What are Sprints and BOFs?

Information about sprints and Birds of a Feather. There will be 3 days of sprints, June 7 through 9, and Birds of a Feather June 5 & 6. Come join in the fun!

Sprints

What are sprints? They are self-organizing project groups: people show up and work in groups on projects of their own choosing. Beauty from chaos!

What kind of weird thing is this? Sprints are a unique aspect of open source development, bringing together people with ideas and other volunteer hands to help make them a reality.

Why would I come to the sprints? Sprints are a great way to meet and work with old timers and leaders in the Plone community! Not only do you get to make a deep, long lasting connection with other Plone personalities, you are contributing real features, code, themes, documentation, and tools that will be used by thousands of people around the world. They are the best way to get introduced to the code, themes, documentation, tools, and processes that make the Plone community one of the largest in the world. Sit side by side with old timers and get the inside story on what transpired behind the scenes! Drama! Intrigue! Brainwaves!

How do sprints work?

People arrive in the morning around 9 am and start talking about their project ideas.
The designated sprint master (hi Steve!) explains the ground rules: no cussin, no spittin, no hair pullin
Everyone stands up and introduces their project idea to recruit others to work with them. Project ideas can be anything! Historically they've been new features to add to Plone or Plone products; new product ideas; new themes; documentation ideas (new manuals, guides); fixing bugs; testing and closing bugs; new tools to support or improve Plone (e.g. one year it was how to use git and GitHub; PloneEdu buildouts and virtual machines). People often join in remotely via IRC, IM, and email.
People move off to join project groups
Project groups choose a room or part of a room to work in.
Groups report on their progress before breaking for lunch
We head out to lunch in groups
Work proceeds in the afternoon
Groups report on their progress around 5 pm
We head out to dinner in one large group
Work proceeds (*optionally!) in the evening, sometimes late into the night
Groups optionally tweet or send emails out to the Plone community to report on their activities
We start over again the next morning. :)

What are the outcomes? The outcomes of sprints have included new and enhanced products, themes, tools, and documentation. A sprint report is issued shortly afterwards to provide an overview of what was worked on and by whom. You get to walk away with a feeling of accomplishment, some code or other work with your name on it, and friendships forged in the heat of action that will last a lifetime. :)

Don't forget to add your sprint topics here!

Birds of a Feather (BOFs)

What are Birds of a Feather? They are open sessions where like-minded people gather to discuss interests they have in common.

How do BOFs work? Towards the end of the afternoons on June 5 and 6 the final slot in the schedule will be dedicated to BOFs. Topics for BOFs will be listed below on this page, or you can of course come up with and announce your own on the spot! To start with, the BOF sessions will be in one of the two main lecture halls we'll be using, and BOF groups will break off within the lecture hall or out to the lobby to meet in groups.

What is the point of BOFs? BOFs are great places to introduce yourself and to meet others who share your interests, whether that's secure voting systems, educational uses of Plone, intranets, or other applications of Plone. Once introductions are over, let the feathers fly! Express your strong opinions about the directions of Plone and its marketing strategy. :) Shout down the opposition! Build alliances! Come up with concrete ideas for sprint topics!

What are the outcomes of BOFs? Often, BOFs result in sprint topics, and you can and should list your resulting sprint topics below (you'll need to log in with OpenID credentials - see below). If you keep a tight scope on your sprint topic, the result will be new code, new features, or new documentation! You will also come away with contact information for other members of your BOF. We will help you select or develop mailing lists and other channels, such as a part of the Plone.org or PloneEdu.org sites and mailing lists, so you can continue to maintain contact and keep your connections alive.

Don't forget to add your BOF topics here!