Critical Success Factors (and Ideas for Improvement)
Respondents are not restricted to Tech or to the WMF. The questions are designed to improve development process and engineering team practices at the WMF.

During the processes appreciative inquiry in Tech Days, there was a section where the participants were divided into three groups:
* directors/C-level
* product/process managers
* technical leads/scrum masters/developers.

Each came up with a number of critical success factors (CSFs) or ideas for improvement in their role in the Foundation.

We'd like your input on how important/effective focus or improvement would be for them. It would be best to vary your multiple choice answers over the spectrum of choices to effectively sort the success factor/area of improvement by the priority the tech lead, PM, or manager should devote to it.

Feel free to skip the free form text fields for time, I was worried that the multiple choice may be too restrictive an answer in some cases.
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Scrum masters and Tech Leads
This section focuses on the group that consists of the CSFs and improvement ideas for SCRUM masters <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_(software_development)>, tech leads, and developers of our engineering project teams.
Prioritization
It is important for engineering (through scrummaster, tech lead, or product owner) to prioritize bugs along with features IN THE SAME SYSTEM.
Clear selection
comments on prioritization CSF/improvement idea
Collaboration/ownership
It is important for the engineering (through scrummaster, tech lead, or product owner) to ensure there is a single owner who makes informed decisions (or be that owner). This requires providing a shared understanding among the team and foster collaboration and consensus.
Clear selection
comments on collaboration CSF/improvement idea
Shared understanding of goals
It is important for the scrummaster and tech leads to have a shared understanding of (quarterly) goals. The quarter goals are set by the product manager in collaboration with the team to line up with the far reaching annual goals set at the Director level.
Clear selection
comments on shared goals CSF/improvement idea
Shared team norms/values through EXPLICIT communicated practice.
It is important for scrummasters and tech leads to create explicit communication practices and use them to enforce team norms and values. (For example, when someone has an emergency in Fundraising-tech, the tech lead creates and enforces the norm to communicate their unavailability immediately. Mobile Web has a practice that if it didn't happen on a mailing list (even IRC) then it didn't happen.) It's important that these norms or values are explicit and not assumed.
Clear selection
comments on explicit shared team norms CSF/improvement idea
Focus on minimum shippable increments and products
It is important for scrummasters and tech leads to keep the focus on shippable increments when organizing development. The value is in shipping it!… then getting feedback. This feels good for team morale and gets people enthusiastic about the product, as well as involving the users early who are great at finding bugs. Finding this Minimum Viable Product (MVP) however is difficult, so related are tools like good priortization (above) or the creation of user personas.
Clear selection
comments on MVP focus CSF/improvement idea
Product Managers and Process Leads
This section focuses on Product Managers or Process leads. In SCRUM, this is usually mappable to Product Owner and Business Analysts.

(Apparently they like to curse a lot.)
Cut the B.S. - be actionable
It is important that product managers commit to bringing light to the gloom. There are many areas/issues (example: RfC process) where people don't want to bottom-line things and force decisions. PMs should dive into these areas where there's ambiguity and clear it up.
Clear selection
comments on B.S. cutting focus CSF/improvement idea
Know what success is - write it down
It is important for product managers to know what success is and write it down. It's important that it can actually fail (be fail-able) and not some nebulous thing that we can't actually measure (e.g., "building an awesome upload feature!").
Clear selection
comments on knowing and writing down success focus CSF/improvement idea
Understand your customers - listen to silent majority
It is important for product managers to understand their users. This means 1) having a healthy skepticism on one's own opinion and validating it against end-users by talking to them or looking at data, and 2) avoid just listening to the loudest voices and work hard to get feedback from those who don't normally give it (but whose opinion might be more valuable).
Clear selection
comments on understanding the customers focus CSF/improvement idea
Ability to say no
It is important for product managers to have the ability to say no. A good project is defined not by what it does, but what it doesn't do (the tough decisions). PMs should actively close loops instead of letting things linger unresolved or get swept under the rug.
Clear selection
comments on saying no focus CSF/improvement idea
Translate between the needs of many different voices
It is important for product managers to translate the needs from many different personas. PMs should look beyond what people say they want, figure out what they really need, and balance the competing demands of internal and external stakeholders. See also "Understand your users" above.
Clear selection
comments on translating requirements focus CSF/improvement idea
Empathy with the team
It is important for product managers to have empathy in general, and with the team specifically. Treat team members with respect to create a sustainable pace of development, and treat users with respect, giving them ample opportunity to react to features.
Clear selection
comments on empathy focus CSF/improvement idea
Get S--t done!
It is important for product managers to get shit done (and encourage others by their example), whether it's Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Agile, or setting scope. They need to know when to say, “F--k it, Ship it!”
Clear selection
comments on getting s--t done focus CSF/improvement idea
Directors/Managers
This section focuses on engineering or product directors, though a couple C-levels added their input. :-)
Making things visible/framing opportunities
It is important for management to provide insight/broader perspective through the use of language/frames. Furthermore, this can be empowering for the staff in that this language provides a framework that speaks to people's intrinsic motivations, does not micro-manage their actual implementation, and preserves their autonomy -- they're free to act as long as it is in concert with this language. (Example of frame: When we describe the problem as an "editor decline" it forecloses it as an "opportunity for diversity" which is a different operating frame. One highlights the risks; the other presents it as an opportunity. Either choice has consequences.) These decisions create a common map within the organization and movement.
Clear selection
comments on framing focus CSF/improvement idea
Environment setting - Nurturing and mentorship
It is important for management to focus more on nurturing (developing staff or helping them develop others) to create a stronger culture of collaboration. If the WMF and the movement want everyone to be good at collaboration and working well together, then we have to find opportunities for people to practice at this: (e.g. being a mentor at Google Summer of Code (GSoC), Outreach Program for Women (OPW), or skill audit/identification for mentorship). These create stronger ties between the individual and the organization and movement and it's a good opportunity to diversify beyond an SF-focus or focus on SF people. More generally, it's about creating conditions for the right kinds of innovation and where the right kinds of behavior are encouraged.
Clear selection
comments on mentorship focus CSF/improvement idea
Hilighting successful failures
It is important for management to create a "safe to fail" culture and find spaces to allow for failing, quickly and positively. ArticleFeedbackTool would be an example of an unsuccessful failure costing time, resources, and site performance. Management should create spaces (e.g. mobile alpha & beta sites, desktop Beta Features extension) for staff to learned this quickly and move on. When we learn this (fail successfully), we have to share that.
Clear selection
comments on safe to fail focus CSF/improvement idea
Goal Setting/Accountability
It is important for management to set goals and ensure accountability throughout the organization. Management is about dealing with a finite amount of resources and availability and navigating that is important. Things are changing all the time, and the only way to delegate things is by setting direction in a manner that can operate without the need of management. Management must use its authority to do that. Without that, there would be a scattering effect of getting work done in the organization.
Clear selection
comments on accountability focus CSF/improvement idea
Convergence.
It is important for management to facilitate agreement on key issues. It is the role of managers in general to find convergence between desires and interests of individuals and goals of the organization, but it is especially important in our consensus-driven culture. One way to execute is to have a lot of conversations (even to the point of repetition) to get everyone on board and motivated/invested/buy-in. (Similar convergence can be seen in the act of hiring: finding people who are what the Foundation need, not just what do their particular team needs at the moment.)
Clear selection
comments on convergency focus CSF/improvement idea
Modeling
It is important for management to demonstrate the above in our actions. For instance, if we want to foster collaboration (above), As a management team we have to demonstrate that we can work as peers. There are areas where they've done this well, or started to gain some discussions (e.g. career pathing), but management has avoided many of those tricky conversations—they should strive at removing the "undiscussables." Another example is that people perceive inconsistency in behavior among managers as micromanaging them. To avoid the latter, management must model the former.
Clear selection
comments on modelling/demonstrating focus CSF/improvement idea
Overall
How should this survey affect what we do
Clear selection
Suggestions
Do you have other comments overall/suggestions on how to turn this survey into something that actually improves engineering process at the WMF?
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