Leader Guidance - Usability Subteam

Owned by Lydia Tang (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jul 02, 2020
3 min read

The Usability subteam was founded in fall 2019. As a relatively new subteam, workflows are flexible and can always be improved.

The Usability Subteam leader’s role is to:

  1. Schedule the Usability Subteam by meeting

    1. Wiki page explains how to schedule Zoom or conference call meetings using ArchivesSpace community resources: Conference Calls and Zoom Meetings calendar  

      • Send a calendar invitation to archivesspace.calendar@gmail.com for the purposes of having the meeting on the public calendar and reduce the chances of a Zoom conflict.

      • Send out a reminder email a few days before the meeting and link to the agenda. Make sure to tag people in the agenda if they are supposed to investigate particular tickets.

    2. The subteam usually meets every other week, which seemed to be the easiest way to keep the projects on track if they are working on a deep-dive project. If the team is just fielding tickets, they can probably convene on a monthly basis. The biweekly meetings would usually not take up an entire hour. The meetings would review work accomplished/draft recommendations, troubleshoot issues, and delegate work for the next meeting.

  2. Facilitate the meetings

    1. The work of the Usability subteam usually falls into two approaches:

      1. Fielding tickets with the “Usability_subteam” label in the swimlanes for Bug Reports and Feature Requests, or

        1. Deep-diving holistically into a complex usability issue. The subteam might decide to do this particularly if there are multiple, possibly contradictory tickets relating to an issue

          1. Before deep-diving into a particular issue, it would be a good idea to run the idea by the ArchivesSpace program manager (Christine di Bella) to make sure that the subteam effort wouldn’t be superseded by other planned initiatives.

      The proposed workflow for Jira tickets:

      1. As the Dev. Pri. leader(s) survey tickets for assignments, they might give a label of “Usability_subteam” (note the underscore) for tickets which would not be straightforward enough not to pass easily. This tag will automatically route the ticket into the Usability swimlane. During Dev. Pri. meetings, if a ticket is lacking sufficient specification on the desired outcome, it should be routed to the Usability subteam.

      2. One possible approach (of many options) is that the Usability leader divvies up the tickets within their swim lanes and the subteam members investigate and provide further specification on the tickets, which they discuss at their meetings.

        1. If the ticket still isn’t sufficient, the Usability subteam might consider inviting the reporter and/or other stakeholder(s) for the topic to a subteam meeting to brainstorm and gather further information.

        2. If the ticket is sufficiently specified, the Usability leader will either

          1. If the Usability leader is not also serving on Dev. Pri., they remove the Usability_subteam tag from the ticket, which will route the ticket back into the Dev. Pri. general pool. Note: this may require giving them permissions to edit tickets. If this is not possible, than a Usability team member should comment the final determination for the ticket and tag the Dev. Pri. leader(s).

          2. If the Usability leader happens to also serve on Dev. Pri., they can add Usability tickets to their ticket assignments to discuss at the next Dev. Pri. meeting.

  3. Report on the Usability Subteam activities at the Users Advisory Council meetings and quarterly reports to the ArchivesSpace Board. Example of the Usability report at a UAC meeting. Example of a quarterly report.