Harvest Success...?
I know. I know..."Harvest Success?"...."Roadmaps"? How do those two go together. This is the second part to last weeks "Road Trip" where we introduced you to Our bulletin board for (all three) projects. In that article you found out about a little of the Trello service and we mentioned doing this piece on the labels. Now I have noticed the labels for each board are not congruent with the topics but they should cover just as easily. So how does Harvest have anything to do with Roadmaps? Well let's breakdown the Three Process our Boards offer in general. You have "Things to Do", let's call that "Seed". "In Progress or Doing", we can call that, "Planting". Much like a seed in the ground, you are not sure at what stage that seed is in but you know that it is in. Last but not least, "Done" we can call that "Harvest". Why? Well once it is "Done" it is time to reap the benefits from the time put into planting, nurturing, and cultivating the process. We always look for "Success", so for example, "Harvest Success"!
To best illustrate the three stages of "Harvesting" an idea, let's walk one out in the illustration bellow:
"Seed"
or
Things to Do
Let's say, Tina would like to see blue and yellow flowers in the floral arrangements in next years production throughout the game. So she fills out a card and posts her idea in the section "Things to Do".
"Planting"
or
"Doing"
I personally prefer "In Progress" but you can get the idea. Bill catches the request of more blue and yellow flowers and he, being a talented at modeling foliage, moves the card to section called "Doing" that way no one can come along and pull that card again, it is in progress. Much like a seed in the soil, if Bill doesn't update his progress on his project, the no one knows which stage of development it is in. Now, if Tina stops back and notices that her suggestion has been pulled, she knows that it is in Progress by the card now being in the Doing stage, and is anticipating the new addition to the next update to the program.
Now if Bill is a Staffer, he could personally hand his completed version of his modeled flowers over to Production and that department can then plant them into the game and update, but if Bill is just a modeler and not a Staffer, he has the ability to move the card back to "Things to Do" and add a note that these items have been modeled and they can be placed in Production. A Staffer can then grab the Card move it back to "Doing". Once the Blue and Yellow flowers have migrated into the game Tina's idea can hit the next stage...
"Harvest"
or
"Done"
Now the Blue and Yellow flowers are in the game and ready for the next update and the Staffer in charge can then move the Card to the Done section where it may sit until it is Archived.
Each of these steps are all about contributing and communication. Keeping all lines open so that everybody is heard and all is understood. Now, we can't guarantee that this process will yield Success but we as a community will strive for it. So to all our contributors, staffers, and community, thank you, in advance for a great Harvest.