On 2012-05-18 07:52:50 (+1000), Helen South <helen.south@opensuse.org> wrote:
But as this bugzilla project kicks off, I need /something/ that can help keep track of things because there are going to be a few moving parts to the success of the project, and if there's one thing I've learned about project management over the years, it's that if you don't track what's going on in the project, you'll fail before you even start.
Agreed.
And I don't want to set a project like this up to fail before it even gets off the ground. :)
Perhaps on a more mundane level than project management, a simple workspace for collaborative text would be very useful. We had been talking about our own PiratePad/EtherPad instance - someone did have one going, though there were some issues with access (I guess these things have to be administered = more work). I have yet to find anything more convenient than PiratePad for throwing together ideas together and collaborating. Its downside is security, it's out there in a very open cloud space.
I've noticed a few people using GoogleDocs also.
Collaborative editing is a very different topic actually, let's take that as a separate thread/topic/task.
As an intermediate solution, would you be able to use a management tool of your choice to maintain your own overview, importing/exporting information/lists/calendars to Google Docs?
I believe that there would be real added value in using a "project management tool", especially to - track things that need to be done - dependencies between tasks - whom is taking care of what We definitely don't need gantt charts and probably not even estimations of effort (although it might come handy for a few things if it is used by everyone on openSUSE, e.g. thinking of OBS development). * topics/categories/groups/projects * status (todo, in progress, done, frozen, canceled) * dependencies/links to other tasks * description * comments * integration with opensuse.org accounts and SSO * obviously web based * maybe subtasks * maybe effort estimation and time tracking If we go down that route, and I believe we should, let's make it properly for once and take our time to pick the right tool: * let's gather requirements * let's talk to a few people and teams to see whether they would use it (if there is very low adoption and we just end up with 5 people using it, it's just a burden) * let's make a list of candidates (tools) and see whether people have experience with them and feedback to give (ChiliProject, RedMine, Trac, Trello, Retro, ...) Anyone interested in driving this? I'm definitely interested in taking part as I have some experience with such tools but I'm too swamped to drive it. I must say that personally, I'm a big fan of the Features/"RFC" kind of pages the Fedora folks are doing in their wiki for specific tasks and topics (e.g. introducing systemd, moving everything to /usr, etc...), e.g. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/systemd https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/UsrMove IMHO we should set it up like that and make an RFC page on our wiki to collect all findings, give context, list stakeholders, and ultimately the decision. Document for posterity in a more visible and clear manner, if you will, rather than having it buried in lengthy email threads. No need to slavishly follow the structure of Fedora's pages, they have a slightly different purpose, but most of the document structure could be mimicked (Summary, Owner, Current Status, Detailed Description, Benefits, Roadmap, add "Potential Issues" etc...). cheers -- -o) Pascal Bleser /\\ http://opensuse.org -- we haz green _\_v http://fosdem.org -- we haz conf