How to Provide Feedback

Owned by Cate Boerema (Deactivated)
Feb 23, 2018
2 min read

You may have seen a sprint review recording and have a question about what you saw.  You may have an idea about how to improve a library workflow and want to share it with the design team.  You may be new to the project and want to understand why a certain approach was taken.  This document provides suggestions for integrating your ideas and issues into the community’s work.

How do you provide input?

  • Join a SIG - The best way to influence FOLIO design process is to join a Special Interest Group (SIG).  SIG membership is open to anyone with an interest in the project. This site contains a list of all the current SIGs as well as instructions on how to join (or propose) a SIG.

  • Create or comment on a Discuss post - FOLIO uses discuss.folio.org (an installation of the Discourse software) for public discussion.  When in doubt about which tool to use, use a Discuss topic as the way to start a discussion.

  • Email the Product Owner (PO) for the area in question - If you are already on a SIG and/or just want to ask a question, you are encouraged to email the product owner for the area of interest.  The POs can often provide quick answers or, if more discussion is needed, point you in the right direction.  This could mean creating or commenting on a Discuss post, contacting another PO and/or SIG convener or getting on the SIG or sub-group agenda.  You can find a directory of POs by area here.

How is feedback captured/recorded?

We have many channels for capturing feedback.

  • SIG meeting notes and recordings - Every SIG meeting has notes captured on the FOLIO wiki and meetings are recorded, as well.

  • Parking lots - Most SIGs have “parking lots” for capturing important topics that are arise during meeting but which are out of scope of the task at hand.  It is the PO’s responsibility to revisit the parking lot and bring the topics back to the group when the timing is appropriate.  In general, it’s best to raise your topics in the SIG meetings and let the PO add it to the parking lot rather than adding it directly, but the process may differ depending on the SIG.  Ask the convener and PO if you are not sure.

  • JIRA issues - POs will periodically conduct FOLIO demos for the SIGs.  Actionable feedback from these demos will be logged in JIRA by the PO and tagged/labeled with the relevant SIG for easy filtering.  See, for example, the Resource Access’ JIRA filter.  

  • Working documents - SIGs will often create working documents here on the wiki or in the FOLIO Google Drive.  SIG members will be requested to log their input in the documents which are used to guide design and development.

  • Discuss - The Discuss site is a web-forum and mailing list combination in which FOLIO community members can initiate and respond to topics of any kind.  See the FOLIO Communication Spaces page for more information on Discuss and other FOLIO communication channels.