Task Force Framework
A Task Force is the main working vehicle within the VIVO Community and may be created out of existing Working Groups, the VIVO Management Team, the VIVO Steering Group or any other VIVO group. Task Forces are created to undertake work in a defined area and timescale, thereby allowing collaborative work in a structured environment.
The driver behind adopting this model for executing work in the VIVO community is that as an open source community grows, the diversity of the participants' interests and expertise increases and concomitantly, the ability to manage the work done within the community becomes more complex. It becomes difficult to track the work everyone is doing in the community to help avoid that people unknowingly are working on the same issue or at cross-purposes. There's also the desire to increase the visibility of projects being undertaken by community members and to encourage greater community engagement. To realize these goals, while remaining a distributed and peer-oriented organization, a lightweight Task Force structure assists in coalescing and managing the tasks.
The Task Force model is designed to assert the least possible structure while improving the productivity of the VIVO community. It is derived primarily from the experiences and guidelines of related organizations, including the W3C, the Research Data Alliance, and the Apache Software Foundation, and has been adopted by the Hydra community. The Task Force model has been modified so that it is a component that is easy to plug into the current VIVO governance Structure.
There are already self-organizing groups within the VIVO community focused on various topics, either technical or domain-centric. The Task Force Framework embraces these existing groups and practices, but serves to improve upon them by soliciting greater community engagement to create partnerships. The model makes it is possible to:
- prioritize the work of the community so that it aligns with the VIVO Strategy and Value Proposition
- (No task force should be doing work if the work cannot be directly tied back to the VIVO Strategy and High Priority Goals and Value Proposition)
- provide direction to groups that call for guidance
- increase the visibility of task force activities to the VIVO community at large, and to the Management Team and Steering Group
- provide a lightweight process to ensure that high priority goals are receiving attention and the work is getting done.
- easily document the key processes for getting work done, including:
- preparation of a brief proposal (charter) describing the work to be done
- ensure the members from the community are solicited to engage with the work
- identify objectives and deliverables
- provide guidance and assistance (from the Management Team, Working Group Leads and/or the Steering Group) to increase the productivity of the community and enhance the benefits of emergent community best-practices.
Details outlining how to form a task force, and templates for charter preparation and meeting agendas and notes are provided by following the links below.
For questions about the Task Force Process, Charter Development, or how to determine if the project you want to propose fits within the strategic goals and value proposition of VIVO, please contact Layne Johnson at ljohnson at duraspace.org
How to Form a Task Force
Go to --> this page to find what you need to to create a Task Force
Active VIVO Task Forces
