10 Best Practices for Magento

Maintenance & Support

 Today’s Presenters

Gene Ferriter Maria Delgado Ali Hashmi

The Plum Tree Group CommerceBlend CommerceBlend
@ThePlumTreeGrp @CommerceBlend @CommerceBlend
Solution Specialist Marketing Specialist Magento eCommerce
Consultant

Join the conversation #Magento2Webinar

 Points to be addressed

1 2 3 4
Maintenance The New The Paradigm Shift Continuous
is Dead Maintenance (How to do it) Delivery Model
Paradigm

5 6 7 8
Reviewing How to Select Free Whitepaper Next Steps
the 10 Best Your Partner For Download + Q&A
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Commerce, delve deeper
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The 10 best practices

your team should follow
for maintenance
MAINTENANCE IS DEAD…
“What do you mean it’s not fixed yet?? I told him
we needed that new button three weeks ago!!”
“What do you©mean
Jerry King it’s not fixed yet?? I told him
webdesignerdepot.com

we needed that new button three weeks ago!!”

 Maintenance is Dead…the way it is
currently practiced

“Maintenance is a chore, even a hassle.”

• Reactive instead of proactive

• Working in a Silo approach
–Assigned to the ‘B Team’
–Lack of familiarity with project history
–Lack of communications with PM, Account Manager or original Dev team
–Not integrated with marketing, BA or other departments

• Interruptions in service or features

• Random approach with no guiding methodology
“What do you mean it’s not fixed yet?? I told him
we needed that new button three weeks ago!!”
 “Maintenance reframed becomes
an opportunity.”

• Proactive instead of reactive

• Integrated approach – teams working in concert
• Continuous Delivery model
• Adherence to Best Practices methodology
The New Maintenance Paradigm

Traditional Paradigm
Time to Market

New Paradigm

Product Quality
The New Maintenance Paradigm

v1.0 v2.0 v1.0

Release Release Continuous Releases
Risk/ Risk/
cost cost

Time Time
main·te·nance
mānt(ə)nəns,ˈmān(t)nəns/
noun
1. the process of maintaining or
preserving someone or something,
or the state of being maintained
cul·ti·vate
ˈkəltəˌvāt/
verb
1. to grow and care for
2. to grow or raise (something) under
conditions that you can control
Maintenance: your website is a static thing
Cultivation: your website is a living entity
Don’t maintain your website any longer.
Maintenance is dead!
Cultivate your website. It is alive!
WILL THIS COST A LOT MORE?
Traditional Maintenance Costs

Conservative “What I have experienced is

about 35% of the development
Estimate: cost will be spent during the
first year of maintenance, 30%
Year 1: 35% in second year, 25% in 3rd year.
After 3 years, the cost again
Year 2: 30% goes up by 5 to 10% every year.
Year 3: 25% Hence, total reengineering of
application may be required
Year 4: 30% after 5 or 6 years.”
Year 5: 35% –Ravi Mari, Experienced Developer
 Maintenance Costs

Less Optimistic The "60/60" rule

Estimate: of software:
Year 1: 60% Maintenance = 60% average of
software costs
Year 2: 60% Enhancements = 60% of
Year 3: 60%, etc. software maintenance costs
Error correction = 17% of
Source: Frequently Forgotten software maintenance costs.
Fundamental Facts about
Software Engineering , by
Robert L. Glass
Don’t spend all of the money inevitably
spent on Maintenance just to fix problems
and maintain the status quo.
Instead, be nimble, forward thinking,
innovative, and proactive. Use the same
money to cultivate your website based on
real insights from testing, data and
integrated efforts. Make your online
business GROW!
 HOW DO WE DO THIS?
HOW DO WE MAKE THE
PARADIGM SHIFT?
It Starts With A Shift in Company Culture

• There is life beyond silos

• Break down the walls and collaborate
• Develop integrative solutions between departments
• Test different approaches and use the analytics for
insights on how to cultivate your website, not just
maintain it
The Right Tools
 THE RIGHT PROCESS:
CONTINUOUS DELIVERY MODEL
What is a Continuous Delivery Model?
What is a Continuous Delivery Model?

Software
Engineering
Approach? Practices?

Ability?
What is a Continuous Delivery Model?

Continuous delivery is
a discipline that allows
online merchants,
among other things,
to gain efficiency for
their maintenance
processes while
improving the quality
of their products and
services.
 How? - Assessing A
Continuous Delivery Model
 Assessing the Paradigm Shift

1. Make sure you 2. Assume a 3. Structure and

have the resources proactive attitude. design a model
you’ll need to Identify problems that works best
execute this project before they show for your needs.
(people + mindset + up.
tangible assets)
 Assessing the Paradigm Shift

1. Make sure you

have the resources
you’ll need to
execute this project
(people + mindset +
tangible assets)
Assessing the Paradigm Shift

Barriers to Continuous Delivery

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Organizational Culture

Lack of Dev+Ops Integration

Technical Hurdles

Lack of Understanding

Business Readiness
 How to do the Cultural Shift

• Get your executive board buy-in.

• Make sure that your organization’s
organizational structure encourages
its staff to be proactive and
collaborative
– Flat structure rather than hierarchical.
– A team’s responsibility rather than
individual auditing.
– More flexibility and autonomy, less
bureaucracy.
• Create, communicate and live brand’s
values → Promote innovation
• Coordinate your team, technological
and content resources accordingly.
• Execute
• Optimize
How to do the Cultural Shift (examples)
Assessing the Paradigm Shift

2. Assume a
proactive attitude.
Identify problems
before they show
up.
Assume a Proactive Attitude (examples)
Assessing the Paradigm Shift

3. Structure and
design a model
that works best
for your needs.
 Structure and Design a Model

“We use continuous delivery, so “By itself, the simplified user

every developer is accountable for management justified the cost.
their own code. As a result, the effort When combined with the responsive,
of each developer is aligned to the expert support, the ROI has far
goals of the company, and that exceeded our expectations”
keeps us lean, focused and fast.” –Brenton Witkowski, Acxiom

–Mario Cruz, CTO, Choose Digital

When should you assess a continuous
delivery model?

• Business Owners → When thinking about

your business plan, the market you’ll be
targeting and the industry you’ll be
competing on.
• eCommerce Managers → When an
iterative process that affects user
experience or web services is becoming
unwieldy due to increasing project
complexity.
• CMO (chief marketing officer) → When
tracking how their current industry or
maket might change, evolve or suffer a
breakdown due to innovation.
When should you assess a continuous
delivery model?

VS.
How a continuous delivery model might be
a game changer for your company

• Low Risk Releases

• Faster time to market
• Higher quality
• Lower Costs
• User Feedback
• Happier Teams.
 However, take into account…

• Customer preferences
• Domain restrictions
• Lack of test automation
• Differences in environments
REVIEWING THE 10 BEST PRACTICES
 Keep Your Magento
Install Clean

• Error Log Checking

• Archive, purge the server and
database logs
• Clean out images no longer
used
• Monitor logged exceptions
• Review 404 error logs. Set up
redirects
 Optimize Your
Database

• Back up your database

periodically.
• Schedule backups during
off-peak hours
• Test to ensure you have a
robust backup
• Keep 3rd party application
database separate
• Set up cron job for reindex
 Keep Your Magento
Up To Date

=
Updated Security Patches

Less Vulnerability
 Keep Your
Extensions Updated

Risk Assessment

Proactive Updates
 Make Sure Your Staging
Site is Updated

Use the Staging Site to test the

functionality of the store before
any update is published to the real
audience (shipping, product
content, new payment)
Test any design/coding change in
the Staging Store to avoid software
defects, incompatibilities or
extension conflicts.
It is strongly recommended to
have a robust staging version of
the website to match the
production as closely as possible.
 Application Load
Testing Performance

• Alter the resources allocated

to the server and perform data
snapshots in between tests to
ensure the consistency within
the site.
• Add artificial traffic to the
LoadRunner
checkout and particular product
pages to check the development
and strength of the site.
• Produce reports in response
times and infrastructure
performance.
 24/7 Server Monitoring Features
to take into
• Use a server monitoring tool to make sure your consideration:
site is always working and to identify potential
issues on time. • Code Segments
• Some advanced site monitoring tools like New • Key Transactions
Relic, provide web application alerts to always • SQL Statements
keep you informed with important changes or
updates.
• Evaluate how the set is performing for you and
your users according to an industry-standard
measurement.
• Tools: New Relic, Ruxit, Shoppimon
 Set A Release
Deployment Process

• Routine site deployments should

be included in a strong process
plan.
• Ask your team to keep track of
the code version control process
(e.g. SVN/GIT).
• Test your system in your
development environment and
pull all customs code in source
control.
 Ensure Site Security

• Use the latest Magento version, it

usually includes solutions to prior
security conflicts.
• Use a two-factor authentication
extension that provides an extra layer
of security.
• Run scheduled patches provided by
your hosting company
• Run periodic site audits to identify
potential threats (ideally every 6
months)
• Secure your data by using a SFTP
(Secured File Transfer Protocol)
• Recommended Tools: Rublon,
Extendware
 Have An
Emergency Contact

• Make sure you have a contact

on the support team.
• Outsourced maintenance?
Work with an account or
project manager.
HOW TO SELECT YOUR
PARTNER ON THIS
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Who Are You?

Ask for the company’s background, team,

location and primary focus
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Are You Experienced?

Make sure the company has experience with

Magento and complex projects
 ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Communication Breakdown

Try to gain insights in regards to ticketing system, expected response

times, hours of availability, account managers at your disposal, etc
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Maintenance Philosophy

Try to figure out if maintenance is a core priority

or more of an auxiliary service
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Methodology and Costs

What every client wants to know:

pricing and cost / benefit relation
ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
After the Work is Done

Ask for warranty policy, training options, site

monitoring, testing and follow ups
ADDITIONAL RESOURCE
Download Your Whitepaper Now!

Shared by Express
Commerce, delve deeper
into the most important
information you can apply
from now:

The 10 best practices

your team should follow
for maintenance
UP NEXT…
Be sure to join us for the next webinar in the series:

B2B Commerce with

SAP & Magento
Organized by Insync, Commerceblend
and Plum Tree Group

This webinar will feature information about:

• B2B Digital Commerce Trends

• Assessing your needs / How to create a MoSCoW list
• InSync Magento / SAP Business Connector
• Featured Case Study
Time for Q&A
commerceblend.com
plumtreegroup.net
insync.co.in
phase3commerce.com
Download for free here