[Theforum] Re: voting

[Martin]

On Wednesday, January 30, 2002, at 05:47  pm, Erika Meyer wrote:

> - simplicity -- a group so large and loose needs to be able to
> understand a process with a minimum of study.

Yes, but with a lower limit of "enough to get the job done."

And unfortunately, the larger and looser the group and the
more complex the project, the stricter the process needs to
be to do that.

So if you're developing complex software with a large,
loose group of developers, you need something
like http://freezope2.nipltd.net/acorn/evolt/FishbowlProcess
(or the Mozilla process which influenced it).

If the organisation involved were less loose (eg all
employees and contractors etc) then the process could be
simpler if stricter and with stronger levels of compliance
enforcement.

If the organisation were smaller (say 10 people rather than
60), then it's easier to have a loose process "it seems we
all feel that..." because
a) It's easier to genuinely take a feeling from a smaller group
b) Errors are easier to correct because everyone knows each other
     much better.

> - fairness -- a process should be set up to be as fair as possible to
> all participants.

Yes. The organisation starts to break when people have just cause
to complain "It's not fair"

> - documentation -- everything needs to be written down clearly and
> kept in an easy to find location.

Essential for fairness, both short and long term.

Cheers
Martin
_______________________________________________
email: martin at easyweb.co.uk             PGP ID:	0xA835CCCB
	martin at members.evolt.org      snailmail:	30 Shandon Place
   tel:	+44 (0)774 063 9985				Edinburgh,
   url:	http://www.easyweb.co.uk			Scotland