Project Planning

planning_uvic.md

IDEA

• What data do you have access to?
• Can you correlate that data to something else?
• How can you pivot that data to add value?

Universal Values

• Look good
• Feel good
• Save time
• Save money (resources)

DATABASE

• SQL
  • MySQL / Percona / MariaDB
  • PostgreSQL
  • SQLite
• NoSQL
  • MongoDB
  • CouchDB
  • Redis
  • RethinkDB

USER STORIES

• https://medium.com/@jonatisokon/a-framework-for-user-stories-bc3dc323eca9
• Feature-complete
• Decide what your "A-ha" moment is

DEPLOYMENT

• Work on localhost?
• Deploy to Heroku
• Buy a domain, put on AWS, Azure, or DigitalOcean?
• If you're not going to demo a feature, do you need to build it? If you're launching it, yes you do.

DATA

• ERD
  • https://www.draw.io/
• Tables/Collections
  • Fields
  • Initial schema, doesn't have to be complete
• Tables/Models are your Nouns

SERVER FRAMEWORK

• Ruby
  • Sinatra
  • Rails
• PHP
  • Laravel
  • CodeIgniter
• Node
  • Express
  • Koa
  • LoopBack
  • hAPI
  • SailsJS
• Python
  • Flask
  • Django

ROUTES

• If models are nouns, these are verbs
• RESTful
  • /nouns
  • /nouns/id
  • /nouns/id/action
• Each action that your models need to do

WIREFRAME/DESIGN

• Based on user flow from user stories
• A wireframe for EVERY page of your app
• Be specific about data points on the page
• Storyboard the user workflow
• Tools:
  • https://moqups.com
  • https://balsamiq.com
  • https://wireframe.cc

UI FRAMEWORK

• Bootstrap

• Foundation

• Pure

• Skeleton

• SASS

  • Bourbon
  • Black Hole

• Flexbox

  • Bulma

• RESPONSIVE?

  • Re-wireframe a mobile/responsive version
  • Do you need a mobile & web scenario in your User Stories?

JS MVC Framework

• Angular
• Ember
• Backbone
• Knockout
• React
• Meteor
• Why do you want this?
• Because it's "cool"
• Because you want the skill for a job
• Because you read a tutorial on it

GIT

• Don't code on master
• Pick a workflow - git or github
• Code on a feature or bugfix branch, always
• Switch to master
• Merge
• Delete old branch...ONLY WHEN YOU ARE SURE MASTER WORKS
• Make new branches for each feature or bugfix that you're working on

SCAFFOLDING

• Download all resources you will need
• Figure out how to install them
• Are you going to use a buildtool?
  • Webpack
  • NPM
  • Browserify
• Are you going to use a generator?
  • MAKE SURE IT WORKS FOR YOU!
  • Gulp vs. Grunt - Yeoman vs. Slush
  • Bower
• Back-end or front-end - where to start?

FRONT-END SCAFFOLDING

• Build static pages first
• Get the CSS to work
• Decide on ID's and classes
• If building responsively, make sure it works before making it dynamic
• Responsive images?

BACK-END SCAFFOLDING

• Start with models
• All database validations
• Figure out your callbacks
• Build in the pattern that MVC implies:
  • Router
  • Controller
  • Model
  • View
    • Views can be copied from static versions of pages
• Use as many helper methods (code atomically) as you can

GIVE YOURSELF MILESTONES

• Use Trello/Pivotal/JIRA
• Set due dates
  • MEET THEM
• Set development targets
  • MEET THEM

SMART Goals

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-based

Communication

• Slack
• Telegram
• HipChat
• WhatsApp
• E-mail
• Trello
• SMS