Goals
- Get updates on progress of NCSA software development projects and relationships with our collaborators
- Allow all to have a sense of current state of NCSA software development activities
- Allow all to be exposed to technologies used on each project, foster uptake and education of new technologies
- Allow all to be exposed to issues being encountered on each project, allow others to avoid common problems
- Allow all to be exposed to NCSA software being developed on each project, encourage leveraging/adoption in other projects
- minimizing redundancy and reinventing of the wheel
- foster the ability for produced software to be sustained over time (independent of individual funding sources)
- Allow all to become and take advantage of subject matter experts within the group
- Allow projects, in particular smaller projects, to be amplified in terms of their deliverables (team experience, technology, leveraged development)
Past Meeting Styles
Approach 1 (2008-2012)
1 hour meeting each week, round robin presenter each week to provide updates and demonstrations of development work being done
Pros:
- All gain an in depth view of what is happening in each project
Cons:
- Long gaps between project updates, lots can take place in between updates
Approach 2 (2012-2014)
1 hour meeting each week, 10 minute update form everyone
Pros:
- Regular updates of team and project activity
Cons:
- Not very in depth often times
- Can be difficult to follow along from projects where overlap isn't immediately apparent to some on the team
Approach 3 (2014-2016)
1/2 hour standup/kickoff each Monday, interact with members/leads of each project on progress/updates, no central structure
1 hour meeting each Friday, update from each member of the group
Pros:
- Monday meeting is more focused on projects
- Friday meeting same as Approach 2
Cons:
- Project leads who span multiple projects are a bottleneck for the Monday meetings, team members having to wait to give update
Approach 4 (2016 - present)
1/2 hour - hour standup each Monday, quick goals from everyone for the week
1 hour meeting each Friday, 1/2 hour quick good/bad for the week from everyone, 1/2 hour presentation from 1 project
- weekly review "rocks/sucks" should not be an itemized list of everything you did that week but a - this thing went well and this thing didn't. Highlight how it might relate to other teams or how a helpful interaction from another team member (or you helped another team member) benefited the group - KUDOS!
- more attention needs to be paid to others rocks/sucks ... paying more attention to your laptop means you might miss an item that you could help with or that could help you
- ... get to know more about each other ...
Pros:
- Avoids bottlenecks of Monday meetings in approach 3
Cons:
- Could still use more, from project leads perhaps, to guide conversation and highlight how things tie together
Approach 5 (Future)
...
Suggestions for Future Meeting Styles
Kenton
Monday meeting (weekly kickoff):
- Drop and replace with just the wiki updates or a plugin like Standup Jack for Slack
Friday meeting ("the" group meeting)
- Team touch base for the week
- Rocks/Sucks but more directed by a moderator (e.g. Kenton or Shannon) who knows what's happening at a high level in the group and call out topics of interest for discussion (don't go through everyone, just topics of interest)
- Encourage agenda items to be raised prior to meeting/at beginning of meeting
- Presentation from 1 project/team member (does not have to be every week, but should be fairly often)
- Move to Mondays instead?