1 ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary Chris Urban Manager, Professional Services Large Scale Drupal Projects Successes & Challenges
1 ©2016 Acquia Inc. — Confidential and Proprietary
Chris UrbanManager, Professional Services
Large Scale Drupal ProjectsSuccesses & Challenges
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– Introduction and Background– Walkthrough notes from many large-scale
projects– Compare challenges and solutions– Review of Lessons learned
Agenda
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General Assumptions– Agile Workflow
– Iterative development
– Scrum or standup– Boards and tickets– Grooming– Planning
– Process Management– Scrum Master– Project Manager
– Project Evolution– Updates to
documentation– Evolving process
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– Multiple initiatives– Multiple partners and/or globally distributed
teams
What makes a project “large scale”?
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Multiple Product Owners
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Multiple Stakeholders
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Getting to be more Agile– Consider Agile workshops – Practice writing user stories– Use sub-tasks and tasks for reminders and non-
development based tasks
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Regular communication is a key for a successful project
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Communication/Process– Start with an Agile Workflow and
Process– How much is too much?
– Additional ceremonies– Release Planning (Product
Backlog Refinement)– Backlog Pruning
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Development Workflow– Clear roles and ownership of states are defined– Changes accounting for BBD testing– Additional states/transitions for larger clients
needed
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Daily Scrum– Worked on, Working on next– Blockers, requests for Discussions– Work/life balance or Temperature score– Larger groups = longer standup calls– Automate and focus on what’s important
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Sprint Planning– Serves as marker in time and common starting
point– Sprint Priorities– Key Feature Summaries– Measure Results absolutely
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Good Team Management is a key for a successful project
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Working with delivery teams– central ticketing if possible is ideal– creation of tickets in JIRA via email– creation of tickets in JIRA in Slack or HipChat
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Working with Continuous Delivery teams– use a Maintenance backlog team– use a UX bugs and issues team– have developers contribute to a developer
backlog and groom and pull in tickets
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Working with Support teams– Use as infrastructure resource – Accommodate Server upgrades and 404
mitigation
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Documentation: takes emotion out of the equation
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Documentation– Team Contacts and Developers Roster– Sprint ceremonies– RACI– Top level process workflow & expectations
– JIRA Workflow and transitions– Spikes vs Tracer Bullets– Hotfixes
– Developer documentation
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Documentation and Process Tips– Confluence– Google Drive– JIRA
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If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
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Project Level Tools– Google Docs– Confluence– JIRA– GitHub Wiki, Other wikis– Excel, Powerpoint– Email, VOIP– Chat:
– Skype– Slack
– HipChat– Others: Ryver, Fleep
– screenshare/conf call software: – join.me– GoToMeeting– Webex– Zoom
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Development & Sprint Tools– Planning:
– Aha!– Asana/Instagantt
– Pointing poker– pointingpoker.com– play.planningpoker.c
om
– Charting - Visio, Omnigraffle, draw.io
– Whiteboard - awwapp.com
– Acquia Dev Desktop
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Different tools for different teams?– How are tools used differently with multiple
teams/groups/multiple partners?– scheduling– language
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Worst case scenarios– Sudden client staff changes– Key personnel staff get sick/hit
by bus at same time– Client apathy– Client not able to make timely
decisions
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– Successful teams communicate regularly– Successful teams know who is responsible for
what– Successful teams know where to look for answers
What did we learn?
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Thank You