This page describes project management processes within Sensorica and their associated tools. But what do we mean by "project management"? Does this traditional concept applied to the OVN model? Perhaps not... In essence, we want to talk about ways to make processes (and ventures or projects deterministic, to do achieve their mission and goals in effective time and with an acceptable level of quality standard.

Type of ventures

We can distinguish different types of ventures. Small scale or swarm-like.

How ventures are created

Any Sensorica affiliate can start a venture. There is no group decision. Free initiative is encouraged, as long as it remains within the mission of the OVN. We believe that the cohesion of a the network is insured by a set of common interests. In the past, a few venture propositions have been advised against because their topic didn't match Sensorica's mission. Non-affiliates must join Sensorica and adhere to the contribution accounting system to create ventures.

The (S)HELP - Create a new venture explains the procedure.

Online tools

The website

Every venture has a dedicated venture page on Sensorica's website, which is the main repository of information. See list of most active ventures. The venture page is build using a template, which contains sections. At the time this article is written, the greens for Good is the most developed venture.

Problem: These venture pages have limited interactive capability and affiliates rarely visit them and don't participate to their maintenance.

Ventures that create products and services have a Path to market page, which is built using this template. This page informs project processes as well as product design. It also details incentives for participation.

Every venture has a Dashboard page (linked to the contribution accounting system), which is build using this template. It contains information pulled from the NRP-CAS, displays participation and provides lists of processes and tasks.

The database

Sensorica is using Google Drive as repository of venture-related content and others. Every venture has a Main doc, which is updated along the venture's development path. Ventures have a series of other important documents, such as:

Capacity: digital environment for those who are working to bring in resources and talent, see template
Deliverables: digital environment for those who develop whatever the venture produces, see template
Dissemination: Digital environment for those who work to spread whatever the venture produces,see template

Other tools

In order to structure tasks, Sensorica affiliates have also experimented in the past with

Lists, which was a page template part of the old Google Sites,
Spreadsheet-based Gantt Charts,
Trello,
Pivotal Tracker.

These tools have been embedded within Sensorica's website using iframes. Steve pushed their use a lot in 2012

Problem: Non of these project management tools have stuck with the community. In realty, the contribution accounting system was incompatible with all of them and there was some resistance within the community to invest time into a project management system that would in fact be abandoned.

Meetings

Sensorica affiliates used to meet every Thursday 3pm Montreal time for a "technical meeting" and a "general business meeting". The meetings were on Hangout. Some of them were broadcasted live on the Internet. Some of them were are also recorded and openly shared on Youtube. Meeting minutes were recorded into a Google doc.

A special meeting web page was used for meetings and a meeting help is also available..

Problem: affiliates usually don't go back to the meeting minutes to remember priorities and tasks that were recorded during the meeting.

Setting priorities

Priorities are set informally by affiliates during meetings or during communication using messaging or emails. A few Sensorica affiliates have emerged playing the role of coordination and of setting priorities more often then others. Affiliates decide to contribute to ventures based on their interest, passion, possibilities...

No one can force anyone to do anything. Peer pressure has emerged as an effective mechanism to align the activity of one affiliate with the goals of the group. Phil was the first to verbalize this method.

The NRP-CAS has priorities attached to processes and priority is also a modulator that can be used in the benefits distribution algorithm in order to deferentially incentivize activity according to importance. In other words, important tasks are rewarded more than non-important ones. These tools have not been used yet.

Coordination and facilitation

Some ventures within the Sensorica OVN are old enough and provide enough data to perform an analysis and to extract some trends. The Mosquito venture is the oldest one, the original venture on which Sensorica was built, and the Manipulators (originally called Mantis) has enough history too. We observed that ventures that last longer fluctuate in activity. There are periods with a lot of activity, when everyone is motivated and the group is highly coordinated, with regular meetings and good documentation. At times, fatigue that set's in. We also need to mention that no Sensorica venture has reached the scale a swarm project. After a calm period, usually someone comes in and takes the role of facilitator or coordinator. This individual uses different techniques to pull attention back towards the venture, by asking more questions, organizing activities, meetings, and "work parties".

The following is the most common practice in Sensorica for coordination:

Content, transparency, stigmergy. As soon as a venture is proposed, a digital environment is created for it. This space integrates content relevant to the venture, it becomes a on-stop shop, the starting point from where one gets access to everything else. This tool is part of the content management module of the OVN's infrastructure (OVNi). More concretely, a venture page is created on Sensorica's website. In general, it can be a wiki page, etc. Other spaces are created for other type of content, like a folder in our database, a place where photos are stored and shared across the network and beyond, a tag for shared URLs in Diigo, etc.

Documentation has multiple purposes: captures knowledge, organizes workflow, attributes and surfaces talents and skills, coordination, signals activity, needs and wants, etc. Almost all content is shareable not only within the community, but also across the web.

Signaling. An announcement tool is tightly connected to the central content space. The role of this module is to keep people informed with what's happening and what's important. Announcements are designed to spread beyond the community. They also have a role in coordination. In the past, they are implemented using an announcement template page part of the old Google Sites. It produced an RSS feed that could be syndicated. currently, Sensorica is using a NOTES section, which is passive. But recently Sensorica moved from a mailing list as a central communication tool to Discord, a messaging tool, which is more dynamic.

A main document is created with the most important information. This document is continuously updated during the life of the project.

Coordination happens in Google documents, using comments and the "@" function to call someone's attention to something specific. Direct email communication is also extensively used for coordination.

Work party

A work party is a day-long activity where a group of individual coordinate to accomplish some tasks. The day might be very complex, with activities in different areas of expertise: tech development, funding, strategy, outreach, etc. The day starts with a meeting and a rough planning. Parts of the puzzle are presented and a plan for the day is presented. Sometimes these workparties are more fluid, based on who shows up when. Relationships are mapped, who depends on who, timing, etc. At some point, the work can be halted and group assesses progress in a relaxed environment. The goals of the day are revised and the work starts again. Throughout the day the white board is updated.

Tools for project and task management

Sensorica needs proactive project and task management systems, i.e. systems where tasks and priorities are recorded, affiliates can take tasks and the system can send reminders and alerts.

Sensorica needs a project management system that interfaces with the contribution accounting system, because carrying out tasks within ventures is a form of contribution, along with financial, material, social capital, etc. If the two systems are well-integrated, contributions are automatically logged. Moreover, some activities lead to the creation of resources within Sensorica, which may be tangible and persistent, and can be applied to other projects. The project management system needs to talk to the Reputation system, since commitment to tasks is a dimension of reputation.

The NRP-CAS has already a few features that can be used in project management

Planning tools

To-Dos

Are easy ways to assign tasks to oneself and to others. Once the tasks are done, they can be marked as such and that action constitutes a contribution log.

Recipes

See more on Recipe page.

Planning vs stigmergy

ToDo - Tibi describe this, based on the new experience with Greens for Good.

Requirements

Processes allow unplanned contributions and required contributions. Required contributions, or requirements, are essentially ways to plan work, use or consumption of materials and space, or use of citations.

External Links

No boss no chaos - Tibi's presentation (find in there link to presentation doc).
On leadership - Tibi's presentation.

Project management - past and current practices within Sensorica

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