rfd: Async-First Working Groups

✅

This RFD has been shared with the Working Group Chairs

Published	14 December 2023
Link	https://github.com/Green-Software-Foundation/oc/discussions/69
Authors	Asim, Russ & Sophie
State	Discussion

ℹ️

TL;DR

We believe that our current reliance on meetings is limiting the effectiveness of our Working Groups and the opportunity for all Member Organisations to contribute equally.

Summary of the Issue

Currently, synchronous meetings (meetings where everyone gets on a call simultaneously) are how the Foundation functions, our consensus model and voting require synchronous meetings. This is challenging for people who are not in the same time zone as the meeting for people who have a meeting clash.

Meetings are currently a core component of the functioning of GSF.

A meeting-centric way of working on distributed teams can undermine deep work and flow, inclusion, flexible work and in the long run knowledge sharing. It also doesn’t lend itself to scale.
Adopting Asynchronous Collaboration in Distributed Software Teams

We’ve observed

Meetings can be a blocker to collaboration

Meeting are cancelled due to chairs being unavailable or low turnout on the day
Meetings don’t achieve quorum and are unable to take decisions
Meetings happen for at inconvenient hours for those outside Europe. Members who want to attend but are unable to, are left frustrated they are missing out on key discussions & updates
Items might sit on an agenda without discussion for a period of time
The pace of decision making is tied to the cadence of meetings
Meetings can lack the preparation to be effective

There is little engagement from the majority of the GSF membership

Meetings have highly variable turnouts and consistently small numbers of attendees
Meeting attendees are consistently the same people
Those who can attend meetings take the majority of decisions

What happens in meetings, stays in meetings

Meetings are not documented comprehensively
The outcomes of discussions are not always clear
Actions agreed in meeting aren’t always tracked and followed up on

Recent examples

Cancelled: https://github.com/Green-Software-Foundation/standards-wg/issues/88
Cancelled: https://github.com/Green-Software-Foundation/opensource-wg/issues/94
Cancelled: https://github.com/Green-Software-Foundation/oc/issues/60
No quorum: https://github.com/Green-Software-Foundation/community-wg/issues/90
Outcomes unclear: https://github.com/Green-Software-Foundation/oc/issues/47

Our Hypothesis

Adopting a more asynchronous operating model for our Working Groups will have a positive impact on the the levels of engagement and contributions from across the GSF Member Organisations by removing the barriers to contributions imposed by physical meetings.

Proposal

We would like more asynchronous activity in the GSF, we would like to experiment with the Oversight Committee and then Working Groups moving to an Async-First approach.

Being "async-first" is not about being "async-only". It’s about recognising the benefits of asynchronous and synchronous communication patterns and being thoughtful about when you use either. The default, of course, is to start most collaborations, asynchronously.
Adopting Asynchronous Collaboration in Distributed Software Teams

Actions

OC discuss this proposal in January and agree how to proceed

Measure the current level of engagement and contribution

Share the proposal with the WG Chairs

Run a 2-3 month pilot with the Oversight Committee starting from February 2024

Evaluate the pilot

Identify the first Working Group to go Async

This would mean

Fostering a culture where meetings are a last resort, and ensuring that unavoidable meetings can be contributed to asynchronously
Working Groups stop their regular meetings - extraordinary meetings are still possible
All collaboration, discussions and decisions only take place on GitHub
More regular asynchronous communication. Emails highlighting any opportunities for asynchronous collaboration. Announcement of all new motions and discussions
An improved approach to remote decision-making and implementing the GSF governance model
Being more handbook-first so roles, responsibility, policies and procedures are clear for everyone
Replacing verbal status updates with automated dashboards and reports
More closely monitoring levels of engagement from WG Chairs and Contributors

We won’t

Change how the Steering Committee operates
Change how Project teams operate, they can continue to choose how to run
Make any changes without consulting with relevant stakeholders

Measures of Success

Increase in % of WG mailing list who contribute to GitHub Issues, Pull Requests or Discussions
Increase in the diversity of contributors (Member Organisation, country, timezone)
Increase in WG contributor satisfaction
Decrease in decision-making time (TBC)
Positive outcomes without a significant increase in Project Manager effort

References

Articles

https://async.twist.com/async-questionnaire/