Investing in Your Team & Tools Early: How to Ensure Drupal Project Success

"It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and then do your best" —W. Edwards Deming

Deming, whose 14 Points for Management have long been a pillar for the quality movement in business, really hit on a idea with this quote that can (or should) be applied to almost any endeavor, including professional Drupal development. With all of the powerful and broad advantages Drupal and its associated tools have to offer, without the proper training or knowledge, they cannot be realized. Even the best-intentioned developers, without the requisite preparation, cannot (and should not be expected to) complete a Drupal project with efficiency and the best possible quality.

Early decisions on things like information architecture and developer workflows can have long-term effects on a web development project. Most projects’ user experience (UX) design is a significant portion of its budget. Why shouldn't a project's developer experience be any different? The first few weeks are crucial, and informed decision makers tend to make informed decisions.

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Drupal Development Choices

Professional software developers know that at the root of any well-built application is its information architecture (IA). If the design of the application data isn't solid, then building up from that design will often be a challenge. For many Drupal sites, the information architecture is defined by the various entities and fields selected to build out the site. Perhaps even more important is the relationships between the various entities.

The process of designing this IA requires that the developers have knowledge of existing organization data as well as the expected output of the site, as well as the required authoring experience and potentially other factors. Having a strong understanding of the process of not only designing, but also prototyping a Drupal site's IA is crucial to the long-term success of the project.

Drupal Developer Workflows

Just as important as the Drupal development choices, it is important for the  development teams to design and utilize a consistent workflow for the project—not just the Git branching scheme, but also the process for keeping configuration up-to-date (and manageable!). This is also helpful for keeping things synced between the codebase and any project management tools in place.

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Drupal Platform Workflows

Finally, it is important to keep developers happily doing what they do best—developing. By providing (and training them on!) a rich set of tools to minimize tasks they don't enjoy while maximizing tasks they do enjoy, the overall efficiency of the project will increase.

Scriptable command line tools like Drush, Drupal Console, and Pantheon's own Terminus allow developers to automate common tasks while minimizing potential mistakes. Along the same lines, automating the deployment and testing of project changes (using tools like Pantheon's Quicksilver) to shared environments does nothing but save time and provide additional opportunities for non-developer stakeholders to participate in the development process.

Setting the Stage for Professional Drupal Development Success

There are many things to consider when managing a project, especially early in its lifecycle, to help ensure success. Providing the development team with the knowledge and skills they need to make good decisions early (and often) is a way to make sure they can do their absolute best.

Developer training—like training at the onset of anything new—will improve the odds of making the right choices and getting the best results, which is why it’s no wonder that Deming included team training in 2 of his 14 Points.

For more insight on comprehensive Drupal training and career resources, visit DrupalEasy Academy.

You may also like:

• Continuous Integration Is for Teams [BLOG]
• Configuration Workflow for Drupal 8 Sites [BLOG]
• An Introduction to Drush and the Drupal Console [ARTICLE]