[development] Drupal Administration survey II: second draft

[Andre Molnar]

Kieran Lal wrote:
> How would you describe yourself as a Drupal administrator?
> (pick the best one) 

It would be nice if each self identified administrative group filled out
its own survey (same questions - just seperate surveys) - so that at the
end apples could be compared with apples.

It would be helpful for tracking things like:
Of those who identified themselves as X - they find Y to be Z.
But - those who identify themselves as W find Y to be much less Z.

I don't know if that is feasible with the survey application you plan to
use.

> Which types of Drupal websites do you administer
> (select all that apply)
> Personal Blog
> Community site
> Social Change site
> Brochure site
> News site
> E-Commerce site
> ...?
> Other site 

It may be helpful to define some of these:
e.g. Personal Blog (example.com) - you are the primary author and
administrator of all content on your site - users may register to post
comments, but do not gain other privileges by signing up.
Community Site (example.drupal.org) - you are one of many authors and
administrators - etc. etc. etc.

> What are your *most common* Drupal administration tasks?
> (select no more than 3)
> Monitor site through reviewing logs, looking at user activity
> Manage spam through comments, trackbacks, forum, and user registration
> Configure modules
> Update modules, install modules, test patches, track fixes for modules
> Work on themes and edit theme templates to customize module output
> Learn about Drupal capabilities and features, understand terminology,
> and plan improvements
> Manage users accounts, change permissions
> Respond to user feedback during testing and make changes
> Create web pages through the creating content types
> Other_______________
> 
> What are your *least common* Drupal tasks?
> (select no more than 3)
> Add new features by adding modules or coding new features
> Manage spam, delete content and comment, and banning users
> Modify existing content such publishing to the front page, making
> content sticky, or changing titles
> Layout content in positions with blocks, views, or designing a content
> section
> Change site theme or theme a content section
> Modify site navigation
> Other_______________

The list of 'most common' and 'least common' should be the same list.
This question is leading and makes assumptions.  Items in the least
common list may turn out to be common or items in the common list may
turn out to be uncommon.

> When you administer your site you find it *easy* to:
> (1 is *not easy*, 5 is *very easy*)
> 1-5 Add new features and install modules
> 1-5 Automate tasks using cron
> 1-5 Manage user information by editing user account permissions
> 1-5 Change themes or make changes to layout with theme templates
> 1-5 Post, edit, and version web pages and other content types
> 1-5 General settings such as changing titles, or date format
> 
> When you administer your site you find it *hard* to:
> (1 is *not hard*, 5 is *very hard*)
> 1-5 Discover where to configure site settings, or where all the
> different places where a site needs to be configured are
> 1-5 Understanding Drupal specific concepts or understand technical
> language without pictures
> 1-5 Upgrade modules manually, theme/customize module output, determine
> module dependencies
> 1-5 Manage content specifically creating new content types, viewing
> differences in node versions, importing content, or seeing multiple
> previews of content on a single page
> 1-5 Manage large groups or users, nodes, menu items, comments, blocks
> 1-5 Get overview of new content and activities on site
> 1-5 Configure user permissions with increasing granularity
> 1-5 Manage menus such as changing menu block weights for all menus on
> a page, or ordering menu items within a menu

Once again - consider combining these two list - reword the question:

When administering your site rate the ease with which you accomplish the
following:

Consider a 4 or 6 level scale to help avoid wishy washy responses
(challenge people to decide if they really think its easy or hard - no
middle answer):
6)very easy, 5)easy, 4)somewhat easy, 3)somewhat difficult, 2)difficult,
1)very difficult.

Break apart questions the cover broad areas.
e.g. > 1-5 Manage large groups or users, nodes, menu items, comments, blocks
Consider defining 'large'.
manage large numbers of user roles (10+)
manage large numbers of users (100+)
manage large numbers of nodes (1000+)
manage large menus (75+ items)
manage large number of comments (average of 3+ per node)

> What are some *important* administration tasks that did not fit into
> the categories above for you?
> (select no more than 3)
> Analyzing logs to understand the state of your site
> Integrating modules, resolving incompatibilities, theming the output
> Setting up a testing process including creating a test role,
> soliciting feedback from users, configuring corrections, and working
> with module development process to get bugs resolved
> Work on the theme and templates to create structure and distinct looks
> to sections of the site
> Hide output from modules such as node links or browsing links
> Managing menus with the menu editing interface, bulk menu editing, and
> menu options
> Manage performance of the site
> Identify popular content
> Aggregate content from other sources into a site
> _______________ Other

I'm not sure what this question hopes to measure.

andre