how to build a great drupal team
TRANSCRIPT
1
5 Steps to Build a
Great Drupal Team
(ebook link!)
2
Guest speakers
Summer Swigart, Practice
Manager at AcquiaMeagen Williams, Program
Director, Acquia
3
5 Steps to build your team
1. Understand typical teams, roles and job
titles
2. Define your requirements
3. Widen your net with your job description
4. Where and how to post jobs
5. Evaluating applicants
Blog series bit.ly/drupalteamblog
4
Step 1
Understand team roles
and job titles
5
Will Huggins, Zoocha – Dream Team
Role Typical tasks
A Drupal configuration
expert
Comfortable using Drupal; not
necessarily coding
A senior developer,
solutions architect
Planning, research solutions,
create demos, discover hidden
requirements
Theming / Front end
development
Develop the front of the site to a
design specification
6
Small Teams
• Technical Lead
(required)
• Project Manager
(required)
• Junior Developer
• Themer
• Quality Assurance
Specialist
• What are
“small team”
projects like?
7
Large Teams
Project Management Team
• Engagement Manager
• Project Manager
• Quality Assurance Specialist
Technical Team
• Technical Architect
• Technical Lead
• Senior Developer/Developer
• Junior Developer
• Themer
• What are “large team” projects like?
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An ideal ratio?
• 1 codebase = 1.75 people
=
9
Devise your skill matrix
10
Step 2
Define your requirements
11
Avoid the laundry list
Job posting for Penny Arcade
12
Defining requirements
• Meagen: How do you deal with a smaller
budget?
• Summer: How do you define the absolute
requirements?
13
What is absolutely required
versus merely desired?
• Responsibilities include:
– Day to day tasks
• Candidates will need to demonstrate:
– Expected experience
• Desirable:
– What will set you apart from the rest
From a Previous Next job posting
14
Role of training and mentoring?
• What training is available?
• What kind of mentoring on on-the-job
learning do you provide?
15
Transferable skills
https://drupal.org/node/1245640
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Step 3
Widen your net – Write your
job listings
17
Pitch your company to candidates
They want to know:
• What is the company
culture?
• Will I be working with
smart people?
• Are you building
something
interesting?
• Advice from Careers 2.0 team
18
Example job listing outline
• Start off with the "30 second elevator
pitch" - Why this job and our company is
great.
• Next, define the roles and responsibilities
• Then list the must-have skills
19
Selling the job
• Summer: The Drupal market is on fire –
how do you “sell” the roles? What are
developers looking for?
• Meagen: What patterns do you see?
20
Attend community events – sponsor,
speak!
21
Working with the community
• How do you engage with the community?
• Summer- how have you used case studies
at events?
• Meagen- what are community meet-ups
like?
22
Step 4
Where and how to post jobs
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“g.d.o”http://groups.drupal.org/jobs
Drupal community site - Free listings
List in regional groups
24
Be a good citizen!
• Look out for group guidelines
• Particularly “Please do not post job
adverts in this group”
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Weekly Drop
Newsletter
$40 to list
3300+ subscribers
26
Careers 2.0
Connected to Stackoverflow
Invitation only to improve quality of
candidates
27
OnSaavyConnect to freelancers
Review profiles
Add your company profile
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Twitter!#drupal
#drupaluk
Careful of “spamming” at events
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How do you hire?
• Summer – How do you hire?
• Meagen – How does your experience
compare?
30
Staff Referrals
• Very important!
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Step 5
Evaluating applicants
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Use various methods for evaluation
• Interviews
• Code review
• Portfolio review
• Community involvement
• Case study presentations
• “Pair as interviews”
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“d.o” profile
http://drupal.org/user/number
Public profile for Drupal developers
34
Ask about community involvement
35
Gild.com
Gild is also aggregating data and helping employers “cast aside preconceived and wide spread biases,” for example about what universities people went to, and increase the chances of talented people finding their dream job. (Gild best practices, 13 Nov 2013)
36
Screening
• Meagen – What advice do you have for
non-technical people to screen
candidates?
37
Technical interviews
• Summer – How do you discover gaps?
What do you look out for?
• Meagen- What are some good interview
techniques?
38
Using case studies
• Give an actual problem, relating closely to
real situations.
• They present a solution to a small team.
39
Any Questions?