[649] in magellan
Web Mail Discovery Status Report as of 5/30/01
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Matt Brody)
Wed May 30 09:40:03 2001
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Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 09:41:53 -0400
From: Matt Brody <mbrody@MIT.EDU>
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My apologies in terms of the lateness of this status report. I've been
out of the office all last week.
Matt
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Project Name: Web Mail
Project Leader: Matt Brody
Report Date: 5/30/01
Submitted by: Matt Brody
URL: http://web.mit.edu/is/discovery/webmail/index.html
Accomplishments past period:
- Significant effort was expended trying to get both Silky Mail and EMU
Mail up and running for testing. Technical issues identified in both
Silky Mail and EMU Mail will preclude further consideration of either of
these products. While this is unfortunate in one sense, in the process
of attempting to install and configure these products, we have learned a
great deal about web mail infrastructure generally and some of the
pitfalls of the various web mail solutions available to us.
- Our testing of IMP has continued. While we have identified some bugs
and technical issues, overall the product has performed reliably for us
during testing. In the event this product is chosen for Delivery, it
will require some custom modification and a significant documentation
effort. IMP is an open source product and does not currently have formal
user documentation.
Goals for the coming period:
- Meet with our project sponsor (Jeff Schiller) to discuss recent
developments and solicit his thoughts on how he would like us to proceed
from here given the results of our testing.
- Reconvene the project team to review our work to date and plan our
next steps.
Issues:
- When we started this project, we had 3 potential products to test
(IMP, Silky Mail, and EMU Mail). Because of technical issues, we ended
up being able to test only 1 of the 3 products, IMP. While IMP has
proven reliable, we have not been afforded a good basis of comparison
between it and other web mail solutions in terms of the user interface
and functionality. At this point, we will have to decide whether to
proceed with IMP into Delivery, recongizing its limitations, or whether
we should extend our testing to another web mail solution beyond the 3
that we're originally chosen. The latter option would add to our
Discovery timeline which has already been delayed. This is a key
decision point that I will be discussing with our sponsor and the
project team.
Key learnings:
- Installation of the 3 test products was an essential part of the
critical path of this project in terms of the team performing its work.
Significant delays in getting our test products set-up resulted in lost
momentum for the team. To do over again, I would exercise greater care
in planning for this eventuality.
Team dynamics:
- OK. However, because of delays in the test product set-up, I haven't
been able to keep the team very engaged during the last 2 months. This
has been a function of circumstance and is no fault of the team.
Additional comments:
- None.
--
**************************************
Matthew S. Brody
Sr. Project Manager
I/T Discovery
MIT Information Systems
mbrody@mit.edu
617.253.4011
**************************************
