Planning and Managing Drupal Projects

Planning and Managing Drupal Projects

by Dani Nordin
Released September 2011
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9781449317102

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Book description

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

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Table of contents

  1. Planning and Managing Drupal Projects
    1. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
    2. Preface
      1. Contents of This Book
      2. A Caveat
      3. Conventions Used in This Book
      4. Using Code Examples
      5. Safari® Books Online
      6. How to Contact Us
      7. Acknowledgments
      8. About the Author
      9. About the Reviewers
    3. 1. Introduction
      1. A Quick and Dirty Guide to DrupalSpeak™
      2. Talking to Clients About Drupal
      3. Organizing Your Files
      4. Lifecycle of a Drupal Project
      5. Implementation Plans: Breaking up your work
    4. 2. Setting the Stage: Discovery and User Experience
      1. Breaking Down the Project Goals
      2. Project Discovery
        1. A further note on documents
      3. Framing the Design Challenge
      4. Getting Your Hands Dirty with UX
      5. User Experience: Bringing UX Design to an embedded team
        1. Study the organization you’re working with
        2. It’s not about looks
        3. Let go of the outcome
      6. User Experience: Techniques for Drupal
        1. Mind mapping
        2. User personas
        3. User Flows
        4. Functional Breakdowns
        5. Screen Sketches and Wireframes
        6. Wireflows
        7. Content Strategy Documents
      7. UX Techniques and Drupal: Practical issues to hammer out
      8. Go Deeper: User Experience and Project Management
        1. Books
        2. Websites
    5. 3. Fleshing Things Out: Getting ready to prototype
      1. Working with content
      2. Trial by fire
      3. Working with Content Types: a High-Level Overview
        1. Organizing your content
      4. Putting this all together
      5. Choosing modules
        1. So many modules. How do I choose?
        2. Go-to modules
          1. Pathauto (drupal.org/project/pathauto)
          2. Views (drupal.org/project/views)
          3. Block Class (drupal.org/block_class)
          4. Webform (drupal.org/project/webform)
          5. WYSIWYG (drupal.org/project/wysiwyg)
          6. Mollom (drupal.org/project/mollom)
        3. Oh-So-Nice to Have Modules
          1. Field Group (drupal.org/project/field_group)
          2. Link (drupal.org/project/link)
          3. Media (drupal.org/project/media)
          4. References (drupal.org/project/references)
          5. View Reference (drupal.org/project/viewreference)
          6. Block Reference (drupal.org/project/block_reference)
          7. Submitagain (drupal.org/project/submitagain)
        4. No, I don’t need this, but ooh, it’s perty! Modules
          1. Views Slideshow (drupal.org/project/views_slideshow)
          2. Colorbox (drupal.org/project/colorbox)
          3. User Points (drupal.org/project/userpoints)
        5. A completely incomplete listing
    6. 4. Working with Clients
      1. Proposing and Estimating Projects
        1. Pre-proposal discovery: what you need to know
        2. Pricing a project: Fixed-Bid versus hourly
        3. Writing the proposal
        4. Getting clients to love you, even when you have to tell them “no” (and what to do if they don’t)
          1. That’s easy for you to say...
        5. The “Professional Relationship” clause
      2. After the Handoff: The project retrospective
        1. Including clients in the retrospective
        2. Documenting what you learned
        3. Documenting for the community
    7. A. Project Brief
      1. Hey there! It's nice to meet you.
        1. Who are you?
        2. About your project
        3. Background
        4. Goals and Objectives
        5. Target Audience
        6. Competition
        7. Brand attributes
        8. Functionality and Technical Requirements
          1. For all projects:
          2. For print projects:
          3. For web projects:
        9. Time and money
        10. Thanks again!
    8. B. Work Agreement (with Professional Relationship Clause)
      1. Work Agreement
      2. Terms and Conditions
      3. Payment Notes
        1. Payment Notes:
        2. Professional Relationship
        3. Deliverables Timeframe
      4. Additional Terms
        1. Rejection/Cancellation of Project
        2. Modifications
        3. Ownership of Artwork
        4. Reproduction of Work
        5. Author’s Alterations (AA’s)
        6. Proofs
        7. Completion/Delivery of Project
        8. Releases
        9. Limitation of Liability
        10. Warranty of Originality
    9. C. Project Proposal
      1. Project Proposal
      2. Section 1.0: Project Background and Objectives
        1. 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.
        2. Objective 2: Create a blogging and social media engagement strategy that allows The Founder to more firmly establish thought leadership in the field.
        3. Objective 3: Create a website that will serve as a marketing vehicle for The Consulting Firm, and integrate The Founder’s content leadership efforts.
      3. Section 2.0: Statement of Work
        1. Brand Messaging and Positioning Strategy
        2. Blogging, Social Media and Content Strategy
        3. Logo and website development
        4. Client Responsibilities
      4. Section 3.0: Development Process
        1. Phase I: Strategy, Goal-setting, Requirements & Research
        2. Phase II: Creative Exploration & Design Development
        3. Phase III: Implementation and Testing
        4. Phase VI: Measure and Refine
      5. Section 4.0: Budget Estimate
      6. Section 5.0: the zen kitchen Background & Capabilities
        1. Section 5.1 Who is the zen kitchen?
        2. Section 5.2 What can the zen kitchen do for you?
        3. Section 5.3 Why choose the zen kitchen?
      7. 6.0 Terms and Conditions
        1. Payment Notes
        2. Payment Notes:
        3. Professional Relationship:
        4. Deliverables Timeframe
        5. Additional Terms
          1. Rejection/Cancellation of Project
          2. Modifications
          3. Ownership of Artwork
          4. Reproduction of Work
          5. Author’s Alterations (AA’s)
          6. Proofs
          7. Completion/Delivery of Project
          8. Releases
          9. Limitation of Liability
          10. Warranty of Originality
    10. About the Author
    11. Colophon
    12. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly

Product information

  • Title: Planning and Managing Drupal Projects
  • Author(s): Dani Nordin
  • Release date: September 2011
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449317102