14:58:12 RRSAgent has joined #chairing 14:58:12 logging to http://www.w3.org/2015/01/29-chairing-irc 14:59:42 tzviya has joined #chairing 15:00:04 +Tzviya 15:03:01 Meeting: Chair Training: Focus and Productivity 15:03:04 (reprise) 15:03:27 -> http://www.slideshare.net/alehors/chair-training-productivity-20141021 slides 15:03:48 Ralph has changed the topic to: Chair Training: Focus and Productivity http://www.slideshare.net/alehors/chair-training-productivity-20141021 15:08:26 +virginie 15:08:51 virginie has joined #chairing 15:09:29 Arnaud: the goal of chair training is to help chairs improve and give them the tools they need 15:10:00 ... [slide 2] introducing myself; most of my career has been involved in standards and open source 15:10:30 ... I am currently chair or co-chair of 3 WGs 15:10:43 ... [slide 3: Challenges] 15:11:12 ... I have been involved in many different organizations and I can tell you that W3C is very rigorous 15:11:28 ... W3C's standards really do represent consensus of the community at large 15:11:47 ... we are dealing with a huge audience and W3C goes to great extents to include everyone 15:15:13 ... [slide 4: Process] 15:15:42 ... as Chair you are responsible for insuring the Process is implemented and properly followed 15:16:10 ... with help from the Team Contact you have to educate people, especially people new to W3C 15:16:28 ... [slide 5: Tools] 15:17:20 ... you need to invest time in learning all these tools so you can help your group do the best job 15:17:37 ... [slide 6: Keeping WG in Scope] 15:19:14 ... I find it a very useful exercise to define use cases & requirements 15:19:46 ... it helps further define the problem and to establish common terminology among the group participants 15:20:56 ... a wish list helps manage scope creep 15:21:30 ... all you need for the wish list is a wiki page 15:22:04 ... it's much easier for people to accept that you're not going to address a need immediately when you have put it on the wish list 15:22:24 ... the wish list also becomes a great source of information for the next charter 15:22:35 [slide 7: Keeping WG on Time] 15:23:05 Arnaud: we fight the expectation of some that the timeline in the charter can be ignored 15:24:15 ... you may not be able to force the various priorities but at least keep the Consortium informed 15:24:57 ... you can reduce the scope -- make the spec smaller -- if you are reaching a deadline 15:25:28 ... you do have to keep reminding the group that time is passing 15:25:39 [slide 8: Conducting productive meetings] 15:26:28 Arnaud: though hard, it's important to set detailed agenda; especially at the beginning 15:26:58 ... you don't want to reach the end of a 2-day meeting and only then discover there are many items you haven't talked about 15:27:36 ... you have to drive the meeting, not just manage the queue; the detailed agenda schedule helps you do this 15:29:51 ... open-ended questions are killers; you want to keep the discussion as focussed as possible 15:32:13 ... I have found that strawpolls are useful to determine whether a vocal participant is alone in his/her opinion 15:32:49 [slide 9: Consensus] 15:33:34 Arnaud: the word "consensus" is used by many organizations but has different meanings 15:34:12 ... when I can I will include a specific formal proposal in the agenda beforehand 15:35:42 ... be sure people do understand the straw poll process; new participants might not understand that "-1" is interpreted as an objection 15:36:33 ... objections should be addressed; sometimes the objector will withdraw the objection after further discussion 15:36:56 [slide 10: Consensus vs Majority vote] 15:37:54 Arnaud: in this example, the consensus choice is the one that everyone can live with not the one that gets the numerically higher vote 15:38:09 [slide 11: Formal objections] 15:39:12 Arnaud: Formal Objections should not be allowed to stop the WG from moving on 15:39:57 ... as chair it's your responsibility to decide when it's best for the WG to override the objection and move on 15:40:09 [slide 12: Chair's neutrality] 15:40:30 Arnaud: people have various perspectives on this but I find it easier to stay neutral 15:41:02 ... my choice as chair is to never vote 15:41:11 [slide 13: Issues and Resolutions] 15:41:59 Arnaud: there are many ways to use Tracker; on slide 13 I describe the method I have found to work well 15:42:52 ... I update Tracker on a weekly basis 15:43:45 ... because the irc interface does not automatically add a reference to the resolution of an issue I always enter these links immediately after a call 15:44:38 ... Github is getting more popular; you have to figure out how to use its tools but the process should be similar 15:44:52 [slide 14: Enabling remote and asynchronous participation] 15:45:05 Arnaud: this is a _hard_ topic; dealing with timezones, etc. 15:45:36 ... some WGs do everything by email. I find that too slow. 15:46:39 ... the method I prefer is on the slide; resolutions are published in the telecon minutes but are tentative until the minutes are approved at the next call 15:46:47 [slide 15: Action items] 15:47:36 Arnaud: you have to be sure that people understand the action before accepting it; therefore do not assign actions to someone who is not present 15:48:17 ... for actions that have been overdue for a long time I find it useful to ask the owner specifically what is blocking them 15:50:41 Ralph: "Consent Calender" is a useful technique for identifying items that can be resolved without discussion 15:51:07 ... the agenda identifies these in advance and any participant can ask for something to be removed from the "calendar" 15:51:19 [slide 16: Developing documents] 15:52:02 Arnaud: there are milestones in the charter but you need to make sure people are reviewing your documents along the way 15:52:32 ... don't wait until the end to develop your test suite 15:53:04 ... when you close an issue and have a resolution often this leads to good items for your test suite 15:53:20 ... when someone says "this is what I expect", that's a good candidate for a test 15:54:54 [slide 17: Publishing documents] 15:55:06 Arnaud: publication is an essential part of the W3C Process 15:55:18 ... for first-time editors it can be a struggle 15:56:18 ... as chair it helps to be familiar with what it takes to move an editor's draft through the publication process, though your Team Contact can help 15:56:27 [slide 18: Dealing with comments] 15:56:45 Arnaud: responding to commenters has to be part of your regular process 15:57:19 ... though the term "Last Call" is no longer in the Process, you still have to demonstrate wide review and that you have address all comments 15:57:58 ... you need to document all the things you do so you can demonstrate to the Director what you have done 15:58:07 [slide 19: Parting thoughts] 15:58:49 Arnaud: when I am asked what it's like to participate in W3C I always say it is both frustrating and rewarding 16:00:34 ... doing your part as chair helps in a big way 16:00:47 [slide 20: Reading material] 16:00:53 q+ 16:01:00 ack Ralph 16:01:08 ack virginie 16:01:23 Arnaud: I am happy to help; if you have specific questions feel free to reach out to me 16:02:14 ... I want to thank Joseph Reagle for the page he wrote several years ago 16:02:22 ... I was amazed at how relevant Joseph's page still is 16:02:32 [adjourned] 16:02:35 -Tzviya 16:02:37 -virginie 16:02:37 -Arnaud 16:02:39 -Ralph 16:02:45 -recorder 16:02:47 Team_ChTr()10:00AM has ended 16:02:47 Attendees were +1.617.324.aaaa, recorder, Ralph, Arnaud, Tzviya, virginie 16:03:04 I have made the request to generate http://www.w3.org/2015/01/29-chairing-minutes.html Ralph 16:03:33 zakim, bye 16:03:33 Zakim has left #chairing 16:04:37 rrsagent, bye 16:04:37 I see no action items