Project managers: start here #

This page is for project managers who run a website or application project built on Exponential, whether you are new to the product or new to the role. It answers three questions: what this part of the help offers you, what to do in your first week, and where to find each answer later. Everything here is written so that the help alone can be your information source: every product fact on these pages points to the file it comes from.

Contents #

1. What this section gives you
2. Your first week
3. Every leadership page
4. The existing help pages you will use most
5. How the help itself works
6. Ground rules these pages follow
7. Questions to answer before your kick-off

What this section gives you #

The leadership pages turn the technical documentation of Exponential into what a project manager needs to plan, estimate, decide, coordinate and hand over. They do not replace the guides for editors, administrators and developers; they tell you which of those guides answers which question, and in what order to read them.

Your first week #

The plan below assumes you have an account in the administration with at least the Editor role, and a demonstration or test installation that you are allowed to change. If you have no installation yet, ask an administrator or a developer for one: a complete demonstration site is installed with one command, ./console exp:install --apply, on SQLite and without a database server (Installing Exponential in one command).

Day 1: know the product and the people behind it #

• To do: Read What Exponential is: the product family (30 minutes).
• To do: Skim Who is 7x? and Who is the Exponential Foundation?, at least the sections "In short" and "The support commitment".
• To do: Write down, in one sentence each, which product of the family your project uses and why. If you cannot, the table "Which product is for you" on the Foundation page helps.

Day 2: walk the administration as an editor #

• To do: Follow Getting started: sign in, find an item, make a first change, sign out.
• To do: Follow A tour of the administration, including "In action: editing a folder" and "In action: the layouts editor".
• To do: Read Publishing, versions and the trash: drafts, versions and going back are what editors will ask you about first.
• To do: Note every place where your role shows a button grayed out or not at all. That is your first lesson in roles and policies.

Day 3: understand roles, permissions and the content model #

• To do: Read sections 1, 2 and 5 of Roles, policies and unactivated users.
• To do: Read section 1 of The content model and editing content: classes, attributes, datatypes, objects and nodes.
• To do: Read "In short" of Sections and of Object states.
• To do: Draft a first list of the people in your project and the role each one will need (Planning an Exponential project has a table to start from).

Day 4: understand where the site runs and how it changes #

• To do: Read Choosing hosting, database and operating system.
• To do: Ask your administrator which database, which web server and which install method your project uses, and write it into your charter (Project templates).
• To do: Read "In short" of The audit trail: it is your record of who did what.
• To do: Read When something goes wrong: it is the procedure your team uses to report errors.

Day 5: plan #

• To do: Fill in the scoping worksheet of Estimating and scoping with extensions.
• To do: Schedule the first content modeling workshop (Running content modeling workshops).
• To do: Start a risk register from Risk management for Exponential projects.
• To do: Agree on the quality gates with the developers (Quality gates and acceptance).
• To do: Read Working together and share it with the team.

Every leadership page #

Sales and marketing colleagues have their own section, which starts at Sales and marketing: start here. Two of its pages are useful to project managers too: Who Exponential is for and Licensing explained for buyers.

The existing help pages you will use most #

For working with editors #

For working with administrators #

For working with developers #

How the help itself works #

The help you are reading is the git-tracked documentation of the repository, shown in the administration (The help system):

• The help dashboard (/exphelp/dashboard) has a search field, the pages for each audience, the categories, featured pages and the latest changes.
• The Help button in the header opens the page that belongs to the screen you are on.
• Every page can be printed and downloaded as a PDF (Print this page, Download as PDF), which is useful for steering committee packs.
• Report an error (/exphelp/report) explains which tracker to use and prepares an issue with the diagnostics, never with passwords, keys or personal data.
• Reading the help needs the policy exphelp/read. The Administrator role has it, and a new installation gives it to the Editor role (The help system). If a team member cannot open the help, that is the policy to ask for.

Ground rules these pages follow #

• Every product fact has a source. A link to a page in doc/, or a file path. If a page says "the sources do not state", treat that as a question to ask your team or 7x, not as a gap to fill with assumptions.
• No prices, hours or service levels are invented. Where an estimate is needed, the pages give you questions and worksheets, not numbers. Services and prices of 7x are on the 7x website, not in this help (Who is 7x?).
• Templates are fill-in forms. Placeholders look like <project name>.
• The documentation is free. You may copy and adapt these pages for your project under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 (Free documentation).

Questions to answer before your kick-off #

Copy this list into your project notebook and fill it in with your sponsor and your technical lead.

Related pages #

• The leadership reading path
• Working together
• Who is 7x?
• Who is the Exponential Foundation?
• The help system
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.

See also: Adopters.