Update from the Sakai Requirements Working Group Mark Norton, Chairman, REQ-WG

Overview The REQ-WG The Requirements Process Current Status Going Forward

The Requirements WG Formed in Aug. of 2005 to gather inputs into the Sakai development process. The group has about 11 active members who meet regularly to review new inputs. Group participation is open to anyone so please join in!

Responsibilities Making or using tools to suppor the requirements collection process. Review and cluster incoming requests. Manage the community ranking process. Assist Michael Korcuska and Peter Knoop in engaging developers to work on priority items.

Terminology The word “requirement” includes: –Things we must have in the future based on local needs –Suggested improvements to existing tools or software –Ideas for new tools or services It does not mean that all suggestions will be implemented.

The Requirements Process Let’s look at the requirements part of the process more closely ….

Register Requirements The requirements process uses the Jira issues management system. A form (like the one on the next slide) is used to capture your requirements information. This approch allows Sakai to track the suggestion all the way through to implementation and bug fixing.

Requirements Review Periodically, members of the the REQ-WG review new submissions. Duplicates are merged. Submissions are sorted into on of serveral categories for tracking purposes. Bugs are forwarded to Peter for handling.

Requirements Clustering All RequirementsMark Norton Test and QuizMarc Brierley Collaboration and Communication Mara Hancock Content ManagementSalwa Khan Framework and DocumentationTom Lewis Global AspectsPeter Knoop New Tools and UnknownMark Norton User InterfaceDaphne Ogle Worksite and Admin ToolsAnthony Whyte PortfolioHanna Reeves GradebookKirk Alexander Assignments and AssessmentMichael Korcuska

Prioritize Requirements Once a year, the group conducts a prioritization exercise open to the entire Sakai community. This gives everyone a chance to indicate which suggestions should be worked on. Results are used to inform work leading into the next year.

2007 Requirements Review The review was started in March. Existing issues were reviewed and many closed. Then 115 New submissions received. As of now, there are 940 open requests. The group is trying to winnow this down to a good set that can be prioritized in July. This will result in a report in early August.

Tool Requirements A collection of general requirements are being collected to define existing tools. This led to a Gradebook Summit meeting in Feb. that created a new Gradebook team. There has been discussion about doing something similar for assessment. Please consider contributing to this process.

Status Work is proceeding to the conclustion of existing requirements review. Several requirements have led to important changes in Sakai, such as time release and ordering in the Resource Tool. More work to do, but suggestions are always welcome!

Questions and Discussion