Gus Austin

The underlying goal of this working group is to develop a Curriculum Framework for Drupal Learning. To reach this goal we will:

• Facilitate production of an open source Drupal curriculum including guidelines, best practices, lesson plans, activities and self-paced learning programs, ready to use by anyone for delivery of hands-on training
• Organize learning content, lessons and courses by facilitating the mapping of roles to competencies to taxonomy terms and developing cataloging and management tools, as well as an authoritative vocabulary reference, storage and distribution systems.
• Develop a framework or learning tracks covering all aspects of Drupal

This person manages content and users on a Drupal site. They may not know many of the advanced functionality of the Drupal Administrative interface.

Visual Designers create the look and feel of your site. On larger teams, designers don’t necessarily touch Drupal. However, if they understand The Drupal Way, they will be able to create more efficient designs which are easier to implement.

Project managers deliver projects on time and in budget. They manage project timelines, delegate tasks, and track project resources. They need excellent communication skills, and should be highly organized. We strongly recommend knowledge of Agile methodology and one or more project management software packages.

There may be multiple people completing the site building tasks on any given project. At the foundation of Drupal skills, site building is the most essential requirement for all development roles. Team members responsible for development should know the configuration of the most popular modules; content types and views; roles and permissions; navigation, menus, taxonomy; actions and workflows. They should be able to compare the best approaches in any given situation.

Front-end developers takes the visual designer’s work and turns it into a web page or interface. They program interaction with JavaScript and/or a library such as jQuery, YUI or Prototype. They test cross-browser, cross-platform, and/or cross-device compatibility for inconsistencies.

Themers are front-end developers with specialist knowledge of the theme layer in Drupal. They create sub-themes on common base themes and may create custom themes. This might not be a distinct role on many teams. Instead, a developer on the team might have this expertise.

Back-end developers modify existing code and write new custom code to power the functionality of a Drupal site. A typical Drupal build will have two types of modifications which require custom code changes. Junior developers should be able to handle small changes in markup output. Senior developers will be required where there are integrations or new functionality in custom modules.

An example: http://groups.drupal.org/node/66643

Technical leads and architects are back-end developers with broad experience with Drupal. They understand how to analyze and set requirements. They establish the high-level development strategy through module selection and configuration. They focus on sitewide concerns such as integration, scalability, performance, and security.

However, even these highly experienced experts wouldn’t be expected to know everything there is to know about Drupal.

An example: http://groups.drupal.org/node/66638

This list of roles is being discussed and refined here - http://groups.drupal.org/node/67763

Note regarding context: we recognize on many projects a person might take on some or even all of these roles. We're using the redesign of Drupal.org as the context for the associated roles. It's a larger project, therefore with greater differentiation in the roles. Therefore, helping to guide the discussion.

Note regarding tasks: the descriptions in the roles mentioned here are not exhaustive. We're mainly focusing on the names of the roles. The descriptions are for clarification.

• System Architect
  This person sets up and maintains the system and infrastructure on which Drupal is deployed. They can manage the migration of data and content. They also install and maintain access to the site and version control. An example: http://groups.drupal.org/node/66638

• Developer
  This person can code custom modules according to coding standards and best practices. They can test the quality and security of the code they write. An example: http://groups.drupal.org/node/66643

• Themer, Front-end developer
  This person can interpret visual designs into code. They are experienced with the complementary skills of HTML CSS and JavaScript. They can use theme functions and may be able to create custom modules to implement hooks to create displays they need.

• Site Builder
  This person installs and configures modules to create site features. They will be knowledgeable about theming and development, but will mostly use the Drupal through use of the administrative interface.

• Content Editor & Manager
  This person manages content and users on a Drupal site. They may not know many of the advanced functionality of the Drupal Administrative interface.

• Design, UX
  This person may not know HTML, CSS or JavaScript. They specialize in visual design but with an understanding of the capabilities of Drupal which help them create designs which can be understood and implemented with their team

• Project Manager/Planner
  This person negotiates project plans with clients based on the understanding of the capabilities of Drupal. They understand best practices and can communicate client needs in the language of Drupal to the team.

• Global 
elements:

  
  • Navigation

  • Header

  • Footer:
 copyright,
 contact 
address


  • Breadcrumbs

• Home
 - Home 
page 
should 
include 
a
 login 
form
 for
 authenticated
 users,
 a
 dynamic
 list
 of 
up‐to‐3 
most
 recent 
“public” ‐ flagged 
News
 items 
and
 a
 dynamic
 list 
of
 up‐to‐5
 upcoming 
“public”‐ flagged 
events, 
as 
well 
as 
an
 area
 for 
home‐page
 specific
 content. 
RSS
 feed
 should 
be 
available
 for 
publicly 
available 
news
 and
 events.

• News 
and 
Events - List 
of 
staff‐posted
 announcements,
 followed
 by
 a
 list
 of 
all
 upcoming 
posted
 events,
 sorted 
by
 date.
 Only
 items
 flagged
 as
 “public” 
should
 be 
viewable
 to
 anonymous
 users. 
Event
 titles 
should
 link
 to
 the
 event
 details
 page
 if 
main
 content 
area
 for
 that 
event 
is
 non‐null. 
News
 titles
 should
 link
 to
 the 
news
 item
 detail 
page. 
RSS
 feed
 should 
be 
available
 fo
r publicl
y available news and
 events.

  

* Sponsors - Lists individuals, organizations or companies who have sponsored some part of the Kata and/or related lessons, sessions and projects.
  • Corporate sponsors - Link to detail page with logo, company description, and members.
  • Individual sponsors - Link to detail page with badge and description.
• Classifieds - Lists 
all 
posted 
classified
 ads. 

Only 
ads 
flagged
 as
 “public”
 should
 be
 viewable 
to
 anonymous 
users.

• About - General 
information 
about
 the
 program
• Directory - A
 list
 of
 all
 users
 with 
an
 account
 on
 the
 site

• Contact - A
 Web‐based 
contact
 form 
that 
allows
 anonymous
users 
to 
e‐mail 
program
 staff

• Projects

 - A
 dynamic 
list
 of 
all
 publicly available
 group 
projects

  • Project
 home 
page

 - Lists 
all
 authenticated
 users 
associated
 with
 the 
project, 
as 
well
 as 
all
 posted
 articles,
 files, 
wiki 
pages, 
galleries 
associated 
with 
that 
project

  • Blog per project where people can post progress, questions, and have a discussion around issues that are coming up
  • Wiki/Documents - Team members can keep a handbook of important information on a project
  • Shoutbox where visitors can quickly post short messages
  • Casetracker - File cases, tickets, and other tasks that need to be assigned, reassigned, and so on
  • Calender - Keep track of important deadlines and scheduling.
  • Fundraising/Ecommerce - A system for donations, sponsorships, etc. to fund individual projects and/or programs.
  • Sponsors - A section dedicated to listing individuals, organizations or companies who have sponsored some part a project or session.
  • ...

As Drupal is mainly a code development community, most of the Kata projects will fall under that realm. Building an open source Drupal curriculum is one of those projects that won't produce code, but will still will take a good deal of planning, time, and money to produce something useful for individuals wanting to learn to companies that may want to re-purpose the materials for their own needs.

As with any Kata project, the curriculum will be
 available
 under 
a
 free
 distribution
 license 
(e.g., 
GPL,
 Creative
Commons, 
BSD, 
etc.)
 and contributed back to the Drupal community. Multiple stakeholders can fund the producers of the content and the entire community and Drupal ecosystem will reap the rewards!

I 'think' that justifies the existence of stand-alone group for this. Now we just need a few good folks to lead the effort!