On 02/02/2011, at 9:44 AM, Ben Still wrote:
I was an avid MS Project person until a few years ago, and I think for
some reason MSP has become some kind of "default" for how you might
manage a project. I used MSP for pretty much everything, but with the
benefit of hindsight (IMO) it is pretty inflexible. It provided a
false expectation of how long a project might take and how it's going.
Totally agree. I use a deep task/goal nesting, where you can estimate,
work and assign iteration/phasing at any subtask or supertask level.
Many tasks get "done for this iteration" while still having things
outstanding
for a future one. This was especially the case when working on code that
had to be implemented (differently) across many platforms. You need to
handle the fact that software is never "done" and often, neither is a
task.
In the late 90s I extracted the schema from MSP Server's SQL database
and used it as one of the seeds for a new web-hosted design, but that
never got funded. I think it could have been an excellent product
however.
We now rely much more on
stories and use Jira and Greenhopper for managing and scheduling
tasks. Tasks in the real world don't neatly line up and change from
"todo" to "done" - they need to get worked on, QA'ed by someone,
perhaps a bit more work, and then closed.
In other words, each task is a mini project by itself. How well does
Jira handle that?
We've also
made some stuff to pull information out of Harvest and Jira and show
this on a wallboard http://redant.com.au/blog/the-story-behind-our-wallboard/
That's really nice.
you might get further along by finding an existing tool (there are
thousands out there) and then building something that works with that
if you need to.
I've not seen one that handles the richly structured hierarchy that I
use and want,
except the indented plain-text files which are my current fall-back.
Truthfully, a
web-based solution would have to be pretty good to be better, for
small projects.
Clifford Heath, Data Constellation.
regards
Ben
On Jan 31, 6:54 pm, Clifford Heath <[email protected]> wrote:
It's not cheap, but surely if you're already using MS Project, a
distributed MS Project
Server would be cheaper than building it yourself?
<http://www.microsoft.com/project
>
Or doesn't it handle cross-project resoursing like you need?
The possibility for scope creep is huge in a system like you propose
(public holidays,
vacation schedules, integration with personal calendar systems, etc).
Been there,
done that (built a GANTT chart widget in the 90s for Telstra to use
in
some scheduling
system - luckily I only had to build the widget, not the whole app!)
If you want to build it anyway, the graphical elements of the UI
would
work best if
built using Raphael. Raphael is awesome, and doesn't require mad JS
skillz to
make it sing, though I've found they help :). All the drag&drop
capability you need
is either already there, or you can add it
athttp://github.com/cjheath/Raphaelle/
Not willing to hazard a firm guess at what price you'd get those
skills though. Anything
from $60-$120 an hour, and the rate won't necessarily correlate with
the productivity :).
I wouldn't try to push it down to $40, or you'll probably get a nuff-
nuff.
Clifford Heath, Data Constellation,http://dataconstellation.com
On 31/01/2011, at 5:55 PM, Tim McEwan wrote:
Thanks Julio.
To clarify - this system will be custom-built so it won't work in
exactly the same way as the others. From what I've seen of them,
they're all about planning one project. The interface I describe
will plan only one project, but our system manages 100+ active
projects at any one time, so the interface needs to give feedback as
to whether you're allocating someone who's already allocated
elsewhere. It's also the way my colleagues have been used to
planning projects, so we can't change the interface too radically
(to the calendar style, for instance). We have something similar to
it already, but it's just a series of input boxes for weeks going
forwards (and is consequently terrible to use). We only just
managed to ween them off Excel, but they're seriously pining for
draggability. ;-)
And also to clarify, when I said "how much" I meant $/hr.
Thanks again!
--
Tim McEwan
Sent with Sparrow
On Monday, 31 January 2011 at 17:37, Julio Cesar Ody wrote:
Maybe you don't need to replicate MS Project or Omniplan's
interface
for it to be usable. Why not a Google Calendar-like one? Personal
preference aside, for the task you just describe, it's suitable.
- would you stick with Rails/JS or go with Flash/Air/whatever-
that-
microsoft-one-is?
Rails/JS. Though I'm no expert in Flash/Air to judge how easier/
harder
it would be. I tend to think you'd be painting yourself against a
corner by going down that route.
- how much is a Rails/jQuery guru of the required calibre?
If the requirements are really just the ones you've mentioned,
back-end wise it's dead easy to built. As for the interface, not so
much. But perhaps you don't have to start from scratch →
http://www.queness.com/post/656/10-beautiful-jquery-and-mootool-calen
...
- do you think the time estimate is feasible?
Yes. Should the requirements stay as such.
On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 5:13 PM, Tim McEwan <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi All,
I want to build a MS Project/Omniplan-style project planning
interface in a
web browser. I'm really keen for jQuery & HTML5 and stuff, but if
it's
going to be a ludicrous undertaking, I'd settle for something like
Flash.
We basically need to allocate team members to tasks and then time
to the
team members, but ease of use for non-techies is key, so we need
things to
be draggable.
I'm thinking me (Rails moderate, no jQuery) + one Rails/jQuery
guru for two
months @ 35 hours/week oughtta do it. Am I dreaming?
If you'd be so kind, please send me your thoughts on:
- would you stick with Rails/JS or go with
Flash/Air/whatever-that-microsoft-one-is?
- do you think the time estimate is feasible?
- how much is a Rails/jQuery guru of the required calibre?
- would you like to be that guru? *
- no really, am I dreaming?
* It'd have to be onsite at UTS, if you're interested.
Cheers,
--
Tim McEwan
Sent with Sparrow
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