On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 2:16 PM, Platonides <Platonides(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for
your explanation but personally I'm more confused than before
about the difference between Engineering and Product, also because the
terminology didn't appear internally consistent. :-)
I feel like you, Nemo. I am glad by Terry explanation, but as I went on
reading it, the less I felt I understood it. It would benefit from a
more layman explanation. Maybe it's just complex to everybody.
Simplest possible explanation of what Erik is proposing: we need to split a
large department in to two, and add more managers. It's too big ad too
critical for one person to manage.
In three steps...
1. Right now there is one department, Engineering & Product Development.
It includes engineers, designers, product managers, community liasons, data
analysts, and more. It's the biggest department at the Wikimedia
Foundation.
2. In 6-8 months there will be two departments, Engineering and Product
Development. Each will have their own leaders that report to Sue, instead
of everyone reporting to Erik. Engineering will contain software engineers
and their managers, for the most part. Product Development will contain
designers, product managers, and data analysts, for the most part.
3. There will also probably be new Director-level positions under the
new departments, such as to manage the design team.
That glosses over the entirety of the reasons for proposing this and the
benefits, obviously. Howie's explanation of what each of these roles are
will help define why product development is distinct from engineering, I'm
sure.
Steven