In July of 2013, we are beginning a quest for improved project management. This might involve using dedicated tools. If we were to use such a tool, here are the properties which we think that might be on the cards.
Requirements
Three views of tasks:
- by person (What are my tasks? When are they due?),
- by product (What are the tasks in core Tor? Torbrowser? ooni? etc), and
- by sponsor (What have we promised Sponsor Omega?).
Several attributes for tasks:
- description of what is to be done, including ideal/intended/promised/minimal end states;
- possible: list of subtasks/steps (could be free-text);
- clear distinction between actual text of guarantee to funder and exegesis of that text,
- which product(s) the task works on {core-tor|torbrowser|ooni|bridgedb|tails|torbirdy|...};
- which sponsor the task is promised to,
- [just one, create separate tasks for separate sponsors],
- [reflect on how Tor actually deals with similar deliverables from different sponsors & implement that.];
- who is responsible for understanding the funder's requirements, who is responsible for making sure the task happens, who else is involved;
- status: {unassigned|assigned|in-progress|blocked|at-risk|canceled|complete|deferred};
- due date;
- estimated time needed from whom, actual time spent;
Other tool needs:
- It should be possible to make world readable tasks (all our tasks are world-readable).
- The tool should be readily usable over Tor, perhaps even using Torbrowser.
- We should have sufficient confidence that the tool is secure, reliable, etc.
- The tool should be as consistent with our principles of free speech and free software as possible.
- We should readily be able to obtain a comprehensive data export.
- It should be easy to backup offsite as part of our normal backup routine.
- Email notification when you need to take some action on one of your items
- If this is a tool we're going to self-host, we need a plan for who will install, maintain, and update it.
Technical solutions don't always solve social problems. Here are some policies we may need:
- The tool needs to provide easy, clear answers to "What are we doing? Who is doing it? When is it done?"
- If you comment on a task it is your responsibility to update the flags/attributes to reflect the state you think the task is in after your comment.
- (Possibly, though we shouldn't pretend that this will work without maintainers)
- We should come to a conclusion about how we deal with similar deliverable from different sponsors. This tool's configuration should be consistent with that.
Options
Some proposals or suggestions about tools which might meet our needs:
- Trac
- Basecamp
- Trello