Interest in project management

[byersa]

Project management was one of the topics that David listed as a possible
task at the upcoming hackathon. I am interested in that topic and am
wondering how many others are. I would like to start a thread here to
capture what project management means to the community. Here are some of my
topics to comment on:

0. OVERALL GOALS - Is it to be a general project manager or an OFBiz
specific one?

1. DESIGN - to what extend does the app capture the design. Does it read
controller.xml, services.xml, widget, etc. files? For what purpose? One
thought is to do some validation of what files are there and what ones are
missing?

2. GENERATION - is there a reason to try to generate any of the structure?

3. TESTING - should the project manager be a place from which to run tests?

4. TASK MANAGEMENT - should the app try to duplicate xplanner?

5. TIE IN TO BILLING - should it create invoices from completed tasks?

6. VERSION CONTROL - to what extent should the project manager keep track of
versions? of the tests?

7. ACTIVITY DOCUMENTATION - keep a history of notes, emails, test results...
?

8. ???

-Al

[David E Jones-2]

On Jan 10, 2007, at 10:05 AM, Al Byers wrote:

> Project management was one of the topics that David listed as a  
> possible
> task at the upcoming hackathon. I am interested in that topic and am
> wondering how many others are. I would like to start a thread here to
> capture what project management means to the community. Here are  
> some of my
> topics to comment on:
>
> 0. OVERALL GOALS - Is it to be a general project manager or an OFBiz
> specific one?

Written in OFBiz, but just like the current stuff it would be as  
generic as possible, but tuned for the service industry, which most  
of is have relevant, recent experience in.

> 1. DESIGN - to what extend does the app capture the design. Does it  
> read
> controller.xml, services.xml, widget, etc. files? For what purpose?  
> One
> thought is to do some validation of what files are there and what  
> ones are
> missing?
>
> 2. GENERATION - is there a reason to try to generate any of the  
> structure?

I'm lost on what you mean by #1 and #2 - what would these have to do  
with a project management app?

> 3. TESTING - should the project manager be a place from which to  
> run tests?

Again, I'm not sure what this has to do with project management. We  
could certainly have a place to track that deliverables have been  
checked and verified by those involved in the company with project  
oversight, and/or by the client as well.

> 4. TASK MANAGEMENT - should the app try to duplicate xplanner?

Well, I don't know if xplanner would be the model for this, but yes,  
we'd have task management just as already implemented in the  
WorkEffort manager.

> 5. TIE IN TO BILLING - should it create invoices from completed tasks?

Yes, and in fact the time tracking and adding to invoices is already  
implemented, though may need to be refined as the application matures.

> 6. VERSION CONTROL - to what extent should the project manager keep  
> track of
> versions? of the tests?
>
> 7. ACTIVITY DOCUMENTATION - keep a history of notes, emails, test  
> results...
> ?

This could certainly be done, and most of this is already implemented  
too, especially all of the communication stuff.

This "project management" piece would involve handling requests,  
quotes, requirements, work efforts (including projects, tasks, sub-
tasks, etc, etc). Ideally we'd want it to handle everything it could  
to make our lives easier!

-David

[byersa]

On 1/10/07, David E Jones <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
>
> On Jan 10, 2007, at 10:05 AM, Al Byers wrote:
>
> > Project management was one of the topics that David listed as a
> > possible
> > task at the upcoming hackathon. I am interested in that topic and am
> > wondering how many others are. I would like to start a thread here to
> > capture what project management means to the community. Here are
> > some of my
> > topics to comment on:
> >
> > 0. OVERALL GOALS - Is it to be a general project manager or an OFBiz
> > specific one?
>
> Written in OFBiz, but just like the current stuff it would be as
> generic as possible, but tuned for the service industry, which most
> of is have relevant, recent experience in.
>
> > 1. DESIGN - to what extend does the app capture the design. Does it
> > read
> > controller.xml, services.xml, widget, etc. files? For what purpose?
> > One
> > thought is to do some validation of what files are there and what
> > ones are
> > missing?
> >
> > 2. GENERATION - is there a reason to try to generate any of the
> > structure?
>
> I'm lost on what you mean by #1 and #2 - what would these have to do
> with a project management app?
>
> > 3. TESTING - should the project manager be a place from which to
> > run tests?
>
> Again, I'm not sure what this has to do with project management. We
> could certainly have a place to track that deliverables have been
> checked and verified by those involved in the company with project
> oversight, and/or by the client as well.
>
> > 4. TASK MANAGEMENT - should the app try to duplicate xplanner?
>
> Well, I don't know if xplanner would be the model for this, but yes,
> we'd have task management just as already implemented in the
> WorkEffort manager.
>
> > 5. TIE IN TO BILLING - should it create invoices from completed tasks?
>
> Yes, and in fact the time tracking and adding to invoices is already
> implemented, though may need to be refined as the application matures.
>
> > 6. VERSION CONTROL - to what extent should the project manager keep
> > track of
> > versions? of the tests?
> >
> > 7. ACTIVITY DOCUMENTATION - keep a history of notes, emails, test
> > results...
> > ?
>
> This could certainly be done, and most of this is already implemented
> too, especially all of the communication stuff.
>
> This "project management" piece would involve handling requests,
> quotes, requirements, work efforts (including projects, tasks, sub-
> tasks, etc, etc). Ideally we'd want it to handle everything it could
> to make our lives easier!

I was thinking rather abstractly, but I was envisioning the case where I
would have several OFBiz projects going at one time and was thinking of
things that would make my life easier. I figured if I had an internal
document describing the app to be created then I could reference those items
with tasks more easily. The same thing with testing. I would like to push a
button and see the status of development in graphical format. As for the
generation, if the design doc is very OFBiz aware and centric, then I don't
see any reason to be handcoding boilerplate code.

Those are my thoughts, but I really just wanted to get some discussion
going.

-Al

-David
>
>
>
>

[Andrew Sykes]

Al,

I like the idea of a bit of auto-generation, I've looked at this a few
times, but always thought it would be more appropriate in an Eclipse
plugin or something similar...

Is OfBiz itself the correct place to auto-generate code?

- Andrew

On Wed, 2007-01-10 at 23:48 -0700, Al Byers wrote:

> On 1/10/07, David E Jones <[hidden email]> wrote:
> >
> >
> > On Jan 10, 2007, at 10:05 AM, Al Byers wrote:
> >
> > > Project management was one of the topics that David listed as a
> > > possible
> > > task at the upcoming hackathon. I am interested in that topic and am
> > > wondering how many others are. I would like to start a thread here to
> > > capture what project management means to the community. Here are
> > > some of my
> > > topics to comment on:
> > >
> > > 0. OVERALL GOALS - Is it to be a general project manager or an OFBiz
> > > specific one?
> >
> > Written in OFBiz, but just like the current stuff it would be as
> > generic as possible, but tuned for the service industry, which most
> > of is have relevant, recent experience in.
> >
> > > 1. DESIGN - to what extend does the app capture the design. Does it
> > > read
> > > controller.xml, services.xml, widget, etc. files? For what purpose?
> > > One
> > > thought is to do some validation of what files are there and what
> > > ones are
> > > missing?
> > >
> > > 2. GENERATION - is there a reason to try to generate any of the
> > > structure?
> >
> > I'm lost on what you mean by #1 and #2 - what would these have to do
> > with a project management app?
> >
> > > 3. TESTING - should the project manager be a place from which to
> > > run tests?
> >
> > Again, I'm not sure what this has to do with project management. We
> > could certainly have a place to track that deliverables have been
> > checked and verified by those involved in the company with project
> > oversight, and/or by the client as well.
> >
> > > 4. TASK MANAGEMENT - should the app try to duplicate xplanner?
> >
> > Well, I don't know if xplanner would be the model for this, but yes,
> > we'd have task management just as already implemented in the
> > WorkEffort manager.
> >
> > > 5. TIE IN TO BILLING - should it create invoices from completed tasks?
> >
> > Yes, and in fact the time tracking and adding to invoices is already
> > implemented, though may need to be refined as the application matures.
> >
> > > 6. VERSION CONTROL - to what extent should the project manager keep
> > > track of
> > > versions? of the tests?
> > >
> > > 7. ACTIVITY DOCUMENTATION - keep a history of notes, emails, test
> > > results...
> > > ?
> >
> > This could certainly be done, and most of this is already implemented
> > too, especially all of the communication stuff.
> >
> > This "project management" piece would involve handling requests,
> > quotes, requirements, work efforts (including projects, tasks, sub-
> > tasks, etc, etc). Ideally we'd want it to handle everything it could
> > to make our lives easier!
>
>
> I was thinking rather abstractly, but I was envisioning the case where I
> would have several OFBiz projects going at one time and was thinking of
> things that would make my life easier. I figured if I had an internal
> document describing the app to be created then I could reference those items
> with tasks more easily. The same thing with testing. I would like to push a
> button and see the status of development in graphical format. As for the
> generation, if the design doc is very OFBiz aware and centric, then I don't
> see any reason to be handcoding boilerplate code.
>
> Those are my thoughts, but I really just wanted to get some discussion
> going.
>
> -Al
>
> -David
> >
> >
> >
> >

--
Kind Regards
Andrew Sykes <[hidden email]>
Sykes Development Ltd
http://www.sykesdevelopment.com