We obtain assets early.

First, we ask for all assets, third-party integrations, hosting information, etc. early on in the project life cycle. If we wait till we get to the point in development when we actually need them and there is a hiccup, it inevitably would set us back. By simply asking upfront, we eliminate those disruptions. Even if our clients don’t have this information at the start, it gets the ball rolling sooner and we still receive the details we need before we are behind schedule.

We set milestones.

We break out development into a bunch of mini due dates called milestone completion dates. If we miss a milestone completion date for some reason, we know we need to adjust what we are doing for the following milestones to ensure we meet the ultimate deliverable date. Additionally, we track our progress of completing our milestones and share that with our clients throughout development to be fully transparent.

In the same vein, if something changes for our clients and they need to bump the timeline out, it is critical that this is communicated to us as soon as possible. This ensures that we will be able to reallocate resources to accommodate the new timeline. Open and frequent communication with our clients is essential and key to the success of the timeline.

Sometimes our clients do not have a hard deadline, which is okay. It is still important, though, that we have a timeline that both WDS and the client adhere to. It can be a challenge when there is no pressure on the client’s end for the website project to be complete. In order to be successful in following the timeline, we need buy-in from the client. Oftentimes, clients have waited quite a while to get a new website. Perhaps they didn’t have the financial resources previously, or perhaps they didn’t have the personnel bandwidth. Whatever the reason may be, it can be tough for the client to then shift into fifth gear. By building excitement and sharing progress with the client, they are able to buy into the timeline.

We plan ahead.

Finally, it is always wise to add a little cushion. If a client must have their site by a certain date, we create a timeline where we will be completing the project a few days prior to that date. This way if we hit a bump in the road, as can happen, we have some wiggle room.

Luckily, our due dates aren’t quite as elusive as my neighbor’s (she wound up delivering her baby a month early!). Once we create a timeline, we are able to stick to it by partnering with our clients to follow these guidelines, ensuring that their website launches on time.

The post Guide to Completing Website Projects on Time appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, let’s move on.

In 2010, WebDevStudios released the first version of the Custom Post Type UI (CPTUI) plugin to the WordPress plugin directory. At the time, Custom Post Types were brand new to WordPress and creating your own post types required (and still does, really) a complicated chunk of code. With CPTUI, the hard part was done for you. CPTUI quickly became popular with developers as a time-saving tool. So much so, that in July of 2015, 5 years after it’s initial release, the plugin passed the one million downloads mark.

I asked Brad Williams, our CEO and original developer of CPTUI if he had any idea the plugin would be so popular. He said,

Believe it or not, I absolutely knew CPTUI would be this popular. When Custom Post Types was introduced during the core development of WordPress 3.0, I immediately knew the impact it would have on the entire platform. I also knew, since the only way to register custom post types was via code, that most users would struggle with this so the idea of a UI for custom post types registration was born. We released the initial plugin before 3.0 was released and when the final version was announced, our plugin exploded overnight!

Growth, Change, and Reach

2016 has been an exciting year for CPTUI. In February, I was hired as Director of Products for WebDevStudios, and one of my first projects was helping to clean up the UI for CPTUI. We’ve focused on bringing it more in line with the standard WordPress dashboard aesthetic.

A couple months later, we released a paid add-on plugin called CPTUI Extended making it easy for non-developers to display their CPT data in pages and posts without writing a single line of code!

At the beginning of summer, the plugin hit another exciting milestone when the active install count jumped to 300,000. This is a gigantic number and places CPTUI easily in the top 100 plugins in the WordPress directory, which currently has 47,000+ plugins! All the while keeping a 4.6 average user rating.

This summer the plugin was also accepted into the GoDaddy WordPress Plugin Partner Program, and is consistently listed in the GoDaddy Hot 100 plugins list.

Wait. How many??

I said it before, 2016 has been pretty exciting. Today, specifically, even more so as we’re thrilled to announce that Custom Post Type UI has just passed the 2 million download mark!

It took 5+ years to reach the one million download mark and only 15 short months to double it. So, yeah, we’re pretty excited!

The success and growth of the plugin is largely due to WordPress itself becoming more popular and growing from a simple blog platform into a full-fledged content management system. CPT UI is ever evolving to stay current with everything that can be done with Custom Post Types. It’s exciting to think where the plugin will be by this time next year. You can follow along with the development (or submit a pull request) on Github, or download the current release from WordPress.org.

The post CPTUI Celebrates 2 million downloads! appeared first on WebDevStudios.