[121] in iswork
Status of the IS Work database
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Ferrara)
Sun Oct 8 13:31:43 2000
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Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 12:43:24 -0400
To: itlt@mit.edu
From: Robert Ferrara <rferrara@MIT.EDU>
Cc: iswork@mit.edu, kcunning@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <39CC0BAA.48041DCC@mit.edu>
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Hello,
This is an update on the content side of the IS Work database http://mit.edu/is/work/. I must say I'm really getting to like it. The user interface and look and feel is a big improvement over the old project database.
All active Projects have now been assigned my best guess for an Initiative and a Process. I believe we are very close to making this public, but there are a few more steps we ought to do before a public infosys-type announcement, maybe the week after next. Please ask for help from Tim, Kris, or me (in Nashville) if you need it. The next steps are:
1) Each Theme Owner will want to check if the Initiative assignments are correct. Please RSVP later next week, when you are happy.
2) The Process Directors will also want to check the entries for each project in their Process. You can also set a new field "Phase" to either planned, discovery, delivery, or operational. Unfortunately, many of the Project Notebook URL's did NOT transfer from the old database, so you'll have to add them manually - or mark up a printout to give to Kris.
3) Allison, I think Theme 4 initiatives are still too numerous. Print out the Initiative list and see if you don't also think a higher level of aggregation is still warranted.
4) The Practice Directors may also wish to check out their projects, but we don't as yet have a menu pick that gives a view by Practice.
5) I still have to draft a message for infosys and see when Jim can send it.
Later, we will figure out how to transfer the rebudgeting template data to the Activities. A lower priority is to clean up the Terminated Projects, which were also transferred from the old database. I played a bit with some of the old Delivery projects and found all still fit quite neatly into the Theme/Strategy/Initiative scheme.
On a stylistic note, you will find that all Initiatives now begin with a verb, and all Projects and Activities with a noun. I also found a few duplicate projects which are marked with "test" as an Initiative. Note that all the old, obsolete Initiatives are prefixed with a "9". In a week or two after the Theme Owners OK their content, we'll delete these "9" and "test" items.
Here is one bug I stumbled upon. If you assign an Initiative to a Project, it "deselects" the currently assigned Process/Performing Organization, setting to blank. To get it right, you now have to do a more cumbersome, two step operation.
So, in your copious free time, please help get this database ready for prime time :-)
Cheers, Bob
