Project Status Wiki?

[Charles Tryon]

One of the things that has always stuck in my craw is the fact that I've
not yet found a central place where I can go and get a quick overview of
where various features are at in the Samba4 project.  For example, I know
that I'm very interested in the ability to create domain trusts.  I know
people are working toward that goal, and that there are some
critical dependencies, but without actually looking into the code (which is
currently beyond my technical ability), I don't have visibility into that
particular project.

So, in the spirit of FOSS, it's time to stop complaining and start doing
something about it....

First of all, I want to ask if someone else has already started maintaining
such a project or Web site -- some place where projects can give a high
level "this is where we're at" status -- and I've just not found it yet.
 If so, then that's great!

Failing that, I am thinking of starting another Wiki page.  This is NOT
intended to be a deep, "bugzilla" level tracking of sub projects, but more
something a technical manager (like, my boss) could look at quickly, nod
his or her head and say, "I've got a comfort level about the features that
are important to me."  Since I'm not the one overseeing these features, or
even working on them, individual developers would need to remember to add
their own projects, and occasionally take a look at the page to make
updates as their projects mature.  Hopefully, this will reduce the number
of posts asking things like, "I'm trying to get printing working.  Does
Samba4 support printing yet??"

The table would contain columns something like this:

Feature:
  A short name of the feature or project.  There might be some overlap, and
there would certainly need to be some way to create simple hierarchies.
 This could be a name of an interface or AD feature.  The temptation would
be to break things down TOO much, but that would just make it harder to
maintain.  "SIMPLE" is key here.

Overall Status:
  This would be a high level indication of where the project is at.  A
single word would be sufficient, but it might be a little longer.  These
might include:
  - Stable -- the feature may be going through some tweaking, but generally
speaking, it's expected to work, at least at a "Alpha" level.
  - Testing -- the feature is generally complete, but needs a lot more
testing before people can assume it's working.
  - Nearing completion -- developers have a clear idea where the feature is
going, and have implemented the bulk of it, but it's not really complete.
  - In Planning -- developers are actively hacking at a design.  They have
a good idea of a roadmap, but very little work has been done yet.
  - Refactoring -- Maybe this worked before, but there have been serious
deficiencies discovered, and developers are in the middle of tearing out
the guts...  :-(
  - Planned -- Recognized as needed, but no one has had time to sit down
and begin to lay out a solution.
  - Out of Scope -- "In your dreams," right?

Dependencies:
  What other projects, interfaces, features, documentation or resources is
this feature dependent on or waiting for?

Known Issues:
  This overlaps somewhat with the "Dependencies" section, but could list
high level issues which are either holding up progress, or that still
prevent the feature from being useful.  This could also give known
workarounds (e.g., Fine grained control over shares is not supported by S4
-- use a parallel S3 server instead.)

Key Contact Person:
  This is not an exhaustive list of developers or testers involved, but
just a name or two of the key person(s) directing this feature, or point
person to ask questions.

(Notice that I did NOT include a column for "When will this be DONE"! ;-)

The last thing I want to do is create more Project Management overhead!  I
am NOT a Project Manager. (Ask my boss. :-P)  I just believe it would be
good to have some sort of central idea where people could go to get a feel
for how things are progressing, how well the current Samba4 code fits their
needs, and even where new developers could jump in to help on critical
projects.

Thanks!


-- 
    Charles Tryon
_________________________________________________________________________
  “Risks are not to be evaluated in terms of the probability of success,
but in terms of the value of the goal.”
                - Ralph D. Winter