We organised our first ever Plone development sprint at University of Jyväskylä, Finland in July 2017. Here are some lessons learned on organising an open source development sprint.

1. Organizing a Plone Sprint -
Lessons Learned, case Midsummersprint 2017
Rikupekka Oksanen, Plone Conference 2017

2. Premise
• We organized our first ever Plone development sprint in
summer 2017 at University of Jyväskylä
• https://www.coactivate.org/projects/midsummer-
sprint-2017/

3. Things to Talk About
• Funding
• Reserving location, spaces
• Accommodation, travel info
• Website
• Marketing
• Sprint theme
• Sprint week
• Sprint day
• Sprint activities: lunches, dinners, other activities
• Importance of sprints

4. 1 year ago
• The idea 1 year ago, think about a topic and when the sprint could be
arranged
• Ask for general interest among Plone Community
• Calculate and estimate cost and possibilities (food, accommodation,
how to travel, etc)
• Ask for funding and select time (hopefull free time and nice weather)
• Add a website
• Inform community, ask for more interest
• Define topic

5. Winter/Spring
• Book location(s)
• (University a good place - location, internet)
• Sprint, activities
• Update website
• More advertising (Twitter, Facebook, Plone community,
etc.)
• Book activities

6. Summer
• Inform participants on arrangements (accommodation,
travel, eating, internet access, weather...)
• Make sure everyone gets to the sprint location, help with
airport travel or from train to hotel (if possible)
• Just before sprint starts, buy refreshments and snacks

7. Funding
• But Open Source is supposed to be free? ;)
• University of Jyväskylä. We had calculated budget from
2500€-5000€: accommodation, lunches, one dinner,
snacks, location, activities, misc. stuff.
• Plone Foundation - plain tickets for one
• Participants pay for their own flights and hotels

8. Reservations
• Find big enough room for 20 people
• ...with internet!
• Activities
• Table reservations (if dinners together)

9. Accommodation and travel
• List of hotels nearby the venue
• Maybe a "student village" - low cost accommodation (we
had one in Jyväskylä)
• Travel tips (flights, train, buses taxis, etc.)

10. Sprint location
Our room is up there

11. Sprint location
Lake view
Piano
Fireplace
Kitchen nearby

12. Website and marketing
• Create a website for the sprint
• https://www.coactivate.org/ is free and hosted
• Tell your friends, colleagues, in social media, Plone
community forum etc.

14. Sprint theme
• This sprint will focus on polishing user experience of
editor role users on Plone 5.1 and later
• Sprint could (should?) have a theme, like "polishing Plone
5 UX" or "security"
• Also some concrete goal could be set (release Plone 5.1!)
• But don't limit participants options on topics if they have
a topic of their own
• Its important just to get participants

15. Sprint week planning
• Plans need to be better for the beginning of the week - on
how to organise work (and where and when to eat!)
• Experienced Plone developers are usually very self
organised
• New people appreciate more detailed plan ja focus in the
sprint

16. Sprint day
• Typical Sprint day is from 9 to 6pm.
• We started with a presentation (max 1 hour)
• Then work, lunch break at 12 and more work
• Wrap up at 17 or at 17.30 - going through what everyone
worked on
• Dinner together at about 19
• Programming at your hotel room until you drop

17. Sprint Day - Behind the
Scenes
• Make coffee. A lot.
• (Arrange a video stream)
• Make sure everyone has electricity
• Get stuff (something is always needed)

18. Activities
• We had: Lunches and dinners together, field trip and
museum tour
• Activities help to relax the atmosphere, help new people
to blend in
• Doesn't have to be super special, but something that
everyone gets to participate

19. Museum Tour
• IMG_5997

20. Field Trip

22. Families Welcome

23. Dinners Together

24. Sauna

25. And Then Some Work!

26. Blogging, tweeting etc.
• Blog post every day
https://www.coactivate.org/projects/midsummer-
sprint-2017/blog/
• Tweet on working and other activities

27. Website
• Using hosted Coactivate Wiki
https://www.coactivate.org/projects/midsummer-
sprint-2017/
• Quite slow
• Adding images was cumbersome
• Otherwise ok (adding members, wiki, blog, discussion)
• Why not a hosted Plone environment for Plone Sprints?
Eat your own dog food.

28. Live Stream and videos
• We used our Plone-based Moniviestin video distribution
platform at JYU
• http://moniviestin.jyu.fi/ohjelmat/erillis/thk/thkplone/
midsummer-sprint-2017?set_language=en&cl=en
• Live Stream and recordings available from each
presentation
• Tip: use good microphone for audio

30. Participants
• There were 18 participants at Midsummer Sprint in total,
including:
• Our organisers and our local development team for
Plone based and related services,
• A GSOC student working on a Plone Foundation
mentored topic,
• A professional UX designer and
• Many well known names from the Plone community

31. Participants
• Tip: When you gather information on who is coming and
when, here's a template:
• [name ] [ company ] [ dates ] [ % sure ] [ # extra sims ] [ #
accommodation ]
• Rikupekka Oksanen, University of Jyväskylä, 3.–7.7.,
100%, 0, 0
• Not everyone arrives or leaves at the same time, good to
know when.

32. Contributor's Agreement
• https://plone.org/foundation/contributors-agreement
• Prospective contributors to the Plone Core code base
MUST sign the Contributor’s Agreement. The
Agreement assigns copyright in the code to the Plone
Foundation, the non-profit organization which stewards
the Plone code base.
• Download and sign the Plone Contributor Agreement.
Then email a scanned copy to agreements@plone.org

33. Importance of Sprints
• We asked for feedback in this sprint:
https://staff.jyu.fi/Members/rioksane/midsummersprint-feedback
• How would you describe the value of sprint type of way of
working?
• "It allows for impromptu discussions between people who are
otherwise in different offices and timezones. It encourages to ask
advice and feedback from people with different skillsets and
specialities. It allows for a broader 'vision' of the whole project/
product, as you get to mentally focus on it for a longer time, but
also with enough social interaction to reflect better."

34. Importance of Sprints
• How would you describe the value of sprint type of way of
working?
• "IMHO it values a lot, little things as 'just' work over to the
next table and ask a question which turns into a great
small mini discussion which turns into a idea to solve a
issue is so much worth. Also the whole atmosphere at a
sprint motivates !"

35. Importance of Sprints
• How would you describe the value of sprint type of way of
working?
• "It makes working on complex topics a lot easier"
• "A full week sprint is the best to focus on development
and interaction."

36. Importance of Sprints
• How would you describe the value of sprint type of way of
working?
• "It's great to work so closely with many core developers
together. We always have important discussions and can
figure out things to do to bring Plone forward. And it's
important to have a full week to eventually finish tasks."

37. Importance of Sprints
• Comments from new plonistas:
• "Everyone seemed to be focusing on many different tasks,
there was no single goal? But otherwise, an effective
learning experience."
• "I was pleasantly surprised on how relaxed the
atmosphere was from the very beginning."

38. Learning
• For University of Jyväskylä (using many critical Plone-
based web applications), the opportunity to get all our
developers to participate (6) was a big bonus
• Think about hiring a consultant for a day, or sending six
developers to a 5 day course? A little more expensive?

39. Cooperation

40. Actual Costs (fo JYU)
• Locations (Big enough room for the whole week, Sauna)
• Food (lunches at student restaurant, snacks, field trip and sauna evening)
• Activities (Alvar Aalto Museum)
• Bus tickets and 4G SIM cards, miscellaneous stuff
• Total cost for JYU was about 2000€
• With that, you got work from 18 persons, 5 days from 9-18, totalling
990 hours. Not bad!

41. Sprint Final Report
• http://tech.blog.jyu.fi/2017/07/midsummer-sprint-final-
report.html
• Asko Soukka's thorough sprint report, with every pull
request

42. Conclusion
• Arranging a Plone sprint needs some funding, a suitable location,
website, theme(s) and local arrangements. It also takes your time to plan
and go through.
• Important to know when to eat + have enough coffee!
• A learning experience and a place to focus on developing
• Do not underestimate the the power of a friendly
community working together!

44. Thank you!