[OPEN-ILS-DOCUMENTATION] Ideas to get more DIG participation?

[Lazar, Alexey Vladimirovich]

Hello, everybody.

On 2013-08-14, at 12:10 , "Lazar, Alexey Vladimirovich" <alexey.lazar at mnsu.edu> wrote:

> On 2013-08-12, at 12:51 , Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi, Kathy.
> 
>> Hi Alexey,
>> 
>>>> C) We talked about creating "bite size" tasks for new DIG members to be able to act on when they join, or for members that do not yet have the more advanced technical skill like knowing AsciiDoc. (Using Launchpad for DIG is the approach that is being considered to help keep track of tasks big and small.)
>>> Using Launchpad could be better than nothing, but IMO a tool that has even some basic project management features like timeline/deadline tracking, task assignments, Gantt, calendar, RSS output, etc., could help clarify what work needs to be done and reduce barriers for participation. I suggest a more careful evaluation of tools available before such a commitment is made.
>>> 
>> I personally am partial to Launchpad since it gets everyone working in the same place. I'm not quite sure what the barriers of participation are, but it might also get more people comfortable submitting reports in Launchpad, which then might lead to more people submitting bugs for code.

Launchpad does what it does well, but not much more beyond that. It's bug tracking for software development, sort of a Bugzilla "in the cloud".

Perhaps before we can answer the question of whether one tool or the other would help reduce barriers to participation, what are those barriers and what types of participation are we talking about? Do we need more bug reports, or are we trying to get more people to start resolving them and contributing in other ways? Are we only concerned about bug and documentation fixes, or are there other types of community work that could be organized better in some ways? Perhaps the type of software used is not a solution for the types of problems DIG and Evergreen community needs to solve first?

>> However, I agree that this would be the best time to evaluate other tools if we think they might work better. Do you have some tools you would recommend with some pros and cons for using them in favor of Launchpad?
> 
> The short answer is yes; working on the long answer.

Well, slightly longer answer.

This Top 10 Open Source Web-Based Project Management Software [1] article is a few years old, but serves the purpose of naming several open source project management tools. It's also a good way to see how these tools faired since then. I briefly reviewed the status and type of each project and of that list Redmine and Trac seem to be the types of projects that could work well for an open-souce community. There is also a page on Wikipedia that compares a variety of project management tools [2], including Launchpad.

Between the two I mentioned, my personal experience is limited to Redmine [3], which back right around the time when that article was published we chose over Trac. Prior to that we used Bugzilla, which similarly to Launchpad was a tool specifically designed to keep track of software issues. For a while we used bug dependencies as a way to link project dependencies, but that could only get us so far. Redmine offered all the pros of Bugzilla in terms of ease of maintenance (being in Debian, etc.), but also other features, like timelines, time tracking, and a variety of ways to tailor its settings to our own processes and needs.

I guess at this point I could go over all of the things that I like about Redmine, e.g., that it's easy to install, administer and use, that is has flexible per-project configuration and a wealth of features [4]. Instead I will let those of you who may be interested in this topic review the features for yourself and decide whether or not you think those features could somehow be beneficial for DIG or Evergreen.

If anyone else has experience with the tools I mentioned or other tools on this topic, please share what you know and think.

[1] http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/open-source-project-management-software.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_management_software
[3] http://www.redmine.org/
[4] http://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki/Features

Aleksey Lazar
IS Developer and Integrator - PALS
http://www.mnpals.org/