Mailing List Archive: Consultation about the Technical Decision Making Process

Hi All,

Over the past months I've been looking at how we make technical decisions.
Wikimedia has significantly grown as a technical movement over the years
and similar to how we scaled our technical systems we need to scale our
human systems. I've proposed an evolution of the existing TechCom process.
This is based on the past couple years that I've been involved in the
facilitation of TechCom and research into decision making frameworks. I'm
looking for your feedback over the next three weeks (until 5 November) to
help me improve the proposed process.

Key objectives of this evolved process is:

- Make the process more inclusive by shifting to representation by
teams/groups instead of individuals
- Have clear timelines for when a decision will be made
- Being clear upfront about what stakeholders will be engaged
- Developing a clear lifecycle of a decision

This plan also introduces:

- Technical Decision Forum which will be composed of representatives of
teams from Product and Tech, WMDE and independent +2 contributors.
- Templates for decision statement overviews and decision records

Please see the draft process here: <
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Proposal_for_a_Technical_Decision_Making_Process
>

If you have questions or further feedback please use the talk page: <
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Proposal_for_a_Technical_Decision_Making_Process
>

Thanks,

-Kate
--
Kate Chapman (she/her/hers)
Director of Architecture, Architecture Team
Wikimedia Foundation
kchapman@wikimedia.org

Hi All,

I'm writing to let you know that the deadline to comment has been
extended to the 16th of November. You'll see there is some discussion
happening already on the talk page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Proposal_for_a_Technical_Decision_Making_Process>

I'm particularly interested in hearing from folks outside of the
Wikimedia Foundation.

- Do you have questions or comments on the representation of the
technical community by independent +2s?
- Have you previously engaged in the TechCom process? Does this
evolution better support your needs?
- Does this seem relevant to the areas of our technology you build?
- Any specific areas I can further clarify?

Thanks,

-Kate

On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 4:11 PM Kate Chapman <kchapman@wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> Over the past months I've been looking at how we make technical decisions. Wikimedia has significantly grown as a technical movement over the years and similar to how we scaled our technical systems we need to scale our human systems. I've proposed an evolution of the existing TechCom process. This is based on the past couple years that I've been involved in the facilitation of TechCom and research into decision making frameworks. I'm looking for your feedback over the next three weeks (until 5 November) to help me improve the proposed process.
>
> Key objectives of this evolved process is:
>
> - Make the process more inclusive by shifting to representation by teams/groups instead of individuals
> - Have clear timelines for when a decision will be made
> - Being clear upfront about what stakeholders will be engaged
> - Developing a clear lifecycle of a decision
>
> This plan also introduces:
>
> - Technical Decision Forum which will be composed of representatives of teams from Product and Tech, WMDE and independent +2 contributors.
> - Templates for decision statement overviews and decision records
>
> Please see the draft process here: <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Proposal_for_a_Technical_Decision_Making_Process>
>
> If you have questions or further feedback please use the talk page: <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Proposal_for_a_Technical_Decision_Making_Process>
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Kate
> --
> Kate Chapman (she/her/hers)
> Director of Architecture, Architecture Team
> Wikimedia Foundation
> kchapman@wikimedia.org

--
Kate Chapman (she/her/hers)
Director of Architecture, Architecture Team
Wikimedia Foundation
kchapman@wikimedia.org

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