It’s been around 6 months since we announced our Diversity fund recipients for 2021, so it’s time for an update on their progress! For this post, we’ve been talking to Milana Cap, TC Cazy, and Estela Rueda. What have they been working on, and what have they achieved with their projects so far? Has everything gone to plan, or were there surprises along the way? We’ve got all the answers, so keep reading!
Checking in with Milana Cap
don’t wait for others to see the need, don’t
waste your time and energy trying to
convince others that it should be done. Do
it.” – Milana Cap
Could you tell us a bit more about yourself?
I’m a freelance WordPress Engineer currently employed by XWP, WordPress Documentation Team co-rep, speaker and WordCamp organiser, ex opera prompter (classical musician by default), single mum, chocolate and bacon worshipper.
Can you tell us more about your project?
I was leading the documentation focus for WordPress 5.8 release. Therefore, it was my responsibility to make sure that complete release related documentation was published in time. This meant:
- checking up with people who volunteered to write parts of it, mostly Dev Notes and end user docs,
- writing parts of it by myself (but always with the help from the others) such as Field Guide, updating changelogs, developer docs etc,
- keeping track of and reporting progress to release squad, and
- keeping Docs team in the loop.
Why did you create this project/program? How did you come up with the idea?
The reason I took the role this time was because the whole process of documenting WordPress releases was unknown to the Documentation team. I wanted not only to get the Docs team familiar with it but also involved as a part of the release process.
How has your project added diversity to WordPress and its community?
We had people who are daily working on WordPress documentation to work on documenting WordPress release. Also, I’m a single mum from Serbia. I don’t think we had one being in the release squad before.
Are there any lessons that you’ve learned from this project?
Yes, definitely. We are doing a shockingly amazing amount of manual work for a project of this size. We are far far away from the time when this was just a fun side project you do in your spare time.
However, the tools we are using are still in that time. Don’t get me wrong, everyone is doing their best but it’s 2022 and we are building a widely used software. Great thing is, however, that other teams in community have the same needs and we can work together in building tools to help us all out.
To what extent have the intended outcomes been achieved?
I’d dare to say that everything planned was achieved. The Docs team was involved and regularly updated the release phases. The release itself was well documented and everything was published in time. I’m very pleased with the outcome.
Were there any unintended positive outcomes?
Yes, some Documentation team contributors became more interested in continuing their contributions while new ideas of more cross-team collaborations were born and we are doing our best to make them work.
What does the future of your project look like? Can others contribute to it too?
Of course. Anyone can contribute to WordPress documentation.
What would you love to work on next? Do you have any plans?
I’m very lucky to have some of my time in the Documentation team being sponsored by XWP and I’m planning to reset some stalled projects but also to work on a few new ones we, as a team, have been discussing. There is really so much work waiting that it’s hard to pick one thing.
My great wish is to work on the Core and Docs teams collaboration which would consist of dedicated documentor “shadowing” developer’s work, asking questions and understanding that specific piece of code and, by the time the code is ready for merging into core, we would have complete documentation with code examples ready. Ultimate goal is to never again have a feature being released without proper end user and developer documentation published. Yes, I said “again”.
Has working on this project helped your personal development?
Of course. There is hardly anything you can do at WordPress.org that wouldn’t help your personal development. After being more than a decade in open source I’d say you can always count on at least one aspect of personal development – revealing to yourself yet another skill you have. It’s a rather intoxicating feeling of being a better self each day.
Do you have any advice for others who want to work on a project like this?
Do it. If you want something to be done don’t wait for others to see the need, don’t waste your time and energy trying to convince others that it should be done. Do it.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your project?
If you can’t document software can you really claim that you understand it? If you can, I’ll be waiting for you in the #docs channel. I’ll bring the cookies