Tools,  Process  &  Technical  Delivery  

at  CMD

OverviewUsing the guide to CMD’s technical delivery process.  

Ramping  Up

The  following guide is meant to provide a brief overview of CMD’s

technical delivery process and some of the tools involved.   In  this

guide we will cover a high-­‐level  view of how projects and executed

by the Technical Services  Group   using Atlassian software and the

various other software platforms and services that we use on a semi-­‐

regular basis.  

We  will start  of by going over  the basics of Atlassian’s primary

project managment tool:  Jira.

The  Atlassian family of collaboration,  project managment and software tools.

HipchatShare   ideas  and  files  in  persistent  group,  video,  and  1-­‐on-­‐1  chats.

SourceTreeHarness   the  full  power  of  Git  and  Mercurial  in  a  beautifully  simple  application.

Bitbucket  Server  (Stash)Manage  and  share  your  Git  repositories   to  build  and  ship  software,  as  a  team.

ConfluenceOne  place  for  your  team  to  share,   find,  collaborate,  and  get  more  work  done.

JiraIssue   tracking  and  project  planning  to  collaborate,  build,  and  ship  great  products.

The  3  Pages  You  Need  to KnowWhile Jira is a complex project managment tool,  there are  ony 3  pages that you need to be really familiar with.

The  DashboardThe  is your home screen in  jira and will showeverything relevant to you.  At  CMD   we have

different dashboards setup  for each department.  

The  Kanban BoardThis is where you can see all the progress of allprojects currently being worked in  real  time.

Issues/TasksThis is the page that shows what is going on with aparticular project.   Status,  specs,  stakeholders,  

assets and progress are  all recorded here.  

The DashboardYour homescreen in  Jira.

Producers//  Producer   Dashboard

Program  Managers//  Producer   Dashboard

Tech  Directors//  TSG  Tech  Director   Dashboard

Developers//  TSG  Developer  Dashboard

QA  Analysts  /  Proofreaders//  QA  &  Proofing  Dashboard

Activity OverviewThe  dashboard can be reached at any

time by clicking on the CMD  logo  in  the

upper left corner of any page in  Jira.

Here  you will see issues currentlyassigned to you,   issues that you are  

watching and a program-­‐level   snapshotof work happening in  your department.  

You  can load the dashboard for your

department by searching for one of thedashboards listed to the right.

The Kanban BoardHere  is where you will find theup-­‐to-­‐the-­‐minute status  of everything currently beingworked on.

Producers//  PMO  Program-­‐Level   Board

Program  Managers//  PMO  Program-­‐Level   Board

Tech  Directors//  TSG  Program-­‐Level  Board

Developers//  TSG  Program-­‐Level  Board

QA  Analysts  /  Proofreaders//  TSG  Program-­‐Level  Board

Maintain Agile EfficiencyKanban boards are  great for getting an

update on a lot  of projects fast.  Here  

you can sort projects by client orindividual   stakeholder.

Using this board effectivly will prevent

projects from stalling and providecurrent information on who is

overloaded and who has  availability.  

Department   specific dashboards are  listed on the right.  

4

2

The  Task/Issue ViewEverything related to a project in  oneplace.

To  edits all available information on a

task,  click here.  

This  is  where  you  will  see  all  parties  

responsible   for  delivering   a  project   listed.  

The  ‘asignee’   is  the  person  who  currently  

should  be  taking  action  at  any  given  time.

The  task  description   is  where  specs,  assets  

and  any  other   informaion is  entered.   On  

some  issues,  this  information   is  imported  

from  Formstack.

Down  here  is  where  defects  and  bugs  will  

be  listed  as  they  come  in  from  testing.  

The  task (or issue)  level   is where you can

find the complete scope of information for

a project.   Every detail  and spec needs to be

listed here.   In  most projects the TD  will set  

of the task once  assets are  nearly ready for

development.   For  projects involving emails

or QA,  a producer needs to fill out a

formstack which will automatically

generate a ticket with the relevant

information.

12

3

4

1

3

The ProcessGoing over  the steps involved with builing out technical deliverables.

Moving Fast

In  the modern  era  of expanding IOT  innovation andmulti-­‐platform  

responsive design,  it is east for projects to get held up in  the

concepting phase while trying to find the best technical execution for

each project.  

In  this section we will go over  some of the software platforms and

frameworks that the Technical Services  Group   uses to deploy

engaging,  responsive user experiences in  a fast and thorough

manner.  We  will start  off by talking about HTML  Email  development.

Email DevelopmentThe  following outlines theworkflow for HTML  email   development at CMD.

FormstackProjects start  by producers erntering aformstack for new email  projects that connects

to Jira’s API.

Litmus TestingOnce   emails  are  ready  for  testing,  they  are  checked  

against  a  list  of  approved  email  clients  in  Litmus.

JiraJira  creates  a  task  that  is  assigned  to  a  Tech  Director  for  triage.  If  the  task  is  ready,    it  is  then  assigned  for  

a  developer  to  build  out.

DeploymentOnce   an  email  is  finished  testing,  it  is  deployed  through  an  email  marketing  manager  such  as  

Mailchimp,  Silverpop or  Campaign  Monitor.

Banner DevelopmentThe  following outlines theworkflow for HTML5  banner development at CMD.

JiraProjects start  by producers handing off a brief withrelevant specs to a Tech Director.  The  TD  will then fill out

a Jira task for the project and assign it to a developer.

ConfluenceOnce   emails  are  finished,  the  project  is  

documented   in  Confluence  for  future  work.

Bitbucket ServerThe  projects  is  built  out  by  a  developer  and  

loaded  into  a  stash  repository  for  

collaberation and  archiving.

DeploymentOnce   an  email  is  finished  testing,  it  is  deployed  through  an  ad  server  such  as  Doubleclick,  Apple  

iAd or  Facebook  for  Business.

Full Site DevelopmentThe  following outlines theworkflow for web  dev,  microsite &  eCommerce development at CMD.

JiraProjects start  by producers handing off a briefwith relevant specs to a Tech Director.  The  TD  

will then fill out a Jira task for the project andassign it to a developer.

ConfluenceOnce  websites  are  finished,  the  project  is  

documented   in  Confluence  for  future  work.

Bitbucket ServerThe  projects  is  built  out  by  a  developer  and  immediatly loaded  into  a  stash  repository  

for  collaberation and  revision  history.

DeploymentOnce   a  website  is  finished  testing,  it  is  moved  from  our  local  test  server  to  it’s  permanent  

hosting  environment.

Daily  StandupsWorking  with  the  different  groups  within  TSG.

Email  Development  Standup

TD:  Garrett   Gillas//  9:30  amBobby   Pierce,   Richard   Jackson,  Alissa  YoungJack  Meeks

Jeld-‑Wen Projects  Standup

TDs:  Bill  Oliver  &  Tovar  Millhollin//  10:30  amEric  Cutler,   Nathan  Marr,   Jeremy   IngleSam  Averett

Other  TSG  Projects  Standup

TD:  Russ  Hodgin  //  10:00  amErin  Albers,  Matt  EggersVitaliy Hudz

THE  END