I'm fine with punting this, but I do want to express my concern about getting this written down. We've never had a roadmap, of any sort. And I think we need one. Documenting our current focus, and possible future focuses seems like a good step in that direction. If we don't want to document this right now, I will come back to this post-1.3.
On 8 November 2012 14:13, Jan Lehnardt <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Nov 6, 2012, at 17:03 , Noah Slater <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I think this is a great initiative Jan. > > > > I am sure there are a few people right now who are thinking "Hey, but I > am > > working on X, and Jan didn't mention X, so is X important? Or is Jan > > telling me I shouldn't be working on X?" Well, I understand that. As it > > happens, I am working on the docs, and Jan didn't mention them. > > > > But I don't think the idea is that anything not on the list is > unimportant, > > or that if you're working on something else, then you should stop. Just > > that we need to have a regularly updated list of our current PROJECT > LEVEL > > focus. > > > > And so, with that caveat out of the way... > > > > Jan, as this is your initiative, can I ask you to start a page on the > wiki? > > We should document this. > > > > I think the wiki page should probably have three things on it. A list of > > our current focus areas. An archived list of previous focus areas. And a > > list of areas to focus on in the future. > > > > I think we should also review this monthly. Each month, review the > current > > focus areas, see what has been done and what has not. Archive the list. > > Create a new one for the current month. And decide on whether we want to > > add any other items. This should be a dev-level decision making process, > > perhaps in the first IRC meeting of the month. > > > > A monthly email to both user and dev, along with general project status, > > might be a good thing to come out of this too. > > > > Thoughts? > > > My intention with this thread is to try to create a “culture of ship”. > (I’ll be sending out t-shirts, when we succeed). I don’t think making > this a more formal thing isn’t going to do much. > > I think the weekly status meetings are great way to formally keep > track of the progress we make through our collective roadmap (which > we also need to work on a little bit more structured, but one thing > at a time. > > Let’s ship 1.3.0. > > Jan > -- > > > > > > > > On 6 November 2012 15:47, Jan Lehnardt <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> Hey all, > >> > >> I’m trying something new here. Please send any feedback you might have. > >> > >> DISCLAIMER: I won’t keep anyone working on or discussing anything. All I > >> want is find a way to make us all more productive. > >> > >> * * * > >> > >> > >> With that out of the way: > >> > >> > >> Let’s Focus! > >> > >> > >> My hypothesis is this: > >> > >> This group, dev@, has a limited amount of time and attention to move > >> CouchDB forward. We have so many important things to do that it is very > >> hard for us to say “no” to any one thing that is brought up. > Historically, > >> whenever there is a surge of activity, we (myself definitely included) > tend > >> to bring up more issues than we can work on at a time and as a result we > >> end up doing less than we could. > >> > >> > >> My proposal to solve this: > >> > >> Say “no”. > >> > >> More specifically, we need to learn to say “no” to things that, while > they > >> are definitely important, are not important enough “right now” and > should > >> be deferred to a later time. > >> > >> For example, currently I think our most important topics are: > >> > >> - Get CORS and docs into shape that we can merge them to master/1.3.x > >> - Ship 1.3.0 > >> - Help the Futon.Next folks out as much as we can to build & deliver > >> Futon.Next. > >> > >> At the same time, there are many more discussions going on that are > >> distracting us from the points above done. > >> (This includes my Plugins Proposal, I am clearly guilty of this.) > >> > >> Note that the list above is a strong “in my opinion”, your shortlist is > >> likely to differ and that’s great. We as a group need to figure out > >> together what the things are that we care about *and* that we can care > >> about at any one time. > >> > >> This includes things we discuss on dev@, in the weekly meetings, > patches > >> we request reviews & comments on. > >> > >> I strongly believe that when we can agree on a short list of things we > >> care about, and get them done, and *then* move on to the next few > things, > >> we’ll get more accomplished than we do right now. > >> > >> * * * > >> > >> It would be illusionary to imagine a fully sequential workflow, so I > won’t > >> pretend we should try to achieve that, we’ll always have things going > on at > >> the same time, some by different group members, some by the same > people. I > >> also don’t suggest to add a layer of classical project management. Some > >> discussions are broader (BigCouch merge, source reorg) and need more > time, > >> others should be resolved quickly. And to reiterate the disclaimer, I > won’t > >> keep anyone from working on or discussing anything at any time. > >> > >> All I suggest is that we, as a group, are a little more mindful about > the > >> things we can handle at any one point. This will change depending on how > >> much time each of us can spend in a given week or month. I hope over > time > >> the list of things we can do at a time grows, as we add more members to > the > >> dev team (hello Futon.Next folks! :) > >> > >> * * * > >> > >> In practical terms, I’ll be asking the questions “is this relevant right > >> now?” and “should this be on our short list of things to care about?” a > lot > >> more often, and I hope, given you agree with the broad strokes above, > can > >> do the same. > >> > >> Thanks for your time and attention! > >> > >> Cheers > >> Jan > >> -- > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > -- > > NS > > -- NS
