Project Management/Initiative FAQ

Who should fill out the project intake form?

• Any director or leader who is responsible for their team's projects that need deployment from Mozilla's services related groups (examples include WebDev, IT & Network Ops, Services Ops, Release Engineering). By filling out this very simple and quick form, we will be able to "feedback" a complete picture of all major project deployment dates, priorities, and dependencies".

What defines a project?

• For purposes of this cross-functional project management initiative, we're most interested in projects that need people from multiple teams to be successful. If something is done either entirely within your team, or within routine bug-level processes (e.g. PM defines feature, dev writes patch, other dev reviews, someone checks in, QA verifies, etc.), then there's no need to enter it.

Will this affect how my team uses Bugzilla or other task management software?

• No, this initiative is to capture major projects and a few high-level pieces of information to help with quarterly planning.

I thought this was a Webdev project, why do you want my projects?

• This originally started out as a Webdev project due to their team's diverse projects, but soon turned into a Mozilla-wide initiative with the formation of a cross-functional team.

My team has a bunch of internal projects that are not external facing. Do I still have to enter these projects?

• Yes, but only if your internal project require substantial effort and requires more than your team to complete. For example, if you are developing something that IT or release engineering needs to deploy, then it should be entered in the intake form.

Why is this initiative asking about goals?

• For the past few quarters, organization-wide goals is how we plan and ensure that Mozilla is healthy and relevant. Aggregated metrics on goals for submitted projects will help ensure that we have adequate resources to ensure your project is successful.

What if my projects don't align to the goals stated on the intake form

• Not all projects will give high support to Mozilla's top-level goals, however there should be some correlation to at least one or two. If that isn't the case, submit anyway and we'll work with your team to get the project on track.

What happens if I don't submit my projects?

• Not submitting could hinder your projects' chances for success. When the larger group doesn't know what your team is working on there's less potential for collaboration and dependencies can go unidentified. C'mon, let's do this.

Why can't teams prioritize their projects now without having to implement a new process?

• Teams are actively prioritizing their projects, but that is not the problem. There is a very high probability that any project that a given team is working on requires the assistance of at least one other teams to accomplish the project. There are certain teams (IT, QA, Security, Webdev, Operations, etc.) that are the most commonly requested to complete a project. When these teams ask all of the people who have requested them to do something to prioritize all of their requests, they all come back at priority ones. Every team feels that their projects are most important and if all projects are important, than no projects are important.