Who is responsible for each step?
■ How long is the TTL on the domain?
■ What does our robots.txt file look like?
11
66. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Launch Planning
■ What is our rollback plan, has it been tested?
■ What is our cutover plan? Who is responsible for each step?
■ How long is the TTL on the domain?
■ What does our robots.txt file look like?
■ What is team member [1-N]'s contact information.
11
67. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ Launch Planning
■ What is our rollback plan, has it been tested?
■ What is our cutover plan? Who is responsible for each step?
■ How long is the TTL on the domain?
■ What does our robots.txt file look like?
■ What is team member [1-N]'s contact information.
■ Who is making sure the beer stays cold?
11
70. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ After Launch
■ Did we meet our success criteria?
12
71. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ After Launch
■ Did we meet our success criteria?
■ What could we have done better as a team?
12
72. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ After Launch
■ Did we meet our success criteria?
■ What could we have done better as a team?
■ What could we have done better as an individual?
12
73. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ After Launch
■ Did we meet our success criteria?
■ What could we have done better as a team?
■ What could we have done better as an individual?
■ Who is tracking 404s or other errors?
12
74. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ After Launch
■ Did we meet our success criteria?
■ What could we have done better as a team?
■ What could we have done better as an individual?
■ Who is tracking 404s or other errors?
■ How do our metrics look?
12
75. QUESTIONS TO GET ANSWERED
■ After Launch
■ Did we meet our success criteria?
■ What could we have done better as a team?
■ What could we have done better as an individual?
■ Who is tracking 404s or other errors?
■ How do our metrics look?
■ Traffic, bandwidth, SEO, etc.
12