Proposal: Creating GitHub project boards for SMEs and Translators

Overview

The recent Faculty survey received feedback that SMEs aren’t clear on how they can effectively contribute to the Training Team. In particular, the current “Topic Ideas” column in the Content Development project board has over 140 items, making it difficult for SMEs to identify which items fall under their areas of expertise.

Additionally, the recently concluded Content Localization Foundations project received feedback that it is difficult for Content Translators to track translation items in GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ also. It was suggested that content localization issues be moved into their own GitHub project board to make contributing and managing easier.

To respond to these pieces of feedback, @courtneypk and I propose creating two new GitHub project boards directed at the SMEs’ and Content Translators’ workflows.

Note: This proposal DOES NOT make large changes to the current workflows for Content Creators, SMEs, or Content Translators. It is a proposal to break three separate processes out into their own project boards for better management, and to make it easier for contributors to get involved.

Proposal

Currently, Content Creators, SMEs, and Content Translators sift through the team’s LearnWP Content Development GitHub project board to find items they can contribute to. This process has received feedback from both SMEs and Translators that it raises the barrier to making contributions. @courtneypk and I propose creating project boards that match each area of contribution in the team. This would make it easier for contributors to find issues they can get involved in. It would also make triaging work easier for Faculty members as there would be less types of issues jumbled in one location.

Creating project boards for SMEs and Translators

The Training Team currently has 4 project boards. We propose adding two more:

Project name	Primary contributor
LearnWP Topic Vetting (New!!)	SMEs
LearnWP Content Development	Content Creators, Editors
LearnWP Content Localization (New!!)	Content Translators
LearnWP Content Feedback	Editors
LearnWP Website Development	Administrators (dev-squad), MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.
Training Team Administration	Administrators, Team Reps

Each project has columns which represent statuses issues move through. Each project board also has views which can be used to filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. issues by labels etc. (Example: Content Development project board) Below are the proposed details for the two new projects.

LearnWP Topic Vetting – project details

Column name	Awaiting Triage	Awaiting Vetting	Vetted Topics	Closed Topics
Issue details	This is where topic ideas initially land when submitted.	Ideas are waiting for an SME to flesh out and prepare for content development.	Vetted issues are cleaned up before being sent to the Content Development project board.	Issues that were closed and didn’t make it to Content Development.
Issues moves to the next column when…	An Admin has confirmed an issue isn’t spam, isn’t a duplicate of content that already exists, and has added labels for the subject matters related to the topic.	An SME has finalized the “description”, assigned a priority, and listed related resources. (Of the current assessment criteria, only items 2 and 3 would be required.)	An Admin ensures the issue is properly filled in.	–
Next destination	“Awaiting Vetting” column	“Vetted Topics” column	“Ready to Create – You can Help” column in Content Development project board	–

The project board would have views set up for each subject matter label (BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. Editor, security, site development, etc.) and only show issues in the “Awaiting Vetting” column. SMEs would only have to periodically check the views of the subject matters they’re experts in, and move issues to “Vetted Topics” once they’ve vetted them.

LearnWP Content Localization – project details

Column name	Awaiting Triage	Translation in Progress	Awaiting Review	Published or Closed
Issue details	This is where localization issues initially land when submitted.	Issues are being worked on by a Content Translator.	Translations are waiting for a translation review.	Completed issues.
Issues moves to the next column when…	A Translation Coordinator1 has confirmed an issue isn’t spam, has added labels for the locale, and provided the translator with necessary access to Learn.	A Content Translator has completed the translation of the piece of content.	A reviewer has completed a translation review and the content has been published.	–
Next destination	“Translation in Progress” column	“Awaiting Review” column	“Published or Closed” column	–

The project board would have views set up for each locale label (Italian, Gujarati, Indonesian, etc.) and only show issues in the “Awaiting Review” column. This will make it easier for content translators (reviewers) to find content waiting a review in their locale, as reviewing is an easier task to perform in short stints of availability.

Updates to the current LearnWP Content Development project

The two new projects listed above should help tidy up the current Content Development board, too. Here is what the updated board would look like.

Column name	Ready to Create – You can Help	Drafts in Progress	Reviews in Progress	Published or Closed
Issue details	Issues have been vetted and relevant labels have been added.	Issues being worked on by a Content Creator.	Content waiting for reviews.	Completed issues.
Issues moves to the next column when…	A Content Creator has commented on the issue, volunteering to create it. An Admin has confirmed the volunteer has necessary access to create the content on Learn.	A Content Creator has attached the created piece of content.	A content has received three reviews, and has been published.	–
Next destination	“Drafts in Progress” column	“Reviews in Progress” column	“Published or Closed” column	–

The project board views could be tidied up to just have the following:

• High Priority topics ready to create (New!!)
• Reviews in progress
• Recent releases

We tried to brainstorm updates that would make it easier for SMEs and Content Translators, but not affect the current flows Content Creators are used to. To note, we’d expect seasoned Content Creators to skip the LearnWP Topic Vetting project board all together and just start making content in the LearnWP Content Development project board.

What are your thoughts?

How does all this sound? Please leave your thoughts by May 21st. As long as there aren’t major objections, we plan on implementing these changes by the end of May.

Thanks to @courtneypk and @webtechpooja for reviewing this post.