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?
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