A compressed but structured milestone plan delivering three interconnected web properties — Main Site, LMS, and Convention Platform — within 16 weeks, serving students, alumni, and the wider congregation.
Primary digital presence. Mission, ministries, events, student onboarding, alumni hub, sermons, and donation. The front door to the entire ecosystem.
Courses, boot camps, certifications, student progress tracking, and cohort management. Powered by WordPress with a dedicated LMS plugin layer.
WordPress Tutor LMS WooCommerceAnnual convention portal — registration, speaker profiles, schedule, payments, and post-event archive with session recordings for alumni access.
PHP (Laravel) MySQL Paystack Payments4-Month Strategy: All three sites run on overlapping tracks. Research and design phases happen simultaneously across all properties in Month 1. Development of all three begins in Month 2, with the LMS completing soonest (Week 10), followed by the Convention site (Week 12), and the Main Site last (Week 14) due to its greater complexity. Testing, QA, and launches are staggered across Months 3–4. Post-launch maintenance begins after each respective site goes live.
The organization's primary digital hub — covering all 6 lifecycle phases across 16 weeks. Tech choice (Next.js / React / PHP) to be confirmed at end of Week 1.
2–3 facilitated sessions with leadership, student reps, and alumni board. Capture organizational mission, brand values, content priorities, and technical constraints. Agree on primary goals for the site.
Evaluate Next.js vs React vs PHP based on team skills, budget, and long-term maintenance needs. Confirm CMS choice (Sanity / Contentful / ACF for PHP).
Survey and interview 00–25 students, alumni, and general members. Define 3 primary personas: Undergraduate Students, Alumni, National Children and Youth Work Department. Map their goals and pain points.
Audit all existing content. Define sitemap (Home, About, Ministries, Events, Sermons, Student Portal, Alumni Hub, Give, Contact). Establish URL structure and content taxonomy. Register domain.
Define typography system, color palette, imagery style, and icon language that reflects the organization's faith tradition and identity. Present a moodboard for stakeholder sign-off before proceeding.
Low-fidelity wireframes for all page templates: Homepage, About, Ministry/Event pages, Sermon archive, Alumni Hub entry, Give/Donate, and Contact. Mobile-first approach.
5–8 informal test sessions with real users. Validate navigation structure, information findability, and CTA placement. Incorporate findings before moving to hi-fi.
Full Figma design for all templates at 3 breakpoints (mobile, tablet, desktop). Build component library (buttons, cards, forms, nav, hero sections). Specify micro-interactions and transitions.
Export assets, annotate specs, document component states and interactions. Final design approval before development begins.
Set up dev/staging/production environments. Configure version control (GitHub), CI/CD pipeline, chosen hosting (Vercel for Next.js / Netlify for React / cPanel/VPS for PHP), SSL certificates.
Configure headless CMS (Sanity/Contentful) or ACF Pro for PHP. Build all reusable UI components wired to design tokens. Set up Storybook or equivalent component documentation.
Develop Homepage, About, Ministries, Events (listing + detail), Sermons/Blog, Contact, and all static pages. Dynamic routing from CMS data. WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance throughout.
Connect donation/payment gateway (Paystack), newsletter (Mailchimp, Brevo), analytics (GA4), google search engine console,social feeds. Implement JSON-LD structured data, sitemap.xml, Open Graph. Optimize Core Web Vitals (LCP, CLS ≥ 90 Lighthouse).
Test all pages, forms, auth flows, and integrations across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge. iOS and Android mobile testing. Log all bugs in a priority matrix (P1–P4). Target zero P1 bugs before launch.
Lighthouse performance audit (target ≥90). OWASP Top 10 security check, HTTPS enforcement, form protection. Full WCAG 2.1 AA keyboard navigation and screen reader review.
Invite 10–20 beta testers from student body, and alumn. Gather feedback on usability and content. Present findings to team for final sign-off.
Resolve all P1/P2 bugs. Content team populates CMS with real organization content. Regression test after all fixes. Implement content freeze for launch readiness.
Final production review, DNS cutover plan, backup strategy, monitoring alerts (UptimeRobot). Soft launch to staff and a small community group. Monitor 48–72 hours before opening fully.
Full DNS cutover. Announcement via email newsletter, social media, and congregation bulletin. Coordinated announcement with LMS and Convention site launches for unified messaging.
Daily error monitoring for 2 weeks. P1 hotfix SLA: 4 hours. CMS training sessions for content managers. Admin training for portal management. Handover documentation package.
First analytics report: traffic sources, popular pages, drop-off points, conversion rates on donation and enrollment CTAs.
Monthly dependency/plugin updates, security patches, content updates, backup verification, uptime monitoring, and quarterly performance audits. Budget for ongoing hosting and domain renewal.
WordPress-powered Learning Management System for courses and boot camps — all 6 phases in 10 weeks, launching ahead of the Main Site.
Inventory all current and planned courses, boot camps, and certifications with ministry/academic leads. Define cohort sizes, prerequisites, completion criteria, and grading approach.
Evaluate Tutor LMS on features, pricing, and compatibility with WooCommerce and other plugins. Hosting will be on a same hosing as the main site using a sub-domanin.
Define pricing tiers: free courses open to all, paid boot camps, alumni-only content, live sessions. Choose payment gateway (Paystack via WooCommerce).
Premium LMS-compatible theme (Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence) or custom design that matches the main site brand. Purchase and configure chosen theme.
Design the student dashboard experience: enrolled courses, progress tracking, upcoming deadlines, certificates earned. Design course player, lesson view, quiz interface, and cohort/group views.
Design instructor dashboards for content creation, student management, grading, and reporting. Plan admin views for enrollment management, cohort groups, and certificate batch actions.
Install WordPress on managed hosting. Configure LMS plugin (TutorLMS), WooCommerce, theme, and all required extensions. Set up staging environment.
Structure all courses: modules, lessons, quizzes, assignments, prerequisites, drip release schedules, and completion certificates. Migrate or create initial content for pilot courses.
Configure instructor dashboards and enrollment reports. Set up automated email notifications (enrollment confirmation, lesson completion, certificate dispatch). Integrate Zoom or YouTube for live classes.
Test full student journey: register → enroll → lesson → quiz → certificate. Test payment flows, coupon codes, group enrollments, drip schedules, and instructor grading workflows.
Run one pilot course or boot camp with 5–15 real students. Gather structured feedback on learning experience, content clarity, platform usability, and notification delivery.
Security Hardening. Configure login protection, file permissions, auto-backup (UpdraftPlus), CDN for media assets (Cloudflare), and production deployment with DNS update.
Training sessions for course creators, instructors, and enrollment admins. Provide video walkthroughs and written documentation for ongoing content management.
Weekly WordPress core and plugin updates. Monthly backup verification. Quarterly enrollment and completion rate reviews. Annual hosting and plugin license renewals.
Custom PHP (Laravel) convention platform — registration, speakers, schedule, payments, and post-event archive — launching in Week 12.
Document convention scope: expected attendance, session tracks, speaker roster, registration tiers (general, student, alumni, VIP, virtual), payment needs, and livestream requirements.
Design MySQL schema for attendees, sessions, speakers, registrations, and payments. Choose server shared PHP hosting. Plan API structure.
Design landing page, session schedule with filtering, speaker grid, multi-step registration form (personal info → ticket type → payment → confirmation).
Design admin interface for managing speakers, sessions, attendee lists, and reporting dashboard.
Initialize Laravel project, configure MySQL, set up Eloquent ORM models (Attendee, Session, Speaker, Registration, Payment), Laravel Sanctum for auth, queue workers for email, and Redis for sessions.
Build public-facing pages: convention landing, session schedule with track filtering, speaker profiles, FAQ, and venue/logistics page. SEO-optimized Blade templates with brand styling.
Multi-step registration form, ticket tier logic, Paystack integration for card, and vitual transfer payments, view page to check registration status.
Admin panel for session/speaker management, attendee CSV export, Frontend management.
Embed livestream player (YouTube Live / Vimeo / custom RTMP). Build post-event recording archive accessible to registered attendees and alumni.
End-to-end test all registration tiers, payment success/failure/refund scenarios, booking flows.
Simulate peak traffic (registration open day spike). OWASP security review: SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, PCI compliance for payment handling.
Laravel Forge setup on shared Hosting. HTTPS/SSL, firewall rules, rate limiting, Redis config, automated backups, and deployment pipeline. Zero-downtime deployment strategy.
Publish session recordings, release attendee feedback survey, produce analytics report for leadership (attendance, revenue, geographic reach), and document lessons for the next convention iteration.
All three sites running in parallel. Research and design phases overlap in Month 1. Development tracks diverge by site complexity through Months 2–3.
KEY MILESTONES AT A GLANCE