[ANN] eXPlainPMT 20070423.0

[John Wilger]

Version: 20070423.0
Project site: http://explainpmt.com
Download: http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=617&release_id=11284

In November 2005, Jake Dempsey downloaded eXPlainPMT to use as a
sample application for learning Ruby on Rails. In the year that past,
Jake worked along the way adding features into his forked version of
eXPlainPMT for his current employer. Since October 2006, Jake has
been re-implementing his features and making small changes to existing
features based off of feedback he has received from the users of
eXPlainPMT. As of today, all of the features have been merged and we
now have a single version again.

Below is a listing of changes made for this release:

• Export of Stories from an iteration into Excel.

• Creation of Tasks for a given story.

• Ability to assign ownership to a Task.

• Export of Tasks from an iteration into Excel.

• Ability to create Acceptance Tests for a given story.

• Ability to create Acceptance Tests for later assignment or use as
System Acceptance.

• Ability to export Acceptance Tests into Excel.

• Added name to iteration's details.

• Changed backlog "Move Stories To" display to use iteration name
instead of date.

• Changed iteration "Move Stories To" display to use iteration name
instead of date.

• Migration to new table format and sorting mechanism. Sorts will be
saved between uses.

• Export of Stories from the backlog into Excel.

• Ability to clone Story.

• Ability to clone Acceptance Test.

• Task and Story view from Dashboard.

• Convert links to actionable dropdowns similar to Gmail.

• Refactoring of existing tables to new format and sorting mechanism.

• Add backlog links and story move functionality to bottom of backlog.

• Allow users to create projects

• Security model update to allow team members to add other team
members to a project.

• Project initiatives which allow for logical grouping of stories.

• Add ability to manage backlog as numerically sorted list.

• Burndown chart and project statistics.

• Convert user pages to popups

• Move up move down breaks on iteration view

• Add iteration to story table

• Refactoring for performance improvements.

• Add show all stories to backlog

• Add customer to story and story table

• Add team to users

• Releases (Currently just metadata)

• Remove subprojects

• Basic User Guide updated.

• RSS support for Story audit.

We have also created an install of eXPlainPMT at http://64.79.219.117.
You can login with demo/demo. This install may become a free or very
low cost hosted version of eXPlainPMT. Feel free to try it out and
let us know what you think at ***@explainpmt.com. We will also be
working on building a roadmap of items to come in the upcoming
releases.

[John Wilger]

This might be interesting if I could figure out what it is. Why don't
all project sites have a short sentence or two telling us what they're
supposed to be?
Ya know, when you're announcing to half a dozen diverse lists, perhaps
you shouldn't assume everyone already recognizes your project and can
infer what it's about from a changelist?

OK, so a bit of a summary of the project at the top of the email would
have probably been a good idea, I'll give you that.

######

What Is It?

eXPlain Project Management Tool (or simply eXPlainPMT) is a web-based
application that supports the eXtreme Programming development
methodology. Although traditional XP advocates the use of ordinary
index cards to keep track of development requirements (story cards),
this practice is sometimes impossible or undesirable. It's a practice
that doesn't work well with geographically distributed teams, or
developers with sloppy handwriting and/or cluttered desks (I certainly
fall in the latter category ;-) ).

eXPlainPMT allows story cards to be filed via the web based interface
and made accessible to the entire project team. It also allows the
status of the stories to be tracked and for the stories to be planned
in an ongoing iterative process. The goal of the product is to support
the methodology while staying out of the way as much as possible, so
you'll find that there are few access restrictions or permissions
settings. Just like with note cards, restrictions on who can
view/alter the story cards are left to the consensus of the team.
License

eXPlainPMT is released under the GNU Public License (GPL). A copy of
this license can be found in the file LICENSE in the application's
root directory.
######

But honestly, if you can't get /some/ idea of what the project is
about by looking at the first few lines of what's changed, and further
go on to complain about the lack of information on the site when
there's a fairly obvious link to "Project Info" in the header
(pointing to the info I copied and pasted above) -- then there's
really just no hope of us playing nicely together.

[John Wilger]

Thanks for the explanation. Now you might want to reconsider this attitude.

You're absolutely correct on all points, mate -- and I apologize for
the attitude. My only excuse is that I was pissed of at a completely
unrelated situation when I read your message, and I reacted
prematurely and in an inappropriate manner. I should have just waited
until this morning to reply.

[John Wilger]

Post by John Wilger

Thanks for the explanation. Now you might want to reconsider this attitude.

You're absolutely correct on all points, mate -- and I apologize for
the attitude. My only excuse is that I was pissed of at a completely
unrelated situation when I read your message, and I reacted
prematurely and in an inappropriate manner. I should have just waited
until this morning to reply.

Just want to clear something up for those of you following along.
Devin sent two messages which I replied to. Both messages were sent
directly to me and CC'd to this mailing list. In replying, I did
"reply all" to send my responses to both Devin and the list. However,
it seems that for some reason Devin's messages were never distributed
on the list while my own were.

I would /never/ reply via the list to a private message without
explicit permission from the person who sent the original message.

[Devin Ben-hur]

Post by John Wilger
But honestly, if you can't get /some/ idea of what the project is
about by looking at the first few lines of what's changed, and further
go on to complain about the lack of information on the site when
there's a fairly obvious link to "Project Info" in the header
(pointing to the info I copied and pasted above) -- then there's
really just no hope of us playing nicely together.

Thanks for the explanation. Now you might want to reconsider this attitude.

I get hundreds of messages per day and you're a guest in my inbox. If
you're imposing on my time or attention, the burden is upon you to tell
me up front what it's about and why I should care; otherwise, you're
just another spammer -- sheesh, some spammers actually demonstrate
better communication skills.

Your message was clearly intended to promote the project. It does a
poor job of that if it assumes prior knowledge of and interest in the
project. If you didn't intend promotion, then why are you sending it a
suite of unrelated lists? Send it to an opt-in list dedicated to the
project and then you can assume everyone knows and cares.

Having a secondary link that explains your project after I arrive at its
home page is just bad design and poor communication. Your default
landing page should introduce the user to the project, not assume they
know what's up and and bury them in bullet points describing your recent
changes.

As an XP proponent, you might care to reread the Agile Manifesto and ask
yourself if your project's website and your communication to these lists
is aligned with its priorities.

Maybe you should make a story card for communication with agile
developers who might be interested in but are as yet unaware of
eXPlainPMT? Perhaps another card for developers who are both unaware
and uninterested, yet subscribe to interest groups only peripherally
connected?

--
Devin Ben-Hur 503/860-4114 mailto:***@ben-hur.net

"Startups are basically comedies, or at least seem so in retrospect."
-- Paul Graham

[Devin Ben-hur]

Post by John Wilger
Version: 20070423.0
Project site: http://explainpmt.com
Download: http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=617&release_id=11284

This might be interesting if I could figure out what it is. Why don't
all project sites have a short sentence or two telling us what they're
supposed to be?

Ya know, when you're announcing to half a dozen diverse lists, perhaps
you shouldn't assume everyone already recognizes your project and can
infer what it's about from a changelist?

--
Devin Ben-Hur 503/860-4114 mailto:***@ben-hur.net

"Startups are basically comedies, or at least seem so in retrospect."
-- Paul Graham

[Caleb Phillips]

(Sorry, coming into this late as I'm behind on reading pdx.rb)

Post by John Wilger
Project site: http://explainpmt.com

Ya know, when you're announcing to half a dozen diverse lists, perhaps
you shouldn't assume everyone already recognizes your project and can
infer what it's about from a changelist?

To John's credit, his assumption of prior knowledge might be somewhat
safe considering that he gave a detailed presentation to the Portland
Ruby Brigade about this project a year or two back. Now, it might have
been better for him to address newer pdx-rubyists who might not know
about the project, but at least for me - I totally remember what it is
and appreciate hearing that it is still marching forward.

Had he not ever given a talk on explain-pmt, or if he were not well
known to regular meeting attendees, I might have the same reaction Devin
had. But since he is, and this is mostly a casual list where we have
lots of sometimes off-topic banter and incoherent planning-for-beer - I
think it was Devin's response that was the more inappropriate one.

--
Caleb Phillips