About a month ago the Drupal.org Software Working Group announced that we were seeking community input to help us craft a short-term Drupal.org roadmap for the beginning of 2014.

Over the next 2 weeks community members submitted 53 ideas and 596 comments, and 258 people took part in discussions. We acknowledge that the ideation process this time was not representative of entire community. Responses came mostly from developers and community insiders, though this is still valuable for understanding the needs of those who help build and support Drupal itself.

Outcome

We prioritized the following three features for early 2014:

Pain Points

The process also revealed significant pain points, especially:

  1. Developer tools: (Issue queue, Git, Packaging)
  2. Support tools (Forums)
  3. Project quality/health measurements
  4. Search

These pain points were expressed through a variety of implementation proposals, many of which were contradictory or mutually exclusive. In order to seriously consider the ramifications of various implementation plans, the first step is a detailed discovery process. We want to clearly understand the problems being faced and consider potential impact of various choices.

While originally we were seeking input for our 2014 plan, the message we got was clear: we cannot wait until 2014 to begin exploring solutions. Therefore, DSWG member Kim Pepper has begun an inventory of Drupal.org’s developer tools to identify the functionality currently provided by the site along with a catalog of desired functionality. This assessment, to be presented to the Drupal Association Board on October 16, will provide the framework for a detailed comparison of available tools. In order to follow and participate in the discovery process, join Drupal.org group, where we’ll publish updates and requests for community input.

Thank you everyone who took part in the ideation process! We are working hard to ensure it's better organized and more inclusive next time.

Comments

ianthomas_uk’s picture

I know it's not easy when we've spent lots of time building the current tools, but please remember to consider invented-elsewhere options. There are almost as many bug trackers out there as CMSes - is rolling our own really the best use of our resources?