Software Architecture & Strategy Team (SA&S) Official
Software Architecture & statgegy is a voting production department team
The best argument that can be made for “Software architecture & Strategy” ( “SA&S” ) came from one of the production teams leads.
“That is not how we develop software, we do not need it..”
Software architecture - Wikipedia*
Looking back Joomla has failed to be successful in putting out consistent quality or “approved” code (i.e UCM, Tags, Custom Fields). Typically development starts when somebody feels that there is an itch to scratch, Then at the time of a pull request some other developer with the same itch will comment and possibly things have changed around (as with custom fields).
Worst case the changes go in “unnoticed” and we end up complaining afterwards (as with tags). The end result is we have frustrated developers that feel their time was wasted or an unhappy community wrt a sub par implementation of a feature.
Feedback on pull requests is always valuable, everybody's effort is appreciated and the mechanism should be cherished. There is however a way that we can improve on this, whilst lowering frustration and increasing professionalism.
If we look to professional software development in the industry a reference is always made to architecture, the blueprint for how functionality is to be added/modified and with what constraints. Software architecture helps to reduce the chance of failure and minimise risk*. The architecture view is the helicopter overview he is not typically the developer.
If we use a comparison to a building and its associated architecture, the architect is not a mason, plumber or electrician ( he might have been in the past). They architect defines framework for the foundations and layout that is built on top whilst estimating how much of what (bricks, cement, etc) needs to go where. Architecture and Strategy go hand in hand in that comparison as the size of the plot and the strength of the foundation laid on top of it is the cornerstone of future strategy.
Joomla lacks a “body” of developers that the production department can turn to for questions on architecture and support. Joomla also lacks a body that has the skillset to structurally review larger functional improvements such as workflow and a rewrite of tags. It lacks a body to lay out a technical foundation for the future. Having this body to reference would help the developer implement the best possible solution by having an “encyclopedia” of knowledge to go to when it comes to major decisions.
That advantage of having a body of people, instead of an individual, to advise would also mitigate the point of individual criticism. `I discard what person ABC says because he's always…. Having a body to advise/help should also help continuity as knowledge and history should be anchored in that body and not in the head of a single individual.
Having a balanced group shall also ensure a balance between a “hacked” and “theoretical” architecture approach.
The architecture and strategy team shall play an advisory role within the production department.
Its actions can be triggered from within the group itself or from de production department. Its focus is explicitly technical.
Overall project strategy is more than technical, Joomla’s roadmap should consider more than technology alone, for example marketing. There is no structural way of doing that yet, that's a discussion at another level. A representative of SA&S should take part in that, but requests should always flow through the Production Department.
For sure there will be challenges to overcome because for the lack of a better word we are a collection of ego’s, both inside such a body as in the developer community. Careful and Mindful communication would be key!
It is proposed to rebrand Joomla!X to “Software Architecture & Strategy”, there is a 90% overlap in goals. The big difference being the lack of coding and explicit focus on advice.
- Department
- Production
- Date Started
- April 2019
Joomler | Position | Role | Date Started |
---|---|---|---|
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Team Leader | Architecture | Apr 2020 |
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Assistant Team Leader | PHP | Aug 2020 |
Joomler | Position | Role | Date Started | Date Ended |
---|---|---|---|---|
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Assistant Team Leader | Architecture | Apr 2020 | Jan 2023 |
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Member | Marketing | Jan 2020 | Mar 2021 |
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Member | PHP | Jul 2019 | Aug 2020 |
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Member | PHP | Apr 2020 | May 2020 |
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Team Leader | Architecture | Apr 2019 | Apr 2020 |
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Member | UI/UX | Jul 2019 | Apr 2020 |
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Member | PHP | Apr 2019 | Apr 2020 |
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Member | Architecture | Apr 2019 | Apr 2020 |
SA&S Minutes 2021-01-20
By Niels Braczek on 2021-01-21 12:22 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Attendees: Llewellyn, Niels, Marco Bootstrap 5 George started the migration to Bootstrap 5 to prove that it could not be integrated without major problems. Instead, he found that it is possible to migrate to Bootstrap 5 already in Joomla 4.0 without causing additional delays. Most of the changes...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2021-01-20SA&S Minutes 2020-12-23
By Niels Braczek on 2020-12-23 23:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Attendees: Niels, Llewellyn GSoC list - Cron/Workflow: Separate "Poor Man's Cron" from the workflow. While the workflow benefits greatly from Cron support, it is not dependent on it. From an architectural point of view, Cron only provides events that the workflow can react to.A cron feature...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-12-23SA&S Minutes 2020-11-25
By Niels Braczek on 2020-11-26 01:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Attendees: Marco, Llewellyn, Marianela, Niels JCB enlarges fields in the #__asset table to allow finer permissions (longer strings). https://github.com/vdm-io/Joomla-Component-Builder/blob/staging/admin/sql/install.mysql.utf8.sql#L2434-L2441.Advice: Production should re-visit...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-11-25SA&S Minutes 2020-09-30
By Niels Braczek on 2020-10-01 06:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Attendees: Llewellyn, Niels The motion for the RFC-RFC is still not making progress due to Marco's health issues. The Laravel comparision repository has been populated with generated templates for Framework 1.x.
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-09-30SA&S Minutes 2020-09-02
By Niels Braczek on 2020-09-02 00:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Attendees: Marco, Llewellyn, Marianela, Niels Marianela explains the marketing strategy for Joomla 4.0. Main target group will be companies and larger corporations, emphasising the API and other new features that open a world of possibilities for stronger, faster, extensible...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-09-02SA&S Minutes 2020-08-05
By Niels Braczek on 2020-08-05 00:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
What has happened with the project management evaluation? - There has been a decision made by the production department that GitHub will be used to manage/tracking internal tasks/issues. Has there been any template teams decisions made? - This is a very large ongoing decisions in...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-08-05SA&S Minutes 2020-07-08
By Niels Braczek on 2020-07-08 08:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Attendees: Llewellyn, Marianela, Niels 1. Niels has completed the Copyright changes for Joomla 3. Work will be continued for Joomla 4, once the PR is merged. 2. Marianela suggests to change the "Why bother" paragraph of the RFC-RFC to something like "What will be...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-07-08SA&S Minutes 2020-06-10
By Niels Braczek on 2020-06-10 10:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Attendees: Marco, Llewellyn, Marianela, Niels 1. The SA&S entry on the Volunteers Portal needs some update. This team is going to meet once a month instead of bi-weekly. 2. Niels presents a template for the framework comparision. 3. Niels fixed the GitHub...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-06-10SA&S Minutes 2020-05-27
By Niels Braczek on 2020-05-28 03:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Attendees: Marco, Llewellyn, Marianela, Harald, Niels Llewellyn and Niels are thinking of replacing (some) framework packages with corresponding packages from Laravel (or other Frameworks) in order to reduce the maintenance efford. Harald states, that Laravel is changing...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-05-27SA&S Minutes 2020-03-18
By Niels Braczek on 2020-03-18 18:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Vote Depecrating New MVC classes in 3.10 -vote was to deprecate if its causing more maintenance costs, as long as the documentation to substitute is there. Name spacing of jhtml classes vote yes as long as there is documentation on any possible BC breaks. Marianela...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-03-18SA&S Minutes 2020-03-04
By Niels Braczek on 2020-03-04 00:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Status of UX has not been addressed Marianela brought up the idea of putting a form to get insightful data (Type of website: e-commerce, educational website, information website, etc.. experience of the user/admin with joomla: ie: new, amateur, experienced, and last if the user is: free...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-03-04SA&S Minutes 2020-02-19
By Niels Braczek on 2020-02-19 00:00 in Software Architecture & Strategy Team
Document for project management with pros and cons efforts table to decide what is the preferred choice (Niels will start with rfc. and Marco will take to the production team) Issue tracking Milestones Kanban boards RFCs Requirements The product should be...
Read more: SA&S Minutes 2020-02-19RSS Feed
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