A Report on Preliminary Results 16 August 2011 Presentation to abcd-library Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox

Preceding and leading up to the main subject or business; introductory; preparatory. [Emphasis ours] (Cite: Oxford English Dictionary, Third edition, March 2007; online version June ; accessed 15 August An entry for this word was first included in New English Dictionary, 1907.) 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 To determine how we can more effectively improve internal collaboration by:  Assessing needs  Recommending tools  Recommending processes  Facilitating communication 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 Connecting and collaborating  How can we improve internal collaboration?  Specialized support services  Are there services/software applications that could be useful if centralized?  Ongoing support and technology transfer  What happens once the application is released? 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 abcd-library: from virtual back to real-life  At the meetings, conducted guided discussions  Met with 5 relevant Library groups  (total of 17 people)  Met with Jim Waldo, new University CTO 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

[Asked at June abcd-library meeting] "How many of you feel like you would like to know more about what everyone else is doing?" [everyone raises hands] 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 “Until now we’ve had a culture, or policy, of isolation. Software developers weren’t supposed to talk to anyone else. Remove the barriers that have been set up.”  Recommendation: let's try providing some kind of people-locator/skill-locator/question-service thing, and see whether it flies. Culture change! 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 “We don’t know what people are working on and don’t know what we can reasonably ask for”.  Recommendation:  The default answer to questions of the form "can I spend an hour talking to X about Y?" should be yes. Culture change! 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 “It’s a struggle to get the right people at the table for requirements.”  This is about management culture here in general, not specific to collaboration on library IT projects - but it comes up over and over Culture change! 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 Quality Assurance Support  Almost nobody has it  Almost everybody wants it!  Most groups, in effect, train their customer users to do their QA  Recommendation:  Hire at least a local expert, if not actually a group you can get time slices from 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 Usability Expertise  Universal recognition that usability is a good thing to do (yay!)  Many groups have learned as they can  Even those groups that incorporate usability principles would like extra help  Recommendation:  Formalize -- somewhat -- the informal network of expertise and resources available to those "in the know" 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 Source Control and Bug Tracking  Smaller groups would like centralized support  Larger groups want to keep their own  This is another area where technologists have an education opportunity  JIRA was a big win for some HCL projects  Recommendation:  Find some simple, inexpensive platform (GitHub?) and default to it 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

Not really on anyone’s radar screen yet. -- other than a general, “yeah we need some!” Distinguish what we would need for ongoing support from what we must have to start Metaphor: "environmental impact statement" 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

People don’t know where to turn  …to get information, generally “Where do we go if something doesn’t fit neatly into a FootPrints category?”  …to know when something’s in the pipeline “How are we supposed [to do future planning] when there’s no communication from HUL/OIS?”  …generally, to be heard 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

A significant number of librarians feel disenfranchised by the application development process: “[talking about new HOLLIS features] We want a place to bring issues, questions, and concerns… we want to know about the feature before it’s released.” “[talking about Course iSites] there isn’t a good mechanism to communicate what we see [in order to get it changed]” 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 Original focus was on the concerns of software development  Some softdev-specific problems are relatively easy (and posterior)  The fundamental problems involve both developer side and customer side  We need to talk to the librarians who conceive and use apps, not just to devs 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

 Meet with more groups  Run a Drupal site up the flagpole  Write a final report with recommendations 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library

Goodbye, everyone! 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library Chris’s Swan Song

 NOW: What would you like to add? 16 August 2011 Chris Jeris, Bobbi Fox Presentation to abcd-library