[teampractices] [Engineering] Feedback requested on proposal for creation of Agile Specialist Group

[Oliver Keyes]

So, I'm not an Engineer, I just work here, but my first thought is: you
want to *start* with 3 staff, and scale it up to 5 within the same budget
year, for this?

The justification is a pretty good justification for having
*some*resources; teams are finding your knowledge and mentorship
useful, you
don't have the time to provide as much knowledge and mentorship as people
need. But do you and Tomasz really have five staffers' worth of work you're
currently having to turn down? Because that's what your ask necessitates.
I'd be more comfortable with the idea of hiring a single person and, if
they report 'gosh, I'm terribly overworked', hiring a second or even a
third at the start of the next budget cycle, but I can't see any
explanation in your proposal of why five are necessary: the only example of
training you guys have provided that you explicitly call out is a session
last August.

If mentorship on scrumming is necessary, mentorship on scrumming is
necessary. But we need to be very careful about how we spend money. What
you're asking for is an entire Features team worth of money to train the
engineers we currently have - on an opt-in basis. That sort of ask requires
an active demonstration that this workload exists, and I'm not seeing it in
your argument. I'd like an explanation of where you guys have five
scrum-masters worth of work, and why it wouldn't be just as effective, and
far more efficient, to take our existing engineers and spend a relative
pittance getting the Scrummaster Certification and external training for
*them*that you say the ASG will need anyway.



On 3 March 2014 15:44, Arthur Richards <arichards at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> Tomasz Finc and I have been working on a proposal to create an 'Agile
> Specialist Group' (ASG) in the engineering department that would be
> dedicated to helping the engineering teams at the WMF that want support in
> either adopting or evolving an agile approach to software development.
>
> *We are eager for your feedback*:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Engineering/Agile_Specialist_Group
>
> Please note that this proposal is to institutionalize and make scalable
> much of the work we have already been doing - providing mentorship,
> support, and trainings to those who have asked for it. None of what the ASG
> would offer would be mandatory. Everything the ASG would offer would be in
> collaborative service to the team's and individuals seeking its support.
>
> Please provide feedback either on this list or on the discussion page:
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Engineering/Agile_Specialist_Group
>
> Thanks for your time and input!
>
> --
> Arthur Richards
> Software Engineer, Mobile
> [[User:Awjrichards]]
> IRC: awjr
> +1-415-839-6885 x6687
>
> _______________________________________________
> Engineering mailing list
> Engineering at lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/engineering
>
>


-- 
Oliver Keyes
Product Analyst
Wikimedia Foundation
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/teampractices/attachments/20140303/fa38222c/attachment.html>