General discussion

We're looking for those who have had positive experiences with Drupal to share their experiences with our readers. If you love Drupal and have something to say, we welcome you to do so on our What CMS do you use and Why? article.

If you'd like to discuss the post, Custom Content Types and the Fields UI, you can do so here.

I have been doing Drupal development for several years and still find it to be quite messy. I am not saying the code is bad - it is really great - but rather after all this time, I am frustrated that I keep letting bugs slip by and don't know what to do to avoid it. Yes, automated tested is part of the solution but even that is difficult since most of my sites' code is contributed and I don't know how to write good tests for it. Then there is the matter of deploying code (and let's not even go into the matter of deploying content). Features was written brilliantly but after using it for two years I still come across problems with it often that forces me to circumvent it.

As a consultant specializing in Drupal-projects I help out people scope and describe their projects, I help them hone their goals and focus on their target, I help them find designers and developers and much more.
I can code (very slowly but methodically), but I'm not a coder and only do it as a hobby. I can sitebuild, but I'm not a sitebuilder. I'm someone who on behalf of my clients worry about the outcome of Drupal projects from a practical - but certainly also a strategical standpoint.
And I feel alone.
The Drupal community is just awesome - it's what makes Drupal Drupal. But it's a community of coders and sitebuilders.
I wonder - are there other independent consultants like me out there? Where are you hiding if you are there?
I would love to find likeminded people out there and talk about stuff like:

• Should we arrange a DupalCon-kindathing strictly for client's executives, project leaders and other non-developers.
• Could we set up a community for people concerned with business goals more than coding?
• Is this something that needs to happen away from drupal.org and the rest of the community?

I would like to know if there is some way to download the first versions of Drupal, lets say Drupal 1.x. Just for curiosity :)

If you'd like to comment on the post, Understanding Omega Theme, here's where you can do so.