Symetris conference given at DrupalCamp Ottawa 2016 outlining the important things to note when tackling a medium-sized project. Some projects aren't large enough to be considered big/complex, but aren't small enough to be considered easy/simple!

1. Different approaches for
different scopes:
How to tackle a
medium-sized Drupal project
Drupal Camp Ottawa 2016 – Symetris.ca

2. Unlock your web potential
with Symetris
***
• Founded in 2004 – already more than 12
years!
• 14 web specialists
• Experts in open-source CMS platforms

3. Our team!

4. Our team!
• 14 Web Specialists
• 3 Account Managers
• 3 Project Managers
• 8 Developers (50% Acquia certified)

5. Kyle Serebour
Web Developer
Matthieu Gadrat
Web Developer
About us

6. Agenda
1. Objectives of the conference
2. Measuring the scale of a project
3. Impacts of a medium scale project
4. Recommendations and best practices
5. Questions

7. 1. OBJECTIVES OF THE
CONFERENCE

8. 2. MEASURING THE SCALE OF A
PROJECT

9. Measuring the scale of a project
1. Criteria:
• Number of hours: 500 to 1500 hours
• Duration: 6 to 12 months
• Client Criticalness: Site that is critical to
the clients business operations
• Complexity: 3 to 4 (on a scale of 5)
• Size of team: 2 to 4 developers
• It has to feel medium-sized for your
organization

10. Measuring the scale of a project
How are we feeling?
• Going from a small project to a medium
scaled one
• Going from a large scale project to
medium

11. 3. IMPACTS OF A MEDIUM SCALE
PROJECT

12. Collaboration between developers
• More responsibilities for each developer
• Need to standardize working methods
within the development team
• Incorporating a versioning system becomes
primordial

13. Duration of mandate
• Considerable increase in the number of
deployments
• The technical debt is being considered

14. Impact of the Technical Debt
(Absolutely not scientific)
Hoursofdevelopment
Time

15. Quality control
• More complex = more testing
• More contributors to quality control
• Dependance of features within each other

16. Impacts of a medium scale project for
project managers

17. Number of contributors
• The main point of contact may not be the
decision maker
• Complex chain of command structure
• Inclusion of an external consultant
• Change of management to be considered

18. Importance of mastering the application
• More complex = More requests that could
be linked to miscomprehension
• Importance of sharing our control over the
application to the client
• Main contact may not be the end user

19. Management in several phases
• Several deployments
• Importance of confidence in the
deliverables
• A lot less test-coverage in a medium-sized
project compared to a large project
• Emphasis on client expectations
• Protection of the deployed data
• Managing the guarantee and support of
Phase 1 during development of Phase 2

20. Managing “surplus” requests
• No product owner for a medium-sized
project.
• A Project manager for a medium-sized
project becomes a jack of all trades
• Higher complexity which can impact the
transmission and understanding of needs
• Mistakes in the estimates and scope
changes can result in a loss of control

21. 4. RECOMMENDATIONS & BEST
PRACTICES

22. Incorporating an automated
deployment system
Advantages Disadvantages
● No more need for manual
deployments
● Lower risk for errors
● Reduces the time of
deployment
● Requires specific training
of the team
● Increases the project prep
time

23. Incorporating an automated
deployment system

24. Defining a clear testing plan
Advantages Disadvantages
● Reduces the amount of client
feedbacks
● Ensures that one feature does
not break another
● More confidence in our
product
● Requires more discipline
from the team
● Increases the time for
development

25. Defining a clear testing plan
How we do it:
● Using Calendars to prepare Quality Control periods ahead of
time
● Staffing more than one developer on the project so they can do
the QA of each other’s tasks.

26. Establishing a code review system
Advantages Disadvantages
● Allows standardization of
development methods
● Increases the expertise of
less experienced developers
● Increases the quality of the
project
● Best way to learn Drupal API
● Means more time to
invest for the company

27. Recommendations & best practices
for project management

28. Identify the decision-making structure and
involve the decision-makers
Advantages Disadvantages
● Avoid having decisions that
were made be revoked in the
future
● Facilitates the transmission of
messages (no intermediaries)
● Facilitates the creation of a
collaborative environment
● More complex
management of the
schedule

29. Identify the decision-making structure and
involve the decision-makers
● Asking questions at the early stages (Kick-Off) of the project to
determine who the decision-makers are sooner than later.
● Frequent meetings and communications with the decision
makers themselves
Tips:

30. Establish weekly meetings and profit
from them
Advantages Disadvantages
● Facilitates follow-ups on KPIs
● Facilitates follow-ups on tasks
● Contributes to a seamless
transmission of information
● Quickly identify issues
(challenges)
● Be careful of the “too
many meetings”
syndrome
● Make sure to implicate
only the appropriate
people

31. Establish and profit from weekly meetings
A few tools:
● KPIs
○ % completed vs. % of hours
○ Client happiness rate
● Slack: https://symetris.slack.com/messages/drupal-north/
● Progress report on tasks
● Calendars (recurring events)

32. Establish and profit from weekly meetings
Progress report on tasks
0%
10 - 50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
New
In Progress
QA-QC
QA-QC
Comm. Client
To deploy
Closed / Celebrate
Development hasn’t started
Development in progress
The developer has to do his/her QC / QA
The project manager has to do his/her QC /
QA
The client has to do his/her QC / QA
Client feedbacks done, ready to deploy
Done Yay!!! (High five!)

33. Establish and profit from weekly meetings
The kind of things we do in weekly meetings
● Project manager participates in the preliminary analysis
● Review documentation and present to the client in person
● Do the quality control with the client
● Present a User guide
● Offer training directly to the end users

34. Making sure the project manager masters
the application
Advantages Disadvantages
● Filters “code 18”
● Helps with support and
change management
● Reduces the amount of client
feedbacks
● Requires more technical
knowledge for the project
manager
● Requires more time for
management and training

35. Making sure the project manager masters
the application
How we do it:
● Meetings between the developer and the project manager to
explain and properly understand the application.
● Give enough time for the project manager to go hands on. (QA
periods planned for them as well).
● The project manager redacts the user guide.

36. Rigorous management of “surplus” requests
Advantages Disadvantages
● Helps to stay on budget
● Helps in respecting the
timeline
● Offers more control on client
requests
● Can cause some
frustrations for the client
● Source of stress for the
production team

37. Rigorous management of “surplus” requests
A few tools
● Weekly updates on hours
● Prioritizing new requests with the lead developer
● Bank of hours sold with the project
● Excel sheets can do the job for this, especially with
technologicaly challenged clients.

38. To recap
Dev Recommandations PM Recommandations
● Incorporate an automated
deployment system
● Define a clear testing plan
● Establish a code review
system within the team
● Identify the decision-
making structure and
involve the decision-
makers
● Establish and profit from
weekly meetings
● Make sure the project
manager masters the
application
● Rigorous management of
“surplus” requests

39. Thank you !
Questions?
Contact-us :
kyle@symetris.ca
matthieu@symetris.ca
info@symetris.ca
PPT presentation will be available soon on Slideshare