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The Circle of Life: Plan, Do, Check, Act, Repeat for the TYPO3 Project

Categories: Development, Community, Association, TYPO3 CMS Created by Rachel Foucard
How do we organize TYPO3 product development to both innovate, improve, and maintain? The Product Strategy Group introduces the Shewhart/Deming cycle for continuous improvement of product and process through community.

The Product Strategy Group would like to make contribution easier. Contribution to a large open source project like ours is difficult, unless you know where your contribution belongs, who to talk to, how decisions are made, and how tasks are distributed and executed. We have decided to lay out the TYPO3 product lifecycle as a repeating improvement process with research, innovation, strategic prioritization, planning, and implementation.

Building the Community, Then the CMS

This new perspective on the product lifecycle introduces some new roles, but it is not a disruptive change. It is meant to wrap around, support, and clarify the role of existing structures in a lifecycle guided by research and strategy. With a clearer understanding of process and structure, new people and ideas will find their place more easily.

The Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle was originally developed more than 100 years ago by Walter Shewhart, and then modified by W. Edwards Deming. It was picked up in Japan and used by Toyota, where it was called “building people before building cars.” This fits well with our approach to the cycle: We want to build the community as a way to build the CMS.

A circular diagram on an orange background divided into four quadrants labeled: Plan, Do, Check, Act. Each section has an arrow pointing clockwise, illustrating a continuous improvement cycle.
With a clearer understanding of process and structure, new people and ideas will find their place more easily. The Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) cycle fits well with our approach.

Because our product is already in development, we have also chosen to start the process at check (or study), rather than at the usual plan stage. This allows us to get straight into the research and innovation, and start a Check, Act, Plan, Do cycle.

Overview of the Four Steps

The four repeating steps are Check, Act, Plan, and Do. Let’s have a look at each of them:

Check — Research and Innovation

Check is all about research and innovation. This is where new ideas are created by the community. Each idea should be founded in research and tested with the target audience. Both internal and external information should be used, and external experts may be brought in to contribute outside perspectives.

Flowchart titled CHECK showing interactions between external experts, research results, innovation results, leading to stats & data from interviews, market research, UX innovation, which then feed into innovation & research ideas.
Check is all about research and innovation. New ideas are created by the community within smaller groups.

New ideas are created within smaller groups with a task-specific lifecycle or long-term continued study. Here’s four examples of research topics the community has worked on or is currently working with:

  • Stats and data analysis can show if TYPO3 is on the right path and reveal new or changing user behaviors and needs.
  • Jobs-to-be-done interviews with relevant stakeholders have been performed to document how real users experience working with the CMS, showing us where we have work to do.
  • Market research helps us see what other CMS platforms are doing and what users are looking for in a content management system. How can we make our platform unique and attractive?
  • User experience research allows us to test how using TYPO3 could change in order to make users happier and allow them to reach their goals faster.

Innovation around future ways to manage content should also become a significant part of this step.

Act — Making Strategic Decisions

The research and innovation of the Check step leads to research conclusions and recommendations that must be reviewed in a strategic perspective. Some key questions are:

  • What is right to do now?
  • What are the concrete goals and how are the priorities?
  • Does it fit with what we’re already committed to?
  • Do we have the resources to pull this idea off as envisioned?
Flowchart titled "act" on an orange background illustrating a process: Ideas and initiatives, Innovation results, and Research results lead to a Strategy Group. Based on the input, this group provides a strategy output.
The research and innovation of the Check step is reviewed in a strategic perspective. The Product Strategy group works with stakeholders to make strategy decisions.

The Product Strategy Team works with stakeholders in the TYPO3 Association, the TYPO3 Company, and the community at large to make these decisions. The priorities are brought to the Roadmap Group.

Plan — Putting It On the Roadmap

The Roadmap Group is responsible for the third step of the process. Once a strategic priority has been found, it is their task to plan the execution and put it on a timeline. If it is important enough, it will have to be added to the roadmap for the next TYPO3 version.

Flowchart titled "plan". Strategy leads to Roadmap Group with five person icons, then an output arrow to Roadmap & coordination. Background has an orange hue.
The Roadmap Group will consist of people responsible for coordinating and planning the task into their area of the TYPO3 product and ecosystem. Once a strategic priority has been found, it is their task to plan the execution.

The composition is not final, but the Roadmap Group will consist of people responsible for coordinating and planning the task into their area of the TYPO3 product and ecosystem, for example:

  • Feature — The practical development of each concrete feature within the TYPO3 Core.
  • Knowledge — Documenting the feature, defining related best practices, how to learn about it, and how to verify that knowledge.
  • Compliance — Ensuring the feature’s compatibility with future versions and compliance with regulations and TYPO3’s quality standards.
  • Infrastructure — Integration and compatibility with the toolsets, platforms, and portals surrounding TYPO3.

Do — Making the Product’s Future a Reality

The final step in the circle is where most practical things happen. It is the step where the feature is implemented into the product (TYPO3) and the surrounding ecosystem. This is probably the part you recognize most today, as many of today’s teams perform tasks relating to implementing the feature, knowledge, compliance, and infrastructure parts.

Indeed, in this step, feature, knowledge, compliance, and infrastructure each become a unit — or collection — of teams that may handle specific sub-parts of the implementation. Based on the strategic decisions and product roadmap, this is where the implementation decisions are made.

Flowchart with orange background. Includes sections for Innovation, Product, Feature, Knowledge, Compliance, and Infrastructure. Arrows indicate input of roadmap and coordination and output as product, as well as innovation and research ideas.
Feature, knowledge, compliance, and infrastructure each become a collection of teams. Based on the strategic decisions and product roadmap, this is where the implementation decisions are made.

Let's make an example and put some existing teams into the units:

  • Feature — Core Team (though working in smaller task-specific groups)
  • Knowledge — Documentation, Certification, Best Practice, etc.
  • Compliance — Accessibility, Security, etc.
  • Infrastructure — Server, TER, typo3.org, etc.

Though different features may have an emphasis within one or two units, quality assurance and good governance demands that it should always be considered as a task for all four of them. This way, a feature will not be implemented in the Core without also (to over-simplify) being documented, secured, and supported.

Continuing the Circle

And how does the circle repeat? Much as it is today, it is the teams that make things happen and that come up with new ideas. Although some new ideas may come from the outside, teams can form research and innovation groups, whose conclusions are validated against TYPO3’s strategic long-term goals, put on the roadmap, and finally implemented.

But implemented by whom? No longer by a single team, but as a joint effort by everyone involved in the TYPO3 product and ecosystem development. This includes you! Your work matters and community contributions will truly be welcomed. Whether you're a seasoned contributor or just getting started, your input is valued, and we’re here to support you. Let’s build TYPO3 together!

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