[maemo-community] maemo.org November sprint planning meeting

[From: Ryan Abel]

On Oct 28, 2008, at 9:05 AM, Quim Gil wrote:

> ... however, it is too late to make a call today. Let's have it next
> Tuesday?

Sounds fine to me, even leaves time to wrap up a couple more tasks.

> - As maemo.org goes community-driven, the role of the product owner
> should also be filled by community members. I propose that the council
> takes that role next week. I can assist if needed, but there is no  
> need
> for me to keep driving the meetings.

I don't have a problem with this, but two thoughts:

First, it helps that Quim really knows the people and the roles they  
fill, and has a lot of direct interaction with most of them. The  
council really doesn't know the people as well (especially some of the  
more sequestered Nemein and Nokia folks), and doesn't necessarily have  
a great feel for what, exactly, everybody's job is. I suspect this  
will improve with time, but for now, it could be problematic.

Second, there still seem to be a few internal things that aren't very  
clear from an external viewpoint (take, for one example, the server  
upgrades, I'm still very unclear on what, exactly, is being upgraded  
and when). Processes and procedures, and certain tasks that aren't  
well-reported or communicated in the wiki, IRC or the lists. Again, I  
think familiarity will improve with time (both as the development  
process becomes more open and simply over time with more interaction),  
but it might be an issue in the short term.

Perhaps Tero or Niels can help out here if not Quim.

> - Reporting is still weak and it is really not easy to know what is  
> the
> real status of most of the tasks committed. This is of course ok for
> volunteers but (frankly) I think this is a problem for those getting
> paid - myself included. Tero (equivalent to scrum master?) is the
> project manager responsible of making good use of the money Nokia pays
> for maemo.org tasks. Then again, if the council and Tero are happy, I
> have no reasons being unhappy.

Yes, it'd be nice to have more communication. Going back to my second  
point above, it's hard for an outsider to really get a feel for things  
if all that busyness taking place internally isn't reported and  
communicated (I don't own a pair of magic x-ray specs, sorry :().  
Quim, Dave and Niels are all very consistent about reporting (and  
Andre last month, but he's been quiet this month--lord knows where  
Karsten's disappeared to. . . .), but Nemein and any other Nokia  
personnel involved with maemo.org have been remiss in reporting on the  
wiki.

> - There are still 100 Days tasks open. No information about the  
> delays.

The server situation, in particular, is somewhat disheartening.

> - It would be good to check regularly the 2010 agenda in the search of
> new tasks to propose and commit. There is plenty of work to do, many
> dependencies and (crazy as it sounds) 2010 is not that far far.

That definitely sounds like a council task.

--
Ryan Abel
Maemo Community Council chair