Make it Happen 4.4 - submit your campaigns now

We are currently shortlisting Make it Happen campaigns for the 4.4 release.  For those not familiar with Make it Happen (MIH), it is a way to crowd source the functionality you'd like to see in CiviCRM. We want to have a finalised list of MIH ready for people to contribute to online by April 14th. If you have been thinking about an MIH for a while, now is the time to submit it for the 4.4 release.

For the 4.4 release, we've put a bit of effort into documenting the MIH process.  Here is a quick Q+A on MIH for 4.4 explaining how we'd like things to happen this time around.  It would be great to hear people's feedback on this.

What makes a good Make it Happen?

It is probably worth saying at this point that Make it Happens are not your typical 'feature request' so please don't think of them as your chance to 'blue sky' all the features that you would like in CiviCRM, sit back, and watch the magic happen (if only it were that simple!).  Better to think of MIH as an opportunity for you play an active role in getting some functionality you and other need into CiviCRM.

Here are a few bullet points on what we think makes a good MIH.  Your candidate MIH campaign needs to meet these criteria to be shortlisted.

• good management - MIH needs a lead person that will be responsible to guiding them to completion.  Someone who will take responsibility for specing out the requirements, promoting the fundrasing campaign, ensuring that development stays on track, and that the code is  properly tested and meet users needs.  Of course others will be happy to help and support you in doing this, but each MIH will have a named lead, and leading an MIH is a significant commitment .
• they are fundable - one key difference between those thousands of lovely feature requests out there on the forums and our final MIH selection is how likely they are to be funded.  We want the majority of our MIH to reach their fundraising goals and try and identfiy those MIH that are most likely to do so. We don't have a crystal ball, but we have noticed that there is a strong correlation between MIH that have 'seed' funding and those that reach their goals.  If you can part/seed the campaign and know a few others that will join in (and you are prepared to cajoal them into doing so) that is a good sign.
• they fulfil an identified need - MIH that fills a recognised gap in CiviCRM are good.  If your MIH fulfils needs that have been requested / discussed a lot on the forums, it stands a higher chance of being successful. Your MIH should have been discussed on the forum or similar and there should be some evidence that it is likely to get funded. 

What should I do next?

We're spending the next couple of weeks finalising MIH.  If you have been thinking about an MIH, now is the time to talk to us about it. Make sure you are familiar with our MIH process (you should be if you have read this blog post and make it happen wiki page),add your MIH as a child page to the Wiki as soon as possible.

Posting on the forums to discuss your MIH or bloging to get a wider audience and more comments is probably a good idea at this stage.

What does the MIH cycle look like?

Our first priority is to get the MIH finalised.  After that, we'll be following the timetable below (co-ordinated with our new 6 month release cycle for 4.4).

Who develops MIH?

There are typically two ways that we approach MIH.  Some MIH are carried out by the core team.  Others are carried out by trusted developers on behalf of CiviCRM.  We are open to both types.  Let us know which would work for you in your MIH page.