[teampractices] How deviantART organizes its work

[Quim Gil]

On 11/26/2013 10:12 PM, Erik Moeller wrote:
> A bit dated, but still an interesting read:
> http://dt.deviantart.com/journal/We-re-all-remote-220038037
> 
> In particular, I like this idea:
> 
> - - -
> 
> Reactor
> 
> We do have one long-running project team called Reactor. Its role is
> to fix bugs that aren't related to other active projects, and to
> implement features that aren't large enough to warrant spinning up a
> separate project. It's also where we assign all new hires initially,
> so its lead developer gets to mentor them and introduce them to our
> codebase. Reactor makes a good training ground since it's guaranteed
> to drag developers through disparate areas of deviantART.

As part of the WMF hiring and onboarding process, we could ask
candidates to fix

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Annoying_little_bugs

during the interview process. Then new hires could spend their first
weeks with a 50% time allocation to deliver one of

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Mentorship_programs/Possible_projects

as a way to familiarize themselves with our tools, ways of working, and
community.

If a GSoC or OPW participant can do this (we require microtasks to all
candidates before being selected), a new full-time hire should be able to.

The obviois side benefit is that our communty task queues would move
faster, indirectly promoting new featured bugs and projects.

-- 
Quim Gil
Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil