New Readers/Phabricator
 | This page is kept for historical interest. Any policies mentioned may be obsolete. This page is kept for historical purposes. It documents the work of the New Readers Program from 2016–2019. Some of the product elements of this work are now done by the mw:Inuka team. The rest of the program work was distributed across advancement and communications teams at WMF. |
New Readers used Phabricator. The workboard was at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/2140/
Getting started[edit]
IMPORTANT: Phabricator is a default-public space. This means that anyone can see the activity, subscribe to tasks, etc.. Be aware of that in your participation, and don't disclose anything that shouldn't be public. Also ensure Google Docs settings are private as required.
Please create an account.
Email notifications[edit]
You will be happier and better at using this tool if you unsubscribe from the majority of email notifications. It sends a LOT otherwise. Seriously.
- Click on your user icon in the upper right
- Click "Settings"
- Under "Email" in the left bar, click "Email Preferences"
- Change most of the preferences to "ignore" except a few under "Maniphest Tasks":
- A task's status changes
- A task is moved between columns
- Someone comments on a task
- [If there are some others you care about that I don't, obviously keep them on, but this is my recommendation]
Phabricator structure[edit]
One note - Phabricator uses "tags" for projects, teams, and a number of other things. This is cool because a single task can be mirrored in a lot of different places. We won't use this functionality yet, but if you see some tasks with additional tags on them, that's why.
Also, Andre Klapper (aklapper), will be default-subscribed to all tasks. He may follow up with you if something doesn't make sense/isn't categorized and may become lost. That's his job.
Tasks[edit]
There are two types of tasks, epics and regular tasks. They're basically the same thing in Phabricator, but we'll use a different template to create each of them and they represent different concepts. This should make project tracking cleaner.
Epics[edit]
Epics describe large projects with lots of sub-tasks/projects within them.
To create an epic for New Readers, click here. You'll notice that the description automatically populates with some fields. Please fill those out if you're able.
Create subtasks of that epic by clicking "Edit Related Tasks" in the right sidebar and then "Create Subtask." You can also create tasks and link them later as parent/subtasks using the "Edit Parent Tasks" and "Edit Subtasks" in the same menu.
Each epic should have a RACI, timeline/deliverable due dates, and project description.
Regular tasks[edit]
A regular task is a discrete piece of work. We'll figure out the size/shape of these things as we go.
To create a regular task for New Readers, click here. You'll notice that the description automatically populates with some fields. Please fill those out if you're able.
You can create tasks and link them to other dependent tasks using the "Edit Parent Tasks" and "Edit Subtasks" in the righthand menu under "Edit Related Tasks."
Task relationships[edit]
If tasks have been linked through parent/subtask relationships, you can view a "task tree" in each of those tasks. This should describe what blocking tasks are to completing a higher-level task. For a good example, see this epic for the Hindi marketing campaign.
Deadlines[edit]
The task templates linked above both use deadlines. These appear in the workboard view with colors that increase in severity as the deadline approaches and passes. See the screenshot linked here.
- Red = deadline passed
- Orange = 1 day away
- Green = 1 week away
- Grey = more than 1 week away
Process[edit]
Loosely, the idea is that tasks will move from the left to the right of the board as they are worked on and completed. This way we will easily be able to see what balls
Meetings[edit]
We'll use our regular check-in meetings to refer to these tasks and see how they're doing. I'm not sure yet how that will go, but let's try it and see what happens.
Decision making/documentation[edit]
Please try to have conversations, where possible, in Phab tasks rather than in emails. This has the benefit of being a public record that other members of the team can look at to understand what's happening and what the history is of that task.
If decisions are made in a meeting, document those decisions in the Phab task.
Team handles[edit]
| Person | Handle |
|---|---|
| Anne | atgo |
| Jack | JRabah |