Hall-D Software Task List, meta-issues

["Mark M. Ito" <marki@jlab.org>]

Dave,

Last week you asked me to review the software task list at 
http://www.jlab.org/Hall-D/software/Software_tasks.php . I think the 
list is fairly complete, but looking it over gave me some thoughts on 
how it should be used.

Originally, this was supposed to be a sort of sign-up sheet for projects 
that we need to get done. People looking for ways to get involved could 
look at the set of unclaimed projects to figure out where they might 
contribute. But reading it now it seems more like a list of people 
responsible for different areas of the software. Where name = blank 
effectively means that no one is responsible right now. These are 
actually two different functions, albeit with a lot of overlap.  I 
propose that we change it to function as a responsible person list, 
perhaps rename it a "List of Areas of Responsibility for GlueX 
Software". Note that with that definition:

a) Responsibility can be assigned for both development and maintenance. 
Maintenance and implementation of new features is an important function 
beyond the delivery of a working system. If there is problem, we all 
know who to ask about it.

b) Assignment of responsibility does not necessarily mean assignment of 
the work itself. Some folks may be able to sign-up for responsibility 
and presumably be willing to collect the necessary manpower. Whether 
this is appropriate or not depends on the task.

Tasks/Areas/Projects could be marked as either active, dormant, or 
obsolete. In this way we could keep track of items that we are not 
working on right now, but want to turn to in the future.

I think the list should be either "wiki-tized" or "subverted" so we can 
keep track of history and make changes more easily.

With this definition we could try to assign responsibility for 
everything relatively quickly, and assign active/dormant status as a 
rough means of prioritizing work.

  -- Mark