Process for making suggestions

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
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chriswoodut
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Posts: 417
Joined: Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:42 am
Location: Utah

Process for making suggestions

#1

Post by chriswoodut »

[Moderator note: I split this topic from the original topic MLS: Org calling windows too small, since it deals with a separate issue.]

I appreciate the increase in attention the church is giving to utilizing video, websites, etc. However I think there are a lot of tools that could have a big impact on making people's callings easier that don't get any attention.

What is frustrating is that when I come to the tech forum to make a suggestion, it really doesn't go anywhere. I've never found a way to suggest anything that would get an idea on the development departments radar. This causes me to not share would could be potentially really good ideas. (I have a systems and development background.)

Maybe there should be a formal process for suggesting ideas on the tech forum and for people being able to vote on them. Then, the dev team could at least commit to looking at the list for consideration.

Anyway, I'm rambling.
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aebrown
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Location: Draper, Utah

Re: Process for making suggestions

#2

Post by aebrown »

chriswoodut wrote:I appreciate the increase in attention the church is giving to utilizing video, websites, etc. However I think there are a lot of tools that could have a big impact on making people's callings easier that don't get any attention.
In the topic you originally made this post to, you're talking about a particular issue in MLS. As others have pointed out, it is quite clear that the Church has a strategic direction to move MLS functionality to LDS.org. It's been a long time since I've seen any enhancements made to MLS that were not related to the way that MLS interacts with various backend systems. That certainly fits in with the strategic direction, whereas adjusting the size of the window used for callings would not. I'm sure you're referring to additional enhancements beyond that one suggestion, but the same principles would apply.
chriswoodut wrote:What is frustrating is that when I come to the tech forum to make a suggestion, it really doesn't go anywhere. I've never found a way to suggest anything that would get an idea on the development departments radar. This causes me to not share would could be potentially really good ideas. (I have a systems and development background.)
This is a community forum, so it's not surprising that suggestions made here get discussed by other community members, but is not a reliable way to communicate with CHQ.

A large number of the participants here also have systems and development backgrounds.
chriswoodut wrote:Maybe there should be a formal process for suggesting ideas on the tech forum and for people being able to vote on them. Then, the dev team could at least commit to looking at the list for consideration.
Once upon a time, we had such a mechanism on the wiki. But the product managers told us that they were not looking at that list, so we discontinued it.

The bottom line is that although the users of these tools are clerks, leaders, and others with relevant callings, we are not the customers. The customer is the Priesthood Department. That doesn't mean that the product managers have no interest in what the members may suggest, but I don't think there's much value in setting up a formal process as you suggest.

You can always make individual suggestions following the process that is documented in each copy of the MLS release notes:
MLS Release Notes wrote:To report an issue, you can either send an e-mail or call us. When e-mailing us about an issue, please include enough detail so we can reproduce the issue.

E-mail: MLSSupport@ldschurch.org
Phone (Salt Lake City area): 801-240-3500
Phone (toll free): 1-855-537-4357
genman
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Re: Process for making suggestions

#3

Post by genman »

chriswoodut wrote:What is frustrating is that when I come to the tech forum to make a suggestion, it really doesn't go anywhere. I've never found a way to suggest anything that would get an idea on the development departments radar.
A sure fire way of "getting an idea on the development department's radar" is if your Bishop agreed that it was a critical issue and he passed it to your Stake President who agreed that it was a critical issue and he passed it to the Area Authority who also passed it on as a critical issue. In that scenario, it will get on the development department's radar faster than you would believe. We had such an issue with a critical software bug on LDS.org, and it was resolved and released within 2 days of having raised it. Having said that, not many "user suggestions" fall into the category that would warrant that kind of priority, nor that would warrant bothering the Bishop and the Stake President about. The development department may have a reputation for not acting quickly on suggestions or for being slow to release fixes, but that is not true when those requests come from someone with Priesthood keys.
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