Guidelines for tasks
From TeamFrednetWiki
Team FREDNET uses tasks to divide up the work that needs to be done into manageable efforts. Anybody can create a task. There are several reasons why you would want to create a task.
- For inclusion in a work package.
- For documenting a small independent effort that you want to lead, so that other's can follow along and have more visibility into your progress.
- For providing a request to others to take ownership of a work effort that you can't manage (either because you lack expertise, time, or some other key resource).
- For providing a request for group collaboration for a complex work effort.
Contents |
Task Overview
Tasks (and Work Products) are expected to be classified based on how much effort they're expected to take. Taking levels are provided to include a range from micro-tasks (2 hours) up through mega-tasks (20 hours). These classifications are expected to help developers figure out how much effort will be required to finish the task.
All the current open tasks are listed here.
Creating a task
There are several steps in the process of creating a task.
- Navigate to the "Working Group" page which is most relevant to your task. The Current Working Groups are listed on the Team FREDNET Wiki Main Page.
- From the Working Group page, find the "Open Tasks" section and click the "Edit" link.
- On the resulting Wiki edit page, add a line similar to this one (which lists the current date, a task page link, and the task description that you want to appear on the working group open task list):
- * YYYY-MM-DD. [[Tasks:Your Task Name|Your Task Name]]
- At the bottom of the wiki edit page, click "Show preview" to make sure you've done it correctly, then enter the Summary and click "Save page".
- The page that loads should show a new red link to "Your Task Name" (if the link isn't red, it means you've created a task that isn't unique and you need to check to make sure you aren't duplicating work). Assuming that the new link is red, click it.
- The page that loads will be a blank Wiki edit page that says "You have followed a link to a page that does not exist yet." This is where you'll actually create your new task. Add the following:
- {{opentask|Contact person |Blueprint |Persons working on this task |Start |End |Product |Dependencies |Impact |Percent complete |Man-hours Remaining |Related Pages|group }} or
{{opentask
|contact person=
|blueprint=
|working on=
|start=
|end=
|product=
|dependencies=
|impact=
|complete=
|estimatehours=
|group=
|group2=
|group3=
.....
|group6=
}}
- Contact person. Name of person to contact for additional information.
- Blueprint. innner or outer wiki link: [[Work_Effort_Task_Management Work Effort Task Management]] or [http://forum.xprize.frednet.org/ Forum]
- Persons working on this task. Names of persons working if this task.
- Start. Scheduled start date in YYYY-MM-DD format, or the term "ASAP".
- End. Scheduled completion date in YYYY-MM-DD format, or a Task Level Term
- Product. Description of intended product, e.g. article, documentation, software, hardware. Sometimes a task description and definition can be ambiguous as to its specific intent.
- Dependencies. Link prerequisite tasks.
- Impact. Brief description of known systemic dependencies, or effects of design choices. May be a list of article links. Should be further developed in the body of the task article.
- Percent complete. An estimation of completion for singular work efforts, or an average of multiple active parallel efforts. Format "N%".
- Man-hours Remaining. An estimation of the work effort required to complete a task. 999 indicates that no valid estimate has been determined. When you update percentage complete you should update Man-hours Remaining accordingly. Format "N hours".
- Group. One of this groups: business, ground, lunar bus, lunar lander or lunar rover
- group2-6 an extra group(s)
- Related pages. Any links to potentially related pages. This section is externally defined.
- Beneath the 'opentask' entry, provide a short summary of what this task entails.
- At the bottom of the wiki edit page, click "Show preview" to make sure you've done it correctly, then enter the Summary and click "Save page".
- The page that loads should show your new task in the format of the Open task template.
This task is automatically added to the Tasks (Open) category. You can add other categories as you see fit.
Here's an example of what's expected:
{{opentask|[[User:marc1990|Marc Brakels]]|[[media:Lego_Main.jpg]]|[[user:Scasey1960|Sean]]
|2009-09-27|2009-12-31|Software product|No dependencies|No other impact|0%|10 hours|lunar rover}}
Note, Related Pages can be selected and input by
using the mechanism described below under the section
"Link pages to a task".
Which will result in:
|
2010 1 17 |
| Task title: | Guidelines for tasks |
| Contact person: | Marc Brakels |
| Blueprint: | media:Lego_Main.jpg |
| Persons working on this task: | Sean |
| Start: | 2009-09-27 |
| End: | 2009-12-31 |
| Group: | Category:Tasks_(Open)-lunar rover |
| Product: | Software product |
| Dependencies: | No dependencies |
| Impact: | No other impact |
| Percent complete: | 0% |
| Man-hours Remaining: | 10 hours |
| Relate page: |
Category Page_of_Guidelines for tasks not found
|
Description:
Note, Related Pages can be selected and input by using the mechanism described below under the section "Link pages to a task".
Describing the task
The description of the task is extremely important in engaging forum and wiki participants of Team FREDNET. Probably the most important element of a task is the Product! Namely, what is the product the this task is expected to produce.
Tasks should also have an expectation duration of the time to complete. For a definition of various tasks levels see Definition of tasking levels.
In addition to a deliverable and duration, the task should have an expected due date (i.e. a delivery date for the deliverable and the completion of the task).
Link pages to a task
You can create links between external pages to relate them to tasks by navigating to the relating page and adding the "TaskRelatePage" markup. Here's how:
{{TaskRelatePage|Tasks page inner link|Tasks page inner description}}
As an example, you could do:
{{TaskRelatePage|Tasks:Project_management_software_study|Task: Project management software study}
And it would results in this:
| This page is part of Task: Project management software study |
Working on a task
Anyone may participate in the work to complete a task in accordance with the Guidelines for participation. Coordination for task work can occur on the talk page of the task page. Tasks may already involve a group effort. See guidelines for groups to join a group or start a new one for working on the task.
For an up-to-date list of open tasks, please see this page. A link to the page is also conveniently placed under 'Shortcuts | Browse open tasks' under the Organization portal, which in turn is easily accessed by clicking the 'Community portal' link in the menu in the left navigation pane of the wiki. All open tasks should be listed under 'Open tasks' in the Organization portal as well.
To keep requirements and solutions apart, please don't leave the results of task work on the task page itself. It is preferred that each task reference a separate document which should be the deliverable of the task in question. The location of this document should be specified by the task. If not, create a new page and insert it there, possibly together with a link back to the task.
Code Hosting
Certain material not appropriate for hosting in the wiki (e.g code) should be uploaded to a service such as Google Code.
For new project name should start with teamfrednet- and Project label should be teamfrednet.
Project repositories http://code.google.com/p/moon-20/ http://code.google.com/p/teamfrednet-alto/ http://code.google.com/p/teamfrednet-art/ http://code.google.com/p/teamfrednet-gap/ http://code.google.com/p/teamfrednet-lander/ http://code.google.com/p/teamfrednet-lego/ http://code.google.com/p/teamfrednet-mockups/
Note: There is discussion ongoing which software we are going to use: Forum: project organisation--Marc1990 04:20, 21 August 2009 (EDT)
Closing a task
Close the task
When work on a task is complete, find a line similar to the following, at the top of the task page:
{{opentask
|[[User:marc1990|Marc Brakels]]
|[[media:Lego_Main.jpg]]
|[[user:Scasey1960|Sean]]
|2009-09-27
|2009-12-31
|Software product
|No dependencies
|No other impact
|0%
|10 hours
}}
and replace it with:
{{closedtask}}
Give Kudos
Please give "Kudos" to the users who helped contribute to the task by adding the following:
{{PersonalKudos|Username|The Display Name for the User}}
This will result in:
| Kudos for this work effort go to The Display Name for the User |
After doing this, the Category "Kudos to User:username" will be created and linked at the bottom of the page. If it's red (indicating the category doesn't exist) you should check your spelling to see if you typed the username correctly. If you did, click the Kudos category link and create the page. Your should add this to the content of the Kudos page (failure to add this page with real content will cause the next step not to work):
This is a page that lists accomplishments by The Display Name for the User.
Next, add the following to the User's page:
{{UserKudos}}
