Project management session at DrupalCamp NYC 5

Eric:
all these people focusing on fixing a bug

this is my heretic speech.

Project module doesn't support threaded discussions.

Nat: Fairly common that issue trackers are flat.

What are people using?
Unfuddle.
Interpulse - time tracking, create issues and assign them.

Eric: I won't use something I don't control. Can't even put HIPAA stuff on a server, it has to be my own server.

Long-term dedication

Me: Should Drupal.org use something else other than Drupal for project
Eric: Yes. That energy should be going into extending Mantis to have an open API and understand what a Drupal node is and stuff. You need a tool that

Me: Does Mantis do dependencies?
Eric: Yes. Mantis can have multiple relationships -- duplicate, dependent on, etc.

First two-to-three levels for client, and

Jack: Is it difficult to get clients to
Nat: No.
Eric: Yes and no. Clients who are already technical take to it really well. Those who send long lists of e-mails always well.

Microsoft Project sucks, and all its clones. Bulky tool you can't keep updated.

Jack: I've been using GoPlan. Open source, simple, and looks nice enough for my clients. Don't want to be [maintaining and working on my project management system, want it to just work]

Eric: Mantis I can use apt-get to do updates. A half-version behind. [Which is fine with me. Never had a problem with a Debian security update.]

Nat: The thing I like about Trac is it's tightly integrated with wiki.

Eric: Mantis is a bug-tracker and we've been using
Nat: Good views and filtering.

[missed name] Just installed plugin for twiki called XP Manager. (Extreme programming.)

Nat: Comfortable with MediaWiki syntax. It's a learning curve issue.

Mediawiki integrates with Alfresco. You can put your content into Alfresco and it will show up in MediaWiki as an issue

Eric: We use Mantis, MediaWiki usually for the wiki, then we use SILC, sort of an encrypted form of IRC, all data is encrypted and you know it's the person you're talking to. Can hand a password through that.

Nat: There are problems I have with its security model but it's better than anything else.

[Usual problem:]
Can't get people to use any tool at all.

Eric: I've had to physically install things in client's computers: you will use that!

Are you doing any time time tracking in this.

Eric: No. To contradict myself, we are using Drupal for time tracking now. CCK node type, Project name, task, how much time you spent to do it, and who you are.

Unfuddle.
Added Git integration.

Eric: Can't use a commercial service. Health care privacy laws, I need to know everyone who has access to the server itself.

Eric: We have tried to get across to clients not to put private information into our bug tracker-- including social security number of their clients and such!!

Me: We're probably sticking with the project module route.

I completely understand the point that all open source projects should not duplicate efforts, but should be working to make the best project management software for us all to use-- the adding APIs and integration to Mantis idea.

Thoughts after the session

Talking to Kathleen Murtagh on IM, excerpts mostly of my babbling on:

The project management techniques of Drupal shops is *sooo* fragmented
people using unfuddle and mantis and who knows what and no one is really happy with it

the general consensus is that we're insane to do it with Project module and a Drupal solution
but no one's happy with what they're using either
and in fact are generally falling back to basic bug trackers

kathleen murtagh:
yeah
why is anyone insane to use the project module?

benjamin melançon:
and Eric at openflows who led the argument that we should all work on one world class open source project management software, for instance working on Mantis API integration with Drupal and wikis and such, said they just started doing basic time tracking in Drupal (CCK fields) !

which is basically what we're doing-- using Drupal's basic bugtracker and adding fields for estimated time and actual time

if we break up the tasks small and well enough (the hard part) it should work great

as to why not (and keep in mind, we are) the lack of Views integration would be top of my list

followed by not having dependencies

kathleen murtagh:
well, I think the goal is to fix it for 6

benjamin melançon:
but seriously, the ultimate drupal solution would use Organic Groups, Project module (rewritten to use Views and CCK), Views and CCK, and stuff like the Flag module and maybe node relativity (for dependencies, and with Views integration) -- really quality modules that aren't going away, a minimum of custom code -- or actually code that glues stuff together you can share maintenance with other people doing project management with Drupal

Yes, it is! And we're counting on the million issues on Drupal.org to mean there will be an upgrade path

but anyway the argument against is basically that you don't want to spend time maintaining and developing your project managing solution, you don't want to be 100% tied to one technology (Drupal)

Citing the UNIX philosophy of many small tools working together. However, I think that project management is a real natural fit with the Drupal universe of that same philosophy of many tools (modules) working together. I mean, we're already up and running with this, quite quickly really even with my weekend of coding the ability to assign other users and other Organic Group integration, it's completely controlled by us, it's themed like our main site with no extra effort of course, and we're just one very small shop going. The big thing: our clients are using it.

It's working already with the inferior stuff available in Drupal 5. I have faith in the future.

Resolution