Project Health Dashboards

As part of the efforts to assess the health of the WordPress project , a working group is forming to test demonstrations of various tools we could leverage. If you would like to participate, please comment below. We’ll take this to Slack Slack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/ . The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/ . -based meetings in Sustainability Slack channel.

🔧 Overview of Tools Used for Project Health Analysis

Bitergia Analytics offers detailed tools for analyzing software development and community engagement in open-source projects. It tracks code development activities and community interactions, providing diversity and project performance metrics. We’ve ( @ harishanker , @ peiraisotta , and myself ) selected it as our first trial. We’re trialing Bitergia first because it offers a comprehensive, ready-to-use analytics platform that meets our needs with minimal setup, easing the load to other contributors.

Our one-month demonstration account does not include available additional integrations, such as Meetup Meetup All local/regional gatherings that are officially a part of the WordPress world but are not WordCamps are organized through https://www.meetup.com/ . A meetup is typically a chance for local WordPress users to get together and share new ideas and seek help from one another. Searching for ‘WordPress’ on meetup.com will help you find options in your area. , Slack, or RSS.

Bitergia Benefits:

• Comprehensive GitHub GitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ Integration : Utilizes GitHub for rich data access, enhancing understanding of community collaboration and task management.
• Data Focus : Prioritizes Git Git Git is a free and open source distributed version control system designed to handle everything from small to very large projects with speed and efficiency. Git is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. Most modern plugin and theme development is being done with this version control system. https://git-scm.com/ . and GitHub data, concentrating on crucial sources that reflect development efforts and community engagement for targeted analysis.
• Gradual Expansion : Initially, basic GitHub integrations will be implemented, allowing for scalable and manageable data analytics integration and preventing community overload.
• Future Integration Potential : Maintains openness to including platforms like Slack and Meetup in the future, potentially broadening insights into community engagement and project health.

Bitergia Concerns:

• Operating Cost : The initial dashboard, with Git and GitHub integration, costs $1,000USD. Additional fees would be incurred to integrate more sources. Approximately $30,000 would be needed to build custom integrations for Trac Trac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub. https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ . and WordPress editor activity integration.
• Tool Dependency : Within the past year, we’ve seen several proposals to leave tools such at Meetup or Slack . Our choice of tools for Project Health and Project Operations will need to work together when evaluating future transitions.
• Dashboard Accessibility Accessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility ) : Dashboards can be embedded into team sites or viewed on the primary account. Data can also be exported as CSVs. However, no additional information is available regarding accessibility, particularly for screen readers.

Open Source Open Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. Tools

Grimore and Augur are open-source tools other projects can implement. When reviewing other open-source tools, we would also need to include all the contributors’ efforts to install and configure each test. Linux, Apache Apache Apache is the most widely used web server software. Developed and maintained by Apache Software Foundation . Apache is an Open Source software available for free. , and Drupal have created tools themselves that work for their respective organizations. Developing our own tooling would necessitate considerable contributor efforts in areas that aren’t primarily related to WordPress beyond detailing metrics.

Proprietary Tools

1. Pluralsight Flow (formerly GitPrime): Offers insights into software development workflows to help teams improve productivity and efficiency.
2. Snyk : Provides security insights into open-source dependencies, highlighting vulnerabilities and licensing issues.
3. GitInsights is an analytics tool that provides detailed insights into Git repositories. It helps teams monitor coding activity, review patterns, and track project health. It offers contributions, productivity, and codebase evolution metrics to enhance project management and team collaboration.

GitHub Specific Tools

While much of the work, beyond code even, of WordPress is moving to GitHub, not all of the contributions are GitHub-based. The following tools could help raise awareness of the work happening inside GitHub and could be considered extensions but not the primary metrics we seek.

• All Contributors
• Avatar Montage

Community Management Tools

Through their comprehensive analytics and integration capabilities, these tools can significantly enhance the management and sustainability of open-source communities. However, they do not focus on the projects within various WordPress teams nor track contributions.

• Common Room : Integrates various platforms like GitHub, Slack, and Twitter to provide a unified community view, aiding open source leaders in monitoring engagement and identifying active contributors, crucial for sustaining an active community.
• Orbit : Tracks community relationships and interactions across multiple platforms, offering insights into participation dynamics and retention strategies, essential for fostering a sustainable open-source environment.

🗣️ Community Engagement and Feedback

Our commitment to transparency and community involvement is essential in guiding the evolution of WordPress. We are implementing several engagement methods to ensure everyone in the community can contribute their insights and feedback effectively.

• Public Forums and Discussions : Join the Make WordPress Sustainability Team meetings on Slack , where we hold text-based discussions about ongoing projects. These meetings provide a platform for sharing informal feedback and engaging with the team.
• Regular Reviews : We host meetings on Slack, open to all community members. These sessions are crucial for discussing the progress of sustainability initiatives and gathering live feedback from various stakeholders.

👣 Next Steps

• Gather Feedback: We’re seeking additional tools to consider and trial.
• Enhanced Reporting : Develop detailed reports and interactive dashboards that can be regularly updated and shared with the community to maintain transparency about the project’s status and progress.
• Data Integration : Expand our data sources by incorporating Slack, Meetup, and RSS feed RSS Feed RSS is an acronym for Real Simple Syndication which is a type of web feed which allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format. This is the feed. metrics. This broader data integration will help us understand all facets of community engagement.
• Dashboard Implementation : Explore ways to embed the sustainability dashboards directly into the Make WordPress team sites . This implementation will allow all team members to seamlessly access real-time data and insights.
• Surface Team Priorities : Work on surfacing each team’s priorities on their respective Make WordPress pages. This visibility will help align the community’s efforts and ensure everyone is informed about each team’s key focus areas.

🌟 Share Feedback

Integrating comprehensive analytics and community input is crucial as we advance our sustainability efforts. We will continue to review options and need your feedback in the comments.

1. What tools do you suggest?
2. What additional data points should be included?
3. What else can we do to gauge the health of the project?

Props to @ harishanker and @ peiraisotta for proofreading.

# project-health-2