Software development tools for developing other things?
July 7, 2011 10:55 PM
Software developers, project managers, anybody trying to improve complex processes involving lots of people: Help us manage and improve a training program.
I am working with a startup NGO in the education sector that is developing a training course. We will be entering the pilot phase soon and want to be able to organize and continually incorporate feedback on the program from a variety of sources.
Yesterday I had the harebrained idea that software development tools, specifically bug tracking platforms, might be well-suited for this purpose. I have never done any software development on a complex scale (and my knowledge of such things is basically limited to finding bug reports for open source programs on Google), but the ability to track "bugs", "new features", and the process of their implementation might be just what we're looking for. Ideally this would be something web-based and free that we could use throughout the life of the program.
So...
I am working with a startup NGO in the education sector that is developing a training course. We will be entering the pilot phase soon and want to be able to organize and continually incorporate feedback on the program from a variety of sources.
Yesterday I had the harebrained idea that software development tools, specifically bug tracking platforms, might be well-suited for this purpose. I have never done any software development on a complex scale (and my knowledge of such things is basically limited to finding bug reports for open source programs on Google), but the ability to track "bugs", "new features", and the process of their implementation might be just what we're looking for. Ideally this would be something web-based and free that we could use throughout the life of the program.
So...
- Software engineers: could you imagine such a process working for a training program instead of software? Are there development tools that are freely available, easy to use, and customizable enough that this might work?
- Anybody managing complex, repeated processes: how do you learn from your mistakes, incorporate feedback, and improve the system? Do you use software? Lots of meetings?
- Everyone else: other suggestions are welcome!
Bug tracker: YES. Depending on technical proficiency, it can be used by anybody. Depending on technical proficiency, some can be operated solely via email, lowering further still the learning curve. Look into ISP-style trackers, like trac (old, kinda techy, lots of plugins), rt (request tracker, the grandaddy), redmine, various PHP-based ones I'm sure. If worse comes to worse, you can use a free webboard like SMF.
posted by rhizome at 11:13 PM on July 7, 2011
posted by rhizome at 11:13 PM on July 7, 2011
Bug trackers are absolutely vital for tracking the nitty gritty of little things that might otherwise get forgotten.
In my experience they are less good for planning or for overview-level thinking; we often end up doing that separately in a spreadsheet or on a whiteboard. Bug trackers are good at detail, and doing detailed planning on something that's still far out in your schedule is usually a mistake.
The bug tracker needs babysitting - you need to watch out for
- bug tennis: two or more people assigning a bug back and forth, "You should fix this" "No you should fix it!"
- spending too much time staring at the individual tasks and not enough thinking about the big picture
- tasks getting forgotten because they are in the system but for some reason they are not in any one person's working list.
- tasks getting put off for ever because they are difficult, or because nobody knows how to do it, where in fact the difficult stuff should be done as soon as possible.
- the bug tracker filling up with "Wouldn't this be nice!" ideas and stuff you might want to do three years out. This just clutters everything up and makes it hard to see what you should be doing right now.
Bonus: Your bug tracking system will make it easy for the PM to search out which tasks have been sitting there too long.
Look up "retrospectives". There's lots of material out there about how best to reflect on your processes and improve them as you go along.
There are many many bug trackers out there that will be easily customisable to do what you want.
posted by emilyw at 2:09 AM on July 8, 2011
In my experience they are less good for planning or for overview-level thinking; we often end up doing that separately in a spreadsheet or on a whiteboard. Bug trackers are good at detail, and doing detailed planning on something that's still far out in your schedule is usually a mistake.
The bug tracker needs babysitting - you need to watch out for
- bug tennis: two or more people assigning a bug back and forth, "You should fix this" "No you should fix it!"
- spending too much time staring at the individual tasks and not enough thinking about the big picture
- tasks getting forgotten because they are in the system but for some reason they are not in any one person's working list.
- tasks getting put off for ever because they are difficult, or because nobody knows how to do it, where in fact the difficult stuff should be done as soon as possible.
- the bug tracker filling up with "Wouldn't this be nice!" ideas and stuff you might want to do three years out. This just clutters everything up and makes it hard to see what you should be doing right now.
Bonus: Your bug tracking system will make it easy for the PM to search out which tasks have been sitting there too long.
Look up "retrospectives". There's lots of material out there about how best to reflect on your processes and improve them as you go along.
There are many many bug trackers out there that will be easily customisable to do what you want.
posted by emilyw at 2:09 AM on July 8, 2011
I don't know if you want a fit-for-purpose bug tracking system. I think you just need a tracking system to organize issues, ideas, suggestions, etc. You could quite easily set something like this up with Sharepoint or Wufoo. Build a couple forms with the data / metrics you want to track, capture the data, and then manipulate it in something like Excel to make it more actionable / understandable.
For example, let's say you need people to log issues with your training. So you create an Issue log. Maybe you track issues by training module or topic. Maybe you assign owners to each issue. Maybe you track a resolution date on the issue. Or a severity. It is entirely up to you what you want to capture and how you want to measure it. The most important thing is that you capture the right stuff. From there you can slice and dice it all you want to better manage the process / project / etc.
The most important thing is that you utlimately make all of this data actionable. If you capture lessons learned that's great. But what are you going to do with them? Does each lessons learned have an owner who is going to cover the potholes that people fell in, or remove the friction around those things that worked? Can you measure the success of those new plans by quantifiying and measuring outcomes?
Taking it a step further you may set up a daily / weekly / monthly 'Issue/Idea/Lessons Learned Review' meetings with various stakeholders to talk through what is important and what you are going to do about it. Just please promise me that after those meeting, decisions have been captured/communicated and people have things to do afterward. If you don't make decisions or assign actions, those meetings are useless.
Another key is to reduce the friction around capturing and measuring this stuff. Make it easy for people to provide feedback. Make it easy to produce reports through automation. Don't crush the butterfly with some rigid process for bubbling up suggestions / lessons learned / etc.
posted by jasondigitized at 7:48 AM on July 8, 2011
For example, let's say you need people to log issues with your training. So you create an Issue log. Maybe you track issues by training module or topic. Maybe you assign owners to each issue. Maybe you track a resolution date on the issue. Or a severity. It is entirely up to you what you want to capture and how you want to measure it. The most important thing is that you capture the right stuff. From there you can slice and dice it all you want to better manage the process / project / etc.
The most important thing is that you utlimately make all of this data actionable. If you capture lessons learned that's great. But what are you going to do with them? Does each lessons learned have an owner who is going to cover the potholes that people fell in, or remove the friction around those things that worked? Can you measure the success of those new plans by quantifiying and measuring outcomes?
Taking it a step further you may set up a daily / weekly / monthly 'Issue/Idea/Lessons Learned Review' meetings with various stakeholders to talk through what is important and what you are going to do about it. Just please promise me that after those meeting, decisions have been captured/communicated and people have things to do afterward. If you don't make decisions or assign actions, those meetings are useless.
Another key is to reduce the friction around capturing and measuring this stuff. Make it easy for people to provide feedback. Make it easy to produce reports through automation. Don't crush the butterfly with some rigid process for bubbling up suggestions / lessons learned / etc.
posted by jasondigitized at 7:48 AM on July 8, 2011
For feedback systems, consider GetSatisfaction or UserVoice, both of which definitely have free versions. If your need really is more like bug tracking, maybe try Lighthouse.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 3:30 PM on July 8, 2011
posted by Monsieur Caution at 3:30 PM on July 8, 2011
Thanks for the advice, everyone. This should give us a good start.
Thanks for the survey suggestions too--getting the feedback is less of a concern at this point (we already have some coming in, and online surveys may be difficult in our situation) than a broader framework for improvement, but they may be helpful in the future.
posted by ropeladder at 10:37 PM on July 10, 2011
Thanks for the survey suggestions too--getting the feedback is less of a concern at this point (we already have some coming in, and online surveys may be difficult in our situation) than a broader framework for improvement, but they may be helpful in the future.
posted by ropeladder at 10:37 PM on July 10, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
But, what it sounds like you might want to use is some sort of survey software where you could have the trainees (and the trainers possibly) take web-based surveys at certain times during the training, and then that software would chart the answers, etc. in a nice format.
I've used a survey add-on in Wordpress only, but even there it charted the results for us.
I haven't used any of these, but a quick Google search showed quite a few that are free like this:
Survey Monkey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/
LimeSurvey (open source)
http://www.limesurvey.org/
posted by minx at 11:11 PM on July 7, 2011