W3C Social Web Incubator Group lessons learned

These observations are merely my own observations and do not necessary 
represent any formal lessons learned at the Social Web XG.

1. Use cases benefit from having at least one person that is the owner.
The owner is the person responsible for making documentation 
modifications. Usecases that don't have an owner might appropriately be 
abandoned by the group.

2. Use a template for documenting usecases. We started out with the 
existing W3C template but it seems its possibly too granular and 
technically oriented for an XG. You might have some required fields.

3. Usecases seem to continually grow in number. Therefore, its useful to 
have a date at which the list of them should be complete.

4. Some usecases may be considered more important or central to the 
group's mission than others. Therefore, it might make sense to vote on 
which core ones best represent the full spectrum of the group's mission.

5. Usecases may have importance in more than one area, therefore having 
them under a single subject heading (such as done in a wiki) is both 
deceptive and confusing. A matrix might be the best way to illustrate 
which usecases have impact on what areas. Having a single wiki page with 
a long list is difficult to edit.

6. There is a challenge in getting usecases all at the same level. Given 
that during the documentation of a usecase the writer may have insight 
into a solution, details are provided thereby changing the depth of the 
usecase vis a vis the other usecases. I do not have any actual 
recommendations in this area except to be aware that when you read 
twenty of them some will seem like they "dont fit in" even though they 
are appropriate subjects for the group's mission.

7. We have had several fantastic speakers present to our group and I 
have found it invaluable for getting a view from others in the field who 
  have exceptional and practical insight into the problem space.

I hope this helps!!
-- 
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Ronald P. Reck
Direct Line 	21taxonomy

Received on Friday, 30 October 2009 17:05:59 UTC