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ABOUT THIS WIKI

From Harvest:

data migration
design and branding
Quality assurance and testing
scoping, prototyping & wireframing
site architecting, data modelling & auditing

We've divided this flightcheck list into sections which roughly map to typical project phases. Since we aim to work in an agile way, it cannot detail each sprint. Instead, we aim to ensure that all tasks which must be completed on web builds build have been addressed before launch.**

About our methodology

This wiki breaks down our methodology into phases.

We use four types of design activity to complete a project:

Explore: Gather and analyse research as a raw material to drive design
Design: Develop ideas and prototypes approximating to the final artifact
Build: Build the final artifact
Validate: Test to check whether our artefact successfully meets its objectives

Our overall project methodology is fairly classic and is derived from a synthesis of the Permaculture SADIM model.

We record tasks in Harvest under the following categories. Where possible, these labels are mapped to our design framework:

Explore

Research
Project management
Meetings & workshops

Design

Scoping, prototyping & wireframing
Site architecting, data modelling & auditing
Design & branding

Build

Development & site building
Data migration
Theming & front-end development
Content development & optimisation
Dev-ops & system admin

Validate

Quality assurance & testing
Communications & client relations
Technical support
Client amendments

Project admin & setup

General project documentation

Add project to General Project schedule
Send Folk Labs Terms & Conditions for client to sign and return
Collect contact details of all relevant client team members (emails, twitter, phone, mobile, etc) and enter them into Phone / Gmail contacts

Gather documentation

Configure project management systems

Set up project on GDrive
Set up project on Dropbox
Set up project on Trello
Set up client and project budget on Harvest
Set up client and project on Crunch

Set up development environment

Verify client domain name(s) are registered and working
Set up project on Pantheon / alternate dev platform
Set up project on GitHub
Install CSS Source Maps tech so sources of SASS code can be read in Chrome
Document development environment
Set up Drupal working site
Check public images folder is set up to allow User image default picture files (https://www.drupal.org/node/1090770)
Set module update settings to weekly and for security updates only.

Research

Examine existing site(s)

Perform initial content and content model audit
Survey existing web assets and content, email alerts and transactional emails
Inventory and audit existing content (see external resources) into Content Audit template
Set client a task to create a list of 50-100 potential blog posts
Conduct an interface audit
- Screenshot each interface element across entire site
- Gather common elements together into page
- Name each element and identify points of difference between them
Research competitors in the same field & organisations providing similar service in other markets
Gather example competitor sites

Define user types

Duplicate and populate Audience research template
Define maximum of 3 personas typical of priority user roles
Align personas with Drupal user roles (including admin and editor roles!)
Audit client's team to identify roles and permissions

Recruit user research subjects

Build test subjects address book from:
- existing client CRM
- Users engaged on blogs, social media platforms and forums
- eNews or marketing lists
- Other lists
Contact test subjects to ask them to join a User Group mailing list

Existing user survey

Draft a simple survey on Survey Monkey or similar to ask key questions from as wide a group of users as possible
Publish and promote survey to all users

Develop Epics and User Stories

Duplicate & rename User Stories template
List out Epics (high level functions)
Break up Epics into User Stories
Collect User Stories into Themes
Divide User Stories into Version 1.0 backlog and Stretch goal stories
Check user stories cover every page and listing page on site
Capture user stories into Github
Define GitHub feature labels according to Epics

Visual research

Survey existing brand guides, digital branding and identity
Gather visual design inspiration

Analysis

Get requirements document approved signed by client

Requirements

Create Priority Features Matrix based on Competitor Analysis
Prioritise stories on axes (x= ease of development and y = "value to users")

Define User Journey flows

Combine User Stories to define all User Journeys
Develop Content Requirements with examples
Analyse overlaps between content types to rationalise them down to minimum required
Define Technical Requirements & Minimum System Requirements for your users
Create content migration instructions
Hold Folk Labs meeting to agree on what can actually be built
Define content & functionality & final Project Scope

Users

Define the minimum number of User Personae based on new or existing customers
Create matrix of user roles and permissions
Assign User Scenarios or Key User Goals & Tasks to relevant Personae

Page tables

https://www.chapterthree.com/blog/using-page-tables-deliver-meaningful-design

Page (or template) Title
Page Goals (Business Goals)
Primary Audience
Secondary Audience
Content Elements (buckets chunks)
Calls to Action
Message Focus
Mobile Priority

Information Architecture

Page Tables

Populate Page Tables template

User and site journeys and flows

Flowchart User Journeys to achieve User Goals for each Personae (use Eight Shapes Unify framework)
Test User Journey map

Interface and layout

Duplicate & populate Wireframe Layout List Template 1
Wireframe mobile layouts first then expand to tablet, then finally desktop layouts

Design testing

Test paper or digital prototypes with focus group(s) of 1–3 subjects

Visual design

Visual comps

Site favicons

Design site icon(s)
Generate all required site favicons and icons using realfavicongenerator.net http://realfavicongenerator.net/

Functional implementation

Basic site configuration

Set up shared Dev- instance on Pantheon
Set up Version Control System
Set up local copies
Store backup in case of emergecy need to fallback to older site
Identify modules or plugins required [ADD Google Sheet URL here]
Check time zone configuration on server and in Drupal
Install and configure theme
Configure .info file

Content types

Use content type analysis to create content types
Identify key shared fields across all content types
Configure Display Suite field displays
Configure all display modes and add new ones if necessary

Blocks

Context

Display Suite

Field collections

File types

Menus

Views

Build node edit forms

Group related fields together into vertical tabs

Build all basic Views pages, blocks and other View types

Set up all taxonomies

Decide whether to use multiple vocabularies or one hierarchical vocabulary

Save content types into Features

Taxonomy

Decide whether to use multiple vocabularies or one hierarchical vocabulary
Use Taxonomy Manager to create Vocabularies and Terms and set relationships
Define which html tags are stripped before publication in /admin/config/content/formats/wysiwyg_editor

Site notifications and mails

Rewrite all admin site notification emails to be clear and usable
Register and configure all site emails ([email protected], [email protected] etc)
Configure Mandrill or MailChimp to run batch email sending or other mail server
Draft text for all site emails and notifications

Admin configuration

Configure Contact form(s) with correct email addresses
Define which html tags are stripped before publication in /admin/config/content/formats/wysiwyg_editor
Configure admin dashboard views

Rules

Feeds

Flags

Admin dashboard views

Contexts and Spaces

Spaces

Fences

Contexts

Set URL path structures for node pages and views pages
Check all URL paths are consistent to the URL plan in Site Planning
Install release candidate for capacity testing, performance tuning and to solicit user feedback
Transfer code, files and database to web host
Deploy new site to live
Send log in codes to client

Roles and permissions

Review all roles and permissions to ensure all users have correct permissions and permission to grant other users correct permissions.

Mail and notifications

Ask client for all site mail and team mail details
Define mail rules and flows
[ ]

ACCOUNT SETTINGS

Configure default behavior of users
Registration requirements
E-mails
Fields
User pictures
CAPTCHA: Administer how and where CAPTCHAs are used
HONEYPOT: Install and configure Honeypot module
MOLLUM: Install and configure Mollum
Comment Notify
Configure settings for e-mails about new comments
IP address blocking

CONTENT AUTHORING

Configure autosave settings Diff settings Administer flood control settings for email contact forms Configuration for the Entity Quote module Configuration for API Geocoder keys Configure Honeypot spam prevention Link checker - Configure the content types that should be checked for broken links Manage Linkit profiles Configure how Mollom moderates user-submitted content Configure settings for scheduled publishing and unpublishing Configure how content input by users is filtered Wysiwyg profiles Configure client-side editors

DATE API

Calendar administration Configure the Date Popup settings

MEDIA

File system Tell Drupal where to store uploaded files and how they are accessed. File settings Configure allowed file extensions, default alt and title sources, and the file upload wizard. Image styles Configure styles that can be used for resizing or adjusting images on display. Media browser settings Configure the behavior and display of the media browser. Video Embed Styles Administer Video Embed Field's video styles. Image toolkit Choose which image toolkit to use if you have installed optional toolkits.

SEARCH AND METADATA

URL aliases Change your site's URL paths by aliasing them. Metatag Configure Metatag defaults. Search API Create and configure search engines. Site map Control what should be displayed on the site map. URL redirects Redirect users from one URL to another. XML sitemap Configure your site's XML sitemaps to help search engines find and index pages on your site. Clean URLs Enable or disable clean URLs for your site.

REGIONAL AND LANGUAGE

Regional settings Settings for the site's default time zone and country. Date and time Configure display formats for date and time.

ADMINISTRATION

Adminimal menu Adjust adminimal menu settings. Administration menu Adjust administration menu settings.

SYSTEM

Site information Change site name, e-mail address, slogan, default front page, and number of posts per page, error pages. Actions Manage the actions defined for your site. EU Cookie Compliance Make your website compliant with the EU Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications. Google Analytics Configure tracking behavior to get insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Google Analytics Counter Configure Google Analytics Counter module Lexicon Settings Configure the Lexicon module settings. LoginToboggan Set up custom login options like instant login, login redirects, pre-authorized validation roles, etc. Mail System Configure per-module Mail System settings. SMTP Authentication Support Allow for site emails to be sent through an SMTP server of your choice. Cron Manage automatic site maintenance tasks.

USER INTERFACE

Forward Configure settings for forward module. Module filter Configure how the modules page looks and acts. Shortcuts Add and modify shortcut sets. Super Login Configure improvements to the Drupal login page.

DEVELOPMENT

Performance Enable or disable page caching for anonymous users and set CSS and JS bandwidth optimization options. Logging and errors Settings for logging and alerts modules. Various modules can route Drupal's system events to different destinations, such as syslog, database, email, etc. Maintenance mode Take the site offline for maintenance or bring it back online. jQuery update Configure settings related to the jQuery upgrade, the library path and compression. Strongarm Manage Drupal variable settings that have been strongarmed.

WEB SERVICES

Follow Configure the site-wide web service follow links. RSS publishing Configure the site description, the number of items per feed and whether feeds should be titles/teasers/full-text. Service Links Control which and where service links should be active.

SECURITY

Theming

Configure basic Theme settings

[ ]

Configure file structure

Sketch out component classes in SASS files
Define components then generate draft CSS classes
Generate SCSS files for each component

Templates

Use wireframes to create template listing

Display Suite (or Panels)

Convert Style Guide style code into Theme

Admin Form usability

Edit all node creation forms so all fields are in vertical tabs
Use Rules Forms support to disable unnecessary UI elements
Install proper Preview module
Use Contextual Admin to create custom Admin screens
[ ]

Provision placeholder content

Generate fake content to enable previewing of live site content

Validate style code

Test site with http://cssstats.com and W3C Validators

Theming checklist

Generate individual templates for every unique page. (DO NOT use default Display Suite page templates - they don't offer unique object classes to hang CSS selectors onto)

Content development & SEO

Content planning

SEO

Tools

Check for broken links. W3C Link Checker http://validator.w3.org/checklink)
Use Amazee Labs SEO Checklist tool

Launch-specific content

Draft and publish a Press release and site page about new site launch
Draft then queue-up Facebook and Twitter posts promoting the new launch

Documentation

@djwesto to add section here on writing user help documentation
@pmackay to add section here on writing technical documentation

Ongoing monitoring and support

Monitor site for first few days to ensure it isn't overwhelmed with returning users