Re: Q to all candidates: about advancing Debian (as organisation) while not being DPL
* Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org> [2019-04-03 09:00]:
> So, in general, I fear that the candidates may be over-estimating how
> much of the DPL's tasks can be delegated to teams or other individuals.
>
> A lot of teams have entirely-legitimate questions before acting (for
> example, checking over some document) and often check-in with the DPL,
> asking for advice, guidance or whether the Leader's experience or
> contacts mean they have been exposed to a novel angle or approach to
> what they are trying to achieve. This is, of course, eminently sensible
> and healthy IMHO.
>
> More importantly however the majority of tasks that land on a DPLs
> plate may technically and «prima facie» be delegatable but the total
> time and energy required to forward it, ensure it is correctly
> followed-up on, context switch, ping later, forward any replies, etc.
> etc. etc. regretfully exceed said time/energy of just "getting it
> done" yourself to begin with.
I definitely agree with your observations. I struggled to respond to
Laura's question for this reason. Yes, in theory a lot of things can
be delegated. But in practice, based on my experience in the past, a
lot of stuff will end up on the DPL's plate and is hard to delegate
(for whatever reason).
So while the DPL should be smart about delegating and asking for help,
I think we also have to be realistic that being DPL is a lot of work.
(FWIW, for the reasons you describe, I'm not sure Jonathan's
dpl pseudo BTS idea is going to work in practice, although I'm curious
to see.)
--
Martin Michlmayr
https://www.cyrius.com/
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