User:AngelinaBelle/SMF team manual/Team roles: Difference between revisions From Online Manual

Jump to: navigation, search
(Created page with "When someone joins the Simple Machines team, one of the most important pieces of information they must assimilate is where they fit in to the grand scheme of things. The Simple M...")
 
No edit summary
 
(54 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
When someone joins the Simple Machines team, one of the most important pieces of information
{{PolicyDisclaimer}}
they must assimilate is where they fit in to the grand scheme of things. The Simple Machines
__TOC__
LLC Org Chart can be seen in Figure 1 below.
The Simple Machines Forum (SMF) project is a project under the umbrella of the Simple Machines NPO.
[[File:LLCorg.GIF|600px|Figure 1 -- Simple Machines LLC Org Chart, circa November 2006]]
==The SMF project structure==
The SMF project has a project manager and several sub-teams. The heads of these teams, along with the project manager, constitute the projects's steering committee, which is responsible for developing plans for the project and leading the project toward achieving its goals.


On the chart above, the connecting lines represent the paths of formal communication, and the
===Project Manager===
vertical placement of roles within the chart typically represents the level of access they have
The SMF Project Manager (PM) is responsible for representing the SMF project to the non-profit organization, the Board of Directors and to the SMF community. The PM leads the team, maintaining the vision and spirit of the project. The PM encourages and supports team members, works with the steering committee to set goals for the project.
within the community.


In consideration of the above Org Chart though, a critical differentiator is that although a
The PM's responsibilities are:
“higher” position may provide increased access, it does not inherently provide increased
#To help the SMF team set goals.
authority. We have elected to use a hierarchical structure because of the communications and
#To lead the SMF team toward meeting the team's goals, help solve problems
organizational benefits it provides, not because any team member is superior to another. We are
#To help the teams collaborate, stay informed of the effect they have on one another, and work together effectively.
a team of equals. We need to trust each other to do our jobs correctly, and we need to trust each
#To mediate conflict between team members, or between team members and community members, in order to help the parties reach an agreement.
other to provide constructive feedback regardless of position within the org chart.
# When authorized by the SC, to speak on behalf of the steering committee.
# To serve as team figurehead -- representing the team to the community, answering general inquiries, turning some questions over to other experts on the team.
# To identify areas for improvement within the project.
#*Inform or advise the responsible parties, bring it to the attention of the SC, or appoint someone to handle it.
#*The SC must be notified of all such appointments.


As the project grows, team members retire, and our needs change, openings for team members
In order to carry out these duties,
become available.  While it is desirable to always have a complete team and to quickly fill
# The PM should have administrative access to simplemachines.org, and related sites.
openings, we must take our time and be very selective when recruiting new team members. This
# The PM should have root access to the servers/VMs holding the infrastructure of the SMF project, in order to be able to help in case of emergency.
will ensure we maintain a dedicated and efficient team.  Every team members is encouraged to
be on the lookout for community members who demonstrate the qualities necessary to become a
team member.  These qualities include, but are not limited too, loyalty to the community,
willingness to help others, and strong knowledge in a particular area.  The use of the team boardsto discuss prospective team members is encouraged.


In order to maintain a productive environment as well as a happy team, it is essential to maintain
The PM is empowered to:
good spirit between team members.  The key to this is maintaining a positive environment by
# Perform administrative duties necessary for the team, such as changing groups (set as Friend, apprentice, etc.).
providing constructive criticism as well as being able to accept criticism from others. For
# Intervene and make project decisions, in case of emergency, when the respective person responsible is not available. These situations include, but are not limited to:
example, “I think this would be better if done differently” is always better than “You screwed
#* The responsible team lead or member is inactive or otherwise unavailable, and immediate action needs to be taken.
this all up”.  While both positive and negative feedback is essential, it is also essential to always
#* The project is seriously endangered, as when immediate removal of a team member is necessary.
convey feedback in a positive manner.


Team members are given moderator permissions on every board.  While you aren’t expected to
Restrictions on the powers of the PM are:
read every post or catch every topic requiring moderation, all team members are encouraged to
# When the PM takes administrative action to change member access, removal of team members, or other emergency actions, he must inform the SMF leadership or the team.
keep an eye out for and remove or move as appropriate any inappropriate content, topics posted
# The PM must provide an explanation for any decision or action, at the request of the SMF leadership.
in the wrong board, and spam.
# The SMF leadership can reverse any decision or action of the PM. The SMF leaderhip may make a decision without taking a formal poll. If any member of the SC (including the PM) requests a poll on the matter, a poll may be taken.
# The SMF team can reverse any decision or action of the PM.


As with any project of this nature, copyright and intellectual property issues will occasionally
===Team Leads===
arise. As a team, we should maintain an awareness of how our software is being used in order to
Each of the teams within the SMF project has a team lead. The team lead are responsible for:
pinpoint copyright violations. Such violations might include illegal copyright removal and
* Reporting progress during team meetings.
illegal redistribution.  Any copyright violations should be added to the copyright topic in Full
* Participating in Steering Committee discussions.
Team Chat so that follow-up action may be taken by the appropriate team member.
* Keeping the other teams informed of important changes or events.
Even though each team group has its own specific areas of focus, we must also maintain an
* Keeping their team motivated & on task.
awareness of the other teams. Particularly, it is very important to stay informed about
* Helping team members stay involved.
development progress. Ultimately, development is the driving force behind everything we do at
* Giving team members the recognition and credit they merit for their successes and accomplishments.
Simple Machines. For example, it is important for the Development and Doc teams to interact toinsure that no software features go undocumented, while Support Team members should be
* Supporting the personal and professional growth of each and every member of the team
aware of changes, new features, and common problems that are to be expected.
* Watching for new team members and recruiting them.
Periodic team meetings are scheduled in order to ensure each team knows the status of the other
* Making sure apprentice members and new team members have a mentor, that the mentor works as closely with the new member as necessary, and that apprentices makes appropriate progress during the apprenticeship period.
teams’ efforts and we are all on the “same page”. Every effort is made to schedule meetings at
such times where the most team members are available to attend.  Each team member is
encouraged to visit the Meeting Availability page and enter the times during which you are
available.


===Developers===
{{Did you know|above=Did you know?
|text=The “SE” in YaBB SE stood for “Splinter Edition” after Splinter from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Ninjas are cool, and YaBB SE was designed to be cool, too. And it was a developed by a small splinter group of the original YaBB Team.}}<!--


-->Developers create the software. Without them, there is no software community. For the SMF community to remain vital, the software must remain vital. The developers must lead in decisions about where technology is going, and where SMF needs to go to stay current. They need to consider everything from what the users want, to making the features run efficiently, to making sure all the pieces get tested properly.


==Project Managers==
For information and ways to contribute, please refer to the [http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/User:Norv/dev/team Development pages].
- Arbiters and negotiators for community/user issues
- High-level representation
- Reviewing license issues
- Maintaining the vision & spirit
o set goals and direction for the future
o Provide leadership to the team
o encourage and support Team Members
- Running meetings


==Assistant Project Managers==
===Support Specialists===
- Handling general emails
* Helping our users have an exceptional SMF experience.
- Running meetings when PM’s absent
* Providing special attention to the Charter Members.
- Following up on initiatives
* Monitoring the help desk & getting tickets to a “closed” state.
- Helping to coordinate “special” member groups – i.e. charter members, beta testers, etc.
** Check Help Desk first.
- advertising campaigns on the site
** Check Charter Member boards.
- create email for Team Members
** Check Support boards.
- Admin stuff on the board
* Revisit your old posts and mark as solved when appropriate.
o bans
* Perform upgrades and installs for Charter Members.
o  maintenance
* Support the core software by answering questions, suggesting fixes, etc.
o  reorganize boards
* Act as a filter for bug reports, reporting legitimate ones to the bug tracker.
o  permissions
* Look for common problems/errors and suggest documentation or code changes to reduce them.
==Team Leads==
* Assume nothing. Always ask questions, no matter how tedious that can get. If a post is unclear, don't make assumptions. Ask for clarification.
- Keeping their team motivated & on task
* Some posts may seem trivial, to you. Remember that they aren't trivial to our users. Always strive to be friendly and helpful. You are SMF's "Front line". The way you are perceived will reflect on SMF, not just you.
- Helping team members stay involved
* Always try to remember to tell users to backup, before attempting anything. If you don't remind them, they'll almost certainly forget.
- Watching for new team members and recruiting them
* If you begin helping, on a certain topic, try to maintain an interest in that topic; don't just leave it if you're stuck. There's a "Support Helpers" board. Use that to alert other support team members of your plight.
- Mentoring new team members
* If you're going to be away from the boards, whilst you're helping someone, try to let other members of the team know, so that they can take that topic over for you, rather than letting the person you're helping just "Hang".
- Reporting progress during team meetings
- Participating in “Leadership Team” discussions
- Keep the other teams informed of important changes or events
==Developers==
- Maintaining the development roadmap and plan
- Develop SMF applications
- Maintaining the changelog
- Monitoring the bug trackers
- Fixing bugs
- Assisting with support in special circumstances
- Reviewing & selecting features for inclusion
- Liaising with the beta testers
- Address all security reports and CC info@simplemachines.org
- Ensure other teams have sufficient information to perform their duties (ie: Doc Team
should know about new features so they can be documented)
- Manage CVS (including user accounts)
- Review current and coming technology and make sure SM stays current
- Provide leadership to the team and to the community as a whole
- Upgrading SimpleMachines.org and re-installing necessary modifications


{{mbox|text=Did you know?
===Customizers===
The “SE” is YaBB SE stood
Customizers are developers who can provide mods and/or themes for SMF. They review and approve mods and themes submitted by the community, and they maintain the customization site. Their duties include:
for “Splinter Edition” after
Splinter from the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Ninjas are cool, and we
wanted YaBB SE to be so
as well. Additionally, it
was a developed by a
small splinter group from
the original YaBB Team.}}
==Support Specialists==
- Helping our users have an exceptional SMF experience
- Providing special attention to the Charter Members
- Monitoring the help desk & getting tickets to a “closed”
state
o Check HD first
o Check CM boards
o Check Support boards
- Revisit your old posts and mark as solved when they are.
- Perform upgrades and installs for CM’s
- Support the core software by answering questions,  
suggesting fixes, etc
- Act as a filter for bug reports, reporting legitimate ones to
the bug tracker
- Look for common problems/errors and suggest
documentation or code changes to reduce them


==Customizers==
* Watching for feature ideas that should be put into mods.
- Watching for feature ideas that should be put into mods
* Updating SMF's official mods as necessary to maintain compatibility.
- Updating mods as necessary to maintain compatibility
* Updating SMF's official themes as necessary to maintain compatibility.
- Designing new themes
* Designing new themes.
- Updating themes as necessary to maintain compatibility
* Theme Site maintenance.
- Theme Site maintenance
** Approving community-created themes.
- Creating & approving themes
* Mod Site maintenance.
- Mod Site maintenance
** Approving community-created mods.
- Creating and approving mods
* Graphics images (i.e. Buttons &  smileys).
- Graphics images (i.e. Buttons &  smileys)
* Other graphics as requested/required.
- Other graphics as requested/required
* Give support to people trying to create themes and modifications.
- Give support to people trying to create themes and modifications
* Suggest changes to make theme and modification creation easier and more powerful.
- Suggest changes to make theme and modification create easier and more powerful
* Write mods that follow the coding guidelines and as though they were writing a default SMF feature.
- Write mods that follow the coding guidelines and as though they were writing a default  
* Provide support in the Coding Discussion and Graphics boards.
feature.
- Provide support in the Coding Discussion and Graphics boards


==Doc Writers==
===Doc Writers===
- Maintaining the Online Manual
Documentation Writers write and maintain the online documentation at simplemachines.org. They may be called upon to write and maintain any documentation within the forum software itself. They may work with and recruit [b]Doc Helpers[/b] from the community to help out.  Their responsibilities.
o update text as needed
* Maintaining the Online Manual.
o Flash tutorials
** Write clear, accurate, and easy to understand documentation.
- Language translations
** Review and update update text as needed.
- review/proof publications
* Work with localizers, site, and dev teams to enable document translations.
- Maintaining Team Manual
* Write, review, or proofread other SMF team publications, including our news announcement postings.
- Spelling/Grammar checks on the site and in our public postings
* Maintain the SMF Team Manual
- Write clear, accurate, and easy to understand documentation
- Review the in source documentation and suggest/make fixes


==Marketing==
===Localizers===
- Watching for awards and PR opportunities
* Coordinate the activity of Translators and Language Moderators.
- Speaking about SMF on other forums/websites
* Validate new translation team applications.
- Prepare ads that are posted on other sites
* Manage the [email protected] correspondence.
- sourcing out new redistributors
* Add /remove new translators.
- maintaining redistributors relationships
* Enhance accessibility to translate the wiki docs.
o ensure redistributors receive copies of our agreement
* Informing community regarding language related topics of interest.
o ensuring redistributors keep things up to date
o helping redistributors support *their* marketing efforts of SMF
- GET OUR NAME OUT THERE
- Promote the use of SMF to forum owners
- Promote the sale of Charter Memberships
- Promote the sale site advertising
- Suggest ways to improve our name recognition
- Publish articles that would be of professional news worthy level.
- Find articles mentioning SM and inform the community of them
- Identify advertising opportunities for SMF


==Moderators==
==Others who contribute to the SMF project==
o Review all posts on assigned board for inappropriate content
These individuals also volunteer their time on behalf of the project, but are not members of the SMF project.
o Move, remove, or lock topics as appropriate


{{mbox|text=One Censored Name
===Simple Machines organizational teams===
We have one forum user
The SMF project depends on teams from the Simple Machines corporate organization for Marketing and to maintain its site and its servers. These teams are not officially part of the SMF project. The site team is responsible for maintaining and upgrading SimpleMachines.org and the software on it. The server team is responsible for specifying, configuring and maintaining the organization's servers and other hardware. The marketing team is responsible for planning press releases, attendance to conferences and other public relations details. Additionally, the marketing team works on acquiring sponsorships as well as maintaining and supporting the advertisements and advertisers on the simplemachines.org site.
whose name was
censored from the site.
The reason for his ban
and subsequent censoring
was that he aggressively
broke the site rules and
abused team members
verbally and in writing.}}


==Other Roles==
===Forum Administrators===
- Server Admin
Forum administrators take care of routine tasks like banning and deleting accounts, as well as less-common tasks like creating membergroups and adjusting membergroup permissions. These tasks are generally handled by site and server team members, by the SMF project manager and by other SMF team members.
- Newsletter writer
 
- Language coordinator
===Friends===
- Team interviewers
Former members of the SMF team, some of whom are still members of the Simple Machines organization. They often share their experiences with the team. Some Friends may re-join the team when they again have time to commit to the SMF project.
- Beta Testers
 
- Security Advisors
===Community Helpers===
Some community members have been invited to join special-purpose membergroups. They do not have access to SMF team-only boards, but do have some permissions that other members of the community do not have.
*Consulting Developers
*Beta Testers.
*Language Moderators -- moderate and provide support on non-English language boards.
*Translators -- with their work SMF is available for [http://download.simplemachines.org/?smflanguages many languages].
 
Anyone who wishes may join these membergroups right from their own profile
*Doc Helpers.
*Community Support Helpers.
 
Many other members of the community contribute in one way or another without holding any title at all. They are important to keeping things going at simplemachines.org

Latest revision as of 17:51, 8 December 2011

The Simple Machines Forum (SMF) project is a project under the umbrella of the Simple Machines NPO.

The SMF project structure

The SMF project has a project manager and several sub-teams. The heads of these teams, along with the project manager, constitute the projects's steering committee, which is responsible for developing plans for the project and leading the project toward achieving its goals.

Project Manager

The SMF Project Manager (PM) is responsible for representing the SMF project to the non-profit organization, the Board of Directors and to the SMF community. The PM leads the team, maintaining the vision and spirit of the project. The PM encourages and supports team members, works with the steering committee to set goals for the project.

The PM's responsibilities are:

  1. To help the SMF team set goals.
  2. To lead the SMF team toward meeting the team's goals, help solve problems
  3. To help the teams collaborate, stay informed of the effect they have on one another, and work together effectively.
  4. To mediate conflict between team members, or between team members and community members, in order to help the parties reach an agreement.
  5. When authorized by the SC, to speak on behalf of the steering committee.
  6. To serve as team figurehead -- representing the team to the community, answering general inquiries, turning some questions over to other experts on the team.
  7. To identify areas for improvement within the project.
    • Inform or advise the responsible parties, bring it to the attention of the SC, or appoint someone to handle it.
    • The SC must be notified of all such appointments.

In order to carry out these duties,

  1. The PM should have administrative access to simplemachines.org, and related sites.
  2. The PM should have root access to the servers/VMs holding the infrastructure of the SMF project, in order to be able to help in case of emergency.

The PM is empowered to:

  1. Perform administrative duties necessary for the team, such as changing groups (set as Friend, apprentice, etc.).
  2. Intervene and make project decisions, in case of emergency, when the respective person responsible is not available. These situations include, but are not limited to:
    • The responsible team lead or member is inactive or otherwise unavailable, and immediate action needs to be taken.
    • The project is seriously endangered, as when immediate removal of a team member is necessary.

Restrictions on the powers of the PM are:

  1. When the PM takes administrative action to change member access, removal of team members, or other emergency actions, he must inform the SMF leadership or the team.
  2. The PM must provide an explanation for any decision or action, at the request of the SMF leadership.
  3. The SMF leadership can reverse any decision or action of the PM. The SMF leaderhip may make a decision without taking a formal poll. If any member of the SC (including the PM) requests a poll on the matter, a poll may be taken.
  4. The SMF team can reverse any decision or action of the PM.

Team Leads

Each of the teams within the SMF project has a team lead. The team lead are responsible for:

  • Reporting progress during team meetings.
  • Participating in Steering Committee discussions.
  • Keeping the other teams informed of important changes or events.
  • Keeping their team motivated & on task.
  • Helping team members stay involved.
  • Giving team members the recognition and credit they merit for their successes and accomplishments.
  • Supporting the personal and professional growth of each and every member of the team
  • Watching for new team members and recruiting them.
  • Making sure apprentice members and new team members have a mentor, that the mentor works as closely with the new member as necessary, and that apprentices makes appropriate progress during the apprenticeship period.

Developers

Did you know?
The “SE” in YaBB SE stood for “Splinter Edition” after Splinter from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Ninjas are cool, and YaBB SE was designed to be cool, too. And it was a developed by a small splinter group of the original YaBB Team.

Developers create the software. Without them, there is no software community. For the SMF community to remain vital, the software must remain vital. The developers must lead in decisions about where technology is going, and where SMF needs to go to stay current. They need to consider everything from what the users want, to making the features run efficiently, to making sure all the pieces get tested properly.

For information and ways to contribute, please refer to the Development pages.

Support Specialists

  • Helping our users have an exceptional SMF experience.
  • Providing special attention to the Charter Members.
  • Monitoring the help desk & getting tickets to a “closed” state.
    • Check Help Desk first.
    • Check Charter Member boards.
    • Check Support boards.
  • Revisit your old posts and mark as solved when appropriate.
  • Perform upgrades and installs for Charter Members.
  • Support the core software by answering questions, suggesting fixes, etc.
  • Act as a filter for bug reports, reporting legitimate ones to the bug tracker.
  • Look for common problems/errors and suggest documentation or code changes to reduce them.
  • Assume nothing. Always ask questions, no matter how tedious that can get. If a post is unclear, don't make assumptions. Ask for clarification.
  • Some posts may seem trivial, to you. Remember that they aren't trivial to our users. Always strive to be friendly and helpful. You are SMF's "Front line". The way you are perceived will reflect on SMF, not just you.
  • Always try to remember to tell users to backup, before attempting anything. If you don't remind them, they'll almost certainly forget.
  • If you begin helping, on a certain topic, try to maintain an interest in that topic; don't just leave it if you're stuck. There's a "Support Helpers" board. Use that to alert other support team members of your plight.
  • If you're going to be away from the boards, whilst you're helping someone, try to let other members of the team know, so that they can take that topic over for you, rather than letting the person you're helping just "Hang".

Customizers

Customizers are developers who can provide mods and/or themes for SMF. They review and approve mods and themes submitted by the community, and they maintain the customization site. Their duties include:

  • Watching for feature ideas that should be put into mods.
  • Updating SMF's official mods as necessary to maintain compatibility.
  • Updating SMF's official themes as necessary to maintain compatibility.
  • Designing new themes.
  • Theme Site maintenance.
    • Approving community-created themes.
  • Mod Site maintenance.
    • Approving community-created mods.
  • Graphics images (i.e. Buttons & smileys).
  • Other graphics as requested/required.
  • Give support to people trying to create themes and modifications.
  • Suggest changes to make theme and modification creation easier and more powerful.
  • Write mods that follow the coding guidelines and as though they were writing a default SMF feature.
  • Provide support in the Coding Discussion and Graphics boards.

Doc Writers

Documentation Writers write and maintain the online documentation at simplemachines.org. They may be called upon to write and maintain any documentation within the forum software itself. They may work with and recruit [b]Doc Helpers[/b] from the community to help out. Their responsibilities.

  • Maintaining the Online Manual.
    • Write clear, accurate, and easy to understand documentation.
    • Review and update update text as needed.
  • Work with localizers, site, and dev teams to enable document translations.
  • Write, review, or proofread other SMF team publications, including our news announcement postings.
  • Maintain the SMF Team Manual

Localizers

  • Coordinate the activity of Translators and Language Moderators.
  • Validate new translation team applications.
  • Manage the [email protected] correspondence.
  • Add /remove new translators.
  • Enhance accessibility to translate the wiki docs.
  • Informing community regarding language related topics of interest.

Others who contribute to the SMF project

These individuals also volunteer their time on behalf of the project, but are not members of the SMF project.

Simple Machines organizational teams

The SMF project depends on teams from the Simple Machines corporate organization for Marketing and to maintain its site and its servers. These teams are not officially part of the SMF project. The site team is responsible for maintaining and upgrading SimpleMachines.org and the software on it. The server team is responsible for specifying, configuring and maintaining the organization's servers and other hardware. The marketing team is responsible for planning press releases, attendance to conferences and other public relations details. Additionally, the marketing team works on acquiring sponsorships as well as maintaining and supporting the advertisements and advertisers on the simplemachines.org site.

Forum Administrators

Forum administrators take care of routine tasks like banning and deleting accounts, as well as less-common tasks like creating membergroups and adjusting membergroup permissions. These tasks are generally handled by site and server team members, by the SMF project manager and by other SMF team members.

Friends

Former members of the SMF team, some of whom are still members of the Simple Machines organization. They often share their experiences with the team. Some Friends may re-join the team when they again have time to commit to the SMF project.

Community Helpers

Some community members have been invited to join special-purpose membergroups. They do not have access to SMF team-only boards, but do have some permissions that other members of the community do not have.

  • Consulting Developers
  • Beta Testers.
  • Language Moderators -- moderate and provide support on non-English language boards.
  • Translators -- with their work SMF is available for many languages.

Anyone who wishes may join these membergroups right from their own profile

  • Doc Helpers.
  • Community Support Helpers.

Many other members of the community contribute in one way or another without holding any title at all. They are important to keeping things going at simplemachines.org



Advertisement: