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| 1 | +Aalto SciComp values and culture |
| 2 | +================================ |
| 3 | + |
| 4 | +As a team grows, it's useful to outline its values and the way it |
| 5 | +works. This is our team's attempt at that. |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +Core values |
| 10 | +----------- |
| 11 | + |
| 12 | +1. We are researchers who aren't academics. |
| 13 | +2. University research needs more than papers to succeed and help society. |
| 14 | +3. Superstar team and processes, not superstar people. |
| 15 | +4. Radical openness. |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +Explanations: |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +(1) **We are researchers who aren't academics**. Research is far more |
| 20 | + than publications. We help round out the skillset that |
| 21 | + high-performing teams need, even if we aren't directly involved in |
| 22 | + publications. |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +(2) **University research needs more than papers to succeed and help |
| 25 | + society.** Software, data, and general skills are important |
| 26 | + university impacts. We recognize this and help to keep it going. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +(3) **Superstar team and processes, not superstar people.** |
| 29 | + "Superstar" isn't a good term because it glorifies single things, |
| 30 | + but our society works because all the parts work together. Even |
| 31 | + our team only works because it's a part of a broader university, |
| 32 | + national, and international ecosystem. But still, if we have to |
| 33 | + say something is our "superstar", it's the way our team works |
| 34 | + together (people+processes), not any individual people. |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +4. **Radical openness.** We are open by design, there are few reasons |
| 37 | + to hide our work. Something doesn't have to be perfect to be |
| 38 | + findable. We also want to set good examples for the university community. |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | + |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +Cultural practices |
| 43 | +------------------ |
| 44 | + |
| 45 | +a. Remote first so that everyone can participate. |
| 46 | +b. Working at the speed and chaos of the research. |
| 47 | +c. Garage binds all our work together. |
| 48 | +d. Work is quite independent but we always help each other first. |
| 49 | +e. Technology is harder than it should be. |
| 50 | +f. Helping people use technology is hard. We work hard to get good at it. |
| 51 | +g. No private messages so we can work together. |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +Explanations: |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | +(a) **Remote first so that everyone can participate.** We are |
| 56 | + professionals in the middle of our careers. We have many things |
| 57 | + going on besides work, which we need to allow people to work |
| 58 | + around. All of our core activities should be attendable remotely, |
| 59 | + so that our team members will never have to choose between their |
| 60 | + personal life, health, etc. and taking part in the team. |
| 61 | + |
| 62 | + On the flip side, we understand the need for team connections and |
| 63 | + try to have good team-building and customer-interaction events, |
| 64 | + in-person and otherwise. |
| 65 | + |
| 66 | +(b) **Working at the speed and chaos of the research.** Research is |
| 67 | + fast-paced and agile. We acknowledge this and try to work at that |
| 68 | + speed, getting stuff done at the right speed for research and |
| 69 | + development, even if it's not the perfect solution long-term. We |
| 70 | + take these short-term lessons and work to make proper long-term |
| 71 | + solutions once the patterns emerge. |
| 72 | + |
| 73 | +(c) **Garage binds all our work together.** The :doc:`/help/garage` |
| 74 | + session is a time our team can come together to help others, but |
| 75 | + also help ourselves. It allows us a time to chat with each other |
| 76 | + (internally) without having to book a meeting every time. Garage |
| 77 | + attendance isn't required every day, but people should come when |
| 78 | + it makes sense. |
| 79 | + |
| 80 | +(d) **Work is quite independent but we always help each other first.** |
| 81 | + Even though we work very independently, we are a team. We should |
| 82 | + take the time to help each other first, since that keeps the whole |
| 83 | + team running smoothly. |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +(e) **Technology is harder than it should be.** These days, computing |
| 86 | + is in every field (that's why we are here). But computing is |
| 87 | + harder than it should be: there is so much stuff to learn, user |
| 88 | + interfaces can be so esoteric, and there are so many different |
| 89 | + paths to people's final goals. We acknowledge this and support |
| 90 | + users where and how they are. We should never blame users for not |
| 91 | + knowing enough, but blame the technology for being so difficult to |
| 92 | + use. |
| 93 | + |
| 94 | +(f) **Helping people use technology is hard. We work hard to get good |
| 95 | + at it.** Continuing from the above, it takes skill to help others |
| 96 | + with technology. It's easy to fall into traps of user-blaming or |
| 97 | + getting frustrated. We need intentional effort and practice to be |
| 98 | + the best supporters we can be. |
| 99 | + |
| 100 | +(g) **No private messages so we can work together.** It's easy to |
| 101 | + think "this is just noise, I will send private messages". But |
| 102 | + that means that only a few people can answer and no one else |
| 103 | + learns the solutions. Use public channels to ask generic |
| 104 | + questions instead of choosing a recipient and asking them. Zulip |
| 105 | + chat is good at organizing lots of information without a person |
| 106 | + needing to read everything. Of course, purely personal matters |
| 107 | + like absences, one-on-one meetings, continuing one-on-one work, is |
| 108 | + quite fine by private message. |
| 109 | + |
| 110 | + |
| 111 | + |
| 112 | +Discussion |
| 113 | +---------- |
| 114 | + |
| 115 | +(to be added) |
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