This document discusses frameworks for managing complex Drupal projects. It introduces project, product, program, and portfolio management. Project management involves creating plans and managing resources to complete a project. Product management oversees a product throughout its lifecycle. Program management coordinates related projects that depend on each other. Portfolio management prioritizes all projects according to strategic criteria. It then provides more details on program and portfolio management. For program management, it discusses project management offices, dependencies between projects, and using project templates. For portfolio management, it covers aligning with business objectives, prioritizing projects, scoring/rating projects, and providing checks and balances. The goal is to navigate increasing complexity in Drupal projects and set organizational priorities.

1. Project
Whispering
By Nicole Lind
SVP, Treehouse Agency
nlind@treehouseagency.com

2. Why this session?
Drupal is evolving
Drupal is moving into the
enterprise business and
government space and it
is forcing the increase in
the number or Drupal
projects running at the
same time in any given
organization

3. Why this session?
Drupal Complexity
Migrations from legacy
systems or integrations
with non-Drupal systems is
forcing the available
resource pool to become
more
skilled, expensive, difficult
to manage and retain

4. The goals
Provide a management
framework to navigate the
evolution and complexity
of Drupal
Provide an organizational
(cultural) framework in
setting priority and making
decisions

5. Management Framework
Project Management
Product Management
Program Management
Portfolio Management

6. Description:
Project management is
the act of creating
Management plans and managing
Framework resources in order to
accomplish a project.
Project A project is a scheduled
Management undertaking for the
purpose of creating a
product or service

7. Description:
A discipline that is
responsible for the
Management overall success of a
Framework product (not a project
with very specific
constraints like budget
and schedule). Product
Product
managers remain to
Management
manage the product
through the products
entire lifecycle

8. Description:
Program management
is the act of creating
Management and managing multiple
Framework projects, most of the
projects are usually
related to one another
usually through
Program
dependency
Management

9. Description:
Project portfolio
management is a
Management management process
Framework designed to help an
organization acquire
and view information
about all of its
Portfolio
projects, then sort and
Management
prioritize each project
according to certain
criteria, such as
strategic value, impact
on resources, cost, and

10. Organizational Evolution
Portfolio Management
Program Management
Project Management and Product Management

11. Program Management
 A deeper look
Project Management Office (PMO)
Dependencies
Project Templates

12. Project Management Office
(PMO)
 The PMO is the group or department
within a organization that defines and
maintains standards for project
management. The primary goal is to
achieve benefits from standardizing and
following project management
policies, processes and methods
 PMO is usually based upon 3 models:
 Project repository, Project
coaching, and Enterprise

13. Project Dependencies
 Finish to start (FS) – Project B can’t start before A is
finished (i.e. Foundations dug then concrete is
poured)
 Finish to finish (FF) – Project B can’t finish before A is
finished (i.e. Last chapter written before entire book
is finished)
 Start to start (SS) – Project B can’t start before A
starts (i.e. Project work started before project
management activities started)
 Start to finish (SF) – Project B can’t finish before A
starts (i.e. New shifts starts after previous shift finishes)
Important to know due to impact on resourcing

14. Project Templates
 Business Development
 Contract/Statement of work
 Kickoff Discovery
 Sprint 1 (including multiple milestones)
 Sprint 2 (including multiple milestones)
 Training
 QA
 Launch
 Post Mortem
 Support
Idea is to standardize so project plans and
lifecycles are not created from scratch each time

15. Project Portfolio Management
 A deeper look
Business Objectives
Prioritization
Scoring and rating
Mechanism for checks and
balances

16. Business Objectives
Examples:
We want our team to gain D7
experience
We need more revenue
We want to start doing more
business in the educational sector

17. Prioritization
We want our team to gain D7
experience - Very important
We need more revenue - Critical
We want to start doing more
business in the educational sector
– Nice to have
We want more repeat business

18. Scoring and Rating
Diversification Prestige Future Work
Potential Project Total Budget Profit Potential (technology) (brand) Loyalty Factor Potential Total Rating
Project A with D7
1 4 1 3 0 4 13
Project B at
University
2 3 2 1 3 3 11
Project C with
old client
1 3 2 1 2 2 9
Project D with D7
and University
4 3 3 2 0 3 12

19. Planning and tracking
DEMO

20. Final thoughts
Grow your organizational
project culture
Understand planning at this
level is hard and EVERYONE is
struggling with these concepts
The myth of the central system

21. Thank you
Questions?