[TriLUG] Re: Linux for the desktop

[Mike Mueller]

On Friday 07 November 2003 07:49, Janyne Kizer wrote:
> The missing pieces for us are -- desktop publishing (Microsoft
> Publisher-like application), easy to use graphics program (they have
> GIMP but find it to be overkill and I agree). 

Maybe a Tkl veneer over GIMP - a GIMP-lite?  GIMP is more like Photoshop - is 
that right?  What're they actually trying to do?  Maybe put out an RFP and 
some industrious person on the list will make what you need.

I use OpenOffice Impress or Draw to create diagrams.  Then I export to jpeg 
format.  I'll GIMP the images for resizing (Image/Scale) for HTML use.  I'm a 
GIMP-wimp.

> We have not had a demand
> for a project management applications (Microsoft Project-like) but I
> think that the organization could use it and I am looking for a more
> fully featured one than MrProject.

(WARNING. What follows is cynical and sarcastic and is the result of a 
painful period in my career where, for mere money, I become an anti-developer 
- a project manager - neither developer nor management - caught in a world 
between and reviled by all.  I don't offer any real help in trying to solve 
the problem.)

They don't know it but they are more productive by _not_ having Project.  
People spend hours on Project projects that tell a story about a project.  
Sometimes it seems there should be a Project project to manage a Project 
project to manage a project.  More often than not, the project changes faster 
than the Project project can adapt.  Developers told me that if I would stop 
bothering them with questions about the plan, they could get something done.

Now if there was a project plan generator that took 3 parameters (discline, 
project name and due date) and created a project plan out of thin air and if 
it modified the plan slightly as you went along, that would be useful.  
Management would have a project plan with complicated icons and arrows and 
tasks.  They could ask penetrating questions about how task 52 is impacting 
the roll-up of task 34.  Based on discipline the project would insert common 
and realistic verbs and nouns in the task descriptions.  The project manager 
could stop hindering productivity and management would fee fully informed.  
This would free up time for the project manager to update her or his resume 
and find another job before the current one fails and everyone blames the 
project manager.

Project plans more detailed than what can be expressed in a text email are 
rarely useful to software developers.  As a bourne-again developer I've tried 
to use Project several times.  It's a waste of time.  The writing and telling 
of the story about the plan has to change at the same speed as the plan. 
That's why the OSS community will probably not create something on par with 
Project.  You'll probably have to get a Win emulator and MS Project.  The 
good thing about this is the cost of the solution will impede its widespread 
use and will actually increase the overall productivity of the organization. 

I fairness I will admit that the construction industry and other mature 
industries benefit from detailed plans where drastic changes are unusual.

I am sure that was more than anybody wanted to read about project management. 
I feel better for getting that off my chest though.
-- 
Mike Mueller
324881 (08/20/2003)
Make clockwise circles with your right foot. 
Now use your right hand to draw the number "6" in the air.