Wikimedia Developer Summit/2016/Collaboration

This is the session pad for the Collaboration working area (T119030), main topic Make code review not suck (T114419) slated to begin at 2:00 PM on Tuesday, January 5.

Purpose edit

T119030 - Working area overview: "Central problem: how do we scale editing our code up to populations similar to editing our projects, proportionally increasing our positive impact and productivity?

Main session focus:

T114419- Make code review not suck

There is enough evidence that our code review process causes frustration. How bad a problem is this? Beyond the visible symptoms, what are the root causes of the long backlogs? Which are the potential solutions worth exploring? In particular, how can we re-arrange social conventions to make Code Review run better. While solving the problem in this session is a non-goal, having people leave the meeting feeling that one day we will have solved the problem - is a goal.

Agenda edit

  • 10 minutes: session introduction
  • 25 minutes: Discussion of root problems of frustration. Or if there even is frustration
  • 30 minutes: Discussion of potential solutions to problems
  • 15 minutes: Conclusion. How do people feel about what's been discussed. Reflections on stuff discussed. Are there solutions that specificly excite people. Next steps.

Minutes edit

Etherpad edit

https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/WikiDev16-T114419

Goals edit

Please prepopulate this section with the goals of the meeting, and anticipate that collaborative editing around fulfillment of goals. This is a great place to capture action items from the conversation.

  • We have a better idea about the root causes of the problem
  • We have a number of ideas about how to fix the problem
  • [A somewhat meta goal] People feel hope that the situation will improve

Chronology edit

This section is where an attempt is made to capture the gist of who said what, in what order. A transcript isn't necessary, but it's useful to capture the important points made by speakers as they happen.

Session guidelines edit

This checklist exists to help each session at WikiDev meet the following goals:

  • Have productive discussion about topics that need face-to-face time
  • Make progress towards agreement on a solution
  • Document what was discussed, including areas of agreement and disagreement
  • Create written list of action items for follow up
  • Update or create Phabricator tasks as appropriate

Specific tasks:

  1. Assign meeting roles:
    • Facilitator
    • Gatekeeper
    • Scribe
    • Timekeeper
  2. Facilitator: run session to achieve specific goals.
    • State or build consensus towards meeting goal and style, referencing one of these meeting types:
      • Problem-solving: surveying many possible solutions
      • Strawman: exploring one specific solution
      • Field narrowing: narrowing down choices of solution
      • Consensus: coming to agreement on one solution
      • Education: teaching people about an agreed solution
    • Identify agenda items and guide discussion to stay on topic
    • Redirect participants who begin venting or discussing things that can be done online
  3. Scribe(s): Document the session
  4. Gatekeeper: Actively manage participation
    • Interrupt people if they are dominating the discussion
    • Help people who are having difficulty being heard
    • If the gatekeeper is talking too much, someone else should interrupt them
  5. Timekeeper: Keep track of time left and point out time passing to facilitator
    • If possible, estimate time for each topic written by scribes
    • Let people know when a topic has gone over its time
    • Give a warning when 5-10 minutes are left