User:AngelinaBelle/SMF team manual/Team roles

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

The SMF team

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.

Moderation Duties

In the past, the SMF team had a team of moderators, responsible for patrolling assigned boards, reviewing all posts for inappropriate content, and moving, removing, or locking topics as required to maintain civility and good order.

Now, it is the duty of all SimpleMachines team members to patrol all publicly-viewable boards, review all posts for inappropriate content, move, remove, or lock topics as required to maintain civility and good order. Language Moderators (not members of the SMF team) are responsible for patrolling non-English language boards.

Project Manager

• Arbiters and negotiators for community/user issues
• High-level representation
• Reviewing license issues
• Maintaining the vision & spirit
  • set goals and direction for the future
  • Provide leadership to the team
  • encourage and support Team Members
• Running meetings

Team Leads

• Keeping their team motivated & on task
• Helping team members stay involved
• Watching for new team members and recruiting them
• Mentoring new team members
• Reporting progress during team meetings
• Participating in Steering Committee 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 [email protected]
• 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 SMF stays current
• Provide leadership to the team and to the community as a whole

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 HD first
  • Check CM boards
  • 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
• Updating SMF's official mods as necessary to maintain compatibility
• Designing new themes
• Updating SMF's official themes as necessary to maintain compatibility
• 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 create 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

• Maintaining the Online Manual
  • update text as needed
  • Flash tutorials
• Language translations
• review/proof publications
• Maintaining Team Manual
• Spelling/Grammar checks on the site and in our public postings
• Write clear, accurate, and easy to understand documentation
• Review the in source documentation and suggest/make fixes

Others who contribute to the SMF project

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

NPO teams

The SMF project depends on the Simple Machines NPO for Marketing, and to maintain its site and its servers. These teams are not part of the SMF project.

• Upgrading SimpleMachines.org and re-installing necessary modifications

Friends

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

Community Helpers

Many members of the community contribute in one way or another without holding any title at all. Others may join, or be invited to join, community support groups. These include [*]Language Moderators -- moderate and provide support on non-English language boards [*]Beta Testers [*]Documentation Helpers [*]Support Helpers

Organizational Chart

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 Machines LLC Org Chart can be seen in Figure 1 below.

On the chart above, the connecting lines represent the paths of formal communication, and the vertical placement of roles within the chart typically represents the level of access they have within the community.

In consideration of the above Org Chart though, a critical differentiator is that although a “higher” position may provide increased access, it does not inherently provide increased authority. We have elected to use a hierarchical structure because of the communications and organizational benefits it provides, not because any team member is superior to another. We are a team of equals. We need to trust each other to do our jobs correctly, and we need to trust each other to provide constructive feedback regardless of position within the org chart.

As the project grows, team members retire, and our needs change, openings for team members become available. While it is desirable to always have a complete team and to quickly fill openings, we must take our time and be very selective when recruiting new team members. This 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 good spirit between team members. The key to this is maintaining a positive environment by providing constructive criticism as well as being able to accept criticism from others. For example, “I think this would be better if done differently” is always better than “You screwed this all up”. While both positive and negative feedback is essential, it is also essential to always convey feedback in a positive manner.

Team members are given moderator permissions on every board. While you aren’t expected to read every post or catch every topic requiring moderation, all team members are encouraged to keep an eye out for and remove or move as appropriate any inappropriate content, topics posted in the wrong board, and spam.

As with any project of this nature, copyright and intellectual property issues will occasionally arise. As a team, we should maintain an awareness of how our software is being used in order to pinpoint copyright violations. Such violations might include illegal copyright removal and illegal redistribution. Any copyright violations should be added to the copyright topic in Full Team Chat so that follow-up action may be taken by the appropriate team member. Even though each team group has its own specific areas of focus, we must also maintain an awareness of the other teams. Particularly, it is very important to stay informed about development progress. Ultimately, development is the driving force behind everything we do at 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 aware of changes, new features, and common problems that are to be expected. Periodic team meetings are scheduled in order to ensure each team knows the status of the other 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.

Project Managers

- 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

- Handling general emails - Running meetings when PM’s absent - Following up on initiatives - Helping to coordinate “special” member groups – i.e. charter members, beta testers, etc. - advertising campaigns on the site - create email for Team Members - Admin stuff on the board o bans o maintenance o reorganize boards o permissions

Team Leads

- Keeping their team motivated & on task - Helping team members stay involved - Watching for new team members and recruiting them - Mentoring new team members - 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 [email protected] - 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

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 - Updating mods as necessary to maintain compatibility - Designing new themes - Updating themes as necessary to maintain compatibility - Theme Site maintenance - Creating & approving themes - Mod Site maintenance - Creating and approving 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 create easier and more powerful - Write mods that follow the coding guidelines and as though they were writing a default feature. - Provide support in the Coding Discussion and Graphics boards

Doc Writers

- Maintaining the Online Manual o update text as needed o Flash tutorials - Language translations - review/proof publications - Maintaining Team Manual - Spelling/Grammar checks on the site and in our public postings - Write clear, accurate, and easy to understand documentation - Review the in source documentation and suggest/make fixes

Marketing

- Watching for awards and PR opportunities - Speaking about SMF on other forums/websites - Prepare ads that are posted on other sites - sourcing out new redistributors - maintaining redistributors relationships o ensure redistributors receive copies of our agreement 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

o Review all posts on assigned board for inappropriate content o Move, remove, or lock topics as appropriate

Other Roles

- Server Admin - Newsletter writer - Language coordinator - Team interviewers - Beta Testers - Security Advisors