On Mon, Feb 08, 2010 at 10:12:35AM -0600, Mike McGrath wrote: > On Sun, 7 Feb 2010, Paul W. Frields wrote: > > > On Fri, Feb 05, 2010 at 12:21:38PM -0900, Jeff Spaleta wrote: > > > On Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 9:07 AM, Mike McGrath <mmcgrath@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > The obvious flaw here is “will people volunteer?” I think they would. I > > > > know I will. > > > > > > This is very good...and its straight out of the volunteer coordination > > > handbook I was pimping a few FPL's back. > > > > > > A few comments. > > > > > > When people sign up... don't just ask for hours a week.. ask for a > > > specific long term time commitment...like a 6 month tour of duty. > > > Make a huge deal out of new people signing up for their first tour of > > > duty. Make a huger deal of team veterans reaffirming their role as > > > engineering task monkey for additional tours. Since this team is a > > > service team and won't be as self-directed..its important to shift the > > > reward balance to overt recognition. We tend to reward our current > > > volunteers groups with self-directed control of their area of work and > > > we can't do that effectively for a service team that reports to fesco. > > > > > > Also...try to communicate the initial skillset needed in the team. If > > > fesco could sort of roadmap what they think they'd like to see built > > > in say the next 6 months...break that down into anticipated skills and > > > manhours.. you can try to recruit for that anticipated need to fill in > > > the skill gaps for a new project. You can't anticipate all desirable > > > skills and experience ahead of all possible tasking of course. But you > > > want to recruit a certain baseline of experience and keep the tasking > > > inside that skillset pool as much as you can. Big new tasks with > > > unanticipated skill needs can be pushed back into the next tour of > > > duty and highlighted in a recruitment call-to-arms. > > > > > > And...along the way create some opportunities to broaden the skillset > > > of team members. A service team like this could be the perfect target > > > for specialized team members only classroom skills training. > > > > The crux of the biscuit[1] is breaking down a task in a way that lets > > a volunteer know whether they have the skills needed to work on that > > task. That's not impossible or even that difficult, but it does > > require some work -- which is why having someone managing that > > process, i.e. responsible for the breakdown -- is important. Saying > > "I need help accomplishing this large task" is not as helpful as > > saying, "I need help accomplishing this large task, which consists of > > the following four procedures, listed below with the knowledge, > > skills, and abilities you'll need to have to do them." The investment > > of time to list those elements out is worthwhile if the task is > > honestly something that really needs to be managed over a period of > > time. > > > > I like the idea, Mike; does this thinking jibe with what you had in > > mind? > > > > It does. I think for the volunteers to actually feel valuable in a team > like this they need to be given tasks they can complete on their own but > also challenges them to apply new skills. You can't do that by dumping > some large task on them. To judge such things communication is just as > essential as planning the parts that make up the whole task. I suspect, > though, that there will also be lots of tiny tasks to do. Mike and I talked about this very briefly on IRC and we both agree this is an idea worth trying, and that it's just a matter of "JFDI."* I have to say, if I was a contributor to Fedora who had more of a free reign on how I spent my time, this is the sort of thing I'd love to be involved in. * Jedis are Free to Dive In. ;-) -- Paul W. Frields http://paul.frields.org/ gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233 5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717 http://redhat.com/ - - - - http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/ Where open source multiplies: http://opensource.com _______________________________________________ advisory-board mailing list advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/advisory-board
