Development Methodologies

How WordPress teams plan, design, test, and ship — from Agile and GitFlow to SDD, DDD, and TDD. Practical methodologies grouped by process, code design, WP-specific approaches, frontend, DevOps, and UX.

Methodologies answer how you work before and during coding. For code structure see Architectures; for WP APIs see Development.

4WP core workflow: SDD → DDD → TDD → build → refactor

Management

Code Design

WordPress

Frontend

Git / DevOps

UX & Product

Management & Process

How teams plan, prioritize, and deliver WordPress projects.

Agile

Iterative delivery with short feedback loops from clients and users.

Read guide →

Scrum

Time-boxed sprints, backlog grooming, and defined roles for plugin teams.

Read guide →

Kanban

Visual flow, WIP limits, and continuous delivery without fixed sprints.

Read guide →

Lean (MVP)

Reduce waste, validate assumptions, ship a minimum viable plugin or feature.

Read guide →

Extreme Programming (XP)

Pair programming, frequent releases, and test-first habits for small WP teams.

Read guide →

Feature-Driven Development

Break large builds into client-visible features; design and ship incrementally.

Read guide →

Waterfall

Sequential phases for fixed-scope contracts with signed specifications.

Read guide →

Code Design & Testing

Design and verify behavior before and during implementation — the 4WP plugin workflow chain.

SDD

Software Design Document — requirements, architecture, and data flow before code.

Read guide →

DDD

Model domain logic with ubiquitous language, bounded contexts, and aggregates.

Read guide →

TDD

PHPUnit and WP test suite — red, green, refactor for plugin behavior.

Read guide →

BDD

Given-When-Then behavior specs; Behat and Codeception for WordPress acceptance tests.

Read guide →

WordPress Methodologies

Approaches specific to block themes, the editor, and API-driven WordPress products.

Block-first / Gutenberg-first

Ship features as blocks and block.json instead of classic PHP templates.

Read guide →

Headless / Decoupled WordPress

WordPress as backend via REST or WPGraphQL; React or Next.js frontends.

Read guide →

API-first / REST-first

Design endpoints and contracts first; UI and blocks consume REST second.

Read guide →

Full Site Editing / theme.json

Block themes driven by theme.json, patterns, and template parts.

Read guide →

Frontend Methodologies

Structure UI, styles, and components for scalable WordPress front ends.

Atomic Design

Atoms → molecules → organisms — maps to blocks, patterns, and templates in FSE.

Read guide →

BEM

Block-Element-Modifier naming for predictable CSS in themes and blocks.

Read guide →

OOCSS / SMACSS

Alternative CSS organization for large themes and design systems.

Read guide →

Component-Driven Development

Build and document UI in isolation — Storybook-style workflows for blocks.

Read guide →

Git / DevOps

Branching models and automated pipelines for WordPress plugins and sites.

GitFlow

develop, feature, release, and hotfix branches for staged plugin releases.

Read guide →

GitHub Flow

main plus short-lived branches and pull-request reviews.

Read guide →

Trunk-Based Development

Single mainline, small commits, feature flags for continuous integration.

Read guide →

CI/CD for WordPress

Automated PHPCS, PHPUnit, and deploy with WP-CLI in GitHub Actions or similar.

Read guide →

UX & Product

User-centered discovery before custom WordPress builds.

Content-first design

Content model and IA before visual design — ideal for CPTs and block patterns.

Read guide →

Mobile-first design

Base styles for small screens first, then progressive enhancement.

Read guide →

Design Thinking

Empathize → define → ideate → prototype → test for custom WP products.

Read guide →