Why do Drupal Projects Fail?: Evaluating Success Factors and When to Use Drupal

Why do Drupal Projects Fail?: Evaluating Success Factors and When to Use Drupal Julia Kulla-Mader http://www.juliakm.com IRC/Twitter/Drupal: JuliaKM Drupalcamp Atlanta 2009

Julia Kulla-Mader Drupal.org member for 2 years and 33 weeks

Part I: How I started using Drupal

Web Development Internship

Yippee! My Own Project

Limited Budget

Not a lot of time

Trustworthy • Security • Customizable Permissions

Small, Modular and Useful • Lightweight core code • 4,000+ Modules

Lots of Smart, Helpful People • 1,400+ at last Drupalcon • Active support forms • Used by major businesses & nonproﬁts

My First Drupal Project Was a Big Success

2 Years Later...How do I measure Drupal? • IT Manager at a growing nonproﬁt • Co-organizer of Triangle Drupal • Continuously asked, “Can I do this in Drupal?”

Part II: Drupal Success Factors Survey • Want to answer the question, “What makes Drupal projects succeed or fail?” • Surveyed 25+ Drupal content administrators, backend administrators, backend integrators, theme developers, code developers (Source: Drupal Kata) • Take the survey at: bit.ly/drupalsuccess

Survey Sample

Survey Limitations • Small Sample size (less than 30 people) • Self-selected group, all with Drupal experience • Lack of historical data (Drupal 6 vs. Drupal 5) • Questions were not required

Deﬁning Success • Was all or part of the project abandoned? • The total cost of the project was within what was outlined in the project budget. • New features requirements made up 15 percent or less of the total project requirements. • The project was completed on schedule.

Success?: Abandonment 11% Total abandonment Partial abandonment 22% No abandonment 67%

Success?: Cost Within Budget Over Budget 40% 60%

Success?: Scope Creep New features > 15 percent requirements New feature < 15 percent requirements 47% 53%

Success?: Completed on Schedule Completed on Schedule Not Completed on Schedule 47% 53%

Part III: What do problematic projects have in common?

1. Early Goal Setting Avoids Scope Creep

2. On-Going Project Audits Make a Difference

3. Modules Performance Matters • If more than 90 percent of Drupal modules do not work as expected or meet user requirements, projects will: • run into schedule problems • experience scope creep

4. Non-Developers Need to Understand Drupal • Projects completed on schedule without scope creep are built by developers working with technical project managers and stakeholders who “get” Drupal “In client work, the biggest problem seems to be a lack of technical understanding by the client contact/project manager and a lack of clear goals for the site because of this.”

5. Beware of Big Projects (Size and Cost) Projects Over Budget Projects Meeting Budget 17% 11% 22% 50% 17% 22% 44% 17% Less than 20 pages Less than 20 pages 21 - 100 pages 21 - 100 pages 101 - 500 pages 101 - 500 pages 501 - 1,500 pages 501 - 1,500 pages Over 1,500 pages Over 1,500 pages

5. Beware of Big Projects (Size and Cost) Projects Exceeding Schedule Projects Meeting Schedule 13% 14% 14% 13% 14% 50% 13% 13% 57% Less than 20 pages Less than 20 pages 21 - 100 pages 21 - 100 pages 101 - 500 pages 101 - 500 pages 501 - 1,500 pages 501 - 1,500 pages Over 1,500 pages Over 1,500 pages

Part IV: Should I use Drupal?

Can I devote time to setting project goals? • Projects that devoted time to setting goals had more accurate speciﬁcations

Can I create accountability in my project? • Can someone unbiased spend time checking deliverables against milestones? • Is there someone who can do this without compromising their role on the team?

Do I have experience evaluating modules against user requirements? • Can you or someone you hire can accurately predict whether a module will meet your requirements?

Do non-developers on the project have Drupal experience? • Everyone on your team needs to understand Drupal before you start planning

How big is my project? • Big Drupal projects need more attention and are going to be inherently risky • If you have a big project (1,500+ pages, lots of module complexity), you need to be willing to alter cost, scope, or budget down the road

Part V: Last Thoughts

What are common patterns of project success? • Early goal setting • On-going project audits • More than 90 percent of modules work as expected • Whole project team understands Drupal • Smaller projects are more likely to meet cost and time expectations

What questions should I ask before starting? • Can I devote time to setting project goals? • Can I create accountability in my project? • Do I have experience evaluating modules against user requirements? • Do non-developers on the project have Drupal experience? • How big is my project?

Thank you for listening

Why do Drupal Projects Fail?: Evaluating Success Factors and When to Use Drupal

by Julia Kulla-Mader on Sep 20, 2009

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Why do Drupal Projects Fail?: Evaluating Success Factors and When to Use Drupal — Presentation Transcript

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