Project Delivery Guidelines (Pitch to Retrospective)

Project Delivery Guidelines

This section is a high-level guide to help non-profits and volunteers carry a project through from the initial pitch to the end of a project. It is a constant work-in-progress and always open to change the more projects we complete and learn from.

Outline:

• The Non-Profit Pitch
  • Before the pitch
  • During the pitch
  • After the pitch
• The Initial Kick-off Meeting / Brainstorm
  • Meeting goals
  • Format
  • Key questions, deliverables and next actions
• During The Project
  • Two week sprints
  • Virtual planning sessions
  • Monthly hack days and roadmapping
  • Keep the WHFNP community updated
• After The Project
  • Demo deliverables, process and lessons Learnt
  • Retrospective
  • Share your stories

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The Non-Profit Pitch

Before the pitch

• The non-profit fills out our project form on WHFNP website
• The rep from WHFNP makes initial contact, advises on and confirms presentation details and books which monthly meeting to pitch at
• The WHFNP rep adds details to the Meetup event and promotes the pitch on Twitter, Facebook and/or the Slack community
• The non-profit sends their slide deck to the WHFNP rep who then uploads it to our Google Drive folder

During the pitch

• The non-profit is introduced and presents their idea in front of the meetup participants
• A WHFNP rep records the pitch and uploads it to our WHFNP YouTube channel
• Q&A session with non-profit and meetup participants

After the pitch

• The WHFNP rep adds the pitch summary and a link to the video and slide deck to the Pitches wiki page (TBC)
• The WHFNP rep creates a Doodle poll for a kick-off / brainstorming session with suggested weekdays evenings and weekend time slots within a 2-week period starting 1 week after the pitch. The rep first consults the non-profit key contact to confirm their availability and bases dates around this.
• The WHFNP rep shares the pitch summary, link to wiki page and kick-off meeting Doodle poll with the Slack community, encouraging anyone interested to attend. Attending the meeting does not commit volunteers to the project.
• After one week, the WHFNP rep checks the Doodle poll results and creates an official Meetup event open to the public and limited to a TBC-number of participants for the kick-off / brainstorming session
• NB: All pitches should have a kick-off meeting organised as a final step of the pitch process. It may be that the nature of a project is not something WHFNP members can build a solution for in the end. In any case, helping non-profits break their problem scope down is a positive step and learning experience for all parties.

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The Initial Kick-off Meeting / Brainstorm

Meeting goals

• This is an initial brainstorm after any pitch, where the non-profit key contact and anyone from WHFNP or signed up to the meetup event can get involved without committing to the project delivery itself
• Its main goal is to take the non-profit pitch, identify the problem/s that need solving (including understanding context, who the end users are, special considerations and blockers), narrow scope and convert them into broken down deliverables and achievable milestones

Format

Before the meeting

• As per the "After the Pitch" section above, a Doodle poll and open (participant-limited) Meetup event will have been created with a confirmed time and venue (most likely a meeting-friendly cafe)
• Depending on location we may be able to organise and advertise a virtual hangout for remote attendees
• A couple of WHFNP reps are chosen to drive the meeting based on availability / interest

During the meeting

• WHFNP reps outline the rough schedule of the meeting to the group and opens/shares a new Hackpad for everyone to add notes, photos and handy links in during the session.
• The non-profit gives a quick overview of the pitch for anyone who was not present and to refresh
• The non-profit and group conducts a 10-minute casual discussion to ask questions and clarify any ambiguities
• The group uses a whiteboard, post-its or whatever available methods to break down the pitch into solvable problems, and brainstorm users, considerations and deliverables for each
• The WHFNP reps take photos and record anything useful, adding to the hackpad temporarily
• The WHFNP reps share some updates on Twitter and encourage others to do the same
• The group discusses and identifies potential project leads and team members and confirm a next meeting time to start planning the first milestone (virtual or IRL).
• The WHFNP reps create a new team Slack channel and ensure everyone involved is signed up / gets added to it

After the meeting

• WHFNP reps translate the outcomes and hackpad content to the Pitch's GitHub wiki page, including names of the team members identified / key contacts and details of next meeting
• NB: How the project proceeds after this meeting is dependent on the chosen project leads / volunteers themselves. WHFNP is not responsible for project delivery, but are happy to help give advice and guide volunteers / non-profits during the process. See the During the Project section for our recommended project delivery process.

Key questions, deliverables and next actions

Here are some effective questions to focus on during the meeting:

• What are the problems we need to solve? Who is affected?
• How can technology help solve each problem?
• How do we break this down into achievable milestones and deliverables?
• What are the ideal timeframes for each milestone?
• What can WHFNP do? (Clarify scope; we might not be able to solve the whole problem)
• What is the next step and who wants to be involved? What is everyone's availability like (including the main non-profit contact)?

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During The Project

Two week sprints

Virtual planning sessions

Monthly hack days and roadmapping

Keep the WHFNP community updated

• Team reps give a project update at the WHFNP monthly meetup; including progress made and callouts for more volunteers if help is needed. These should ideally be recorded, uploaded to the WHFNP [YouTube channel](YouTube channel and shared in the team Slack for a recap and for the benefit of those who can't attend.
• Any deliverables should be celebrated - occasionally announce any wins in the team Slack #general channel. This ia a great way to boost team morale, give kudos to team members who deserve it and inspire others in the org
• The team's GitHub wiki page should be constantly updated with active team members, project descriptions + relevant GitHub repos.
• The team should make use of GitHub as much as possible for collaboration, including opening up issues for tasks needing completion, and labelled with help wanted and specific skills required to make it very easy for volunteers to pick up tasks. If tasks are available for people outside of the team to pick up, communicate that in the #general Slack channel with a link to your GitHub Issues page.

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After The Project

Demo deliverables, process and lessons Learnt

As above, deliverables should be demo'ed and shared as the project progresses, however right at the end of a project, a big celebratory demo should be prepared for the next monthly meetup. The presentation can be in whatever format, but should ideally include a demo of the solutions built, an overview of how the team worked to get there (tools used, collaboration tips, etc) and lessons learnt.

Retrospective

These should be carried out with each sprint during the project, however it would be handy to share an overall summary of What Went Well? / What Could've Gone Better? / How Can We Improve for Next Time? on the projects wiki page.

Share your stories

Each project will result in a multitude of lessons learnt, interesting perspectives, new technology experiences etc. Everyone in the team should make an effort to share these and create a voice for themselves in the wider tech community. Ways you can do this:

• Write a blog post. New to this? Check out the open source slides from our blogging workshop and ask someone at WHFNP for advice on how to get started. PS. We have a Medium publication we'd love you to contribute to!

• Prepare a talk to give at one of our monthlies. Scared of public speaking? Perfect! Our monthly meetups are a friendly, supportive place to quash those fears and practice presenting to a nice, intimate group. Again, there are many WHFNP members who can help you get started. Just shout.

• Give a workshop. Learning is even better when it's shared. We love skill-sharing and encouraging each other to learn something new. You don't need to be a "professional" at something to teach it to someone else. If anything, if you've just learnt something, it'll be easier to remember what helped you learn it effectively as a newbie. Challenge yourself and help others out while you do it. Again, our meetups are a great place to do this.