Presentation outlining how to apply sprint tools to non-technical work

1. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.
Collaboration beyond code:
Sprints for non-technical work
Heather Greer Klein, Services Coordinator, DuraSpace
#w1d: Streamline and Sprint

2. DuraSpace is a not for profit organization
that provides leadership and innovation for
open technologies
We work to ensure that current and future
generations have durable and persistent
access to our collective digital heritage
Our community is part of an
interconnected, worldwide,
scholarly ecosystem
Image Source: The Digital Ecosystem in the Balanced Value Impact Model (illustrated by Alice Maggs); http://simon-
tanner.blogspot.com/2014/09/do-you-understand-your-digital-ecosystem.html
About DuraSpace

3. …its open source projects
DuraSpace open source projects are
part of the scholarly ecosystem
Affiliate
Status

4. …its service providers
…and more

5. DuraSpace services are
part of the scholarly ecosystem
…its services

6. …its partners

7. …its members
187
…and more

8. User Communities
2445 355 156
*Based on the DuraSpace Registry

9. DuraSpace Staff
Twelve People
Completely Virtual
Two Countries, Five Time Zones
Frequent Travel
Cross-Community Focus

10. Inspiration: Looking to Our Communities
● Working Groups
● Interest groups
● Sprints?

11. Sprints in Our Communities

12. Sprint Elements for Non-Tech Staff
Valuable:
● Volunteers
● Specific goal
● Pre-planned tasks
● Specific, dedicated time
● Regular short check-ins
● Channel for help
● Work alone and together
● Serious pre-planning
Difficult:
● Two week timeline
● Coaches

13. Introducing the Dash
● 1-2 days
● Dedicated time
● Volunteers
● Specific, timebound, collaborative
● Detailed pre-planning and task creation
● Meet several times per day

14. Plan a Dash to Take On:
● Important and time consuming work (that keeps slipping)
● Work that requires multiple stakeholders to review and contribute
● Outdated and sparse documentation, training, resource lists
● Reimagining a service or workflow
● Templates and processes for knowledge transfer

15. Example: Events Dash
● Volunteers from different projects, services, administrative team
● Goal: Document all the events we run and the steps we take to run
them
● Worked together over an entire day discussing, drafting, reviewing
● Result: Eight pages of documentation of how to create a
successful event or webinar
● Next step: templates

16. Community Dash: DuraCloud Mozilla Global Sprint
https://github.com/duracloud/duracloud

17. Community Dash: DuraCloud Mozilla Global Sprint
● Successful: developed discrete tasks needed to move the
community forward: training, documentation, advocacy
● Unsuccessful: participation from broad open source
community

18. DuraCloud Take 2: Adding a Dash to a Sprint

19. Lessons Learned
● Know your participants
● Plan with them in advance
● Create your tasks with their skills in mind
● Structure based on participants & tasks
● Several daily check-ins are not optional!

20. Next Steps and Future Dashes
● Documentation dashes
● Other opportunities for templates and
knowledge transfer
● Include more diverse skills in open source
development
● Your dashes! hklein@duraspace.org

21. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.
Thank You!
Heather Greer Klein
hklein@duraspace.org