I was doing analysis for a new feature we have ticketed in Jira yesterday and thought, “Wow, I sure could use the advice of a designer.” So I texted @gschmidt, and we had a brief discussion, and it was very helpful.
Perhaps we should have a process for sending Jira tickets for UX design that doesn’t rely on who the devs may have met at the Implementer’s Conference?
I defer to @c.antwi, Greg, and any other designers here, but my starting-point of an idea would be that
there should be a status on Jira “needs design”
devs should send tickets to that status as appropriate
OpenMRS should have a set of designers that monitor and work on the tickets in that status
I think I recall someone at some point suggesting that there be a designer equivalent to the “dev-n” designations? Perhaps that could tie into this really nicely?
Oh nice, yes, so that could be the Jira support for what I’m talking about. But the core of what I’m proposing is that there be a team of designers who can be called on for design help, and/or will keep an eye on that “Design” status in Jira. Some process around this could really help make design a more integral part of OpenMRS development.
So these are the initial thoughts on a framework we could use to get started:
Goal:
An OpenMRS application that is designed using international best practices , who design is user driven and enhanced to meet field conditions
Roles and Responsibilities :
The goal of the BA /Design group is to support and contribute to the design and refinement of features and concepts of OpenMRS artefacts.
Activities:
Reviews features proposed by the community during release planning to determine feasibility
Work with product owners to define requirements of features
Develop wireframes/prototypes/ use cases for identified features
Conducts gap/situational analysis ongoing releases to determine if features are meeting community needs
Review and complete relevant JIRA tickets that require design/analysis
Share the latest practices on BA/Design
Infuse HCD (human centred design) concepts into the artefacts being developed
Support testing and Quality Assurance activities
Support Documentation Activities
Mentorship of up and coming BA’s or those looking to contribute but are not Dev’s
Communication Strategy
Standing BA/Designer Call once a week (or every 2 weeks if its too much)
Could adopt similar format from PM Call where specific projects are discussed and BA activities that need to be done
Discuss any blockers
Standing Dedicated JIRA Board / We could link to existing tickets that need BA work?
Standing Dedicated group on Talk
Updated Wiki Page
I had thought of doing a survey within the community to better understand the role of the BA in their current implementations ? What are your thoughts on this?
Wondering if using this spreadsheet (or something like it) could help identify those who might want to be a part of such a group or contribute their design skills to a particular Jira ticket or project?
Btw ‘needs design’ might mean ‘needs architecture/code design’, so we need to either distinguish here or make sure that a single Jira status can encompass a broader set of possibilities when it comes to design.
