[teampractices] [Wmfall] Please help define the term "core work"

[Kevin Smith]

Hopefully the wiki page is clearer than my brief announcement email was,
but the goal is more about refining the definitions and figuring out the
edge cases.

Fundamentally, we want to be able to say whether potential work is:

1. Necessary, where things will fall apart if we don't do it. For a human,
this would include eating and sleeping. We (I'm not sure who) chose the
word "core" as a placeholder for this concept.

2. Important, because it directly advances our strategy. For a human, this
might be getting an education or cultivating strong friendships. This is
the "strategic" bucket.

3. Other, which is stuff that doesn't fall into either of those categories.




Kevin Smith
Agile Coach, Wikimedia Foundation


On Tue, Jan 5, 2016 at 12:34 PM, Oliver Keyes <okeyes at wikimedia.org> wrote:

> So we created categories with values we don't know the meaning of?
>
> That seems sort of backwards ;p.
>
> On 5 January 2016 at 15:23, Kevin Smith <ksmith at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
>> Summary:
>> Please visit this wiki page[2] to help define the term "core work".
>>
>> Long form:
>> The WMF annual planning process[1] is being revised this year in several
>> ways. One is to attempt to categorize work as "Core", "Strategic", or
>> "Other", which should help us communicate our work externally, and to
>> improve our internal budget and strategic planning processes.
>>
>> As Lila mentioned in a recent update, we need to define these terms. The
>> Team Practices Group was asked to help the stakeholders reach agreement on
>> these definitions, so we have created a wiki page[2] about "core". It
>> contains a draft (strawdog) definition, along with rationale and examples.
>> Through the discussion there, the definition will be refined so it can be
>> used throughout the foundation. Note that this will not be limited to
>> product development teams--it will be org-wide.
>>
>> Early planning for FY 2015-2016 will start next week, and that will
>> benefit from having a working definition. So if you have any strong
>> feelings about this, please voice them as soon as possible. However, I
>> envision this as being a living definition which can continue to evolve
>> over time. So even if you can't participate this week, please visit the
>> page when you can, and share your ideas then.
>>
>> This work relates to various discussions and pilots last year related to
>> "maintenance fraction", and "interrupt" or "unplanned" work. However, this
>> conversation has a tighter focus, along with (hopefully) a clear rationale
>> for the categorization. It also relates to the "New/Reactive/Maintenance"
>> categorization that have been used recently in the Quarterly Reviews, but
>> is distinct from that as well.
>>
>> Aside from annual planning, we believe that categorizing this work will
>> help teams themselves. For example, it might help them realize when they
>> are getting pulled into doing work that is neither core nor strategic, or
>> it might help identify opportunities to invest in improvements that would
>> greatly reduce the ongoing effort required to keep existing features
>> working smoothly.
>>
>> Please continue this discussion on wiki, or email me (or just the Team
>> Practices list) if you have process questions or concerns.
>>
>> [1]
>> https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/2015-2016_Annual_Plan/Questions_and_Answers
>> [2]
>> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Team_Practices_Group/Tracking_core_and_strategic_work
>>
>> Kevin Smith
>> Agile Coach, Wikimedia Foundation
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wmfall mailing list
>> Wmfall at lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wmfall
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Oliver Keyes
> Count Logula
> Wikimedia Foundation
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/teampractices/attachments/20160105/dd8760fc/attachment-0001.html>