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[wtp-dev] Fw: [wtp-committers] XML based milestone plans


Hi David,  

Thanks for the feedback.  I'll try to address your comments below.

>    1.  Why are we still using wtp-committers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx list?

Perhaps I misunderstood the purposed of the list?  I thought it was the channel to direct information to other commiters ... but I'm happy to post to wtp-dev if no one minds the extra noise.  

>    2. I think it'd be nice if "low", "medium", "high" was also "printed out" on web rendered version  perhaps in brackets immediately before item?

Sure I'll make that change.


>    3. I'm not sure of the relation of "top items" and the rest of list .... shouldn't the top items be only "high" priority
>        items we consider "stop ship" if not met for milestone? (In that case, is there a way they can be automatically
>       "picked out" of whole list and put in the "top" section?). Even if have to be manually duplicated, I think that
>        should be the objective of that section, right?).


I don't think 'top items' are required... I'm still thinking thru what level of detail need to be exposed on the 'overview' plan and how we can organize our items in our component plans to also produce a good overview.  Any suggestions are welcome.  Even without much effort our current component plans appears to generate a fairly good overview [1] (though there's a few minor naming/uppercasing problem we'll ne to sort out to make our links work).

>      4. In the item element, I'd suggest a "detail" tag as well as a "description" tag. The description would be
>      "picked out" for most high level project wide plan displays, but the 'detail' could be ignored, but via
>       different URL, or what ever, developers and co-developers focused on one particular component could
>       also see the detail if they'd prefer. That way, there's a clear "short" version that gives gist of item and a
>       clear "long" version of the item (when desired) that gives more details some developers might need
>        to know. For example (only),


Makes sense...  I'll add this to the schema and provide a way to view the detail in the generated html.  BTW, you can add any HTML markup you choose to the content of the description tag... so if you feel a need to  HTML markup to your descriptions (e.g. bold tags, links to bugzilla bugs etc) that should all work for free.

[1] http://eclipse.org/webtools/development/milestone_plans/reports/report-milestone-overview.xml


thanks

Craig


Craig Salter
Rational Studio XML Web Services
Internal Mail: D3/RY6/8200 /MKM
Phone: (905) 413-3918  TL: 969-3918 FAX: (905) 413-4920
Internet: csalter@xxxxxxxxxx     Notes: Craig Salter/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA




David M Williams <david_williams@xxxxxxxxxx>

01/11/2005 03:09 AM

To
wtp-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
cc
wtp-committers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject
Re: [wtp-committers] XML based milestone plans






Very cool ... now if we just had a web app to update and maintain the lists :)


I do have a few comments and suggestions:

       1.  Why are we still using wtp-committers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx list? I don't think we need it now that we have
improved eclipse infrastructure support and better defined voting processes -- no offense to object web and
many thanks for helping us get started!, but I believe anything on this list can and should go on wtp-dev list.
(If there's no objections, or reasons I'm missing, perhaps Naci could have other list "turned off" (or auto-reply
to sender with appropriate message?).


More to your point,
       2. I think it'd be nice if "low", "medium", "high" was also "printed out" on web rendered version
       perhaps in brackets immediately before item?

       3. I'm not sure of the relation of "top items" and the rest of list .... shouldn't the top items be only "high" priority
       items we consider "stop ship" if not met for milestone? (In that case, is there a way they can be automatically
       "picked out" of whole list and put in the "top" section?). Even if have to be manually duplicated, I think that
       should be the objective of that section, right?).
               4. In the item element, I'd suggest a "detail" tag as well as a "description" tag. The description would be
       "picked out" for most high level project wide plan displays, but the 'detail' could be ignored, but via
       different URL, or what ever, developers and co-developers focused on one particular component could
       also see the detail if they'd prefer. That way, there's a clear "short" version that gives gist of item and a
       clear "long" version of the item (when desired) that gives more details some developers might need
       to know. For example (only),

                       
<item priority="high">
                       
 <description>
                               Document Designs, API, and JUnit tests

                       
 </description>
                       
 <detail>
                               During M3 we'll focus primarily on core (model) Designs and APIs.
                               We'll detail not only "standard" DOM APIs we support, but also, the
                               extensions to that API, related to Adapters and ReadOnly APIs.

                       
 </detail>
                       
</item>


But don't let these minor comments detract from the fact that I think this *is* very cool, and *very*
helpful to having better milestone plans.


Thanks very much,


David






Craig Salter <csalter@xxxxxxxxxx>

01/10/2005 11:51 PM


To
wtp-committers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
cc
Subject
[wtp-committers] XML based milestone plans








Hi folks,


I've checked in some XML based milestone plans (well ... preliminary plans) and related stylesheets into the WTP website.  Here's a description of how they work, how you can use this for your own simple milestone plans, and some more advanced milestone planning stuff you can do if you're keen.   Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.



Component Milestone Plan Document


Here's a link to a simple  
milestone plan for the xsd component  [1].  It was designed to resemble a typical eclipse milestone document (e.g. the jdt ui milestone plan [2]).  By virtue of an XSL style sheet the file appears in a web browser as though it's a pretty HTML document, but in fact it's just a simple XML file (use 'View Source' in your browser and see for yourself).    Here's a simplified overview of how the plan document is structured (note that an XML Schema for a milestone plan [3] is provided).    

plan                  

  component
      milestone     <-- one or more ... usually a 'current' plan and a preliminary plan for the next milestone)

         category   <-- work items are categorized according to function (e.g. 'Quick Fix & Quick Assists')

             item   <-- straight forward items can be described as a single bullet

             
             item   <-- more complex work items can be broken down into multiple 'teps, which appear as 'sub bullets'

               step
               step


         category

             item

               step

               step

               step




Combined Overview Documents

             

Once the milestone plans are in XML format its easy to write additional reports that can query across multiple component plans to create summary documents.  For example, here's a
Milestone Overview document  [4] that queries all of the component plans (well for now there's just a couple) to produce a list of noteable items.  Note that in order to make items show up in the overview just specify a 'priority' attribute on the <item> element in the mile stone plan xml file.  In this way we're specifying that the item should be called out in the overview document (BTW I find the 'Top Items' listed in a component milestone plan are a good fit for 'notable' items in a combined overview)..


Milestone Schedule Calendar Reports


Optionally, component milestone plans can be 'annotated' with additional scheduling or planning information.  For example work items can be assigned to developers and sizing information can be added.  Here's an example of a work item that's been annotated with additional scheduling information.

             

      <!-- here's a work item without any 'scheduling info' -->

      <
item>
              <
description>Provide XML Schema refactoring support</description>
                      <
step status="in-progress">
                              <
description>Component renaming - update references to renamed component</description>
                      </
step>                        
      </
item>
      <!-- here's the same work item with added 'scheduling info' -->

      <!--
the 'developer' element specifies the owner of the     -->
      <!--
the 'start' attribute specifies the milestone week when work should begin -->
      <!--
the 'length' attribute specifies the milestone week when work should end -->
      <!--
the 'pds' attribute estimates the 'person days' of work required to complete this work -->
     
<item>
             
<description>Provide XML Schema refactoring support</description>
             
<developer name="ebelisar@xxxxxxxxxx" />                                
             
<step status="in-progress" start="2" length="1" pds="2">
                     
<description>Component renaming - update references to renamed component</description>
             
</step>
     
</item>

Given this extra information we can generate a
calendar report for a group of developers [5].   Notice that value in brackets to the right of each developer's name specifies the number of person days of work that have been allocated to the developer.   I find this calendar view handy when planning work to make sure that developers are allocated work evenly and according to their  available time.  It also looks good hanging on the wall beside your monitor :-)   Finally I should point out that its easy for other groups to customize this calendar report for their own components and developers by modifying the 'report'  xml file.


[1] http://eclipse.org/webtools\wst\components\xsd\M3\xsd_milestone_plan_simple.xml

[2] http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/jdt-ui-home/r3_1/main.html#Overall_Plan

[3] http://eclipse.org/webtools/development/milestone_plans/milestonePlan.xsd

[4] http://eclipse.org/webtools/development/milestone_plans/reports/report-milestone-overview.xml

[5] http://eclipse.org/webtools/development/milestone_plans/reports/report-calendar-by-developer.xml



thanks

Craig

Craig Salter
Rational Studio XML Web Services
Internal Mail: D3/RY6/8200 /MKM
Phone: (905) 413-3918  TL: 969-3918 FAX: (905) 413-4920
Internet: csalter@xxxxxxxxxx     Notes: Craig Salter/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA



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