Buildings & Grounds defines projects to identify, plan and coordinate efforts which involve multiple tasks. A project is assigned the next UUBG-NNN document number when its Project Summary is created here and its Project Plan is created in UUBG-066 Projects: TODO List. The number is assigned even though the document may never exist. This number is also referred to as the ProjectID number: PID-PPP.
The difference between projects and tasks is one of scale based on these criteria:
- Takes more than 2 people
- Lasts more than 2 weeks
- Costs more than $200
- Runs more than 2 paragraphs
When an activity meets any of these criteria, it might be a project rather than a task. If it meets all of them, then it's definitely a project. Many projects begin as tasks which grow in scope upon investigation. Some projects become recurrent maintenance procedures.
Projects are fundamental to UUBG-055 Organization: Getting Things Done in the Buildings & Grounds committee. Project structures are flexible so UUBG can respond as events develop. Projects are used in many ways:
- Capture large-scale, long-term "TODO" requests
- Recruit and credit volunteers
- Coordinate multiple tasks
- Track progress and next action
- Record labor and material costs
- Evolve maintenance procedures
- Accumulate maintenance database
- Web-page searchable historical log
As described above, a project is automatically assigned a dedicated document number and thus its own UUBG-PPP.html web page. Most projects start out small and some of them never get large, so the web page is optional. But all projects begin with entries in the UUBG-065 Projects: Master Index and UUBG-066 Projects: TODO List.
Project entries are stored in two tabular formats. The Project Summary format is one line of data in the Master Index with a hyperlink to the current location of the more expansive Project Plan format. The Plan being either in the TODO List or the DONE List.
The Project Summary format used in UUBG-065 Projects: Master Index provides basic information for each project.
PID-063 is given as an example:
| ProjectID | Status | Group | Project Document Title |
| PID-063 | [ASSESS] | Steering | Document Site & Facilities |
- ProjectID - Assign from next UUBG-NNN document number
with hyper-link into TODO List or DONE List - Status - Current status of project:
- [TODO] - Awaiting planner(s)
- [ASSESS] - Assess the needs
- [PLAN] - Address the needs
- [DESIGN] - Detailed design and plan
- [EXECUTE] - Implement the plan
- [FOLLOWUP] - Loose ends remaining
- [DONE] - Project completed
- [MAINT] - Assigned to maintenance
- [QUIT] - Abandoned the project
- Group B&G group responsible for project:
- Steering - Steering Committee
- Landscape - Landscape Group
- Hardscape - Hardscape Group
- Structures - Structures Group
- Furnishings - Furnishings Group
- Project Document Title One-line title of the project
with hyperlink to document (if it exists)
Matches the document title following the Project: prefix.
The Project Plan format used in Projects: TODO List and Projects: DONE List accomodates additional information:
| ProjectID InDate (DueDate) UpDate [STATUS] |
Project Document Title (Source)
Description Related Projects & Tasks Next & Needs Notes |
| PID-063
2008-03-10 () 2008-04-06 [ASSESS] |
Document Site & Facilities (Stu Anderson)
Project to document UUFSD's physical site and facilities. Catalog existing and create new drawings and documents as needed. Include: structural; mechanical; electrical wiring & breaker panels; water & gas plumbing, meters & shutoffs; irrigation; telecomm networks - phone, computer, video. Make these readily accessible. Related Projects & Tasks
|
- InDate - Date received from source
- (DueDate) - Date required (optional)
- UpDate - Date of latest change to this entry
- (Source) - Who requested the project?
- Description - Describe project in a paragraph
- Optional information with detailed sub-headings:
- Related Projects & Tasks - PID-PPP and/or TID-TTT links
- Next & Needs - TODO and resources
- Notes - Summary, details, loose ends
All dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format. UpDate reflects the most recent change to the Project Plan. The DueDate is optional. If not provided, leave an empty pair of parentheses.
ProjectID, InDate and Source should not change after the project is created. Group and Title rarely change. Description may change as the plan evolves, but keep it small. Details belong in the project UUBG-PPP.html document.
In the true spirit of Buildings & Grounds we have implemented the Project management system with tools we found laying around. Sure they are a bit rusty, but they are also inconvenient and unreliable ;-} Since there are no decent HTML editors (they all trip over themselves trying to be fancy) we ended up writing XHTML Transitional qualified web pages using little more than an ASCII editor.
Although a data base might be convenient for sorting, they tend to be rigidly formatted and require specialized tools to access. Web pages are text searchable using any old browser. The Project Plan format is very much free-form. Who knows know what stuff we might need to toss into it?
We compensate for our limited toolset by using a few simple data entry templates and standardizing our hyperlink naming schemes.
Since the ProjectID number is assigned as a UUBG document number, any project's document can be hyperlink referenced like a normal UUBG-NNN document. Use the attribute: href="UUBG-PPP.html", where PPP is the 3-digit ProjectID number. If the document exists, then the Project Document Title in the Project Summary and Project Plan should be linked to it, otherwise not.
UUBG documents include Project Summary or Project Plan tables label each ProjectID with an id attribute. Use the attribute: id="PID-PPP", where 'PPP' is the three digit ProjectID number. Thus, a hyperlink reference to a particular project entry in a list document has the format: UUBG-NNN.html#PID-PPP, where NNN is the listing document number and PPP is the ProjectID number.
Formatted tables in UUBG web pages generally include a blank entry template embedded within a comment header:
<!-- ==== ... ==== -->
These include dummy data fields in ALL CAPS.
For creating a new Project Summary entry there is:
<!-- ======= BLANK PROJECT SUMMARY ==================== <tr><td><a id="PID-PPP" href="UUBG-066.html#PID-PPP"><b> PID-PPP </b></a></td> <td> [TODO] </td><td> GROUP </td> <td><a id="UUBG-PPP.html"> TITLEOFPROJECT </a></td> </tr> ===== END OF BLANK SUMMARY (change last id= to href= when doc exists) ===== -->
For creating a new Project Plan entry there is:
<!-- ======= BLANK PROJECT PLAN ====================== <tr><td><b><a id="PID-PPP" href="UUBG-065.html#PID-PPP">PID-PPP</a></b> <br /> INDATE <br /><b>(DUEDATE)</b><br /> UPDATE <br /> <b>[TODO]</b> </td> <td><b><a title="UUBG-PPP.html">PROJECTITLE</a></b> (SOURCE) <p> DESCRIPTION </p> <b> Related Projects & Tasks </b> <ol> <li><b><a href="#PID-PPP">PID-PPP</a></b> <a title="UUBG-PPP.html">PROJECTITLE</a> <ul><li> DETAIL </li> <li> DETAIL </li> </ul></li> <li><b><a href="UUBG-042.html#TID-TTT">TID-TTT</a></b> TASKTITLE <ul><li> DETAIL </li> <li> DETAIL </li> </ul></li> </ol> <b> Next & Needs </b> <ul><li>NEXTNEED</li> <li>NEXTNEED</li> </ul> <b> Notes </b> <ol><li>NOTE</li> <li>NOTE</li> </ol> </td> </tr> ============ END OF BLANK PROJECT ==================== -->
An excellent discussion of how projects are used in the workflow of the UUBG committee is at UUBG-055 Organization: Getting Things Done / Workflow . Here we delve into the details of editing project entries in the web pages.
New projects arise from various sources. A task expands upon investigation to become a project. Other members of the Fellowship submit project suggestions to the UUBG's In-Basket. If the project is not novel:
- Tell the source that we are aware of the project
- Cite it's Project ID, or Maintenance list document number
- Direct the source to the corresponding document
Otherwise, create a new In-Basket Project.
The information required to create an In-Basket project is minimal:
- Assign next doc number from Index: UUFSD Buildings & Grounds Documents
- Add one to the Summary"Last number assigned: UUBG-NNN" of the Index
- PPP = the new (incremented) NNN number
- Add the new project document entry to the Unreleased Documents section
- UUBG-PPP document number as incremented above
- Document title is "Project: " prefix then your Title
- Fill in Project Summary of UUBG-065 Projects: Master Index:
- ProjectID = PPP; with link into TODO List
- Status = [TODO]
- Group = { Steering, Landscape, Hardscape, Structures or Furnishings }
- Project Document Title = doc title without "Project: " prefix
- Project Plan in UUBG-066 Projects: TODO List adds:
- InDate = today
- DueDate (if any)
- UpDate = today
- Source = who from?
- Description = per source
- Optional information with detailed sub-headings:
- Related Projects & Tasks - PID-PPP and/or TID-TTT links
- Next & Needs - TODO and resources
- Notes - Summary, details, loose ends
Open the Index: UUFSD Buildings & Grounds Documents html file in an editor. Find the phrase Last number assigned: <a href="#UUBG- near line 54. Increment the number that follows and paste it back in both places it occurs in that line. For example, if the line was:
Last number assigned: <a href="#UUBG-070"> UUBG-070</a>
Edit it to read:
Last number assigned: <a href="#UUBG-071"> UUBG-071</a>
Your new ProjectID = PPP = 071.
Scroll to the end of the file. Copy and paste from the entry template:
<div class="entry"> <div class="hdg" id="UUBG-NNN"> <a href="UUBG-NNN.html"> UUBG-NNN TYPE-TITLE</a> </div></div>
Edit it to read (replacing TITLE with your project title):
<div class="entry"> <div class="hdg" id="UUBG-071"> <a href="UUBG-071.html"> UUBG-071 Project: TITLE</a> </div></div>
Save and close the file. View with browser ("reload" or "refresh") to verify the changes.
Open the UUBG-065 Projects: Master Index html file in an editor. Copy and paste the BLANK PROJECT SUMMARY at the top of the Task Summary TODO Table. Set all 3 instances of PID-PPP to the new PPP number. Set other fields as indicated above. Save and close.
Open the UUBG-066 Projects: TODO List html file in an editor. Copy the BLANK PROJECTS PLAN contained in a comment at the top of the "Projects by Group" section of the file. Then scroll down to the appropriate table for the Group { Steering, Landscape, Hardscape, Structures or Furnishings } and paste the BLANK PROJECTS PLAN at the top of that table. This will be just below a comment saying (for example):
=== PASTE NEW STEERING PLAN HERE ===.
Set all 3 instances of PID-PPP to the new PPP number. Set other fields as indicated above. All dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format. The DueDate is optional. If not provided, leave an empty pair of parentheses.
Focus on the source information. Don't sweat the Description. Leave the Related Projects & Tasks, Next & Needs and Notes lines as-is with their dummy data fields. These will be hammered out by the project planner. Save and close.
The Project Planner should use the Project Plan to record links to Related Projects & Tasks and to make brief notes. When there are more than a couple of paragraphs, create the UUBG-PPP.html project document and work there.
Creating a new project web page from the UUBG-NNN-outline-project.xml template is beyond the scope of this document. Let your web-secretary help you...
Change the UpDate whenever the Project Plan is modified. Remember to update the Project Summary in UUBG-065 Projects: Master Index if the Status, Group or Title are changed in the Project Plan.
Once a project has been completed (or abandoned), move the Project Plan from UUBG-066 Projects: TODO List html file to the corresponding group table in the UUBG-067 Projects: DONE List html file. Keep the DONE List tables sorted in descending PID number order as the newly completed Project Plans are added.
Always update the Plan Summary in UUBG-065 Projects: Master Index when the project is completed: update Status and redirect the PID number hyperlink from UUBG-066 to UUBG-067.