How to find Wordpress upgrade project resources
March 4, 2020 11:13 AM Subscribe
What's are some effective methods to find the best person/team to upgrade a Wordpress site with custom code and other factors?
I work for a small company in the B2C space selling manufactured recreational products. The company's website has gone through quite a few iterations and coders over the past decade with the result that our Wordpress/PHP installation is getting out of date due to the various snowflake details that have to be managed and upgraded without breaking the site.
We currently lack the in house expertise to do the task, and given the security aspects of falling behind in updates, it's becoming increasingly important to get this done.
From a project management standpoint, simply explaining the many details involved sucks a lot of time before you get to an agreement with a coder. Finding the right coder or team is a problem in itself, then establishing a trusted relationship so you know you are handing the keys to a party who can get the job done well on acceptable terms.
In other words, when I shop for coders, I feel like I am burning up a lot of time just explaining what needs to happen before reaching any kind of mutual agreement that can move the process forward. Understanding a complex site takes a cogntive investment on the part of the proposed coder that may go unrecompensed if no agreement is reached which reduces their incentive.
For those of you involved in this space, the site is running WordPress 5.2./ PHP version: 5.6.40 under Cent OS 6. This is hosted on Rackspace. Plus custom code serving pages from Drupal/LISP. Plus an OSCommerce store running on a subdomain. Plus stunnel to an inhouse DB......
It's a bit much for a small family business to outsource effectively. So far I've started a thread on Codeable, thinking about doing the same on Toptal. We have in house Linux expertise which helps keep our current system up and running, but the total site upgrade is of a level of complexity that we're needing expertise that can focus exclusively on this project.
I work for a small company in the B2C space selling manufactured recreational products. The company's website has gone through quite a few iterations and coders over the past decade with the result that our Wordpress/PHP installation is getting out of date due to the various snowflake details that have to be managed and upgraded without breaking the site.
We currently lack the in house expertise to do the task, and given the security aspects of falling behind in updates, it's becoming increasingly important to get this done.
From a project management standpoint, simply explaining the many details involved sucks a lot of time before you get to an agreement with a coder. Finding the right coder or team is a problem in itself, then establishing a trusted relationship so you know you are handing the keys to a party who can get the job done well on acceptable terms.
In other words, when I shop for coders, I feel like I am burning up a lot of time just explaining what needs to happen before reaching any kind of mutual agreement that can move the process forward. Understanding a complex site takes a cogntive investment on the part of the proposed coder that may go unrecompensed if no agreement is reached which reduces their incentive.
For those of you involved in this space, the site is running WordPress 5.2./ PHP version: 5.6.40 under Cent OS 6. This is hosted on Rackspace. Plus custom code serving pages from Drupal/LISP. Plus an OSCommerce store running on a subdomain. Plus stunnel to an inhouse DB......
It's a bit much for a small family business to outsource effectively. So far I've started a thread on Codeable, thinking about doing the same on Toptal. We have in house Linux expertise which helps keep our current system up and running, but the total site upgrade is of a level of complexity that we're needing expertise that can focus exclusively on this project.
Is there a reason not to be shopping for someone to start over with a new site? For all the reasons you described, it seems likely that a new WordPress site is going to be cheaper, easier, and potentially better than trying to find someone to come in and sort through/straighten the spaghetti.
One other thought: if the site is so complex that it's causing issues, WordPress may not be the right solution.
posted by nosila at 12:22 PM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
One other thought: if the site is so complex that it's causing issues, WordPress may not be the right solution.
posted by nosila at 12:22 PM on March 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
You've probably already done a bit of this, but just formally writing down details on how the site works now - a two-paragraph executive summary and a longer (2 pages?) description of how employees and customers use the site to get things done - can save you from repeating yourself too much. Get your in-house Linux people to add 1 page about the various systems the site connects with.
Assuming you want to stick with Wordpress... ideally you could pay a Wordpress/PHP developer to do a short initial investigation, the results of which would be further documentation and recommendations which either that or another developer can use to make a full bid and move forward.
As a developer, what I'd really like is to be able to download the current site's code and database to run on my own dev server and see how everything fits together. You should erase passwords and any other sensitive info before passing that information on, of course; and only to people you are seriously considering hiring.
Check your memail... :)
posted by mistersix at 10:34 PM on March 4, 2020
Assuming you want to stick with Wordpress... ideally you could pay a Wordpress/PHP developer to do a short initial investigation, the results of which would be further documentation and recommendations which either that or another developer can use to make a full bid and move forward.
As a developer, what I'd really like is to be able to download the current site's code and database to run on my own dev server and see how everything fits together. You should erase passwords and any other sensitive info before passing that information on, of course; and only to people you are seriously considering hiring.
Check your memail... :)
posted by mistersix at 10:34 PM on March 4, 2020
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posted by humboldt32 at 11:40 AM on March 4, 2020