[164] in Project_DB
Comments on the project database
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Theodore Y. Ts'o)
Wed Jul 9 21:45:33 1997
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 1997 21:45:29 -0400
From: "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@MIT.EDU>
To: project-db@MIT.EDU
Cc: azary@MIT.EDU
Susan tried to encourage members of the ITIT to use the project
database, stating that if we entered quarterly report information into
the project database, she'd simply take the results from there.
I tried to use it, I really did..... here are some of the issues that I
found. (Sorry for being so nit-picky; I did spend a lot of time trying
to use the project db, and I hope these comments are constructive.)
(1) The project database is slow; its response time is simply annoying.
(I was experiencing a wait of 3-5 seconds after hitting a button on the
web page.) It is much, much faster for me to type up my quarterly
report items in an e-mail message, rather than trying to enter them into
the web page.
(2) The "you have to put text all on one line" is really annoying.
Particularly for quarterly report accomplishments, where you really do
want to have separate lines for each accomplishment.
(3) An unprivileged user has the ability to delete "Related
documentation" items from a project. For example, I could have gone to
the Project Database page, and deleted all of the documentation items
from it. This is probably not desireable. :-)
(4) After making a change, you need to hit "back", "back", "reload" to
see the change in project page. (See comment #1 about the project
database being slow.) It would be much better if after committing the
change, the web server snapped you back to the project editing page.
(5) It'd be a lot nicer if the "Modify this project" button was at the
top of the screen --- perhaps to the left of the project name. Getting
to the modify project button involves scrolling that could be avoided by
placing the button elsewhere (or perhaps in multiple places!).
Another alternative would be to have a list of buttons along the top of
the web page ---- "Add comment", "Add document reference", "Add Issue",
etc. could be all in one place.
(6) Lose the trailing comma at the end of the team leader list; it
looks rather amatuerish.
(7) Why are there separate buttons for "Modify Project Record", "Modify
Team Leader", "Modify Customer Information", "Modify Description", etc.?
A single "Modify project" button would have sufficed.
(8) How about adding some new document types? I'd like to see "Protocol
Specification", "API", "End-user Documentation".
- Ted
