Week 11 Sprint preparation

[jurra]

One remark with regard to sprint

The sprint "word" is been overused in many different contexts. And in our program a sprint means a scope of work and tasks in a certain timebox. This is the original concept of Sprint in SCRUM.

Lets put aside the Sprint word, for a moment and focus on next week which is basically inviting the mentees to prepare an event with certain characteristics

• What is the goal of this event?
• Why are we inviting them to prepare this event?
• Why is important to learn how to do an event preparation?
• What are we expecting them to learn or develop from this excercise?

The main focus should be on preparing events of different kinds and formats that suit the needs of the specific project leads

I honestly dont like the Sprint word at this point is very inconsistent and vague notion. I prefer more like event planning, which ca be a hacakthon, a conference call, or another type of event format depending on the needs and stage of the projects.

[thessaly]

Thx Jose! Wasn't the goal for them to prepare their project enough to attract contributors? Or was it for them to learn how to run events?

I don't have a love for the word 'sprint' either but we should be consistent and change it everywhere if we do change it.

[jurra]

The thing is that in practice, attracting contributors is a complicated thing. And it is part of the regular work of community building and team building. I think is more useful to make them prepare an event for their particular projects.

I would stay with the idea of teaching how they can use events to boost their open source projects. So that they understand why evenpt planning is important and useful.

[amchagas]

Hi!

Sorry for the late input, I have a bit of difficulty understanding how teaching participants to run events is the most useful thing at the moment. Since if the projects have no contributors, there is no one to run an event for/with?

I understand that attracting contributors is a hard thing, but it is (at least in my view) also the most valuable thing a project can have? and we spent some time discussing this with them on week 2 where we had personas, but not much specific content after that? Please correct me if this is incorrect...

I think focusing on preparing things for contributors is also a good way to review the content of the program and the repos, sort of "cleaning up the house before receiving guests", which is a nice thing for them and for us if their documentation looks revised close to the end of the program...

I have some time today and tomorrow to work on this as well.

[jurra]

Andre, good comments, I will expand a bit more the thinking behind my comment:

1. There are projects that are attracting contributors, already. I have done these events previously in OHL, and participated in the sprint. I really didnt manage to get contributors in this way. On the otherhand in very short time, I have attracted many contributors to combatcovid without running an event/Sprint.

2. I also run events at TU Delft, of different kinds, periodic or not periodic, they play a particular role in community building, including to get contributors, but is a whole process. Running an event perse doesnt attract contributors.

3. On the otherhand, it is a good skill to understand how events, and event planning can help you expand your community and eventually find contributors. That is why I, guessing Juli as well were talking about teaching people how they can run events to consolidate their communities in different ways.

Running a "Sprint" which I dont get what it means (could be a hackathon, a call or a livestream) it was still vague in the definition. We would like to keep it really simple for the mentees and us, I would avoid preparing a sprint that involves tremendous planning an coordination, arranging calls and inviting many people to join an event.

These are some recommendations for dos and donts as guidelines for us:

Dos:

• Lets keep it simple for us, the less complicated, scheduling heavy work the better
• Keep the format of the event/sprint as simple as possible and specify possible types of events: livestreaming, conference call, open chat during a certain time. Keep it in the virtual space as a recommendation because complex events take up to a month to prepare.
• Make the event small considering the time we have from today onwards, I am a bit concerned as helping them to prepare an event that will be launched in the other week is not a good idea.
• Lets consider that their event might not be taking place in week 12??? think about this.

Don'ts:

• Don't assume that an event attracts contributors, I dont think is that simple.
• Don't assume projects dont have contributors, some really have, and are good in doing so.
• Keep concerns separate, lets avoid bringing all different teams to one space, or event.

There is some redundancy, but I guess is more clarified than my previous comment.

[amchagas]

Thanks for the extra comments Jose,

I think things are a bit clearer now. One thing I would like to point out, is that for the "bigger" projects in this cohort, that already have contributors, and I suppose specifically for them, they have also already ran events, such as workshops..

So while I understand they could benefit from this, the information we provide might be too basic. Like maybe the rest of the program was, but that is fine, since it has been a learning experience for them and us. I think this also points out that future cohorts could be split into "starter" and "advanced" projects, anyway, just a thought.

All this said, how do we turn all of these into the coming week contents?

[jurra]

I would propose to give them some concepts and tools to prepare events that will help them move forward in their projects, also mention events such as mozfest, fosdem. And based on this knowlege and concepts prepare at least a next event where they can apply with more intention the insights of week 12? Thats how I would approach, more for simplicity and sustainability than anything else. Also in consistency with our program. About how basic the cont3nts are. We got always good feedback from one of the most advanced projects. That is a good thermometer ;)

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On Sun, 26 Apr 2020, 14:18 Andre Maia Chagas, ***@***.***> wrote: Thanks for the extra comments Jose, I think things are a bit clearer now. One thing I would like to point out, is that for the "bigger" projects in this cohort, that already have contributors, and I suppose specifically for them, they have also already ran events, such as workshops.. So while I understand they could benefit from this, the information we provide might be too basic. Like maybe the rest of the program was, but that is fine, since it has been a learning experience for them and us. I think this also points out that future cohorts could be split into "starter" and "advanced" projects, anyway, just a thought. All this said, how do we turn all of these into the coming week contents? — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#27 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AENYNUIFYP3LLNTKPLF6AWDROQRCTANCNFSM4MPKBIBA> .

[amchagas]

ok, cool, any practical implementation suggestions? I'm a bit out of ideas here, as running events is not something I do much?

[thessaly]

I didn't see these replies before, sorry. I'll do the content taking into account how to prepare their project for participating of an open source kind of event.

For the rest, I'm ok with almost everything except one thing, which is having each of them run their own event. I think this is out of the scope of the program, and I don't know how to fit it in. I think this indeed complicates things more for us.

I still think we should do a big "cohort call" with more people next week, where everyone spends 2hours working on their project + the contributors that may have joined or not. It's a one time thing, may not be the most effective but it's simple and has everyone in before closing.

[jurra]

Ok @thessaly as you are taking care of this content and activity, go ahead and set it up in the way is more practical to handle for you. We will follow and support in the way you think works best at this point.

[thessaly]

Content is ok (basic how to tech event and open source, I'm on it and will have it in 2h approx), my worry is about the assignment.