Work Log Guidelines

Introduction

See also Work Log

The Work Log is intended to be the main log of progress for any OSE contributor. In order to facilitate coordination across a globally-distributed team, a Work Log is key. This log should include hyperlinks to all work product - such that contributions are absolutely transparent to the world. This applies to volunteers to inform team members on progress, and it is useful for staff for planning, evaluation, and review purposes. We require that staff keep a daily log according to these guidelines. As an open organization, we are exploring how we could operate with full transparency - with minimum effort. A work log should take no more than 5 minutes per day if a person gets into a regular pattern of logging - and the positive effects of transparency far outweigh the cost of this effort. If this process is carried out diligently - even a quarterly report can be produced in no more than 15 minutes (how? see below.).

Guidelines

1. Use frequent hyperlinks to work product - Place or embed all work product, Google Docs, videos, images, spreadsheets, diagrams on the wiki itself. If you are choosing another web location as a repository, link to that repository. We like to have all material posted on the wiki to minimize broken links if content goes off-line at other web locations. Document in paragraph format, don't sprawl your log as long lists - for ease of visual navigation. The Log is intended to be a hyperlinked index to work product more than an actual repository of work product. So in short: put all your work on the wiki. Our motto is, "If it's not documented on the wiki, it doesn't exist" (as far as the collaborative intent of this project).
2. Log on a daily basis - Bookmark your log page and go to it after every task. Staff, volunteers, and remote collaborators are encouraged to keep a work log. Log everything that you do, on the same day that you do it. If you do not log it after task completion, you are less likely to remember what you did. Use our Date Format Convention.
3. Set weekly milestones and evaluate their completion - Every Monday, write down 3-5 milestones for the week. At the beginning of the next week, go back to this entry and document: (1) what you actually accomplished; and (2), if what you actually accomplished is different than what you promised, please explain the discrepancy. This is for organizational learning and performance development purposes.
4. Set monthly milestones and evaluate - At the beginning of the month, write down 3-5 main goals for that month. At the beginning of the next month, write down (1) what you actually accomplished in the past month; and (2), if what you actually accomplished is different than what you promised, please explain the discrepancy.
5. Write a quarterly report - a quarterly report can be as simple as taking the Monthly Milestones and their Evaluation from the last 3 months - and compiled. Any extra comments on emergent patterns and point of improvement should be noted. Goals for the next quarter should also be listed, and these goals should be evaluated as part of the next quarter's report.

Insights

The Work Log is proving to be an effective organizational tool for OSE. The core team can observe and evaluate each other's work - and improvements can be made. Since this is posted openly on the wiki and is transparent to the world - any other global collaborator can assess the state of project activity, and be on-boarded effectively.

The key to making this work is to be regular and link to work product. While this may seem like organizational overhead - the potential benefit of increased collaboration outweighs the time cost of documenting. Further - if done conscientiously - and entry in the log takes seconds. We have seen a number of cases where improvements, offers, suggestions, and new collaboration sprouted because of our extensive documentation.

By doing this, we are pushing the limits to open collaboration and sound governance.