2021-06-22 Meeting Notes

No update!

Roadmap taskforce. Includes Karen Newbery, Brooks Travis, Jesse Koennecke, Tom Wilson, Kristin Martin, Marrtina Schildt, Björn.
Today, talk abotu what we've been working on, where we are, where we are going. Presented mainly by Jesse.

State of roadmap: a few months of brainstorming + condense ideas into themes, to then break them down into FOLIO epics:
_ XLS Roadmap themes: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14sSCnRBOYYD3ZHmTPAMzIgrH8OLsdHtnvoIx-OOFY1Y/edit#gid=0
_ Updated themes by Tom: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18ZmuZrcrZmMe-D2ZFbVROwWedP3srOld/edit#gid=319416631

Sources for the themes:
_ The strategy: https://folio-org.atlassian.net/wiki/display/COMMUNITY/FOLIO+Vision%2C+Strategic+Objectives+and+Initiatives
_ Brainstorming by the members: All part of Product or Technical Councils + represent different parts of institutions. 
 
Next step = get a visualistion of this list, and prioritise current vs. future work.
_ Another goal = make sure we communicate as must as possible on work developed outside this roadmap. 

Discussions around changing rhythm of release cycles:
_ One of the challenges of the project is the balance between new features  vs.  improving/ streamlining extisting features  vs.  tech debt/ bugs/ updating to latest architectural standards.
--> Should each of the 3 releases per year have one main focus (out of those three), i.e. new features are mainly released only in one release per year? 
--> Another option: Follow the principles of semantic versioning of major vs. minor releases, and move towards continuous deployment, especially for bugs and streamlining - though how far can we go with that in FOLIO regarding "deal with the fact that this is just now fixed". 
Pros = easier for institutions to update workflows and train staff; institutions shouldn't have to deal with half-baked features; 
Con = got to wait longer for new features; this kiind of coordination is not how our currently independant dev team work nor how we currently structure releases across the project.

_ This idea of 3 kinds of releases - this is in some sense a kind of reaction of how Honeysuckle and Iris releases went + Anton making changes in QA framework and trying to move accepting testing earlier in prod cycle so that SMEs works with dev team rather than waiting for bug fest. So... one of the things that will address Robert's comments [Implementors want: basically prioritizing stability over feature development] is: what kind of QA support we can get. Other side of that is - the need to consider taking holistic view of issue (e.g. data update accross different modules). That's a fundamental bit of FOLIO behaviour and internal coordiantion that needs ironing out before we can do more interesting stuff. 

These comments point to a challenge: The Community/Project has resources available and committed; the roadmap can guide that work as much as possible (ressources should work on furthering the priorities). For those not working on those priorities: it is important to visualise their work. 
Tools at our disposal: Product Coucil, the Definition of Done, the roadmap (i.e. setting priorities in available development capacity), the capacity planning team. --> Work within those to get arealistic roadmap. 
In the end, roadmap will be list of overarchging things tha community has agreement upon, to use to drill down into features, etc. 
==> We hope to meet back with you in a few weeks with visualistion, sending it a bit ahead of time, so that you can provide feedback. We'll also define themes more clearly.

The converstaion moved on to how to coordinate work that affects multiples areas of FOLIO - and how monolithic (rather not) vs. individual (also not always ideal) the solutions should be.
Data synchronisation: https://folio-org.atlassian.net/wiki/display/AppInt/Data+synchronization+%7C++dependencies+across+apps  - in App Interation SIG
Data flow: https://folio-org.atlassian.net/wiki/display/MM/Bibliographic+Data+Flow+Task+Force - in Metatdata Management
_ Similar problems should be addressed in similar ways --> Saga-solution (in this microservice framework).
_ Also make sure there is good information flow between the areas.

Tom would like suggestions of which demos we'd like to see.  Any particular features or functions?  Thinking of courses and receiving now.  Also looking for implemented sites willing to demo.

→ The demos are old! - it would be great to see how people have come along with those modules they implemented back then. So I'd like to see new, updated workflows for those modules.