Technical Discovery SOP
QCK WordPress Infrastructure & Dev Governance Framework
1️⃣ Purpose
The Technical Discovery phase ensures that infrastructure, architecture, and structural risks are identified before development begins.
This prevents:
- Mid-build surprises
- SEO instability
- Permalink conflicts
- Plugin failures
- CRO test instability
- Timeline resets
No development estimate or template build should begin without completing this checklist.
2️⃣ Hosting Review
A. Hosting Environment
Hosting Provider
_________________________
Hosting Type
☐ Shared ☐ VPS ☐ Managed WP ☐ Dedicated ☐ Unknown
- Hosting access confirmed
- CDN present (Cloudflare, Fastly, etc.)
- Object cache present (Redis, Memcached)
- Full-page caching active
- Multiple caching plugins detected
- PHP version verified
- Memory limit verified
- Staging environment available
- Backup system confirmed
Uncached TTFB
______ ms
Hosting Score
___
1 = Stable managed environment
2 = Mixed or partial visibility
3 = Shared / unclear configuration / no staging
3️⃣ Theme Review
Theme Name
_________________________
Child Theme Present
☐ Yes ☐ No
- Actively maintained
- Last updated within 12 months
- WooCommerce template overrides present
- Hardcoded template logic detected
- Heavy JS bundles
- Excessive CSS bloat
- Inline scripts affecting rendering
- Custom ACF rendering logic
- Headless architecture
Performance Snapshot
LCP: ______
CLS: ______
INP or TBT: ______
Theme Score
___
1 = Lightweight and flexible
2 = Heavy builder but manageable
3 = Custom/legacy/headless with limited visibility
4️⃣ Plugin Review
For each critical plugin involved in layout, rendering, WooCommerce, or SEO:
Plugin Name
_________________________
- Actively maintained
- Compatible with current WP/PHP
- No critical vulnerability warnings
- No undocumented custom modifications
- Not abandoned
- No conflicting caching behavior
- No hardcoded overrides
Stable
Aging / moderate risk
Unsupported / high risk
1 = Stable stack
2 = Moderate aging risk
3 = Unsupported / conflict-heavy
Plugin Score: ___
5️⃣ Permalink Review
Current Permalink Structure
_________________________
- Custom slug prefixes
- Custom rewrite rules
- Indexed URLs affected by proposed change
- Ranking URLs impacted
- Backlinks pointing to affected URLs
- Hardcoded internal links
- Canonical tags auto-generated
- Redirect mapping required
1 = Minimal structural impact
2 = Moderate indexed URL changes
3 = High ranking URLs or rewrite uncertainty
Permalink Score: ___
6️⃣ CRO Snapshot
If CRO work or dynamic template behavior is planned:
- WooCommerce AJAX fragments present
- Dynamic pricing scripts
- Membership logic
- Geo-based logic
- Edge caching active
- No cache exclusions for tests
- Heavy JS theme
- No staging
1 = Stable for testing
2 = Moderate dynamic complexity
3 = High risk without controls
CRO Score: ___
7️⃣ Master Risk Scoring
Category Scores
Hosting: ___
Theme: ___
Plugin: ___
Permalink: ___
CRO: ___
Total Score
___
🟢 Green – Ready to Build
🟡 Yellow – Stabilization Recommended
🔴 Red – Escalation Required
8️⃣ Required Action Based on Classification
Proceed to estimation and development.
Recommend stabilization tasks before structural work.
Escalate to Infrastructure Stabilization discussion before proceeding.
9️⃣ Output Summary Template (To Send to AM)
Client: _________________________
Project: _________________________
Infrastructure Classification: 🟢 / 🟡 / 🔴
Key Findings:
- Hosting: _________________________
- Theme: _________________________
- Plugin Risk: _________________________
- Permalink Impact: _________________________
- CRO Feasibility: _________________________
Recommended Action:
_________________________
Timeline Impact:
_________________________
🔟 Governance Rule
Technical Discovery must be completed:
- Before final dev estimate
- Before Figma lock
- Before structural template build