8 Deliverable Management and Quality Assurance

FORRT’s outputs—ranging from pedagogical materials to meta-scientific reports—are created by decentralized teams of volunteers and collaborators. To maintain consistency and credibility, this chapter outlines a shared approach for managing deliverables and ensuring quality across teams and projects.

8.1 What Counts as a Deliverable?

A “deliverable” is any finalized, shareable output of a FORRT project, such as: - Lesson plans, glossaries, summaries, and syllabi - Educational slide decks and speaker notes - Reports, position papers, and preprints - Tools, guides, or templates developed for educators or researchers - Visuals, outreach assets, or digital tools

Deliverables may be made publicly available on the FORRT website, OSF, GitHub, Zenodo, or partner platforms.

8.2 Deliverable Lifecycle

Stage Description
Drafting Teams develop content collaboratively using shared docs or GitHub repos.
Internal Review Peers from within or beyond the team give feedback and suggest revisions.
Finalization The team incorporates feedback, polishes structure and formatting.
Publication Deliverables are made publicly available with proper licenses and metadata.
Promotion The Outreach team supports dissemination and visibility.

[OPEN QUESTION: Should FORRT teams maintain a lightweight deliverable tracker? Could this be integrated with the community calendar or Slack updates?]

8.3 Document Structure and Templates

To ensure consistency, FORRT encourages teams to follow this general deliverable structure:

  1. Title Page (including project name, contributors, date, and version)
  2. Table of Contents (for documents longer than 5 pages)
  3. Executive Summary (optional, recommended for lengthy reports)
  4. Main Content (structured in clear, numbered sections)
  5. Acknowledgments (including contributors and reviewers)
  6. References (formatted consistently)
  7. Appendices (if needed)
  8. Licensing Info (e.g., CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

A shared [Deliverable Template – LINK TO TEMPLATE] is available and can be adapted per project needs.

8.4 Internal Review Process

FORRT encourages a light, transparent, and supportive review process before any major deliverable is released:

  • Step 1: Peer Review
    • At least one team member not involved in the core drafting process reviews the document.
    • Larger deliverables (e.g., reports) may benefit from two reviewers.
  • Step 2: Revisions
    • Authors incorporate feedback and notify reviewers when finalized.
  • Step 3: Optional Community Feedback
    • For larger strategic documents, team leads may invite feedback from other teams or the Steering Council.
  • Step 4: Public Release
    • Deliverables are published to OSF, GitHub, or the FORRT website as appropriate.

[INSERT LINK TO INTERNAL REVIEW CHECKLIST OR FEEDBACK TEMPLATE IF AVAILABLE]

8.5 Style and Formatting

  • Use inclusive, accessible language.
  • Avoid jargon where possible or define key terms clearly.
  • Check spelling and grammar.
  • Use consistent headings and formatting.
  • Provide alt-text for images/diagrams when applicable.

[OPEN QUESTION: Should we develop an editorial style guide for FORRT materials?]

8.6 Licensing and Attribution

All deliverables should: - Be openly licensed (e.g., CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 unless otherwise agreed) - List all contributors clearly (using CRediT roles if relevant) - Link to source files and relevant FORRT teams

[INSERT LINK TO LICENSING POLICY AND CREDiT ROLES OVERVIEW]

8.7 Archiving and Access

Final versions of deliverables should be: - Stored in the relevant shared team folder (Google Drive or OSF) - Archived publicly (OSF or Zenodo preferred) - Added to any central deliverable list or project overview page

[OPEN QUESTION: Who is responsible for maintaining a central archive index? Should this fall under the Operations Coordinator or be team-specific?]

8.8 Summary

Step Responsible Party Where / How
Drafting Team contributors Google Docs, GitHub
Peer Review Team members Shared doc or tracked comments
Final Edits Lead author / team lead Versioned and formatted in shared folder
Public Release Team lead OSF, GitHub, FORRT site
Promotion Outreach + team Social media, newsletter, blog, etc.

[INSERT LINKS: Templates, style guide (if created), archiving policy, deliverable list]

This shared process is not meant to be a burden—it’s a scaffold to help FORRT contributors create sustainable, reusable, and professional outputs together.