Sakai Development Process

Michael Korcuska

July 8, 2009

Agenda

• A bit of history

• The proposed process

• The process applied• 2.7 & 3.x

• Nominations for product council

• How to get started

A bit of history

• Inputs• Community Survey• Selected Interviews• Open Source Comparison Projects• Project Goals exercise

• 2-day retreat in February• Post retreat work

• Much email/phone follow up

Survey & Interviews

• 50+ Organizational Responses• 150+ Individual Responses• About a dozen 30-60 minute phone calls

• Conducted by facilitator (Kim Thanos)• Overall Result

• Sense of overall stability• Trust in Sakai board• Want to spend more time on community

Sakai• Believe that Sakai will be the best platform

Community Wants

• Clear product vision & direction• More communication from Foundation• Roadmap that allows campus advocates to

effectively communicate with stakeholders• Project structure that attracts sufficient resources

and uses them effectively• More input from functional experts & designers• Allow diverse types participation

• Large and small, Formal and informal, Institutional and individual

Comparisons

Ways of Getting Work Done• Organic – Contributors participate in the community

based on personal/local interests and priorities. It is the responsibility of the individual to communicate and request broader contribution.

• Coordinated – Community structures actively seek to identify and align common contributions. Unmet needs are identified to leaders to encourage investment.

• Managed – Resources are committed to achieve a defined set of deliverables. Central authority determines priorities.

Product Life Cycle

Majo

r Pro

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es• Generate new ideas• Try new technologies

• Prove desirability• Create dev team/plan• Reduce dev risks

• Finish building• Test• Document

Community

Product Council

Product Development• Structuring of work in this phase is key• Projects probably need

• Project management• Project schedule and plan• Functional leadership• UX (including accessibility and i18n)• Multiple organizations involved

• Exceptions possible• K2 using Apache-style management successfully

Key: Ability to predictably deliver quality product

Product Council

• Authority:• Decide what is in the official release

• How:• Based on objective criteria as much as possible• Open process and document decision-making

• Also:• Provide guidance to incubation projects who are

wondering what they need to do to make the release

Product Council• Qualifications:

• A broad understanding of the Sakai product• The ability to advocate for the needs within his/her area of

expertise and maintain a broad view of community and product needs

• Demonstrated commitment to engage with and contribute to the community

• Expertise in more than one aspect of the product• User experience, including accessibility and usability• Teaching and learning• Research• Software design and architectures• Software production management (deploying and

administering)

Changes• What’s the same?

• Open development process• Low barrier to entry for R&D projects• Independent projects possible/encouraged• Small feature development remains the same

• What is different?• Adherence to criteria from Incubation to Release• Managed process for development team(s)• Product Council to enforce criteria for making release• The idea of a maintenance group• R&D ≠ Contrib, Incubation ≠ Provisional, Product ≠ Core

Independent projects• Contrib projects that don’t intend to become part of the main

release (e.g. Melete)• Desire to establish rating system for these tools• Current proposal too complex• My recommendation: 3 simple ratings (scale of 1-5) based on

community consensus• UX

• Does it follow Sakai conventions?• Is it accessible/localizable/documented?

• Technical• Does it follow Sakai conventions?• Is it secure/scalable?

• Support• How widely is it used in production?• Is anyone maintaining code?

Product Council

• Nate Angell (rSmart)• Noah Botimer (Michigan)• Eli Cochran (Berkeley)• Michael Feldstein (Oracle)• Clay Fenlason (Georgia Tech & Sakai)• David Goodrum (Indiana) • John Lewis (Unicon)• Stephen Marquard (Cape Town)• John Norman (Cambridge)• Max Whitney (NYU)