Effective team building for extensions development

by Eugene Sivokon. JoomlaDay Poland, Gdansk, 2015

Who I am?

Eugene Sivokon

Founder of NorrBits, s.r.o. which includes NorrNext.com & NorrTheme.com

Founder of RoundTheme.com

Team & Project Manager

The purpose of the session

Professional extensions development requires a team work. If you’re involved in extension development, you probably would be interested how to reach the result more effectively.

The session sheds the light on main questions of team building and consistent processes of development from idea to the final stage when product is finished and ready to be released.

Part 1: Exploring the market

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Preparing the Roadmap

Release features gradually in different versions

Schedule timeline according your abilities

Writing a Specifications

According the SWOT analysis you already got detailed information about weak and strong sides of the analogues. It’s time to write well-detailed Specifications on extensions development to manage processes and delegate tasks to each team member.

Part 2Infrastructure and workflow

Preparing workflow

Create different working polygons

Set up daily backups

Server side installation

Using external services for management

Task manager software

It’s your main tool. All tasks from Specification must be added here.

Task manager software will help you to: - Add Tasks - Control Milestones - Create Projects

Version Control Software

A must-have part of environment providing full control on changes in code.

Git (Github, Gitlab, Bitbucket)

Communication- Online messaging chat - Discussion board - Voice chat

Part 3Team Building

What is a teamwork?

The process of working collaboratively with a group of people in order to achieve a goal.

Teamwork is often a crucial part of a business, as it is often necessary for colleagues to work well together, trying their best in any circumstance. Teamwork means that people will try to cooperate, using their individual skills and providing constructive feedback.

Methods of management: vertical and horizontal

Vertical method

Horizontal method

Keep up the motivation

Team spirit- Pay attention to each team member - Let people express their idea - Delegate more permissions to the team

Part 4Working Processes

Working processes

Extensions beta-testing

Bug fixing & feedback with end users

Delegate processes to different subdivisions

Update Specification & tasks

Part 5Compiling the release

Standards and quality

Extension should meet JED requirements (security, licensing)

Localization and MVC model

Clean code

Product page- Description encouraging to purchase - Attractive images & screenshots

Product page

- Description encouraging to purchase - Attractive images & screenshots

Documentation, tutorials, video lessons

Changelog. Users must know what’s new in your release.

Documentation. A must-have part of any product. Good documentation makes support easier.

Tutorials & lessons. Video lessons and step-by-step tutorials will increase loyality of end client.

Final steps: launching the release

Add category for new extension at the forum and set up permissions

Upload distribution package to site repository and make subscription plan / set up permissions

Announce in social media channels.

Well done!You’ve made a colossal work, but all is just been

started…