Catalyst

Introductory Redmine

Presented by Robert Higgins

Higgins is fairly new to redmine

Appreciations

• Alison - Training all the things!
• Sam - King of the Redmine Admins
• Sanjay and Duncan - For agreeing to research interviews

This Training Session

https://wiki.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz/wiki/Training/Redmine

• Part 1: Introduction

• Part 2: Basic Setup
• Part 3: Landing Page
• Part 4: The Project
• Part 5: Review
• Part 6: Where to from Here

Objectives

• Introduce Catalyst's Redmine

What is Redmine?

An open source task management system

Catalyst Redmine

https://redmine.catalyst.net.nz/

We've added some plugins to the basic package

https://wiki.wgtn.cat-it.co.nz/wiki/Redmine

A Note on How to Use Redmine

There is no "correct" way to use Redmine

But

Some features are demonstrably more useful than others

• Part 1: Introduction

• Part 2: Basic Setup

• Part 3: Landing Page
• Part 4: The Project
• Part 5: Review
• Part 6: Where to from Here

Objectives

• Become a User
• Join a project

Basic Setup

Get a Username

You are now a user with no projects

Clients can do this too!

Bonus

Automagic Import from Gravatar

Get Added to a Project

Your PM will do this

PMs: Read the wiki - You don't need the admins

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Basic Setup

• Part 3: Landing Page

• Part 4: The Project
• Part 5: Review
• Part 6: Where to from Here

Objectives

• Understand the Landing Page

Landing Page

Home - Pointless?

• Latest Projects - so very pointless (The "Jump to a project" achieves all this but in less space)

Header

• My Page - Could be useful, especially if it could be ordered by priority. It's real strength is for people who just want to see what's assigned to them from across multiple projects.
• c.f. Trac if you're interested in a priority driven system
• Projects Tab - Yet another way to jump between projects
• My Account - Because "Settings" is so Bourgeois!

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Basic Setup
• Part 3: Landing Page

• Part 4: The Project

• Part 5: Review
• Part 6: Where to from Here

Objectives

• Understand the top level tabs in a Project

The Project

a.k.a. Where you will spend the vast majority of your time

Some features are fantastic

Others seem pointless (for agile development at least)

Let's have a look at the tabs

Overview

• Issue Tracking - Good in Theory
• Members - A handy reference

Backlogs - The Bees Knees

• Custom plugin
• Great in planning sessions
• Drag and drop ordering for priority

Question: Who owns the backlog (the client, PM, the devs, BAs, someone else)?

Pro Tip

Use arbitrary sprints/markers here for focus

How do I escape?

Use the header

(Dammit redmine! You were so close!)

Taskboard - Special Secret Song Inside

• Most of the devs and testers live here.
• The simplest way to make tasks.
• Placeholder tasks are really useful (but they screw with the roadmap)
• Shiny Colours!
• Will slow down something wicked if the number of tasks/stories gets large

Issues - Great if used right

It has custom filters

This requires some setup (likely from the PM)

Pester Sanjay

Pro Tip - Bulk update

Right click to bulk update

But not on a link of any kind (find some white space)

Mmmm... Intuitive c.f. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience

New Issue - What it says on the box

Partially subsumed by the backlog

A Less-New Issue

Actually you can do it wrong!

How do I edit the details?

Repository

• A view of your associated git repo
• Repo must be stored locally on the redmine server

You could set up synchronisation

Activity - Signal:Noise

Frankly I have no idea about this tab

No one has used it that I've talked to

Roadmap - The poor man's backlog

Could be useful for the PM if you don't create marker stories/tasks (so never)

The "Versions" section (tiny thing on the right) is handy

Backlog Config - Fire and Forget

• Control statuses for the backlog and taskboard
• Be careful adding Statuses

Releases - ???

All it's features can be subsumed by the Backlog and Issues pages

Gantt - Charts and stuff

Calendar - What it says on the box

Documents - Signal:Noise

Look at those contrasting titles!

The wiki does it better

Wiki

Really useful if you put in the effort

• Project-specific documentation
• Data persistence is an issue

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Basic Setup
• Part 3: Landing Page
• Part 4: The Project

• Part 5: Review

• Part 6: Where to from Here

Objectives

• What Redmine is Good at
• What Redmine is Bad at

Review

What Redmine's Good At

• Backlog/Taskboard/IssueTracker
• Built in burn-down charts
• The Taskboard
• Not being WRMS

What Redmine's Bad At

• Doing One Thing Well
• Loading Quickly
• Customisation

Redmine is as good as you make it

How you use Redmine will evolve. I guarantee it!

Pro Tip

Be clear on the process you want

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Basic Setup
• Part 3: Landing Page
• Part 4: The Project
• Part 5: Review

• Part 6: Where to from Here

Objectives

• Conclusion

Where to From Here?

Some Possible Future Classes

• Workflow Case Studies - Examples from other teams
• Team Sessions - Specialist Workshop for your team
• Redmine for Outsiders - Hey testers and designers

Additional Reading

• The Catalyst Wiki
• The Secret Wiki
• These Slides

Some Similar Management Tools

• Redmine - This
• JIRA - The gold standard but not free
• Trac - Priority Driven
• Odoo - What we should be using IMHO

Criticise Higgins

If Redmine will be used more by Catalyst then the admins want all the feedback we can get

Bother the Admins

redmine-admins@catalyst.net.nz