Introduction to the FOLIO community presented with Mike Gorrell and Kathleen Berry at the FOLIO Onboarding Forum, June 2021

1. | www.folio.org
1
Mike Gorrell, Index Data
Kathleen Berry, University of Massachusetts Amherst / Five College Consortia
Simeon Warner, Cornell University
Welcome to the FOLIO Community

2. | www.folio.org
2
Fundamentals of the
Community

3. | www.folio.org
3
FOLIO’s Vision
Be an open community supporting the evolving needs of global
libraries with a platform that serves us now and into the future.

4. | www.folio.org
4
FOLIO’s History
•First code written in 2016
•Collaboration between OLE, EBSCO and Index Data
• Wanted to create a community owned, innovative platform to
build library solutions
• Now a vibrant community (108 organizations voted on features
for our next release)

5. | www.folio.org
5
What is FOLIO?
•A community owned library
services platform (LSP)
•An active open source software
development project
•A vibrant and active community
Library
Services
Platform
Software
Development
Project
Vibrant
Community

6. | www.folio.org
6
FOLIO’s Community
• Libraries, Librarians, Vendors, Developers, Product Owners,
DevOps Engineers, Quality Engineers, Scrum Master
• 1,800 people on FOLIO Slack
• 102 organizations voted points towards Kiwi features

7. | www.folio.org
7
FOLIO - an active, mature software project
The Numbers
• 268 Repositories
• 208 contributors
• 3 Releases per year
• 17 teams
• 15 Product Owners
• 7 Scrum Masters
(We are primarily Scrum)
Key Quality metrics tracked:
• Unit test code coverage (80%+)
• Automated test coverage (80%+)
• Performance targets
• Regression rate
• Escaped defects

8. | www.folio.org
8
Our community members:
Libraries, Networks/
Consortia, Vendors, and
Developers

9. | www.folio.org
9
Vendors
Service Providers,
Software Vendors, and
Integration Partners
Libraries
Academic, Public and
Special libraries of all
sizes, worldwide
Networks/
Consortia
Groups of libraries and
networks sharing
systems and resources
Developers
Code contributors,
architects, DevOps, QA
and other technical
professionals

10. | www.folio.org
10
Developers and Technical Types
• Java Developers for backend modules
• Javascript (react) Developers for front end modules
• DevOps Engineers
• QA Engineers
• Product Owners
• Scrum Masters
• UX Designers

11. | www.folio.org
11
Libraries
• Large Academic (University of Chicago, Texas A&M, etc.)
• Small Academic (Simmons University, St. Vincent College, etc.)
• Public Libraries (Spokane Public, Shanghai Library, etc.)
• National Libraries (National Library of Florence, etc.)
• International (US, Germany, Italy, Sweden, China, etc.)

12. | www.folio.org
12
Networks and Consortia
• Consortia (Fenway Library Organization, MARMOT)
• German Networks (GBV, HBV, etc.)

13. | www.folio.org
13
Vendors
• Service Providers (EBSCO, Index Data, Knowledge
Integration, ByWater, etc.)

14. | www.folio.org
14
Governance

15. | www.folio.org
15
FOLIO - Community Owned and Open
• Participation by all is welcomed and encouraged
• FOLIO is OPEN - anyone can participate
• All input is valued; you can make a difference

16. | www.folio.org
16
The Three Governing Councils
Product
Guides functional
development and
manages scope.
Community
Ensures strong and
healthy community as
well as smooth
operations. Handles
finances.
Technical
Maintains technical
policies, best practices,
infrastructure, and
operational health.
https://wiki.folio.org/display/COMMUNITY/FOLIO+Governance+Model

17. | www.folio.org
17
FOLIO - Elected Leadership
• Seats on the councils are elected by the community
• Nominees must be part of Member Organizations
• Member Organizations are those who have formally
committed resources (person power or financial support)
to FOLIO

18. | www.folio.org
18
FOLIO - Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
• Core part of community representation
• Aligned with functional areas of FOLIO (e.g. ERM,
Metadata Management, Acquisitions, etc.)
• Define workflow, feature requirements and specifications
• Most meet weekly; all are open

19. | www.folio.org
19
Product
Development
Process

20. | www.folio.org
20
FOLIO - UX Driven
From the beginning, FOLIO has been UX driven:
• Clearly identify the user’s needs
• Identify the information and sequences they require to
complete their workflows
• Allow the system design to flow from those needs and
workflows

21. | www.folio.org
21

22. | www.folio.org
22

23. | www.folio.org
23

24. | www.folio.org
24

25. | www.folio.org
25
FOLIO - Development Processes
• All code is open source (Apache 2 license)
• All developers sign a code contributor agreement
• Bulk of work is done by Teams (as opposed to
individuals)
• Most teams follow Agile practices
− Scrum, Pointing, Sprints, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives

26. | www.folio.org
26
FOLIO - Release Process
• Three releases planned per year (currently)
• Community ranked features plus “sponsored” features
• Weekly meetings:
− SIGs
− Product Owners
− Tech Leads
− Product Council
• “Bugfest” - 2 week community integration tests precedes
each release

27. | www.folio.org
27
Code of Conduct

28. | www.folio.org
28
FOLIO Code of Conduct Pledge
We as contributors, maintainers, and users of the system pledge to make
participation in our project and our community a harassment-free
experience for everyone, regardless of ability, age, body size, education,
ethnicity, gender identity and expression, level of experience, nationality,
personal appearance, race, religion, sex characteristics, sexual identity,
sexual orientation, or socio-economic status.
https://wiki.folio.org/display/COMMUNITY/FOLIO+Code+of+Conduct

29. | www.folio.org
29
Our Standards
• Using welcoming and inclusive language
• Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences
• Gracefully accepting constructive criticism
• Focusing on what is best for the community
• Showing empathy towards other community members
https://wiki.folio.org/display/COMMUNITY/FOLIO+Code+of+Conduct
Community Support Volunteers
● conduct-report@folio.org
● anonymous web form

30. | www.folio.org
30
Questions?