User:Blash/The proposal system

Introduction

Greetings everyone! Seeing how a little organization would help streamline the proposal process, I have developed a system to achive this end.

This system consists of several wiki templates. Because templates are used, one must be careful, since the edit links of a the page's sections will open the template used by the page, and not the page's content. To edit the page's actual content, you must click the edit tab at the top of the page. To learn how to use wiki templates, go here

The System

This system is what I call a "proposal-and-request" system. When someone suggests input to the Mana World team, a feature, a fix, or whatever, they create a "Proposal" page. When a staff wants to solicit input from users about a feature, they create a "Request for Proposals" page. Proposal pages can, in addition, solicit requests for proposals. For example, if a feature proposed is not fully spelled out and seeks more input.

This system currently consists of 6 wiki templates: The Request template is used for creating a "request for proposals" page. It streamlines the formatting and organization. Two templates used in a request template are ProposalList, and ProposalItem. These two templates are used together (in conjunction). These templates provide a more streamlined way to format lists of proposals provided by users in response to a "request for proposal" page.

The Proposal template is used for creating a proposal page. In addition, it streamlines the organization of the page. There are two templates by this page for organizing lists of requests (request for proposals): RequestList and RequestItem.

Requests

First we have a request, which is a formally organized foundation for gathering proposals or solutions to an issue or problem.

Definition

 request = { introduction, signatures, criteria, proposals }

• introduction - used to orient the user about what the request being made is, and it's context.
• signatures - a bulleted list of parties who initiated the request.
• criteria - a numbered list of constraints that all proposals must satisfy to pass evaluation.
• proposals - a formatted listing of all proposals for the request. These must be made using the ProposalList and ProposalItem templates.

Example

Look at this example to see how to the Request, ProposalItem, and ProposalList templates are used.

Proposals

A proposal is a foundation for giving a suggestion, idea or solution for some request or problem. Once a proposal is finalized, it cannot be altered. One must create a variation or successor to a proposal and list the new proposal in the variations parameter, or as the successor in the evaluation status, which status will then become "abandoned". This makes the evolution process explicit.

Defintion

 proposal = { signatures, description, status, explanation, indefinitives, variations }

• signatures - a bulleted list of signatures of those who contributed to the proposal
• description - a full description of the proposal, including its implications.
• status - one of the five values: red, orange, yellow, or blue. These correspond to: unevaluated, passed, accepted, rejected.
• explanation - an explanation of the status of the proposal. If the status is "rejected", then this must include the numbers of the points in the criteria (remember they are numbered) that it was incompatable with. e.g. "rejected for: 1, 3, 4". Rejection is only for evaluation, not acceptance. Items can pass the evaluation (passed), but still not be accepted.
• indefinitives - a list of request pages. Indefinitives are gaps in the completeness of the proposal. Examples of indefinitives include:
  • open issues (but not criteria incompatabilities) created by the proposal that haven't been decided upon in the proposal.
  • necessary implementation details or policy that the proposal has not covered.
  • parts of the proposal explicity left open to suggestion (proposals).

Indefinitives must use the RequestList and RequestItem templates to format the list of them in the proposal.

• variations - a list of proposals. Again, these must use the ProposalItem and ProposalList templates for formatting. Variations are basically for people who propose altered versions of the parent proposal, as the proposal to meet the request.

Example

Look at here for an example of a proposal and how to use the respective templates it uses.

Conventions

The following conventions have been established to make this sytem most usable.

page naming conventions

• Individual proposals should be located in a user space and should start with the prefix "proposal for" or "request for"
• All page names should use all lowercase to avoid confusion.

Example:

• "User:Blash/request for spell list"

page usage conventions

• All discussions of particular proposals and requests should be done on the corresponding discussion page or in the forum, but not on the page itself.
• Once proposals are drawn up, proposals should not be changed--they should be abandoned and have a successor proposal. This is important, to provide the decision-making historical information, so that we don't go around in circles.
• Varying ideas on a proposal must be officially submitted as a variation. If all you intend is to discuss an idea, do it in the discussion page or on the forums :)

page content conventions

• All lists of proposals and requests on pages must use the templates, and nothing less--not even bulleted or numbered lists.
• Best practice: numbered lists for criteria, so the explanation can indicate the points of failure by number.
• Best practice: bulleted lists for authors and contributors.

Conclusion

If there are any questions, please contact me.