A comprehensive set of information that allows all stakeholders (past, present, and future) to have a shared understanding of important facts and information about a given problem, project, or decision.
- Fork the GitHub repo.
- You could copy and paste or import it into a wiki page or collaborative platform.
- Fill out all applicable fields.
- Customize as needed. Delete the tops, unused sections, etc.
- Publish early and update often.
- You could incorporate it into an existing project wiki or website.
- As your project or decision progresses, continue to build out new sections and add details. You might want to break this into smaller documents.
- Use collaboration and feedback features to support your open decision making process, e.g. comments, polls.
Use the inverted pyramid method to organize content.
If you compelted a project charter, publish it as the first piece of your common fact base. As your project progresses, build your common fact base by adding info suggested in this template.
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Where will you publish? The idea place is:
- easy for your project team to update and manage
- easy for your stakeholders to access and navigate
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Who will be able to view this and other documents?
- At Red Hat, we default to open. If there's no good reason to restrict access, we try to make it visible to everyone.
- That said, organizational cultures and norms vary, so make sure your project sponsor and teams are comfortable. Discuss the risks and benefits.
- For highly sensitive projects, consider slowly opening access in concentric circles.
- If a project is "sensitive" simply because people may react negatively, you can build trust and respect (and give people time to navigate the grief curve) by being open from the start.
Problem statement (1-2 sentences)
- Learn more (link to details below)
- Problems we're not trying to solve (link to ever-growing list)
- What you want to do about the problem, in broad terms. Desired future state.
- What "good" would look like, in 1 - 2 sentences that anyone can understand.
- May not be needed, if captured in problem statement.
- Hint: they are usually your stakeholder groups and potential stakeholder groups.
| Phase | Ideation + Research | Prototyping + Testing | Development | Launch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timing | Jan - May 2017 * complete * |
Apr - Jun 2017 * in progress * |
Jul 2017 - Aug 2017 | Sep 2017 |
| Milestones |
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|
- View detailed timeline and project plan (*link to details, e.g. view-only smartsheet or other document)
- Link key milestones in timeline to relevant documents and details, where people can learn more.
- Latest status update goes here
- Learn more (link to detailed notes)
Questions? Ideas? Here's what to do:
- List feedback + collaboration channels; highlight opportunities to provide input (e.g. surveys, join focus group, comment on this page).
- Share feedback loop
- Share decision-making process
- Explain how to stay informed
- Learn more
(Could also be titled "Roles + Responsibilities")
| Executive Sponsor | Project Sponsor | Project Owner | Stakeholders | Contributors | Questions? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name, title, team, contact info, etc. | Name, title, team, contact info, etc. | Name, title, team, contact info, etc. | Name, title, team, contact info, etc. | Comment on this page. Or contact so-and-so. Whatever you want them to do. |
Based on our project team's experience and the scope of this project, we are aiming to demonstrate the following maturity levels as we apply the Open Decision Framework:
| Communication | Transparency | Release Early + Release Often | Collaboration |
|---|---|---|---|
| ESTABLISHED | TRANSFORMATIVE | ESTABLISHED | TRANSFORMATIVE |
- Shoft the wording of headlines like these, as your project progresses
- In the early states, list any option or solution under evaluation or consideration.
- As your project progresses, update heading (e.g. "Approaches we're testing," then "Proposed solution").
- Learn about other solutions considered (link)
- High-level, most important requirements (up to 5)
- Key constraints on the decision or project
- Include relevant legal, reporting, confidentiality, etc. factors (to the extent possible)
This is where you'll want to state the obvious (and invite others to question your reasoning). Need help?
- Known risks, potential areas of controversy, cultural impacts, unintended impacts
- High-level, most important criteria
- Weighted importance
- Clearly define what's in and out of scope. Link to details explaining why, if needed.
- When you have to give something up to gain something better, explain it here.
When do you anticipate revisiting this decision? Timeline or criteria or key factors that would contribute.
- Think about this, then include some version in your fact base at each phase of the project, to demonstrate your willingness to own the outcome of the decision.
- Summarize + link to details
- Changes made based on feedback
- Changes not made, despite feedback (and why)
- Prototype + user testing results
- Post-launch feedback and metrics
- Summarize and link to details
This is probably the first paragraph of your first draft or launch communications. Sorry, it belongs down here.
The super detailed version of the "Problem" section goes here.
Problems we're not trying to solve:
- Related problems that you know people will ask you about
- Related things you wish you could solve, but cannot
- Optional, but very helpful to include
Detailed business requirements:
- Requirement #1: Details here to help others understand it
- Requirement #2: Details here to help others understand it
- Order from most to least important. Include info like weighting, relative importance, etc.
- Link to detailed requirement documents, if it's complex.
Explain the process and stakeholders you worked with, external research, etc. Helps validate them.
- Link to detailed data, survey results, etc.
(could provide a solutions evaluation matrix, instead)
Eliminated early on:
- Name + why
- Name + why
Eliminated later in the process
- Name + why
- Name + why
Good solutions that we didn't move forward with:
- Name + why (e.g. higher cost, might reconsider in the future, etc.)