Team meeting today

[Valorie Zimmerman]

Hello Plasma team,

I've heard that this group is experiencing some difficulties, and the
Community Working Group has been asked to intervene. We usually are
asked to come into crises, while we would really prefer to work with
groups to improve community. We've been developing a tool to help with
that, and offer it to you to use (or not) as you please. Please ignore
what doesn't apply.

Notice that we don't focus on the issues under discussion, but rather
how the team is functioning, with the goal of improving the
conversation, and thus the creativity available. I came across a quote
tonight:

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that
created it." - Albert Einstein


The ideal KDE Team

The ideal KDE team has fun and is productive. The members trust one
another enough to express honest feelings and thoughts about their
project, as well as personal issues when appropriate. The team members
support and encourage one another, and bring fresh information,
resources and entertainment to the group.

The ideal KDE team is not only growing, but is always recruiting. Each
team member is so happy with the group that new members are drawn-in
naturally. Each team member blogs and writes in other places about the
work, and about the team. Team members encourage one another to
communicate publicly, and also to comment the code. At release time,
team members pitch in to help, and celebrate their accomplishments.
Team members look for diversity when they recruit, both culturally and
in team roles.

In times of major disagreements, the ideal team thoroughly airs both
facts and feelings honestly, and members do not attack one another.
Everyone feels free to express themselves, everyone is heard, everyone
feels valued, and every member supports the decisions reached, even if
their own ideas were not accepted, because their concerns were taken
into account.

The ideal team has not only an active group of coders, but also people
who do bug triaging, documentation, community, promo, forums, list,
and IRC. The developers each do some of this work as appropriate, and
also just talk with users. Enthusiastic users become testers, and then
perhaps enter the team more formally to help out. As time goes on, a
healthy team loses contributors too. However, they leave with fond
memories, remain friends, and are often called upon for advice,
feedback, or just to swap stories. Team members learn new roles, and
train their own replacements all the time. Growing out of a role into
a new one is more fun that burnout!


Team Health Check

[  ] Rate your team 1 - 5, where 1 is needs lots of work, and 5 is
working excellently. Is our team growing? How many members have we
gained and lost in the last year?

[  ] Rate your team: Rate the diversity of the team. Consider gender,
age, team roles, time zones, language, etc.

[  ] Rate your team: Why are team members leaving? Do social bonds
with departed members continue?

[  ] Rate your team: Do we encourage one another to learn new roles,
and change those roles as time goes on? In other words, how do we
stave off burnout?

[  ] Rate your team: What sort of recruitment of new team members are
we doing? Is this recruitment increasing our diversity? Are we
recruiting for diverse roles in the community as well (documentation,
usability, testing, community, as well as coding)?

[  ] Rate your team: How often do team members meet up in the various
fora, in meetings, and for sprints? How many of the team participate?

[  ] Rate your team: Do we have any sort of metrics set up that we can
use to rate our progress?

[  ] Rate your team: How well is our code documented? (Undocumented
code is a major roadblock to new contributors.) Is is a team value to
Always Document?

[  ] Rate your team: How clear and up-to-date is our team
documentation in KDE space, such as our website, Techbase, Userbase
and Community wikis?

[  ] Rate your team: How often do our team members blog about their
work? Are their blogs all on Planet KDE?

[  ] Rate your team : Does our team contribute articles to The Dot?

[  ] Rate your team: What sort of training and guidance do we provide
for our IRC ops, listowner, and forum administrators?

[  ] Rate your team: How many of our team members consider themselves
to be leaders in the team? Do the non-coding members feel equal to the
coders? Do all members of the team feel valued by the team?

[  ] Rate your team: How good is our bug triage, commenting, and bug closing?


Individual Health Check -- within the team, and KDE

Is my voice heard?

Are my ideas respected?

Are my emotional needs met? (within the boundaries of KDE and teams,
this means appreciation for contributions and a sense of camaraderie)


I would appreciate feedback about this Health Check tool; criticisms too.

All the best,

Valorie, member of KDE Community Working Group