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Collaborative Design Team

    1. June 27
    2. June 20 Meeting

June 27

In attendance: Nate, Rocky, Chris, Gerry, Shimon, Aaron, Alejandro

Reviewing http://projects.serverzen.com/pm/p/cluemapper/wiki/UseCases

60 minutes: a new beta came out and broke a bunch of the APIs being used. Currently broken code. Needs to be updated to work with latest Pylons.

Main goal now is to get agreement on the use cases.

Time stored outside Trac, so reports can be generated across projects.

Queries:

- date range

- project(s)

- user (if you have perms, can select user(s), otherwise defaults to user)

Another use case (refinement), is to generate a team-based report: all team members pre-loaded for a report.

Use case to emphasize: Time Remaining field part of time tracking. This vital to Scrum process. We don't want to put up barrier to logging time, yet we want to have accurate information about progress towards completion.

==> Optionally can hide the Time Remaining field. Toggle to be in UI (and then required). Optional setting in Trac.

First iteration: will minimally fit the use cases, and in the future will do more. For example, export to spreadsheet.

Integration: - Time reporting functionality lives outside Trac (reporting not integrated to Trac) - In Trac, Javascript will let you book time from there. Shows booked time in Trac. - Can book directly in time app, which has a - Want to introduce AJAX as much as possible in this to speed up process, especially in the time tracking app.

Future enhancements: - stop watch/timer capability - Import/export of logs

Rocky: would probably continue with Django for time tracker, if other apps not available to use. Likes WSGI aspects and light-weight nature. WSGI is the number one thing that needs to work.

Tool shouldn't be developed in a way that the tool forces a certain way that makes it more difficult for developer to keep track of time somewhere else.

Are there any other open source apps out there we could use for time tracking starting point?

Open source django app that might serve as starting point: http://day3.7days7apps.com/

Jumping to Project Space plan: http://projects.serverzen.com/pm/p/cluemapper/wiki/ProjectSpace

Currently, ClueMapper project space == Trac . Last week, discussion of whether or not to use Trac vs build something on our own. More used it, Rocky realized Trac is really good at the technical management aspects.

Project Space should be tuned to the type of user using the system. Would be easiest for us to mould Trac into the project space.

Changes: top level navigation

Currently, tasks = tickets. Bad idea. We should have tasks as separate entity (which would be bound to an iteration). Tickets are left alone (like bug tracker) - doesn't live within a story or iteration. Problem is that it makes the system more complicated...

Project space should be where Project Management and software/technical features come together. To be successful, needs to be seamless/transparent.

Big question now: do we work on Trac to make project management space? Or do we make separate, stand-alone Project Management space and integrate it?

If separate ==> harder to integrate UI (and search and other features), bigger project

Leaning towards Trac-based experience, to be up and running faster. Design it to be as loosely coupled as possible to Trac (in case of future stand alone refactoring).

Next meeting: Thursday at 3pm eastern to work on filling out the TracAssetMapping page

June 20 Meeting

In attendance: Chris, Nate, Rocky, John, Ale, Calvin, Clayton

sip:guest@67.213.161.15

ClueMapper is a software project manager software and is envisioned as a bunch of indepedent components.

Issue: plugins never integrate with anything else... For example, http://projects.serverzen.com/pm/p/cluemapper/ticket/16 describes a plugin for test cases. Integration is poor...so it may make more sense to make test cases part of our own User Story plugin (plugins in Trac not as mature as Plone addons, for example). User management has been a big hassle, as example.

ifPeople looking at Scrum perspective. Jazkarta and ServerZen? from Xtreme Programming. The tool should be able to accomodate both. Not necessarily a strict separation, but more the ability to integrate methodologies and reflect language distinctions. Ideal to keep difference to a minimum (ie language).

Also, several places in Trac provide blank fields that correspond to quantities in the database (ie users, tags, etc), which should be made dropdowns or autocompletes (otherwise very prone to mistakes).

XM (Plone addon) is a decent tool, but has serious limitations, mainly the performance limitations of Plone. Agreed that we want something "leaner and meaner".

Clayton: Looked at a lot of time tracking softwares and none met needs they have. set up tables for time rows, table for job codes, and ability to relate them. Bare bones entry screen for the info. Coupled to Trac.

SlimTimer? (http://www.slimtimer.com ) plugin for logging against Trac tickets , http://groups.google.com/group/slimtimer/browse_thread/thread/fc776e5741395e84/777cbe66af72dfcc?#777cbe66af72dfcc

Rocky desires for timing got updated: http://projects.serverzen.com/pm/p/cluemapper/wiki/ClueTimer

ClueMapper should have its own time tracking component as first priority. Should also have tie in points for integration (though hooking up those services is secondary priority).

Dashboard: personal page that would provide access into projects. See a list of outstanding tickets you own on all projects (useful cross-project information). People want to see all tickets across trac instances.

Rocky is approaching issue of Tasks and how to get multiple people assigned on a task (may require some monkey-patching).

Timing Estimation Plugin: did not make a unique record for individual, so wasn't very useful.

The Project Space should narrow user's view to a single project space. Can we conceive of a way to make project space that would respect Trac instance? Is a Trac instance the basis of a project space or a element of the project space?

Trac base is very mature, but the addons are very fragile. Introducing this tool, if based on Trac, also helps in marketing.

Rocky and Nate want to make a business model out of this, offering a hosted service. Immediate need is to have tool for own projects. Though a lot of other tools in the space, hardly any implement the User Stories functionality. Most open source projects don't have need to track time, so don't have that worked out. Rocky wants to have as many people as possible in the community, so wants to use pieces from other communities.

Prioritizing: Time tracking is the really big missing piece needed ASAP. Project Planning module is other piece needed for ClueMapper 1.0 .

Moving forward: How do we decide if what Clayton has been working on is a basis for what we can use and if it can be made general enough for us all? We need to work out what the base specs for time tracking?

Tasks: - Break up time tracking requirements into own module page. - All review the ClueTimer page and the time tracking use cases - Clayton going to catch up with Rocky about 60minutes product before product. - Meeting again next week, June 27, 2pm, same place :)