watonomous.github.io

  1. Knowledge Base
  2. Knowledge Base Home
  3. Term Transitions

[ Knowledge Base : Transitioning leadership ]

Created by [ Rowan Dempster], last modified on Dec 24, 2019

Abstract

The transition between terms for the team has historically been very messy, with handoff of work to be done and objectives being unclear and confusing. For this reason, this document was created as a checklist of all things that should be done near the end of a term, as well as the timeline for this.

Formation of next term's team

The skeleton of the next term's team, formed from existing members, should be formed approximately 8 weeks before the start of the term. The Director, Managers, and initial Technical Lead roles should be all filled through this process. The process for filling these roles internally is as follows

  1. The Division Director will send out a Google Form asking relevant questions, such as availability (active / advisory), location (i.e. in Waterloo), and desired Group, to all existing and former Division members. The Managers should ensure that all existing members in their Group complete this survey. This step should take a week.
  1. In a meeting with all Division Managers and Technical Leads, the next term's Director and Managers should be decided based on managerial skills and desire for the role from the existing Managers and Technical Leads. Candidates for these roles may be nominated by any existing Technical Leads, Managers, Directors, and Captains and be promoted with consent from the previous term's Division's Director and Captains.
  1. (Software only) The Technical Leads positions will then be filled among the returning active Technical Leads (or Managers) and returning active Core Members to the same team that have demonstrated great technical ability in their group's stack. Core Members will be promoted with a nomination from the previous term's Managers and Technical Leads with be approved by the Group's Manager and the Division Director.
  1. Returning Core Members may be approved to return to the Group with consent from the Group's Manager for the previous term. For core members returning to a different Group or Division, see the Internal Transfers policy.
  1. The previous terms Managers will then assess the desired team sizes and determine how many Core Member roles each Group would hire. This information will be communicated to the recruiting team.

Shadow Period

The incoming leadership team (Director, Managers, Technical Leads) who were not in the same role on the previous term will be notified of their selection through a 1:1 meeting with the previous term's Director, and asked to confirm the position. Once confirmed, the leaders will begin a shadow period of at least one month, where they will attend all related meetings and gradually take over leadership responsibilities from the previous term's holder.

Setting of Objectives and Key Results

Approximately 2 weeks before the start of the term, the outgoing Division Director should create draft OKRs for the next term. The previous term's and incoming leadership teams will hold a meeting to discuss the OKRs set and approve them.

Mentorship

All new members to the team will be assigned a Technical Lead as a mentor for the first month. The mentor will be their point of contact for questions and onboarding help. The job of the mentor is to ensure a successful onboarding process and check up on the new member's work, perform code reviews, and help them learn through pair programming sessions.

Management Training

Before the beginning of each term, the Team Captains will put every new Director, Manager, and Tech Lead through a course to train them on how to use WATonomous' management tools.

Document generated by Confluence on Nov 19, 2021 12:21

Atlassian