The Production Working Group has long been an umbrella for a number of different teams working on different aspects of production.  These range from the more formally constituted bug squad, documentation and translation teams to informal groups that come together to push development of a particular feature or pursue some other idea.  Producing a world-leading software product like Joomla requires the contribution of time and attention from a large number of different people.  One of the issues we come across repeatedly is how to direct potential contributors to areas of the project where they can have the most rewarding and fun experience by being able to work on stuff that matters to them.  So at the recent PLT Summit we discussed how we might improve the organisation of the production process to encourage more people to get involved and make it easier for potential contributors to get together and be productive.

Today we are announcing a new scheme to encourage groups of people to come together to work on specific areas that we think require particular attention and work.  Each of these teams will be led by one or more community members who will foster collaboration within the group and communicate on a regular basis with the Production Leadership Team (PLT).

To support the discovery process, all the teams and their coordinators will be listed on this wiki page:https://docs.joomla.org/Production_Working_Groups.  Each entry in the list will give a brief description of what the group was formed to achieve and the name and email of the person or persons coordinating the team.  If you are interested in helping out with the work of any of the teams listed, then simply contact one of the coordinators listed.

Community members are free to propose new working groups by following the procedure outlined on the wiki page.  The PLT will review the proposal and probably ask further questions.  If approved, the new working group will be listed on the wiki page and you are all set to go.  Each group can choose to use whatever resources and communications channels that make sense for them and the wiki page may include links to further information, ongoing communications or other items of relevance to the team.

Working groups will exist until the job they were set up to do has been completed.  Which means that some teams, like the Bug Squad, will be permanent, while others will form and disband in the space of a single release cycle.

These working groups must follow our expected values of openness, inclusion and collaboration.  They must follow the mission, vision and values of the Joomla project. Regular communication between the working group coordinators and the PLT is expected and it would be great if the teams could blog periodically so that the wider community can be kept in touch with progress.