Group Reference Objects

Target release	Q2 2020
Epic	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-20775
Edition	TBD
Document status	50%

Document owner	Dennis Kittrell (Deactivated)
Designer	Michael Gamble (Deactivated)
Tech lead	Scott Bishel
Technical writers	Justine Geffen (Deactivated)
QA	Rohitesh Gupta (Deactivated)
OKR	Continue to add high priority business improvements for enterprise customers.
Request (CR)	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/CR-4
Request (other)
Design Spec
Technical Spec
Test Plan

Objective

Group objects (whether native or AD/LDAP) are valuable as referenced objects in communication. Groups of people, whether departments, roles, owners, etc. can be needed in a discussion or channel for collaboration purposes. This feature aims to provide that value.

Background

Groups exists within AD/LDAP sync and will soon become an independent feature. Referencing these groups of users is demanded and expected by MM users and administrators.

There is also currently a plugin that was built to accomplish some of the scenarios:

https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost-plugin-autolink

Success metrics

Goal	Metric
Build a useful feature that enables messaging and inviting groups of users with a single command	100% of customers who requested this feature confirm that this is what they want 75% of MM customers with telemetry have at least some daily references to group objects
Make sure abuse is manageable	TBD

User Scenarios

Members (not guests) of any channel can @mention groups of users (e.g. @infosec or @finance)
Members (not guests) can /invite any of those same groups
Admins can choose which groups are available to be referenced
Members can manage notifications for groups mentions (TBD)
Admins can restrict disabling of notifications (TBD)

Assumptions

Phases & Milestones

Design

Develop

UX Review

iOS App

Android

Development

QA

Documentation

Areas Touched

Permissions
System Console UI (Channel Configuration page and permissions)
Chat-facing UI
Groups
Desktop/Mobile Apps

Requirements

	Requirement	User Story	Importance	Jira Issue
1	Allow members to /invite groups by their group name	As a user, I want the ability to add or invite entire groups to a channel	HIGH	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-22445
2	Allow members to @mention groups by their group name	As a user, I want the ability to @mention entire groups and push a notification to that group	HIGH	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-22446
3	Add group names to autocomplete suggestions on invite and mention screens	As a user, I want automated suggestions for groups as a type so that I can more easily find the group I am looking to reference	MEDIUM	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-22447
4	Ability for admins to turn off @mentions for specified groups	As an admin, I want the ability to toggle the above setting on and off for each group	MEDIUM	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-22448
5	Ability for users to mute or turn off notifications from group mentions (TBD)	As a user, I want the ability to turn off notifications for group-referenced notifications	LOW	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-22449
6	Ability for admins to restrict disabling of notifications for specific groups (TBD)	As an admin, I want the ability to restrict the ability to turn off notifications for specific groups	LOW	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-22451

Open Questions

Question	Answer	Date Answered
Does it make sense to allow role @mentions or invites? Such as @system admin or @moderator, etc?
How do we prevent abuse?

Out of Scope

TBD