After the site launches and the project is over, there are two paths: developers and project managers can shake client's hands, pat backs, and all head our separate ways. Or we can continue to build a relationship - continue being a part of our client's success. Strong long-term relationships benefit clients by providing trust and security, like a familiar mechanic or the barber we have had since we were a kid. As merchants, we also benefit. Happy clients mean referrals and recurring income. Offering support is a different type of commitment, requiring a different strategy. A dev shop becomes a different type of service provider, and needs to prepare for great execution. This session will cover the why, how, and when of offering support, as well as exchange ideas about the many aspects: selling, marketing, staffing, delivering and monitoring support for Drupal. Appealing to both the technical and non-technical, topics include: - How to determine what type of support your clients need - Organizing support requests, working within budgets and architecting timelines - Workflow tactics and tools we love - How to audit a site, understand it, and help it grow - Best practices for your support development workflow - Developer notes from the trenches- what you should know and look for Come hear different perspectives on support and join the conversation!

1. Making Support Fun & Profitable
Meghan Sweet, Anne Stefanyk,
Scott Massey, Michelle Krejci
Tuesday May 21, 2pm
Building Bridges, Connecting Communities

2. Introductions
Anne - Supporting the People in Support
Michelle - Onboarding & Auditing for Success
Meghan - Technical Support
Scott - Support Design & Management

3. Who's in the Room?

4. Drupal support is a continuation of building
out the website, adding features, optimizing,
refining and updating.

6. Physical Needs
Clients: issues that
impact their primary
website objective

7. Physical Needs
Clients: issues that
impact their primary
website objective
Developers: need
yummy food, beverages
and a great work
environment

8. Safety & Security
Clients: need to be able to trust you and
communicate effectively with the team

9. Safety & Security
Clients: need to be able to trust you and
communicate effectively with the team
Developers: need a gatekeeper or someone
up the chain to turn to

10. Belonging
Clients: Support routines
help clients relax

11. Belonging
Clients: Support routines
help clients relax
Developers: team
collaboration and collective
learning

12. Esteem Needs
Clients: empowered with
more knowledge &
resources

13. Esteem Needs
Clients: empowered with
more knowledge &
resources
Developers: empowered by
solving hard problems and
working autonomously

14. Actualization
When support heads
towards stress free,
calm work...
support becomes
fun and profitable

16. The CHAOS report
Survey of 365 IT managers found that
of all projects:
- 16% successful
- 31% were impaired or cancelled
- 53% were deemed "project challenged"

17. The
WYSIWYG
Theme

18. - Content not available to Drupal, which
likes to manage that sort of thing.
- Does not scale.
- Theme lives inside content editor's head.
QUICK CHECK:
turn off the WYSIWYG and see what
happens.

19. Hide
&
Seek
PHP

20. - Cannot cache.
- Cannot easily trace.
- Does not export well.
QUICK CHECK:
turn off PHP filtering

21. Secret
Mission
Modules

22. If it is not immediately clear
what a custom module does,
it could mean a black hole
of support.
QUICK CHECK:
Sorry, there's not.
Run some scripts that check for complexity
and best practices.
Then try good 'ole looking at the code.

23. The
Codebase
Hoarder

24. Uh oh.
This developer never read any
documentation ever.
Proceed with caution.
QUICK CHECK:
Look at what modules are enabled,
see if you can find them.

26. Yes. Yes, we do.

28. Until then...
Look for shops or contractors with a View-toSupport mentality.
Have one yourself.
Put all config in code:
- Features
- Configuration
- Role Export, Block Export, Strongarm, etc.
Test your shit.

29. "Given enough
eyeballs,
all bugs are
shallow."

30. Prevention is Better than Cure

31. Drupal is an ecosystem

32. Drupal is an ecosystem
Its dynamic.
Timelines, budgets, servers,
core/contrib, team's abilities.
Deal with what you have and don't have
Stretching it only makes it worse later.

33. 10 Drupal Diseases

34. 10 Drupal Diseases
01. Overriding your overrides
02. Abandoning modular structure
03. Adding more hastily
04. Coding rather than training
05. Scattering code

35. 10 Drupal Diseases
06. Features without a workflow
07. Patching without sharing
08. Not leaving a trail
09. High coupling
10. Ignoring api.drupal.org

36. Non-invasive procedures
Follow the established
development philosophy
Play to your strengths and
client's true needs
Escalate when needed

37. Moral compass of technical
decision making
What is sustainable?
Avoid technical debt
Both sites of the continuum are
right / wrong sometimes

38. Response time
Most of response time is figuring out
what's broken.
Can I reproduce this reliability?
Analyze causes/effects.
Propose solution. Analyze cost/benefit.

39. Deployment
Keep it simple, keep it sane.
Ideally your whole team can
deploy.
Drush aliases and ssh config
for the win.

40. Keep it simple.
If it can't be simple, make it
very clear.

42. Run the table.
Don't let it run
you.

43. 5 "P"s
Proper
Planning
Prevents
Poor
Performance

44. The 3 "R"s: Read it, wRite it, Repeat it.

45. Support Design
ITIL/ITSM
-Strategy
-Design
-Transition
-Operation
-Continual Improvement
"Build Quality into the process."
-W Edward Deming

46. Design Specifics
“Do nothing that is of no use”
-Miyamoto Musashi
-No PM Workflow
-Can your SE draw the process?
-Get a PSA application
-Monitor & Automate

47. Contract Design
-Deliverables are "achievables"
-Risk is your guide for agreement type.
-Templates, not snowflakes
(menu: the vortex in atlanta)

48. Building a Successful Brigade
-Empower Team
-Don't ignore burnout

49. Lightning Round & Questions
1. What do you love about support?
2. "I would do anything for [client] love, but I
won't do that."
3. What is your most awesome/needed tool?
4. What is your biggest challenge/success?

50. What did you think?
Evaluate this session at:portland2013.drupal.org/
session/making-support-fun-and-profitableThank
you!
Building Bridges, Connecting Communities