[Grassroots-l] ProjectDB and management tools for Pilots/Projects

[Sameer Verma]

Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
> Good morning Seth,
>
> sounds like a great topic and I'd love to join in, however that time 
> (Friday midnight!!) overlaps with my going-out-and-drinking-beers plans 
> so I don't think I'll be able to make it...
>
> I therefore vote for IRC as the means of communication since that would 
> allow me to catch up with what was said over the weekend.
>
> In terms of thoughts on the subject I just want to say that for 
> "project management" there are tons of tools available and I'm not sure 
> whether hacking the ProjectDB and thereby reinventing the wheel makes 
> sense. Especially since that requires a lot of resources and whatnot.
>
> So therefore I'm inclined to say that it would be better to scout for 
> worthy FOSS PM tools / Web services and then integrate a simple 
> export-function from ProjectDB into that other system. 
Some good FOSS PM tools:

Web-based
http://project.net/ (Java based)
http://dotproject.net/ (PHP/MySQL)
http://www.redmine.org/ (Ruby on Rails)
http://www.projectpier.org/ (time management is rudimentary)

Offline/client based
http://openproj.org/ (Java based)
http://www.openworkbench.org/ (Windows-based)
http://ganttproject.biz/ (has WebDAV-based group feature)

We use dotProject and Project.net on campus. In my opinion (I teach IT 
Project Management) two very critical "features" of PM are the ability 
to track resources (time, people, money, etc) and reorganize tasks based 
on contingencies (dependency management).

Trac has a Gantt module, but its not very featureful...at least it 
wasn't when we evaluated it in Spring semester. 
http://trac-hacks.org/wiki/GanttPlugin

> Then ProjectDB 
> would remain lean and focused and there'd be a clear step in terms of 
> project status from "proposal" (as long as it's in ProjectDB) to "work 
> in progress" (as soon as moved into that PM tool).
>
>   
+1 This workflow needs to be clear. Bogging down a proposal with PM 
minutiae will only create more barriers to entry.

> But then again, I haven't had my morning coffee so I have no idea 
> whether what I just wrote makes any sense at all... ;-)
>
>   
I just had a solo espresso. The fog in my mind is clearing. San 
Francisco remains foggy as usual :-)

Sameer

-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/


> Thanks,
> Christoph
>
>
> Zitat von Seth Woodworth <seth at laptop.org>:
>
>   
>> SJ, Pia Waugh, and I had a very interesting conversation tonight about
>> organizing projects and proposals via a web interface such as Austria's
>> ProjectDB (http://projectdb.olpc.at).  While I think that there are several
>> more things that the wiki can and should be doing via Semantic MediaWiki,
>> there are several things that wiki will never be able to do.
>>
>> There is a growing need for some project/proposal management tools that are
>> a little smarter about keeping private information private, which is the
>> current use of the ProjectDB.  There are several ways that ProjectDB could
>> be expanded and used by individual OLPC groups (like olpc.org.au).
>>
>> We're going to have an open meeting on the subject at:
>>
>> * 23:00 Friday, August 15th, UTC
>> **9:00AM Sat .au
>> **6:00PM Fri .us
>>
>> Reply to this thread if you would prefer IRC or Phone and some brief
>> thoughts on the subject.
>>
>> All the best,
>> Seth Woodworth
>>
>>     
>
>
>
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