I was asked via a private message on LinkedIn: What word of advice would you give to help me build a successful agency ?

Drupal is a great development system, but it needs extra solutions for certain tasks. Docker and Kubernetes are powerful tools that help with automation. You can use them for various purposes, including testing, development, deployment, and managing web applications in production.
If you want to improve DevOps through automation, these two tools will be very useful in reaching your goals. The world of DevOps is changing fast, which is why automation and integration are crucial for high efficiency and scalability. 
Today, the Golems Drupal development team will look into DevOps automation and deployment using Docker and Kubernetes.

Drupal CMS 1.0 was released on January 15. People at 65+ parties celebrated around the globe in Milan (Italy), Zaragoza (Spain), Delhi (India), Lutsk (Ukraine), Bogota (Columbia), Boston (USA), Budapest (Hungary) just to name a few locations. More than 700 people celebrated on the online Zoom party. But what's next?

Join us at DrupalCon Atlanta for two keynotes, more than 20 sessions, contribution opportunities, a dedicated training and even a game show providing deeper insights into Drupal CMS! And this is just a slice of the whole conference!

Two Drupal CMS keynotes and an overview session

• The Driesnote on Tuesday provides a premier look at the latest developments and future plans of Drupal CMS, including updates on Experience Builder.
• Wednesday afternoon the Drupal CMS Spotlights keynote (page to come) will feature key leaders providing in-depth looks at their respective areas from AI site building through user experience, documentation and of course Experience Builder.
• Drupal CMS Product Lead Pamela Barone and UX Lead Cristina Chumillas will present Drupal CMS now and beyond to review the roadmap we went on so far and what is ahead.

Experience Builder sessions

A huge part of Drupal CMS will be Experience Builder (XB). Coming later this year, there is a lot to cover.

• In Experience Builder is coming. Are you ready? lead of XB, Lauri Timmanee will show how building Drupal sites will soon become faster and easier than ever before. 
• Experience Builder will come with a design system of components to use. In Behind the Build: How We're Creating Drupal’s New Default Design System Elliott Mower and Jason Thompson are presenting their early work on this. 
• Want to integrate your modules or custom features? One of the developers behind XB, Bálint Kléri will show you how in No need to over-React! Navigating Experience Builder as a developer.
• Kristen Pol is the lead of the demo design system for XB. In Launch your design system into hyperdrive with Starshot’s Experience Builder, she will share her hands-on experience and provide practical tips.
• The UI of Experience Builder itself is under scrutiny in Shaping the Future of Drupal: How Design Thinking + Collaboration is driving Experience Builder with Jillian Chueka and Renee Lund, who are leading designing the XB UI. 
• Last but not least in The Future of Drupal Theming: AI, Experience Builder, and Beyond Mike Herchel (Drupal Olivero theme's lead) will cover recent developments even beyond Experience Builder. 

Drupal CMS AI sessions

• AI is the new UI - how we are building AI into Drupal CMS is the place to be to learn from James Abrahams himself on how Drupal CMS built the site building AI features and what comes next.
• Marcus Johansson will provide practical tips on no-code feature building with AI in Meet the AI Automators that power everything in Drupal CMS - CKEditor, AI Agents, no code required!
• Want to create your own AI agents? No problem, Vincenzo Gambino is here to help with Working with the AI Agents in Drupal CMS - Create your own agents and AI powered migration. 

Sessions on even more building blocks of Drupal CMS

• As one of the premier adopters of recipes, in Recipes: It's About Time! Martin-Anderson Clutz gives an overview of the benefits of recipes, including practical tips from his extensive experience. Also Jim Birch is presenting the Drupal Recipes Initiative Update. 
• Joe Shindelar will present Documentation Initiatives for Starshot and Drupal.org, highlighting the new approaches Drupal CMS is taking to create documentation.
• Package Manager is behind both the Project Browser and Automatic Updates features in Drupal CMS. Ted Bowman presents Creating Composer aware modules with Drupal core's new Package Manager module to help more developers integrate with this crucial feature.
• Concerned for the security of automatically updating and easily installing packages? Supply Chain Security in Drupal and Composer is exactly about that with Christopher Gervais, Tim Lehnen and Neil Drumm.
• Privacy Track Lead Jurgen Haas presents Drupal CMS: Golden standard for privacy and data protection covering the incredible journey he went through with other experts in this area to bring simple to use yet widely applicable features to Drupal CMS.
• The wonderful new admin navigation UI that is used by Drupal CMS by default is the focus of Drupal Next-Gen Navigation: Enhanced Admin UI and better UX by Cristina Chumillas and Pablo López.
• The Dashboard is a key piece of Drupal CMS where users get an overview of what is going on on their site. In From Community Initiative to a Drupal CMS Track: the Dashboard Module Matthew Tift and Christian López Espínola will explain how it came to be and what are the future plans.
• Presented by tech leads of Drupal CMS Adam Hoenich and Tim Plunkett, the foundational technologies under Drupal CMS are in focus in Distributions are dead, long live distributions: a Drupal CMS story. They will cover how the installer is built and how one can manage reusable recipes in a project.

Drupal CMS research insights

What Do Marketers Really Want? Unpacking the User Research for Drupal CMS with Bruna Siqueira-Davis and Suzanne Dergacheva will cover the research they did with volunteers on CMS users across platforms and industries. The findings provide insights into the priorities, frustrations, and opportunities that inform how marketers select and use CMS platforms, and specifically what we should prioritize when designing Drupal CMS for marketers. 

Drupal CMS at summits and trainings

DrupalEasy is running a Drupal CMS Preview training to provide a hands-on introduction to some of its key features, including installation, Project Browser, recipes, AI integration, and Experience Builder. The agenda includes demos, practical exercises, and a developer Q&A, helping attendees gain confidence in launching future Drupal CMS sites.

Emma Horrell from the Drupal CMS UX team will also present at the Non-Profit Summit. 

Drupal CMS Game Show!

Drupal CMS: The Exciting Parts lead by Steve Persch is promising to be a fun "part panel discussion, part game show". If you've been to any of Steve's sessions before, you know this will be good.

Drupal CMS contribution

Last but definitely not least, teams, tracks and initiatives coming together in Drupal CMS will represent at the contribution events at DrupalCon Atlanta. Meet throughout the week at Birds of a Feather discussions about ongoing work and join in at the General Contribution area especially, but not only on the last day. See you there! Not too late to get your ticket!

One of the most popular content management systems (CMSs) is Drupal.Over 2.4% of all websites are using it for web and mobile app development. But why is it so popular among many developers andDrupal development agencies?

These are the top reasons why companies choose Drupal:

• It provides a top-notch, highly customized customer experience
• It has future-ready API architecture that allows scalability
• It has intuitive modules and robust functionality
• It offers high digital security standards

You should contact a Drupal agency that can help you improve your digital growth.

Why Should You Hire A Drupal Company?

You should opt for a Drupal agency to support your web development for many reasons. Understanding those elements in hiring a Drupal agency can help you improve your project's success.

Drupal's Starshot initiative and its impact on my contributions… aligning the Webform module with Drupal CMS

My next two blog posts will examine my work on the Webform and Schema.org Blueprints modules regarding Drupal's Starshot initiative and its impact on my contribution to the community. The first post discusses how the Webform module aligns with Drupal CMS, and the second post will discuss how the Schema.org Blueprints module is adjacent to Drupal CMS.

Drupal Starshot

The Drupal Starshot initiative resulted in the creation of Drupal CMS.

In other words, Drupal CMS recommends contributed modules that solve standard requirements and challenges that Drupal Core does not immediately address. For example, the SmartDate module will be used within the Events Recipe instead of Drupal core's Date module.

The Contact form initiative includes the Webform module, which I rebuilt for Drupal 8 and have maintained for several years. Being part of the Drupal CMS ecosystem is an honor and responsibility, which comes at a time when my maintenance of the Webform module is waning.

Webform maintainership

At the end of the year, I think about the current and future state of the Webform module and my contributions to the Drupal community. My contribution milestones fall on Christmas Eve when I wrap up and tag releases for open-source projects that I have been tinkering with during the Fall. For example, the YAML Form...Read More

The schedule for MountainCamp 2025 is now live. Our track team has carefully selected sessions that are aligned with the camp’s theme, ensuring a mix of quality, relevance, and inclusivity.

Keynote Speakers:

• Cristina Chumillas
• Lauri Timmanee
• Olga Baranova
• Vera Herzmann

Featured Sessions Presented By:

• Alex Moreno
• David Höck and Michael Bromley
• Frederick Wouters
• Imre Gmelig Meijling
• Michelle Sanver
• Mikko Hämäläinen
• Sascha Eggenberger

MountainCamp 2025 will be held in Davos, Switzerland from March 11th to 13th, offering excellent opportunities for learning, networking, and fun.

Buy your tickets now!

Please note that session times and speakers are subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances. We recommend checking the schedule periodically for updates.

The “drop is always moving,” and Drupal continues to evolve thanks to the folks who contribute from all over the world. But sometimes, behind all the coding, innovation, and collaborating, people start to lose motivation. In fact, it’s not uncommon for contributors to the Drupal project to experience burnout.

The Drupal Community Working Group is here to help. Part of our charter is to "help to prevent conflict and burnout" burnout, and this article is all about recognizing the signs and finding support.

Burnout can happen when work and life get out of balance. It can appear for lots of reasons. You might feel tired all the time or just plain bored with the same old tasks. Doubts creep in, and you start feeling impostor syndrome. You might feel the symptoms in your body and mind.

Some people in the Drupal community contribute as part of their job; the World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

If you’re experiencing burnout, know that you’re not alone. A 2022 study looked at over 32,600 tech workers from 33 countries and found that 62% of the people surveyed reported feeling “physically and emotionally drained.”

Understanding Burnout

Burnout is more than just feeling tired or stressed out. It’s like hitting a wall, emotionally, mentally, and physically, all because of too much stress. In the Drupal community, burnout can manifest in many different ways. Here are some signs:

• Decreased Motivation: Some people experience a loss of interest or passion for their work in the Drupal community. Tasks that were once exciting may now feel like a burden.
• Increased Irritability: Burnout can lead to heightened levels of frustration and irritability, both in online interactions and real-life interactions within the Drupal community.
• Isolation: Burnout often leads to withdrawal from social interactions, both online and offline. You, or someone you know, may become less active in Drupal issue queues, Slack channels, or community events.
• Physical Symptoms: Chronic stress and burnout can lead to physical symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, insomnia, and digestive issues.

Finding Support

Recognizing the signs of burnout is the first step. Getting through it might require support. Fortunately, the Drupal community offers a variety of resources and support networks to help contributors navigate burnout:

• Talk to the community: Drop a line in a Drupal Slack channel where you feel safe sharing (#community-health is a good one). Sometimes, just sharing with people who get it can make a big difference.
• Find, or become, a mentor: Look into the Drupal mentoring programs. Finding a mentor can help keep you on track. Becoming a mentor can give your work a different kind of purpose.
• Take care of yourself: Consider how you are taking care of your well-being. Are you getting enough sleep? Might you benefit from trying mindfulness or meditation (like a Body Scan)? Are you moving your body with exercise? Are you taking breaks? These are questions only you can answer honestly.
• Set limits: Learn to say “no” when you’re already swamped, hand off some tasks, or ask for more time when you need it.
• Talk to a professional: Don’t hesitate to seek professional help if you’re struggling to cope with burnout. Therapists, counselors, or support groups can provide invaluable assistance in managing stress and improving your well-being.

Conclusion

Sometimes Drupal contributors experience burnout, but it’s not the end of the road. Finding help might require outside help. Sometimes it’s just time to step away from the community indefinitely, and that’s okay, too. Remember, your well-being is paramount, and taking care of yourself ultimately benefits both you and the Drupal ecosystem as a whole.