Focus for Forrest Friday

[Ross Gardler <rg...@apache.org>]

David is just finalising the discussion about when our Forrest Friday 
will occur. So I thought I'd start a discussion on what the objective 
should be. We left it far too late last time.

First a few observations about past events:

- we have not had enough agreement on how things are to be done
- there is too much discussion that is better suited to the mailing list
- as a result there is not enough actually being done.

Don't get me wrong, discussion is good, but we can do that on the mail 
lists.

David, Paul and I had a discussion (oh dear) on IRC about how to better 
utilise the Forrest Fridays (nee Tuesdays) - see the logs around Oct 05 
09:05:13 
(http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/forrest/events/forrest-tuesdays/20051004-log.txt)

Basically the summary is:

- have a clearly defined goal
- create an issue in Jira
- break down the goal into a number of subtasks ahead of the day

Then when someone arrives to do some work they:

- check the issue for a task to do
- assign task to self
- get on with it (using IRC to ask for help if necessary)

When someone can no longer be active they:

- update the task with details of what they have done (remember adding 
the issue number to the commit message will provide a reasonable level 
of auto documenting wiuthin Jira)
- unassign the task

----

I hope this makes sense to everyone, if it does I would like to suggest 
that our focus for the next Forrest Friday should be:

1) complete the locationmap move (FOR-200)
2) categorise all issues that need to be done for a 0.8 release (i.e. 
move all non 0.8 issues to "no version" in the fix attribute)
3) work on the issues for 0.8 release

I pick these because there is a clear goal to move functionality forward 
for those wishing to get on with dev work (1). There is something to do 
for those just dropping in for 10 minutes (2) and there is a "catch all" 
  if user (potential dev) has an itch but needs help to scratch (3)

If we follow this kind of model each time (i.e. views, new config 
system, XHTML2) we should be able o use the FF's to make real progress 
each month.


WDYT?

Ross

Re: Focus for Forrest Friday

[Tim Williams <wi...@gmail.com>]

On 10/14/05, Ross Gardler <rg...@apache.org> wrote:
> David is just finalising the discussion about when our Forrest Friday
> will occur. So I thought I'd start a discussion on what the objective
> should be. We left it far too late last time.
>
> First a few observations about past events:
>
> - we have not had enough agreement on how things are to be done
> - there is too much discussion that is better suited to the mailing list
> - as a result there is not enough actually being done.
>
> Don't get me wrong, discussion is good, but we can do that on the mail
> lists.
>
> David, Paul and I had a discussion (oh dear) on IRC about how to better
> utilise the Forrest Fridays (nee Tuesdays) - see the logs around Oct 05
> 09:05:13
> (http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/forrest/events/forrest-tuesdays/20051004-log.txt)
>
> Basically the summary is:
>
> - have a clearly defined goal
> - create an issue in Jira
> - break down the goal into a number of subtasks ahead of the day
>
> Then when someone arrives to do some work they:
>
> - check the issue for a task to do
> - assign task to self
> - get on with it (using IRC to ask for help if necessary)
>
> When someone can no longer be active they:
>
> - update the task with details of what they have done (remember adding
> the issue number to the commit message will provide a reasonable level
> of auto documenting wiuthin Jira)
> - unassign the task
>
> ----
>
> I hope this makes sense to everyone, if it does I would like to suggest
> that our focus for the next Forrest Friday should be:
>
> 1) complete the locationmap move (FOR-200)
> 2) categorise all issues that need to be done for a 0.8 release (i.e.
> move all non 0.8 issues to "no version" in the fix attribute)
> 3) work on the issues for 0.8 release
>
> I pick these because there is a clear goal to move functionality forward
> for those wishing to get on with dev work (1). There is something to do
> for those just dropping in for 10 minutes (2) and there is a "catch all"
>   if user (potential dev) has an itch but needs help to scratch (3)
>
> If we follow this kind of model each time (i.e. views, new config
> system, XHTML2) we should be able o use the FF's to make real progress
> each month.
>
>
> WDYT?

+1, It seems we've learned some good lessons from the first two.  This
is a good process, it should significantly reduce "ramp-up" time for
folks joining in too.

--tim
--tim

Re: Focus for Forrest Friday

[Ross Gardler <rg...@apache.org>]

Ross Gardler wrote:

> If we follow this kind of model each time (i.e. views, new config 
> system, XHTML2) we should be able o use the FF's to make real progress 
> each month.

Oh yeah, and because everything is documented in Jira we are not 
splitting the community by using IRC. Updates will be sent to the lists 
via SVN commit messages and Jira updates.

Ross