Requirements for your next WordPress project

• Requirements in website are usually ad-hoc / WordPress is easy to get into but not easy to do well
• Get the business requirements, why are they doing this in the first place?
• Minimise stakeholders. One or two people
• Workshops are useful - make sure everything is documented
• Create technical requirements - are they something you can test? Don't be too wordy, just state what needs to be done.
• Use wording/diagrams that everyone can understand. UML? Nope. Bullet points are magical.
• Don't make assumptions - really bad if create a website from an existing website. Treat it like a new project.
• Be explicit - just because WordPress already has features built in do not exclude these from the requirements
• Don't forget the things you can't see - emails to users
• Prioritise requirements - phase 1, phase 2.
• Exercise - Identify main parts of the system. Users (which types), content, taxonomies.
• Don't just include web developer's requirements - client might also have them
• Identify blockers/unknowns asap
• Working with any new 3rd parties should be a red flag - allow more time, budget
• Assume you might have missed requirements
• Outline this entire process from the start
• Charge for this if the client doesn't have some artifacts for this
• Get sign off

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