Build Your D8 Team: Non-Tech Roles

As our series continues, let's look at what non-technical team members need to understand about Drupal 8. Although they don't need to write code and implement functionality, these team members may have responsibility for defining the product or developing the content for the site. These are the non-technical roles and skills needed on a development team.

Project Manager

The project manager needs to make sure the project is completed on time and within budget. If that's not possible, the project manager needs to negotiate the adjustments to schedule and budget with the business or client. To do this, a project manager needs to understand the capabilities of Drupal 8, and of the team members, to understand what is possible. The project manager should understand the agile methodology the development team is following. Because project managers assign tasks to resources, they also need to understand the technical knowledge the developers have, as well as their levels of expertise in that knowledge. The project manager needs to grasp the development challenges the team faces. The goal is to push the developers -- while remaining realistic about resources -- to find timely solutions and balance the trade-offs between a delayed release and limited functionality when a compromise is needed.

Product Manager

The product manager is responsible for the success of the product, owning the feature roadmap. A product manager works closely with the project manager and development team to prioritize functional requirements so that the most critical features are deployed first. Like project managers, product managers need to understand the technical capabilities of the tools and the team in order to create a realistic project plan that balances competing requirements.

Content Marketing

The content marketing specialist is responsible for creating great content in the web application. A content marketer on the project team will create, edit and publish the content. The specialist needs to understand Drupal 8's publishing interface as well as the layout and UI components to ensure the content displays properly and is effective. The content marketer should apply SEO and SEM knowledge to develop appropriate content.

Sales

The sales team member may also create content for the site and thus needs a similar understanding of how to publish content within Drupal 8. Sales team members also need to know SEO and SEM and to understand what tracking and analytics are available to ensure that the site is achieving its marketing purpose and maximizing sales.