One of the issues that was raised at the last meeting was addressing some of the challenges related to work flow and organising.
The first thing I tried was to make a document with all the challenges that had been listed at the last meeting, with possible solutions and proposals, but I’m not sure that’s the most efficient way forward.
After that I tried to see whether it would be possible to create an meta-manual on the entire “sites searching” process. I have created a first outline to see what that could look like, and I’d be grateful for your feedback on that.
@sarah, if ever you’d be available for a quick pre-meeting tomorrow afternoon (I’m flexible) I think that would be a win. We don’t need to decide anything, but having a short discussion in a smaller group (with you seeming to be the master mind behind this item on our to do list) I think will help us to make more progress during the meeting. But if not possible of course no problem.
The documents are saved in the “work flow” folder, which is in the “scouting coordination” folder (internal link).
@Sarah I downloaded a copy of the Excel, but I only see 60 lines or so. I tried to use the filters, but I don’t manage to find the other rows. Can you tell me what I should do?
Yes, when you download, it only downloads the visible lines.
So you want to reselect the rejected sites (in the preF and F columns) and then download the file.
And I don’t know if you need that but we have an older table also. It’s in the same folder, in a subfolder called “table archive”.
I don"t see that you did! And any way, playing with the back-up is not such a problem, it’s more for the file we are currently working on…
I can show you tomorrow what I mean about downloading and filtering (or call me now if you need an emergency tutorial )
@Sarah I don’t know how I did it, but I managed somehow. Victory goes to those who keep clicking I guess
Looking at your comments in the thread on searching for sites online (Searching for sites online - #34 by Sarah) I got tempted to play around with things like a mad woman (is that a word? ). To do that in a safe way I created a “sandbox” (internal link to the link), where I created some fictional files and folders.
What matters to me when we look at the work flow is this:
We need one overview file that is glitch-free and easy to access and understand by everybody.
it is in or out, why it is in or out, and what the next action point is.
We need a system that allows us to re-assess sites that have been discarded earlier on (e.g. because we make one or the other criterion less stringent).
It needs to be easy to retrieve doubles (i.e. sort by street)
It needs to be super easy to retrieve any fiche and any feasibility study.
We need to keep track of all the essential feedback that we received from the architects on each and every site.
We need clearly assigned responsibilities at each stage of the fiche factory.
Things will only get more complicated from now one (online searching, more fiches, more studies, criteria that may change) so if we want to stand a chance we really need to be able to keep a complete overview all the time, and to make that easy for everybody.
Here’s a couple of elements that could help with this, and how I implemented it in my little sandbox:
Split the Excel into several sheets: make one overview sheet, and then one with further details for every stage
=> File “00. Screening the fiches - restructured experiment” now has different tabs: 0. Overview, 1. Scoring, 2. PF, 3. F.
Make use of the possibility to filter:
Column L: “Status” => “still in” or “out”
Column M: “Current stage” => allows to filter fiches per stage
Column N: “Stage discarded” => allows us to filter fiches that were discarded after scoring (so that we can re-assess if needed) or after pre-feasibility or feasibility (so that we can share our data should anybody ever ask)
Column O: “Next action” => allows to filter for “waiting for reply”, “looking for owner”, “to be voted” etc
Un-complicate the folder system: either a site is discarded, either it is still in. Everything else shouldn’t matter if one has a functional overview file, and properly named files.
Add a site’s code to the pre-feasibility study folder, and add these folders to big “fiches” folders. This way we have all information together, the fiches next to the pre-feasibility studies.
Revise and restructure the fiches, and just add all the information in one file. To this end I have created a new fictional fiche “AND-xx - Rue experiment 123” in the “sites still in folder”. You will see I restructured it as follows:
Scouting and reviewing information
Site description: 1) Global information, 2) Pictures, 3) Maps
Scoring (do the scoring and add comments)
More detailed site data: owner contacts and price
Feedback from the architects (copy/paste text from emails here)
To be clear: it is by no means perfect, but I hope it can be a basis for a discussion on an architecture that should allow us to get a better overview.
Let’s see where we can get tomorrow at our little meeting, and then take it from there?
Just a quick update to let you know that @Sarah and I had an online meeting, where we looked at my sandbox and how it addresses the concerns listed above.
We agreed that it is necessary to simplify the Excel sheet with all the sites, and to bring in a bit more structure in how we process the sites throughout the pipeline or “fiche factory” as I like to call it.
Sarah gave me a lot of feedback based on how things currently work and how this needs to be integrated, but she agreed on the basic approach, so we decided to go ahead with it. This should not be a problem 1) because it’s an operational thing that is not really something to decide on with an entire group, but more importantly 2) because a lot of the details still need to be filled in, and this will be left to the people who will be taking responsibility for certain segments of the factory.
This has a couple of practical implications:
It’s quite a big overhaul, so there is going to be a transition period where the old and the new file will exist at the same time. So if you are working on the old Excel file, please highlight your changes in yellow, so that we can transfer them to the new file when ready.
It’s also an important change, which will have a lot of implications on how we will process fiches in the future, so my proposal would be to first invest all our energy and attention in making this work, and only in a second stage have another look at some of the items in the backlog (like e.g. the meeting with the architects).
As discussed at the meeting, installing Nextcloud on your personal computer is really helpful (if not essential) to do things faster and with less risk of losing data. All the information is in the Nextcloud manual, under point 7 at the end (internal link). If you struggle (not excluded), contact Manuel or Alberto and/or reboot your computer a couple of times to make sure you get all the updates. Checking whether data are synced (online and on your computer) is also dearly recommended when you get started.
Finally, for the Signal group, shall we agree that if you said you were going to take on a task, and you don’t find the time at the time that the task is needed (which is unpredictable), that you just say so, and then we look for somebody who can take over?
The next step is to correct the street names (@els, if possible). Once that is done, I can create the “2. Screening” tab.
Other things that can be done when there is time (so not a bottleneck): All but the two first points would require using your laptop though …
@Sarah there were a couple of lines where the “in” and “stage” didn’t seem to match. I highlighted them in yellow. Can you please have a look?
Copy/pasting the feedback from the architects (text + date of the email) to the fiches that were sent for a pre-feasibility study (@Sarah, probably best to co-ordinate with Els & Caro, who will be renaming and moving files and folders)
When you sort the sites per code, you will see that there seem to be sites that are missing, e.g. because it jumps from AND-02 to AND-04 (fictional example). Is this because the “AND-03” got lost when copy/pasting the rows into the overview tab, or is this because the numbering went haywire? If somebody thinks it’s worthwile to look into this, please give a shout, otherwise we can always do this afterwards.
Moving the fiches to the “2. Sites still in” and “3. Sites discarded” folders (@Caro)
Renaming the pre-feasibility studies, moving them to the right folder, and adding the fiche to it (@els)
Today I worked on the template fiche. I did the following:
I updated the template (while keeping the same link)
I moved it to the folder “1. New fiches” in the Fiche Factory folder
I updated the “Let’s go scouting” post, changing the links, and removing things that are no longer relevant (e.g. availabilities sheet)
Can you please have a look a the template fiche, see whether it works for you / make sense, and make any changes that you would like to see?
I also turned the “Sandbox” folder on my personal Nextcloud into the archive of everything that we are “discarding”, and I am moving a copy of all the files I am removing, so no files will be lost.
@reef-building I don’t know if this is the right place to mention, while moving the numbers of the adresses to the end, i noticed that there is no uniform way in noting down the adresses, I wonder if we couldn’t add some simple rules. I think it would make it easier for the online searchers to see if the adress allready exists.
Proposition:
Hi Fiche Factory Team !
I did copy-paste the fiches from the “Fiches” folder to the new “Fiches Factory” folder, this task is done !
I copied fiches in “2.Sites still in” and “3.Sites discarded”, but also the in the “1.New fiches” : it felt correct in the moment but now I realize it was never said to do it, should I erase those ?
Were the old fiches supposely in the correct folders or should I double check it with the overview table and their current status ?
Should I tell Reeflings/scouters to now use this new Fiche Factory folder and stop adding new fiches in the old folder ?
All fiches have now been moved to the Fiche Factory, including the new fiches.
Would anybody know where to find the link or instructions that we gave to the scouters, so that we can correct this?
Wonderful, thanks a lot!
I would leave it like this for now. The people who will eventually be managing the “1. Overview tab” will take care of matching the table with the folders.
As above. Once the overview file is fully functional this should be easy.
Yes, that would be great. Thanks a lot!
I added it to the “0. Coding legend tab” > 2. Scoring. Thanks for the suggestion!
Thanks a lot for that! I had some difficulties finding them, and then I realised that there must have been a misunderstanding, for which I can only apologise.
The problems that we are trying to solve were these:
Pre-feasibility studies were saved elsewhere (and difficult to find) => solved
Pre-feasibility studies were named by their street, without their code, which made it difficult to put together all the information.
Or formulated positively, in terms of what we need:
We need all files relating to one site to be in the same folder (i.e. the fiche, the pdf files from the PFS, the FS etc)
We need the mother folder to be findable and recognisable, preferably named following the usual naming convention (e.g. AND-00 - Street XYZ), or else (less preferable) all files to be copy/pasted and renamed.
So what we discussed is that there would be folders named as follows (e.g.) “AND-00 - Street XYZ”. In that folder we can then save everything that we have on that site: the fiche, the files from the PFS, and those from the FS if there would be one.
For what it’s worth, I made a try-out in the “Documentation & admin” folder (internal link). When you have a moment, could you please have a look at how we could get there in the most efficient manner?
Feel free to ping me on Signal, and again apologies for the time that you lost!
@reef-building
Ok, i changed it. Hope i understood it correctly now.
Two small remarks.
I have the impression 2 fiches were being treated together, LAK-06 and LAK-07.
I made a folder for each of them and both have the same content, except for the fiche in it being different.
I guess it doesn’t matter too much as the sites have been rejected
I deleted everything in the ’ pre- feasiblities studies’ folder under ‘The real deal’ in the ‘Fiche Factory’ folder, except for one file which is called: ‘pre-feasiblities studies-overview’ => can this be deleted as well, and than delete this whole folder?
When you are deleting a file, it’s always good to make a back-up and save it somewhere outside of the “Reef shared folder” on Nextcloud. Do you have the possibility to save it in the “Sandbox” on my Nextcloud? If not, I can take care of it tomorrow.
@Lee : i did a copy-paste of folder and files and only ‘deleted’ the originals, so in final, i didn’t delete anything. The only info ‘lost’ is the fact these folder and files were all together in one folder . Do you still want me to copy these files in their ‘original structure’ to the Sandbox’?
And thanks for all the work on the fiche factory so far. The next big step is to take control of the “00. Sites overview” file. Below I am listing a couple of things that need to be done.
I’m going to suggest a temporary responsible for every tab, but feel free of course to decline, and for all the others, please feel welcome to join in, because it’s always better to have several pairs of eyes on important matters.
One general note: where it says “delete the text in grey”, please only do so if you agree that this makes sense. These columns are not fully deleted of course, they now just appear in a different tab.
Tab “0. Coding legend + steps”
What is it for?
This is the tab where we keep the overview on how to encode sites.
To do
Please have a look at it and see whether it makes sense to you
Please feel free to amend the section of the tab that you are responsible for.
If something requires a bit of discussion, please do it on the forum
Lead
Every lead takes control of the section on their tab
Tab “1. Overview”
What is it for?
This is the tab where we keep the essential data on the sites. This means that when there are critical changes in the other tabs, some changes will need to be made in this tab.
Scoring only. So it should include the scoring columns, then some extra information if you like (plusses, minusses, …) and then the final column should be “PF?” In that column, if it is a “Y”, then you need to move the site to the next tab (“3. PFS”)
Whatever the outcome though, you always have to create a new line in the “1. Overview” tab, and update the information.
This tab gathers all the information we need to decide on a PFS after a site got a “Y” in the previous tab. So this is where we gather information on owners, price etc.
@sebas: “MOL-28 is still in the old screen table file, not in the new one”
I see that MOL-28 is in the “1. New fiches” folder. If it is not in the new file, I guess that’s simply because we need to create a new line. What I propose is that we wait until the new file is more stable (i.e. the different tabs cleaned up), and that we then copy/paste the information to the new file.
In the meanwhile, can you please keep track of new information entering the old file?
And maybe already start the scoring in the new file?
@Sebas: “AND-40 -Rue Ropsy Chaudron 83 is out of both”
)
). To do that in a safe way I created a “sandbox” (