Use Drupal.org To Evaluate Drupal Contributions

If you want to have a Drupal site built for you, your first and probably most important decision is choosing a contractor or shop to do the work.

Who is most qualified for the job? Here are some insider tips designed to help you find a great, collaborative Drupal shop with the chops to build the site you’re dreaming of.

What to Look For

Drupal is a powerful and flexible framework for content management. There are literally thousands of Drupal plugins that Drupal contributors have produced and shared.

That’s great, but it means that matching your needs with the best available solutions requires a lot of know-how, which a shop or a developer doesn’t acquire overnight. So when choosing a shop, first look for experience.

Drupal is collaboratively-built by thousands of contributors all over the world. Changes or additions to plugins come from community contributions, most of which arise from specific website projects: projects like yours. As a Drupal shop builds your site, they might well need to work with the users and maintainers of one or more plugins to get tips, fix problems, or suggest changes. So, after examining a shop’s experience, you’ll also want to look for collaboration and contributions.

As well as contributing code, like modules or themes, there are many other ways that community members help build and improve the Drupal project. Members post issues and help test potential fixes; write documentation or contribute translations; help organize local events or meetups; provide training; and give workshops at conferences. All of these contributions illustrate the dedication, collaborative skills, and community profile that you should consider for the success of your site development.

Nedjo Rogers

Nedjo has been an active Drupal contributor since posting his first module, in 2003. He is the technical lead of the Open Outreach Drupal distribution for nonprofit organizations, and a partner at Chocolate Lily Web Projects.