[Lazarus] Project management

[Rich Saunders]

On 3/1/12 8:58 AM, Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote:
> Rich Saunders schrieb:
>> On 2/29/12 7:35 PM, Hans-Peter Diettrich wrote:
>>> Juha Manninen schrieb:
>>>> So, what does the management mean in practice? Should Lazarus be
>>>> managed differently from how it is managed now?
>>> IMO it's not so much a matter of management, but of mind shift. The
>>> developers should share more of their knowledge, apart from only
>>> writing code. Until then every management attempt will be ineffective.
>>>
>>> BTW this is not a criticism on Lazarus only, I found that attitude in
>>> many open source projects, and small (one-man) companies. Failure to
>>> educate co-workers is usually justified by a lack of time ("busy with
>>> more important things"), and results in never decreasing work load.
>>
>> While you have identified one issue that may not be helped by a change
>> in project management, there are other issues that will be helped. So
>> don't just focus on this one thing and say "every management attempt
>> will be ineffective".
>
> I wonder what's the intented purpose of your "management". In my
> understanding a management will give instructions, which then are
> *obeyed*. Everything else is "talk" about a project, which can happen
> in any place (mailing list, forums...).

No, that is not the "management" I am talking about. I'm talking about
more a coordinator role, an organizer. Here a manager is someone who
knows what's going on and who is doing what. Hopefully they will also
know the history and reasons why things are the way they are.

For example, a documentation manager would know how the documentation is
organized, who has contributed what parts, who is currently working on
what parts, and why it is done the way it is done. That person would be
the best one to respond to any questions on the mailing lists about
problems with the documentation. That person does NOT have to be a
current developer, in fact probably should not be. But they should know
the correct person to ask a specific question of. So they can translate
a problem/issue/question from a user and say it in a way that is least
likely to bother the expert  being questioned.

The project could have
- a "build manager" who coordinates all the builds for various
platforms, ensuring that each gets attended to when necessary
- a "communications manager" who keeps the mailing lists running
smoothly and perhaps also acts as moderator
- a "public relations manager" who organizes the public presence of the
project, ensuring that the project looks alive, organized, and
attractive to newcomers
- a "quality manager" who organizes test suites, recruits testers,
ensures testing is considered when new features are proposed/added

These are all tasks that the core developer team can be freed from doing.