Building a Cake in Slices: How to Sequence Your Project for Front-End Success

Balancing complex front-end details with back-end configuration is a complicated dance that often leaves one part or the other suffering. Sink too much time into the back-end, and you run out of time for detailed responsive work across multiple devices and screen sizes. Focus too much on the front-end and you can end up with rigid templates that don’t allow a lot of CMS control and flexibility.

Bluecadet’s experience building large CMSes has led to some good strategies for  achieving a high level of front-end execution, without sacrificing a strong CMS authoring experience. This session will look at how to identify and schedule out key front-end portions of your project and the broad methods we use for achieving success:

* Building key vertical “slices” from the content type all the way to the front-end
* Prototyping front-end components early in the process
* Using motion graphics/animatics to provide reference for front-end work
* Identifying team roles, including a front-end director (like an art director for the front-end)
* Reviewing work as a team

The session will draw from recent projects that feature CMS control over complex JavaScript animations and video. 

The session is aimed at project managers and tech/dev leads who contribute to project management.