Planning & Managing Drupal Projects Planning And Managing Drupal Projects

If you're a solo website designer or part of a small team itching to build interesting projects with Drupal, this concise guide will get you started. Drupal’s learning curve has thrown off many experienced designers, particularly the way it handles design challenges. This book shows you the lifecycle of a typical Drupal project, with emphasis on the early stages of site planning. Learn how to efficiently estimate and set up your own project, so you can focus on ways to make your vision a reality, rather than let project management details constantly distract you.Plan and estimate your project by discovering your client’s goals and audience perceptions Discover how Drupal works under the hood, and learn basic DrupalSpeak Frame the UX design challenge through a deeper understanding of your site’s intended users Get real content for your project as early as possible—before you start prototyping Choose the right modules for your project, and learn about several go-to modules Understand how to walk clients through the Drupal design and development process Table of Contents 5 Preface 7 Contents of This Book 7 A Caveat 8 Conventions Used in This Book 9 Using Code Examples 9 Safari® Books Online 10 How to Contact Us 10 Acknowledgments 11 About the Author 12 About the Reviewers 12 Chapter 1. Introduction 13 A Quick and Dirty Guide to DrupalSpeakTM 13 Talking to Clients About Drupal 15 Organizing Your Files 17 Lifecycle of a Drupal Project 17 Implementation Plans: Breaking up your work 19 Chapter 2. Setting the Stage: Discovery and User Experience 21 Breaking Down the Project Goals 21 Project Discovery 22 A further note on documents 23 Framing the Design Challenge 23 Getting Your Hands Dirty with UX 24 User Experience: Bringing UX Design to an embedded team 29 Study the organization you’re working with 29 It’s not about looks 30 Let go of the outcome 31 User Experience: Techniques for Drupal 31 Mind mapping 31 User personas 33 User Flows 36 Functional Breakdowns 38 Screen Sketches and Wireframes 39 Wireflows 40 Content Strategy Documents 40 UX Techniques and Drupal: Practical issues to hammer out 40 Go Deeper: User Experience and Project Management 41 Books 41 Websites 41 Chapter 3. Fleshing Things Out: Getting ready to prototype 43 Working with content 43 Trial by fire 46 Working with Content Types: a High-Level Overview 46 Organizing your content 49 Putting this all together 51 Choosing modules 52 So many modules. How do I choose? 52 Go-to modules 53 Pathauto (drupal.org/project/pathauto) 54 Views (drupal.org/project/views) 54 Block Class (drupal.org/block_class) 54 Webform (drupal.org/project/webform) 55 WYSIWYG (drupal.org/project/wysiwyg) 56 Mollom (drupal.org/project/mollom) 56 Oh-So-Nice to Have Modules 56 Field Group (drupal.org/project/field_group) 56 Link (drupal.org/project/link) 57 Media (drupal.org/project/media) 57 References (drupal.org/project/references) 57 View Reference (drupal.org/project/viewreference) 57 Block Reference (drupal.org/project/block_reference) 57 Submitagain (drupal.org/project/submitagain) 58 No, I don’t need this, but ooh, it’s perty! Modules 58 Views Slideshow (drupal.org/project/views_slideshow) 58 Colorbox (drupal.org/project/colorbox) 58 User Points (drupal.org/project/userpoints) 58 A completely incomplete listing 58 Chapter 4. Working with Clients 59 Proposing and Estimating Projects 59 Pre-proposal discovery: what you need to know 59 Pricing a project: Fixed-Bid versus hourly 61 Writing the proposal 62 Getting clients to love you, even when you have to tell them “no” (and what to do if they don’t) 64 That’s easy for you to say... 66 The “Professional Relationship” clause 66 After the Handoff: The project retrospective 67 Including clients in the retrospective 68 Documenting what you learned 69 Documenting for the community 71 Appendix A. Project Brief 73 Hey there! It's nice to meet you. 73 Who are you? 74 About your project 74 Background 75 Goals and Objectives 75 Target Audience 75 Competition 75 Brand attributes 76 Functionality and Technical Requirements 76 For all projects: 76 For print projects: 76 For web projects: 77 Time and money 78 Thanks again! 78 Appendix B. Work Agreement (with Professional Relationship Clause) 79 Work Agreement 79 Terms and Conditions 80 Payment Notes 80 Payment Notes: 80 Professional Relationship 80 Deliverables Timeframe 81 Additional Terms 81 Rejection/Cancellation of Project 81 Modifications 81 Ownership of Artwork 82 Reproduction of Work 82 Author’s Alterations (AA’s) 82 Proofs 83 Completion/Delivery of Project 83 Releases 83 Limitation of Liability 84 Warranty of Originality 84 Appendix C. Project Proposal 85 Project Proposal 85 Section 1.0: Project Background and Objectives 85 Objective 1: Build upon the history of the Founder’s experience with her prior firms to effectively position The Consulting Firm as a leader in environmental compliance information and consulting for technology products. 86 Objective 2: Create a blogging and social media engagement strategy that allows The Founder to more firmly establish thought leadership in the field. 86 Objective 3: Create a website that will serve as a marketing vehicle for The Consulting Firm, and integrate The Founder’s content leadership efforts. 86 Section 2.0: Statement of Work 86 Brand Messaging and Positioning Strategy 86 Blogging, Social Media and Content Strategy 87 Logo and website development 87 Client Responsibilities 87 Section 3.0: Development Process 87 Phase I: Strategy, Goal-setting, Requirements & Research 87 Phase II: Creative Exploration & Design Development 88 Phase III: Implementation and Testing 88 Phase VI: Measure and Refine 88 Section 4.0: Budget Estimate 88 Section 5.0: the zen kitchen Background & Capabilities 89 Section 5.1 Who is the zen kitchen? 89 Section 5.2 What can the zen kitchen do for you? 90 Section 5.3 Why choose the zen kitchen? 90 6.0 Terms and Conditions 90 Payment Notes 91 Payment Notes: 91 Professional Relationship: 91 Deliverables Timeframe 91 Additional Terms 91 Rejection/Cancellation of Project 91 Modifications 92 Ownership of Artwork 92 Reproduction of Work 93 Author’s Alterations (AA’s) 93 Proofs 93 Completion/Delivery of Project 93 Releases 94 Limitation of Liability 94 Warranty of Originality 94 Table of Contents......Page 5 Contents of This Book......Page 7 A Caveat......Page 8 Using Code Examples......Page 9 How to Contact Us......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 11 About the Reviewers......Page 12 A Quick and Dirty Guide to DrupalSpeakTM......Page 13 Talking to Clients About Drupal......Page 15 Lifecycle of a Drupal Project......Page 17 Implementation Plans: Breaking up your work......Page 19 Breaking Down the Project Goals......Page 21 Project Discovery......Page 22 Framing the Design Challenge......Page 23 Getting Your Hands Dirty with UX......Page 24 Study the organization you’re working with......Page 29 It’s not about looks......Page 30 Mind mapping......Page 31 User personas......Page 33 User Flows......Page 36 Functional Breakdowns......Page 38 Screen Sketches and Wireframes......Page 39 UX Techniques and Drupal: Practical issues to hammer out......Page 40 Websites......Page 41 Working with content......Page 43 Working with Content Types: a High-Level Overview......Page 46 Organizing your content......Page 49 Putting this all together......Page 51 So many modules. How do I choose?......Page 52 Go-to modules......Page 53 Block Class (drupal.org/block_class)......Page 54 Webform (drupal.org/project/webform)......Page 55 Field Group (drupal.org/project/field_group)......Page 56 Block Reference (drupal.org/project/block_reference)......Page 57 A completely incomplete listing......Page 58 Pre-proposal discovery: what you need to know......Page 59 Pricing a project: Fixed-Bid versus hourly......Page 61 Writing the proposal......Page 62 Getting clients to love you, even when you have to tell them “no” (and what to do if they don’t)......Page 64 The “Professional Relationship” clause......Page 66 After the Handoff: The project retrospective......Page 67 Including clients in the retrospective......Page 68 Documenting what you learned......Page 69 Documenting for the community......Page 71 Hey there! It's nice to meet you.......Page 73 About your project......Page 74 Competition......Page 75 For print projects:......Page 76 For web projects:......Page 77 Thanks again!......Page 78 Work Agreement......Page 79 Professional Relationship......Page 80 Modifications......Page 81 Author’s Alterations (AA’s)......Page 82 Releases......Page 83 Warranty of Originality......Page 84 Section 1.0: Project Background and Objectives......Page 85 Brand Messaging and Positioning Strategy......Page 86 Phase I: Strategy, Goal-setting, Requirements & Research......Page 87 Section 4.0: Budget Estimate......Page 88 Section 5.1 Who is the zen kitchen?......Page 89 6.0 Terms and Conditions......Page 90 Rejection/Cancellation of Project......Page 91 Ownership of Artwork......Page 92 Completion/Delivery of Project......Page 93 Warranty of Originality......Page 94 If you're a solo website designer or part of a small team itching to build interesting projects with Drupal, this concise guide will get you started. Drupal’s learning curve has thrown off many experienced designers, particularly the way it handles design challenges. This book shows you the lifecycle of a typical Drupal project, with emphasis on the early stages of site planning. Learn how to efficiently estimate and set up your own project, so you can focus on ways to make your vision a reality, rather than let project management details constantly distract you.Plan and estimate your project by discovering your client’s goals and audience perceptionsDiscover how Drupal works under the hood, and learn basic DrupalSpeakFrame the UX design challenge through a deeper understanding of your site’s intended usersGet real content for your project as early as possible—before you start prototypingChoose the right modules for your project, and learn about several go-to modulesUnderstand how to walk clients through the Drupal design and development process Annotation If you're a solo website designer or part of a small team itching to build interesting projects with Drupal, this concise guide will get you started. Drupals learning curve has thrown off many experienced designers, particularly the way it handles design challenges. This book shows you the lifecycle of a typical Drupal project, with emphasis on the early stages of site planning. Learn how to efficiently estimate and set up your own project, so you can focus on ways to make your vision a reality, rather than let project management details constantly distract you. Plan and estimate your project by discovering your clients goals and audience perceptionsDiscover how Drupal works under the hood, and learn basic DrupalSpeakFrame the UX design challenge through a deeper understanding of your sites intended usersGet real content for your project as early as possiblebefore you start prototypingChoose the right modules for your project, and learn about several go-to modulesUnderstand how to walk clients through the Drupal design and development process Provides an overview of how Drupal works, lean UX strategies, and insight on how to plan and manage a Drupal project. Emphasis on the differences between Drupal and creating websites in straight HTML, Wordpress or Flash.