User:EGalvez (WMF)/Sandbox/Wikimedia Conference Session Notes/CPS

How do we coordinate the development of tools for programs?

A brainstorm session at WMCON 2016 in Berlin

Tool Management

• Documentation of process for developing a tool
• Learning patterns with successful programs
• List of requirements to develop a tool (resources)
• Check implementation processes

Categorize Existing Tools

• Tools Mapping
• Organizing tools somehow
• Tools for planning
• Tools for execution
• Categorize
• Tools to tell stories
• Know which tasks can be automated tools
• "Apps" for programs
• List of tools

Documentation & Learning

• Create standards and guidelines for developing program tools
• Workshops for documentation
• Developer mentorship
• Teach developers to Documentation for learning (not for yourself)

Tools for Evaluation

• Non-measurable impact (intangible)
• Turning qualitative data into metrics
• Know what people need for evaluation tools
• Tangible impact measure (metrics)

Software Library (e.g. Pywiki)

• Common parts of software
• Develop standards for sharing code

Developing New Tools

• Develop tools that communities need
• Write down the flux diagrams of what we need
• Survey for new tools
• Data mining from other related programs to determine tool needs

Supporting Existing tools

• Survey for existing tool needa
• community feedback about existing tools
• determine ways to improve tools (bugs & feature requests)
• scalability question

Use-centered design

• Usability for users
• Interoperability when possible
• UX design research (volunteers?)
• Thinking about devices when designing

Collaboration

• Developer surveys
• Attribution and social recognition
• Programs Hackathons
• Open sourcing (many bots are closed source)
• Code of conduct
• Cultivate collaboration

Organizations

• Find out what other communities/user groups are doing
• User groups by software language
• Hosting events by software language
• Developer user groups

Internal Outreach

• Promote & share what tools do
• Promote & share what software & code does
• Raise awareness and concentrate on a few tools

External Outreach

• Evangelize to external developers
• Reaching out to free software communities
• Messaging: You can use WP to test software
• Find ways to attract developers to our movement & values

People involved in Tools

• Community Software developers --> build tools
• External software developers --> outreach & movement alignment
• Program leaders --> feedback for tools, use tools, evaluation data
• Affiliates --> Support & fund
• WMF --> Support & fund
• Article writers --> easier to contribute
• Wikimedia readers --> gain content