This are some suggested approaches to leading the Development Prioritization subteam - they definitely can and should be adapted and refined!
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Creating Agendas
Sample Agenda: 20192023-1203-18 07 Meeting notes
Sign to create the agenda under the appropriate year header (the year must be selected in order for the agenda to be created nested within it)
Select “meeting notes” for the page style
Set the calendar view to the proper date (it autofills the current day)
Copy over the zoom call info from previous agenda
Make sure the ArchivesSpace zoom calendar is up to date. This Wiki page explains how to schedule Zoom or conference call meetings using ArchivesSpace community resources: Conference Calls and Zoom Meetings calendar
Copy over the participants from the roster
Add the follow links: Kanban boards:
New bug reports: https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=15
New feature requests: https://archivesspace.atlassian.net/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=16
Link to ArchivesSpace sandbox: http://test.archivesspace.org/
Suggested column names:
Item/Who [the reason to combine them is to not get the board too wide]
Tickets
Recommendations
Decisions
8. Meetings typically have the following elements:
Roll call
Announcements/Discussion
Tickets
Make a copy of the prior meeting’s page
Rename page with appropriate date
Update date in agenda
Update participants list if necessary
Delete resolved tickets from agenda
If all tickets assigned to a person were resolved, move them to the end of the list to make sure we cycle through everyone over time
Assign new tickets as necessary so that everyone has 3 tickets to report on
Tip: To tag a person, use the @ symbol and select begin to type their name.
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When tickets are first made, their status is “Newly Added.” The Program Manager makes the first pass at vetting tickets, mostly making sure that institution-specific support requests don’t end up in our queues. Dev. Pri. looks at the Awaiting Prioritization and Awaiting more Information queues. Have a mix of both.
Caution: Awaiting more Information queues can become a “purgatory” if the reporter or other people don’t provide more information. It may be worth doing a scoped search to devote a few meetings to the Awaiting More Info tickets to close unresponsive/outdated tickets.
Look at the priority symbols on the cards, but don’t rely on this too much. Keep in mind that priority is a subjective ranking, which should be reassessed as part of the meeting discussion.
Note: Lydia Tang changed the default priority to “minor” in 2019. Previously, the default was “major.” Take both statuses with a grain of salt.
Selecting tickets by themes can be fun and also helpful to making sure that tickets compliment and don’t conflict in recommendations
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Ask team members to add any strengths/interests to the roster. Members with technical coding expertise and or cataloging expertise are especially important to note. If expertise in these areas (or others) are not on the team, be sure to prepare a slate of tickets to share on the member list and potentially invite external experts or the original ticket reporter to discuss the tickets at the meetings.
Ticket “assignments” should be are suggestions.If a team member doesn’t want to address a ticket, they should be able to swap out that ticket for a different one.
In general, assign 3 -5 tickets to each member each month for an estimated 30-60 minutes of work outside of the 1.5 hour meeting.
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Make sure to match tickets to expertise as much as possible.
Don’t assign more than 2 extremely involved/complicated tickets to a single person during a given month.
The ArchivesSpace program team are technically not a part of Dev. Pri. but attend for their expertise and feedback, do not assign them tickets, unless no one else has the technical expertisethey have agreed to look into a ticket at a prior meeting.
This approach of the co-leaders lead assigning tickets is only one way to do it. Another possible approach could have subteam members sign up to assign tickets for a given month. This actually might be a more equitable way to distribute the task and would succeed in involving the team more. This initial approach was done primarily to save the time of subteam members from trying to figure out how to select their own tickets each time. Regularly ask the subteam members for feedback on the approach and if they have other ideas.
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A new agenda with ticket assignments should be sent out to the team shortly after a given meeting. This allows the team members a nearly full month to investigate their tickets. Send a reminder to the team a
One week before the meeting and include the following information:
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The link to meeting agenda with ticket assignments
Ask that the team members add their notes before the meeting
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, share the agenda with the TAC and UAC listservs to allow those who may be interested in particular tickets to join. This also serves as a reminder to Dev/Pri members.
During the Meeting
Keep the meeting focused - Dev. Pri. needs to cover a lot of tickets. If discussion of a particular ticket is getting too bogged down, perhaps the ticket needs to be moved to “Awaiting More Info” and/or added to the next month’s meeting. Consider having a 5 minute limit for each ticket. If the meeting is running over, people may need to only present one or two of their tickets in order for everyone to speak at least once during the meeting. Unaddressed tickets can be carried forward to the next meeting.
The leader/facilitating person should try to summarize the opinions that others share and suggest (or echo the person presenting the ticket’s) recommendation. The leader should never unilaterally decide on a ticket against the opinions of the rest of the subteam. If it’s a hotly contested ticket, the ticket should be shared on the member list for additional commentary and possibly a formal vote.If the leader has prepared a “quick list” of tickets to possibly close, they still need the support of the rest of the subteam before closing those tickets. This approval can be conducted via email or at the meeting, but never unilaterally by the leader without others’ input.
Notes:
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Reassess the priority ranking and labels on tickets. Adding/clarifying labels on tickets can help the program team identify related tickets during a development sprint.
After the Meeting
The leader/co-leaders move lead changes the tickets on the board ' status a few days after the Dev. Pri. meeting. This gives the subteam members time to comment and follow up on their tickets.
Dev. Pri. leaders lead need permissions granted by the Program Manager to move the cards on the board. This can be a tricky process, so be in touch with Christine if there are any technological hiccups. Update ticket statuses either by dragging tickets on the Kanban board into the appropriate columns or by updating the status on the individual tickets (this may be better, to avoid accidentally dragging and dropping the ticket into the wrong column).
Screenshot of changing the status in the ticket view:
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When closing tickets, leave a comment on the rational and end the message “on behalf of Dev. Pri.” so that ticket reporters have a rationale and know who is making this decision.After updating ticket status, refresh the agenda and to make sure that all statuses have been updated and are correct according the to “Decision” column in the meeting notes (VERY IMPORTANT).
Note: Sometimes it’s not possible for a ticket to move form one column to another. If that’s an issue, move the ticket first back to “Awaiting Prioritization” and try it again from that status.
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The Usability subteam, because of the interconnectedness and complexity of updating the program, will need to function has historically functioned as a vetting group. Once Usability tickets have been discussed and have recommendations from the subteam, those tickets should be added to the next Dev. Pri. meeting. It is helpful to have a representative from Usability and, to a lesser extent, Metadata Standards on the roster for Dev. Pri. , or at least make sure the leadership of these subteams keep in touch to ensure that tickets route back to Dev. Pri. for final approval in a timely mannerWith the institution of open invites to the TAC/UAC membership during the 2022-2023 term, this is less critical.
Reporting out
Progress updates in TAC and UAC meetings
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