[40] in Project_DB
Re: How is this for an announcement on Monday when Arachne comes up?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike Barker)
Mon Mar 17 11:44:37 1997
To: project-db@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 11:44:16 EST
From: Mike Barker <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
A few comments and a rewritten draft:
1. We should probably try to give a tutorial as part of an ILEAD
meeting, if we've got the people ready to present a GOOD tutorial.
2. We should get at least a web page "intro to use" up.
3. Let's NOT kill usage of version 1 by promising a new UI in three
months. I agree that we should collect changes and adjust the
interface, but I really don't think it is a good idea to set the
expectation that this interface is NOT the real one.
Instead, let's present the appearance that this is it, and see how
people do with it. We can make adjustments if needed, but we should
at least go through several full project lifecycles of use before we
tear out what we've built and put another interface in. Frankly, I
don't know how long that will take, so saying we're going to do it in
three months doesn't make sense.
I don't think we need to put this kind of planning forecast in this
document at this point. I can see several possible outcomes of doing
so: 1, people like the current interface, so we don't need to change
it, and look somewhat silly for saying we were going to; 2, people
have major trouble with the current interface and we end up having to
rip it out and redo it much sooner--and everyone knows we planned to
put another interface in, so all they think they've done is ask us to
hurry it up; 3, (the most likely) people have some small changes which
we should work in as soon as possible, but we hold off for the "big
change" and upset people because version 2 isn't that much different
from version one.
Frankly, I'd drop that whole thing, and keep it as something that we
are looking into, as soon as we have collected enough information and
experience with the system to make a reasonable decision. I don't
think we will be in a position to revise the interface in three
months, because I don't think we will have enough experience to come
up with a significantly different and useful interface. I do expect
that we will need to make small revisions to the interface, probably
sooner. BUT we can do those as small adjustments.
4. We need to decide what the appropriate future direction of this
project is. It should NOT be left as a lingering "constant level of
effort" delivery thing--that's the old approach to doing these
projects which we are trying to move away from. I.e., what are the
remaining tasks, who is doing them, etc.
mike
----------------------------
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