[TYPO3-dev] not amused...

[Erik Svendsen]

That was part of an idea for solution which main elements were.
1. More focus on fund-raising - and use the money on development. TYPO3 
has a large commercial userbase, so it shouldn't be impossible to raise 
more money or other resources.

2. Giving the teamleaders a better support system. Both paid/volunteer, 
which could help with "dirty" work and advice on managing virtual teams. 
There are some trick which can make community based virtual teams work 
better [1]. It's a link to a short article I wrote on teams/virtual 
teams some years ago. Not every advice can be used in community based 
virtual teams, but some of it can.

3. Release budget. Giving each release a budget, which partly can be 
used to pay the releasemanager, and partly to pay for important 
development that nobody seems to care about. Dmitry's customer related 
features and usability features often ends in the nobody care category.

A more Agile manner is not a bad idea.

Also a clear strategy and vision from the T3A and the community will 
help the development. Then it's easier to set goals for a release.

And I also agree that both Ingo and Olly are doing their best.


Erik Svendsen

[1] 
http://www.linnearad.no/team/kunnskap/team-recruitment-motivation-and-team-building.html

Dan Osipov skrev:
> You are definitely correct, and I think the key person for driving 
> development, making sure all features are on schedule for release, etc 
> is the release manager.
> 
> The tough part for the release manager is how little control he/she has 
> over the development, since most of it is volunteer work. If a planned 
> feature is not complete by the deadline, what can you do?
> 
> I believe that Ingo has done a terrific job in completing 4.2, and Olly 
> is managing 4.3 very well, even if it is behind the original schedule 
> (things change).
> 
> My suggestion for the future is to approach future releases in more 
> agile manner [1], and have the community drive the development, while 
> the release manager keeps track of patches sent to the list, sending 
> reminders for reviews, and coordinating similar changes to prevent side 
> effects. As Dmitry suggested, having this one paid position would 
> drastically cut the release cycle, reduce problems, produce a better 
> product, and inspire a community! Because there is nothing less 
> inspiring than having a feature sit in the mailing list for two years...
> 
> Dan Osipov
> Calkins Media
> http://danosipov.com/blog/
> 
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
> 
> Erik Svendsen wrote:
>> Dmitry Dulepov skrev:
>>
>>> It is "free time" for the v4 team only.
>>>
>>> I tried to push a "paid development" idea to anyone whom I .....
>>>
>>> We also need a real testing team because relying on 1 or 2 review .....
>>>
>>> I have no idea what T3A is thinking or doing but it does not .....
>>>
>>> Quality issues are also a problem. Every latest release after 4.2.3 
>>> was unclean and had major quality issues ....
>>>
>>> TYPO3 needs changes and proper management if this product wants to 
>>> survive!
>>>
>>
>> I'm not a developer, but I have to say I fully agree in each and every 
>> point. And I has also tried to pinpoint some of the problems with 
>> TYPO3 and how the community works, and even ideas for solutions.
>>
>> TYPO3 is complex both as software and as an organizational project. 
>> Complexity needs proper management and good tools, it can't survive on 
>> a sole ad-hoc basis.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Erik Svendsen