--- title: "Typical project phases and skills required" date: "2022-09-20T11:14:49+00:00" summary: "Discover the typical phases of website development and the skills required for each stage. Learn about Drupal configuration, Site Studio setup, and content creation to streamline your project workflow and maximize efficiency." image: type: "page" url: "/drupal-starter-kits/add-ons/site-studio/typical-project-phases-and-skills-required" id: "0b93ac3a-adb5-4a2e-b50a-efeca414ccac" --- The following flow chart shows a simplified view of a typical website development process. It includes the main phases of the process and the type of user and skills required to complete the phases. ![Flowchart illustrating Drupal development and production process, including codebase creation, configuration, styling, deployment, and content creation by various roles.](https://acquia.widen.net/content/l9vetxi6em/web/427a747d-site-build-phases.png?v=cbf0718e-ba98-4a9d-aed9-ee3c563beb64) The following are the details of each phase labeled in the preceding flow chart: 1. **Create Drupal codebase**: An experienced Drupal developer is required to install and configure Drupal so that it can be used as a CMS. The process involves selecting and installing Drupal modules from the open source community, as well as developing any custom modules required for the project. This phase can be accelerated through Drupal Starter Kits, which provides an opinionated version of Drupal and includes many of the most commonly used open source modules. 2. **Create Drupal configuration**: After Drupal and additional modules are installed, they must be configured to meet the project requirements. The main part of this phase is the configuration of the content model and website architecture. The output of this is content types, taxonomy vocabularies, menu structures, user roles, and other Drupal configuration. This phase requires an experienced Drupal site builder. Typically, these are developers, but can also be users who understand how to work with Drupal through the administration interface. 3. **Create Site Studio configuration**: After Drupal and additional modules are configured and a content model is defined, you can use user interfaces of Site Studio to build the theme of the website. This phase includes: 1. **Create Site Studio styles**: Using a low-code CSS style builder interface, a designer or site builder can create individual CSS styles for all the elements that need styling. These can include styles for base elements such as headings, paragraphs and links, and custom CSS classes for more specific styling requirements. To use the low-code CSS style builder, the designer or site builder must have a knowledge of the different CSS properties and selectors. Knowledge of the box-model and flex-box properties is required to create styles that alter the layout of elements. For more information, visit [Creating styles with the style builder](/drupal-starter-kits/add-ons/site-studio/creating-styles-style-builder "Creating styles with the style builder"). 2. **Create Site Studio template**: Using a low-code template builder, a designer or site builder can create display templates for the Drupal content model. These may include templates for each content type display, menu structures, and Drupal views to display lists and grids of content. This phase requires a designer, site builder, or developer who knows how to use Site Studio's low code template building interfaces. They must become proficient with a drag-and-drop layout builder to create layouts, and use Drupal tokens as placeholders for dynamic content. For more information, visit [Creating templates](/drupal-starter-kits/add-ons/site-studio/creating-templates "Creating templates"). 3. **Create Site Studio components**: Using a low-code component builder, a designer or site builder can build a library of components to be used by marketers and content authors to create rich content pages. The component building phase of development assumes that a set of components is visually designed. The designer or site builder must become proficient with a drag-and-drop layout builder to create layouts and a drag-and-drop form builder to create settings forms for the components. For more information, visit [Components](/drupal-starter-kits/add-ons/site-studio/components "Components"). 4. **Deploy code and configuration to production**: The first three phases are typically completed in a development environment. To move the output of those phases to a production environment, a developer must export the configuration as files, and mange them through a development workflow using a version control system such as GIT. The same workflow must be followed to update any configuration. For more information, visit [Configuration management and deployment](/drupal-starter-kits/add-ons/site-studio/configuration-management-and-deployment "Configuration management and deployment"). 5. **Create pages and content**: After the Drupal codebase and Site Studio configurations are deployed to a production environment, a marketer or content author can use: * Content authoring interfaces of Drupal to create structured content * Component-based page building interface of Site Studio to create flexible non-structured content Marketers and content authors must have knowledge of Drupal interfaces to manage content. They must also have knowledge of Site Studio components, settings of each component, and process of combining them on a page using the page builder. For more information, visit [Using the layout canvas for building content](/drupal-starter-kits/add-ons/site-studio/using-layout-canvas-editing-content "Using the layout canvas for editing content") and [Using the visual page builder for building pages and editing content](/drupal-starter-kits/add-ons/site-studio/using-visual-page-builder-building-pages-and-editing-content "Using the visual page builder for building pages and editing content").