Hello all, Following up on Tajh’s announcement email, the TDMP Retro team would like to invite you to engage with us on this retro process. As was mentioned, this retro will open the door for input from varied stakeholders and input will be requested through multiple venues, to make sure all stakeholders are able to contribute to the conversation.
As a first step, the core team would like to invite you to read our planning document <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_decision_making/Technical_Decision-Making_Process_Retrospective_and_Consultation_plan>, and offer insights <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Technical_decision_making/Technical_Decision-Making_Process_Retrospective_and_Consultation_plan> on the administrative side of this retro process: - Are there any stakeholders we have left out? - Any unclear parts of the retro process? - What communication channels are important for engagement in the retro process? Ex: Mailing list, Talk pages, IRC, other? We will soon start working towards the next steps, which will delve into the substantive input about the process from all stakeholders. We are hopeful that this process will enable and encourage all voices to be heard, and result in valuable insights into the needs and requirements of the technical community when it comes to decision-making. You can communicate with us through: - The MediaWiki talk page: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_decision_making/Technical_Decision-Making_Process_Retrospective_and_Consultation_plan - Phabricator ticket: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T333235 - Core team mailing list: tdf-retro-2...@lists.wikimedia.org Thank you, Moriel, on behalf of the TDMP Retro Core Group Core group: - Moriel Schottlender (chair) - Daniel Kinzler - Chris Danis - Kosta Harlan - Temilola Adeleye On Thu, Mar 30, 2023 at 7:48 AM Tajh Taylor <ttay...@wikimedia.org> wrote: > TLDR: The Foundation will be conducting a retrospective on the Technical > Decision Making Process. > > To the entire Wiki technical community, > > For quite some time now, we have experienced issues with the Technical > Decision Making Process (TDMP). Volunteer contributors and staff have asked > if we are still operating the Technical Decision Forum (TDF, the member > body that participates in the TDMP). Communication about it from the > Foundation has been inconsistent, and interest from the volunteer community > in joining has been low. Some of our most senior engineers on Foundation > staff have expressed that the process is flawed, doesn’t create room for > discussion about the technical issues surrounding a decision, and doesn’t > ensure participation by all stakeholders who may be affected by the > decision. Suffice it to say, the current state of affairs leaves many > participants wanting more. > > We must also remind ourselves of the purpose of a decision making > process. The decisions are not meant to be random or isolated. They > should be aligned to our technical strategy, and we should be able to look > at the decisions we have made and understand how they advance our progress > against that strategy. If the process is working as it should, the > decisions that are produced should represent settled wisdom, and not need > to be revisited too quickly. The goals for a well-run process include: > > - > > A straightforward, widely understood decision making process, that > - > > Facilitates impactful technical decisions to be made in a timely > manner, > - > > Incorporates input from staff and volunteers in our technical > community, with > - > > Decisions that align with accountability for decision outcomes, and > - > > Clear communication and transparent operations throughout the process. > > On examination of the contributing factors that have led us to this point, > the factor that stands out to me is the need for clear accountability: > accountability for the TDMP itself and accountability for each of the > decisions we make. Technical decision making, beyond a certain magnitude, > is a core organizational process for any engineering organization. It is > therefore important for us to examine and improve this process from time to > time to ensure organizational effectiveness. Not unrelated, regular > retrospectives are a routine agile software engineering practice to enact > continuous improvement. To keep our decision making process effective and > efficient, we need to conduct regular retros. Overall accountability for > maintaining an effective decision making process should rest with a person > who is sufficiently able to marshal resources and address problems at a > large scale – here at the Foundation, that resides in the executive level. > > The Foundation will be conducting a retro on the TDMP over the next couple > of months. Because we don’t yet have a habit of doing retros on this > process, and because there is a wide range of stakeholders we seek to hear > from, the process will be a bit more structured than an ordinary retro, and > will take more time. As we do more of these, we should get better at them. > The feedback gathered through the retro will be used to make changes to > improve the TDMP. > > Foundation staff will follow up with more information about the kickoff of > the retro and what steps will follow. I am looking forward to wide > participation in this retro. > > Here are the links to the relevant wiki page and Phab ticket: > > - Wiki page > > <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Technical_decision_making/Technical_Decision-Making_Process_Retrospective_and_Consultation_plan> > - Phabricator ticket <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T333235> > > Thank you! And apologies for all the crossposting. > > Tajh Taylor (he/him/his) > > VP, Data Science & Engineering > > Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> > > -- Moriel Schottlender (she/her <https://pronoun.is/she>) Principal System Architect, Architecture Team <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Architecture_Team> Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/
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