Hi,
Jason Thomas wrote:
> My limited experience with JBoss development went like this:
>
> 1) beg jboss 'board' several times asking them what needed to be
> done.
> 2) I was given a task of 'board's' choosing.
> 3) I accomplished the task.
> 4) I submitted the code.
> 5) I was told by 'board' member thanks, but someone else already
> finished the task I was assigned.
IMO task assignment is *not* something that
the board should do:
- It implies a hierarchical management
structure.
- The board would have to know about the
virtually unlimited number of possible
tasks, to be able to assign them. If a
task is forgotten it will never be
assigned, and thus never done.
- The board would have to keep track of who
was assigned which tasks.
- The board would have follow up up tasks,
checking that it is done, and asking in
case an assigned task is not done.
- The board would have to consider
reassigning overdue tasks if someone else
volunteers for it.
- And how does the board know if some
volunteer has the experience to actually
do a particular task?
The normal OSS task distribution model
generally works much better:
1) Pick some task that you want to have done,
and that you think you are able to do.
2) Check with the developer list that there
isn't someone else currently working on
that, and tell the list that you start
working on it.
3) Do it.
4) Test it.
5) Submit it.
During steps 3 and 4 you would monitor the
developer list to ensure that nobody else
starts working on the same thing.
This is completely decentralized, freeing
the board from a huge management task.
There is still a slight change of
duplicate work, but by using the
developer list that can be minimized.
Also, this ensures that whoever does some
piece of work has an interest in having
this particular piece of work done, and
that the result is used from day 1, at
least by the person who wrote it. This
ensures higher quality.
> Talk about heirarchy and superiority! I would have rather went to a
> web site and grabbed a well defined task of my choosing with a known
> date that I needed to accomplish it by (so no one else stepped in and
> did it).
I think we have no more "heirarchy and
superiority" than we create for ourselves.
And I don't think we should create it.
Best Regards,
Ole Husgaard.
