reliefweb | devseed meeting | 03 sep 2010
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
ReliefWeb & Development Seed: Building Status, Design, and Planning
Thursday, September 2nd
• Concepting & Strategy Update (Eric G.)• Build Progress Update (Eric G.)• Drupal 7 Update (Eric G.)• Lunch• Design Review (Eric G.)• Build Plans (Alex B.)• Taxonomy/Content Update (Mark M.)• Project Management Overview (Ian C.) • Planning for Launch & Support (Eric G.)• Q&A (All)
Agenda
• Concepting + strategy
• Technical architecture
• Design
• Prepping for Drupal 7
Development Seed’s Summer Focus:
• Concepting + strategy focusing on making it:
• Easier to add content to the site
• Easier to find content + jobs on the site
• Easier to see all types of content the site offers
• Balancing expanding audience w/ building for power users
Development Seed’s Summer Focus:
• Technical Architecture
• Going Drupal 6 vs. Drupal 7
• Key modules needed
• Importing content
• Integration with the jobs site
• Making everything wicked FAST!
Development Seed’s Summer Focus:
• Design Goals
• Focus on the content
• Light = FAST!
• Clean
Development Seed’s Summer Focus:
• Concepting and strategy
• Technical architecture ~70% (need to present plan in official writeup still)
• Designs ~ underway
• Key module refactoring
• Drupal 7 technical base prep
What is done:
• Drupal 7
What is NOT done:
• It is late.
Drupal 7
Yes.... that really says October 27th
... and we think that date is optimistic
• Drupal 7 is _still_ the right choice.
• We are actively building on Drupal 7 for you, in its pre release state.
• This is messing with our timing badly
• ... and costing us a lot more.
What does a Drupal 7 slow down mean?
• Under development for 3 years
• Primary base for the next 2 years AKA you will have access to the latest new tools by being on the latest platform
• Reducing total costs of ownership by reducing an upgrade cycle.
• More attractive for developers to work on.
Drupal 7
• Development Seed is burdening almost all of the Drupal 7 costs on this project.
• This is long term strategic investment for the larger international development space.
• We are adjusting our build plans to try to stay on target. (Alex will speak to this)
• We need to slip delivery till December 3rd,
Timing and cost plans:
Design: this is not another website
Design process: going agile
• There are still mockups.
• mockups ensure:
• style/theme
• general layout
• information architecture
• The designs need to be flexible though.
Agile Design
• Go with the grain of the software
• Reducing total costs of ownership via upgrades.
• Taking advantage of built in workflows.
• Experimenting and playing.
• Things will need to change
How to make design flexible
Design: this is not another website
My ReliefWeb
Keeping it simple to help users know where to go
River of fresh updates
Where events are happening
Hilight key emergencies
Hilight other key content on ReliefWeb
format for LOTS of updates
Visualization tools
filter in context
in-context power filtering
Real time mapping of reports
Show key emergencies + make it easy to find countries
Better integration of jobs
add context to countries
feature key reports
trying to better integrate emergencies w/ countries
integration with data.worldbank.org
river of updates
which can be visualized
and filtered by everything!
Building reliefweb.int
How do you normally build a web site?
Plan
BuildMigrate Review
AdjustLaunch
You’ll be waiting for us
Light build + early migrationto move up
reviews + launch
Plan
BuildMigrate Review
AdjustLaunch
PlanLight build
BuildMigrate Review
AdjustLaunch
PlanLight build
Migrate | Build
Review
AdjustLaunch
PlanLight build
Migrate | BuildReview
AdjustLaunch
Delivery: 3rd week of September
Step I DS builds light shell site
(won’t need all of Drupal 7)
Delivery: End of October
Step 2 RW migrates content
(DS helps)
Delivery: First week of November
Step 3 DS builds out site
(parallel to migration)
Delivery: mid November
Step 4 RW reviews
Delivery: First week of December
Step 5 DS delivers adjustments
Expected launch date: mid December
Step 6 Final QA and launch
PlanLight build
Migrate | BuildReview
AdjustLaunch
The Process
Agile = Working Code, Fast
✓ Prioritize Launch Date✓ Ensure Top Quality on What Is Delivered✓ Collaborate to Manage Scope & Risk
Why Agile?
Result: Very Tight Site Delivered ASAP
• Content Migration (including Jobs)• Core Site Functionality• New Design• Drupal 7• Stable Launch in December• THEN Additional Phase 1 Scope
Fixed Elements
Gathering Feedback
• All Ideas Welcomed & Captured Online• Overall Backlog Triaged with Mark McCarthy• Priority Ideas Moved to Phase 1 Backlog• Remaining Ideas Saved for Phase 2
Feedback Process
What is Phase 2?
• New Aggregation Solution• Community Features• ReliefWeb “Apps”• TBD?
Phase 2
Result: Very Tight Site Delivered ASAP
ReliefWeb’s Involvement
September:
• Confirm Design (early Sept.)• Confirm Migration Plans (early Sept.)• Confirm Hosting Plans (mid Sept.)• Confirm Overall Architecture (late Sept.)
Outcome: Solid Plan by End of September
ReliefWeb Tasks
October:
• Do Basic Migration into Drupal (early Oct.)
Outcome: Content in Drupal by end of October
ReliefWeb Tasks
November:
• Review Content in New Site (mid Nov.)• Training on Using New Site (mid Nov.)
Outcome: Migration Done by end of November
ReliefWeb Tasks
December:
• QA Final Site (early Dec.)• Launch Site (mid Dec.)
Outcome: New ReliefWeb Live in December
ReliefWeb Tasks
• Launching Before Christmas• Support Plans
Risks