Notes on presentation "How to Collaboratively Develop a Product in the Drupal Community"

NYC Camp 2014

Mohan Bunkars
CEO, Azri Solutions
How to Collaboratively Develop a Product in the Drupal Community
(marketing automation)
knew Ben, CEO at Vollaci
State Farm and Commerce Guys now using product.

Never thought far out, MVP was what can we make for the next stamp. Decide what to build, what has business value, will someone pay money for it.

When are you going to start paying money for it? If you are not willing to put dollars, you don't really perceive a value there.

Continuous integration and delivery is an essential part of the Agile development methodologies.

"Software projects using Agile methodologies succeed three times more often than waterfall."

Iterate. Iterate. Iterate.

Ben and i talk about it as hey, you promised the customer something we can't deliver. And they'd have to explain not coming until Q3, Q4, or perhaps never. And then it is a custom project that would require consulting dollars.

If this works, we will launch it as a joint venture. It was a lesser risk for them, but it was their idea.

Put 500 hours in, in three chunks, to see if this would stick in the marketplace. Mostly a social contract. We are friends. Any of us could have walked away.

Azri & Volacci Teamwork: Open Communication and Learning Together

How mature are our teams? In comprehending a particular scenario.

Dev wants to open source it.

Uncovering formulas that share risk and reward.

Day 1,000 you still don't know...

Risk up or down? Opportunity increase or decrease?

Bringing products to Drupal and beyond. If it works in Drupal, want to integrate with WordPress next.

Coaching and mentoring the product management team about week or more it takes to produce code, even though they already want it for the customer.

Avoid e-mails. I don't respond. They have to open a ticket on Redmine.

And take communication through Skype, Hangouts, Screencasts.

Diliny, Kay, others weighing in on the important

Strengths-based approach. Read book Strengths 2.0. For product development, always give it to the person best at it. Need to train someone, do it with client work.

Setting Expectations early and Constantly Re-calibrating is the mantra for success. After nine months, we have all the experience building the product, and they have all the customers.