Re: [Gramps-devel] Future of the project - please read.

[Zsolt F. <zso...@gm...>]

Don,

Definitely it shouldn't be your second job, only a hobby.

Why don't you e.g. do only the project management part of it and leave
the coding for others. If there's no "others", even better, there's
nothing to manage :-)
I think the project needs a PM, who knows all the concepts behind, and
if you (and/or Alex) do it, you could still make sure that the project
heads where you wanted to.

This is what, I think, could help to reduce load and pressure:

1. I agree with the others that pace is quite fast, let's slow down. To
do so I would define a limited and achievable set of new features for
3.0. After 3.0 is out let's release only bug fix releases until the
number of bugs are reduced to a controllable number. New features can
wait... (if one can not wait he can implement it for himself, and later
contribute it to the project :-)

2. Let's stop assigning bug automatically to anyone, unless
someone specifically wants that _and_ has time to follow them up.
E.g. I would never start working on a bug if it is already assigned to
someone, because one can never know if the owner has already started to
work (think) on that bug. Normally the number of unassigned bugs is
very low.

3. Let's start to prioritize feature requests, e.g. like this: Every
week the PM selects 10-15 requests from the list (of course until we
have any left ;-). He assigns a default priority to each and throws them
to the community. Now, either we organize a team chat on irc once a
week, or everybody can vote for different priorities on the mailing
list for one week, doesn't matter. At the end PM decides to keep the
default priorities or modify them due to common interest.
I would also either start to delete requests, or at least introduce
priority -100 for those requests, which won't be implemented in the
next 3 years or so.
When all bug fix releases are out, we start with the highest priority
requests obviously.

4. I don't think it is your responsibility to answer each and every
question on the mailing list, so relax and start to delete them when
your mail box is full ;-)
Anyhow, you can still search in the archive once you have nothing to do
again...

=46rom my side what I can offer is the same as I have done so far: I
can code with my own (slow) speed, doesn't matter if it a new feature
of bug fixing.

Cheers,
Zsolt


On Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:30:17 -0600 Don Allingham
<do...@gr...> wrote:

> For the past 6 1/2 years, I've been working on the GRAMPS project. I
> have spent hours almost every night during this time working on the
> project. My wife refers to this as my "second job". Unfortunately,
> this amount of work has taken its toll, and I cannot continue this
> level of commitment to the project.
>=20
> I've been trying to figure out the right way to reduce my involvement
> to a more reasonable level. The two possible solutions I have come up
> with are:
>=20
> 1) Cut back my time to an acceptable level.
> 2) Walk away.
>=20
> Obviously, option 2 is not the best solution. However, I have tried
> option 1 unsuccessfully several times before. Every time I slow down,
> my INBOX fills up with bug reports and demands for support and
> progress on the project comes to a halt. Cutting back my time did not
> solve any problems - requests and bug reports just continued to build
> up, making things worse.
>=20
> Multiple calls for help have rarely produced any results. The
> responses I get usually fall into one of two categories:
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>   * I would like to help, but I don't have time.
>=20
>   I can understand this argument. Unfortunately, I haven't had the
> time either for the past 6.5 years :-)
>=20
>   * I don't have the skills.
>=20
>   I didn't have the skills either when I started this project. GRAMPS=20
>   was my first program ever in Python, and the first significant=20
>   program that I had worked on in about seven years.
>=20
> One place we never fall short on help is in the suggestions for new
> features. Unfortunately, this does not help me solve my problem :-)
>=20
> So, putting all the cards on the table, it is time for the community
> to step up so I can start backing off. We need people to:
>=20
>   1) Respond to requests for help on the mailing lists. This is one=20
>      item that has improved over the past six months.
>   2) Respond to bug requests on the gramps-bugs mailing list and the
>      bugs.gramps-project.org bug tracker.
>   3) Resolve bugs. Go through the reported bugs, solve the problem,
>      and submit good, well thought out patches.
>   4) Help us with the development of version 3.0.
>=20
> If I can get my workload dropped to a reasonable level, I can continue
> contributing. Otherwise, I will have to reduce the scale of version
> 3.0, get it out the door, and step away.
>=20
> Thanks,
>=20
> Don
>=20