Scope: These guidelines apply to research project management processes within PACE Lab. Our projects are
currently organized into the following stands of work:
- ProWrite (project manager/PM: Emily)
- SourceWrite (project manager/PM: Wren)
- Dragon — spoken language processing (PM: MacKenzie)
- LabOps — general lab operations
Each strand has a Slack channel (e.g. #prowrite); a GitHub repository (e.g. chukharev/prowrite); a tag on
FreeScout (e.g. prowrite); and Google Drive folder (e.g. pacelab-prowrite). Naming conventions are similar for
other strands.
GitHub vs. Slack vs. Email
- Use GitHub (GH) Issues for documenting all work progress and scientific discussions that we envision ever needing to find or reference in the future.
- Use Slack for communications related to day-to-day project operations, throw-away or personal communications, announcements, or for sharing information that does not need to become permanent project record.
- Use Google Drive to store larger files and shared documents. Only attach very small files to GH issues when necessary. Only send files on Slack if they are transient and will not need to be found or referenced in the future.
- Avoid using email at all costs.
Creating GH Issues
- Make accurate titles
- Issues come in all shapes and sizes — if you need one, make one
- However, try to avoid making too many “micro-issues” if possible
- Make sure every new issue gets assigned a relevant label and assignee(s)
- If you ever mention another issue within an issue, add a link to it (using #XXX, where XXX is the number of the other issue)
Using Projects (for PMs)
- Make sure that all issues are added to the PACE Lab project board
- Make sure every issue is assigned the correct status (On Hold, ToDo, In Progress, Done, FYI)
- On Hold = This issue needs to be addressed at some point, but it can’t be addressed right now. It’s on hold until something else happens in the future, but we can’t forget about it.
- ToDo = This issue should be started soon.
- In Progress = This issue is currently being worked on.
- Done = This issue is done. It should probably be “closed” as well, but it can be left open if you need to reference it easily/frequently or as needed.
- Evgeny = Evgeny needs to be actively working on this issue.
- FYI = This issue is just for taking notes. There isn’t anything that needs to be done here, but it’s just documenting something for our reference.
- Checkin dates should always be Fridays.
- All “in-progress” and “Todo” issues should have checkin dates.
- You may add a checkin date for an “On Hold” issue if it makes sense to come back to this at a given time.