Looking for a project management system

Looking for a project management system

[Subhan Michael Tindall]

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I'm looking for a light-weight project management system to help organize my growing number of projects.
It seems like there's a lot out there, but I haven't found one that seems like it quite meets my needs.
Most seem to be keyed in to github or similar, which is not really an option for me.
I've played around with projectile, it *almost* gets there but not quite.
Features I would like are:
Arbitrary list of files for a project (projectile uses a 'directory is a project' model
Ability to merge projects (I often have small projects that get merged into bigger ones)
Load specified files for a project (flagged or regexp?) into buffers
Switch between projects, with some way to flag files auto-loaded IE all *.org files in project)
Auto-switch org-agenda-files to match the current project for reporting and agendas.

Can anybody point me at something that might meet my needs, or at least get close enough for me to
justify a little code hacking to customize?

Thanks!
Subhan


Subhan Michael Tindall
Program Analyst - FamilyCare Health Plans
825 NE Multnomah St, Suite 1400; Portland OR 97232
Direct: 503-471-3127
Fax:      503-471-3177
Email:  subhant@familycareinc.org<mailto:subhant@familycareinc.org>
[Email-Signature-Logos June 20143]


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RE: Looking for a project management system

[Drew Adams]

> I'm looking for a light-weight project management system to help organize my
> growing number of projects. It seems like there's a lot out there, but I
> haven't found one that seems like it quite meets my needs.

I hope someone will have a good suggestion for you. This is a good place to ask.

> Most seem to be keyed in to github or similar, which is not really an option
> for me...  Features I would like are:
>
> * Arbitrary list of files for a project
>
> * Ability to merge projects (I often have small projects that get
>   merged into bigger ones)
>
> * Load specified files for a project (flagged or regexp?) into buffers
>
> * Switch between projects, with some way to flag files auto-loaded IE all
>   *.org files in project)
>
> * Auto-switch org-agenda-files to match the current project for reporting and
>   agendas.
> 
> Can anybody point me at something that might meet my needs, or at least get
> close enough for me to justify a little code hacking to customize?

Others will have other suggestions.  Here are mine.  I think they address
all of your wishlist items, in various ways.  None of these is necessarily
limited to project management, but I believe that they could help you.

1. Bookmarks, especially with library Bookmark+.

a. You can bookmark arbitrary sets of files, from any locations.

b. You can bookmark Dired buffers (which, again, can actually list arbitrary
   files, not even necessarily in the same directory).  Markings, subdir
   inclusions, and omissions are all recorded, and restored when you access
   the bookmark.

c. You can tag bookmarks or files, using arbitrary strings as tags.  You 
   can do this programmatically and interactively, by regexp, name, or
   Dired markings.  Tags give you a great way to define sets of bookmarks
   or files - sets that can overlap etc.  The serve to categorize, but they
   can do more than that.  You can use tags to, in effect, merge projects,
   split projects, define subprojects, and so on.

2. Dired, even without bookmarking, especially if you do organize your
   projects by directory.  Getting to know all that Dired can do for you
   can help a lot, IMO.  Library Dired+ can help here.  It lets you act
   on sets of marked files in subdirs, recursively, for example.

3. Icicles improves what Bookmark+ and Dired+ offer.  It has other
   project support as well (see link, below).

These libraries are available from EmacsWiki or MELPA.
Descriptions:

* Bookmark+ - http://www.emacswiki.org/BookmarkPlus
* Dired+    - http://www.emacswiki.org/DiredPlus
* Icicles   - http://www.emacswiki.org/Icicles_-_Support_for_Projects

Re: Looking for a project management system

[Buchs, Kevin J.]

Perhaps you are thinking specifically in the realm of programming 
project. A bit outside of that box, you might consider org-mode. It 
gives you a lot of traditional project management features. You could 
easily store your file lists as a collection of org-mode hyperlinks.

Kevin Buchs   Research Computer Services   Phone: 507-538-5459
Mayo Clinic   200 1st. St SW   Rochester, MN 55905
http://mayoclinic.org  http://facebook.com/MayoClinic  http://youtube.com/MayoClinic  http://twitter.com/MayoClinic

RE: Looking for a project management system

[Subhan Michael Tindall]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+subhant=familycareinc.org@gnu.org
> [mailto:help-gnu-emacs-bounces+subhant=familycareinc.org@gnu.org] On
> Behalf Of Buchs, Kevin J.
> Sent: Friday, August 15, 2014 12:06 PM
> To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> Subject: Re: Looking for a project management system
> 
> Perhaps you are thinking specifically in the realm of programming project. A
> bit outside of that box, you might consider org-mode. It gives you a lot of
> traditional project management features. You could easily store your file lists
> as a collection of org-mode hyperlinks.
Very little of the work I do is programming. I work extensively in org for project planning and reporting, TODO tracking, time clocking, etc.  A lot of my work is spread across a variety of applications and data files, which I currently link with file: links where appropriate. When I have a single directory for a project it's not too bad, but for example right now I have 4 separate sub-projects that were started and merged into 1 larger project, in multiple directories at the same level and TODOs, notes, code, etc spread across 8 or 10 org files.
Simply pushing it all together screws up a lot of my linking and multiple files have very similar structure, making a simple merge difficult.



> Kevin Buchs   Research Computer Services   Phone: 507-538-5459
> Mayo Clinic   200 1st. St SW   Rochester, MN 55905
> http://mayoclinic.org  http://facebook.com/MayoClinic
> http://youtube.com/MayoClinic  http://twitter.com/MayoClinic
> 


This message is intended for the sole use of the individual and entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If you are not the intended addressee, nor authorized to receive for the intended addressee, you are hereby notified that you may not use, copy, disclose or distribute to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received this message in error, please immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete the message.  Thank you.

Re: Looking for a project management system

[Buchs, Kevin J.]

I guess I don't deal with those sort of problems because I keep 
everything in one org file. It seems there are two alternatives that 
make merging or splitting file: links simpler in your case:
   - make all the links to absolute file system paths ( /... or c:/ ) 
(org-store-link makes this easy)
   - make the links relative to the position of the org file, but then 
when you merge, move the files so they are in the same relative position 
to the destination org file.

Kevin Buchs   Research Computer Services   Phone: 507-538-5459
Mayo Clinic   200 1st. St SW   Rochester, MN 55905
http://mayoclinic.org  http://facebook.com/MayoClinic  http://youtube.com/MayoClinic  http://twitter.com/MayoClinic

Re: Looking for a project management system

[Emanuel Berg]

I depends what you mean by project management system.

To me, that begins with having the files organized
logically, and with short, clear names that are easy
and fast to type, all in directories to show purpose
and encapsulate. This I do in the shell (tmux/zsh) but
and sometimes Dired, as mentioned.

Then, to switch between buffers fast I have a system
where I add each and every file. It is actually very
fast to setup, one file at a time. Then the files are
brought up by hitting a key sequence, that mirrors the
filesystem and/or the purpose of the file. So, for
example, I have `C-j g m' -- `C-j' (brings up the
buffer-switching system), `g' (for Gnus), and `m' (for
mail) -- to reach gnus/mail.el.

With editing keystrokes, I always said they should be
close, short, and they don't have to be mnemonic
because they enter your muscle memory instantly and
bypasses all that anyway, almost instantly.

However, for buffer-switching, the keystrokes should
still be close (i.e., doesn't require your hands to
move from typing position) - but it isn't that
important. They don't have to be short either, as long
as they make sense so you can remember them there isn't
that much time to win as you won't switch between
buffers constantly (I hope!). So it is a bit of a
different animal. They should be mnemonic to impose the
project structure but foremost so you can remember them
all. It all makes up a tree: again to exemplify, I have
one tree for Emacs, one for zsh functions, and so on. I
didn't have this for my last project, so there isn't
such an example present, but there will be, next time.
I'll just show the code and perhaps someone will like
it:

http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/conf/emacs-init/navigate-fs-keys.el

The buffer meny and such features aren't good because
they make you browse, iterate, search. I want
everything to be 100% in the flow, no searching, no
browsing long lists, everything should follow
naturally. And I don't mind memorizing keystrokes to
this end - actually I don't have to, almost, as it is
so intuitive. If I were to strike a key and get to a
buffer I didn't intend to bring up, I would change that
so that would actually get the intended buffer, next
time.

I also have this to manage TODO and NEWS files:

http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/conf/emacs-init/todo-did.el

The TODO list is very useful. Every time I think of
something I just do `M-x todo RET' and write a couple
of words to describe it. Then I go back to what I was
doing as I probably have so much of that in my head it
would be a waste to do the "TODO thing" at this point.
Next time I feel like relaxing, while being
active/productive nonetheless, I just check the TODO
file (which I have `C-j t') and start picking down
items.

I also did something similar with a NEWS file, in that
same Elisp file. If you have a bunch of programmers
working for you it is very good to keep track of what
they do. But I don't have that, so the benefit for me
was just mentally, to know there is progress every day.
For a project the size of a master project at the
university, or a game (e.g., Heroes of Might and Magic)
it might make sense, for anything smaller than that I
don't think it is called for.

If you know of other aspects of managing a project
(other than structure, getting to the different files
back and forth, TODO, and NEWS) feel free to ask, I
might have something on that as well.

There are of course many aspects of Emacs that are
close, but not quite, on topic here. For example the
.mailrc file to keep track of everyone who works on the
project. Or Gnus for quick access to Usenet so you can
ask on comp.lang.c when you get segmentation fault. And
all such things. It is not really managing a project
but they make working on a project ten times as
productive and one hundred times as pleasant.

Good luck!

-- 
underground experts united