Redmine

We have used Redmine for approx. 8 months have wacthed the community grow and the contributors as well. Unfortunately our feeling is that there is no overall direction and project management of this project. Rather gross since this is a tool for managaging projects.
It seems to us that a lot of small fixes is made, but there are really no direction as where this project will be in the future.
This is probably what keeps us from getting more dependant on Redmine that we allready are.

As you we look at the roadmap, only to notice that this is a static thing rather than a dynamic one, and there are only planned one issue for 0.9 and nothing whatsoever for a version 1.0 and beyond
Another thing we would like was that the Gannt feature was enabled on redmine.org. This would give a brilliant feeling about the progress or lack of same of Redmine.

Having said this, we do like Redmine, and think it could have a bright future.

/Lars

Johnny Goodman wrote:

Is there a paypal account setup? Who pays for hosting around here?

Jean-Philippe Lang is hosting the domain and is the project maintainer. There is a Donate link on the sidebar of the wiki

What is the most effective way to support an open source project?

There are several ways to support a project:

1. Infrastructure - server hosting or hardware
2. Development - fix bugs or features
3. Testing - improve the current test suite or testing in different environments
4. Documentation - updating the current documentation (on the wiki) or writing new guides
5. Support - helping users, triaging bugs, or participating in discussions
6. Advocacy - talking to new people about the project
7. Financial support - donating to the project or it's community

You can support the project in one way or all of them, and the extent of your support depends on your resources. I help out with Development, Testing, Support, and Advocacy. If you would like some ideas of ways you can help out, I'll be happy to give you a some suggestions.

/Lars wrote:

We have used Redmine for approx. 8 months have wacthed the community grow and the contributors as well. Unfortunately our feeling is that there is no overall direction and project management of this project. Rather gross since this is a tool for managaging projects.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I don't think anyone here works on Redmine full time and we are doing the best we can with the resources we have. Would you be willing to help us steer the direction of Redmine?

Eric

Unfortunately our feeling is that there is no overall direction and project management of this project. Rather gross since this is a tool for managaging projects.

As much as I love Redmine I can't help but feel a bit worried, like Lars. I've been trying to get a grasp on how "things work" and so far it seems like the overall project is run by JPL and him only - and there's little info to suggest if this is

• what he wants (which he is of course entitled to, but would be good to know about, before investing months of my own time)
• by chance more or less, because it has grown very fast
• because there is no time or initiative to start organizing something else

It could be that the forums, issues, this site, has some of this information in them somewhere, but right now its not easy to find.

What do you feel about this Eric?

Eric
First of all this is not an attack on you or any other volunteers, But my general believe is that I do not have to be a member of the parliament in order to comment on the prime ministers job. Hope you see the metaphor
Having said this I unfortunately do not have the time to get involved (We are in the financial arena, and it is a bit busy right now) Maybe at a later stage when things have calmed down, also we do not know anything about Ruby - only C++

We are looking for the best project management tool, this has been Redmine so far. But we are not lloyal or have preferences, we just want the best tool that can help us make better software.
Eric, do you think there is a clear direction, and do you have a feeling of what is about to come in Redmine?

Lars

Jan Ivar Beddari wrote:

What do you feel about this Eric?

I would agree that JPL hasn't made his long term vision for Redmine very clear but that hasn't stopped me from steering the project in a direction that I like. That's one of the dynamics of Open Source, each person can steer the project any way based on their effort.

Lars Pehrsson wrote:

First of all this is not an attack on you or any other volunteers,

I never took it as an attack, and I hope no one else does either.

But my general believe is that I do not have to be a member of the parliament in order to comment on the prime ministers job. Hope you see the metaphor

I'll follow you metaphor with my own: Anyone can become a member of the parliament or the prime minister. This means that anyone who wants to put in the effort can take a larger role with the project. Redmine has grown a lot and could use help to work through the growing pains. I'm not just talking about people with software development skills, anyone with any skill who has time would be useful. For example, Mischa The Evil has confessed he doesn't know much about coding Ruby but has been immensely helpful researching bugs and providing support for new users.

Eric, do you think there is a clear direction, and do you have a feeling of what is about to come in Redmine?

It's not super clear but I have some good feelings about 0.8. Most importantly, 0.8 is (to me) about opening up Redmine's interfaces so others can use them. This includes allowing issue submission via email (#1110), more powerful plugins (#1143, #1677), and the start of a REST API (#296, #1901). Where I see Redmine post 0.8 is refining it's core project management features and encouraging third party customization.

I would like to close by thanking everyone who has participated (and will participate) on this thread. I appreciate everyone taking the time to raise these concerns about Redmine and I think it's healthy to raise these concerns.

Eric

First, I would say that I'm a redmine user since august 2007 and it's really a very good product. I have about 50 users, 30 projects and it's growing everyday...
I like the evolution of this application because it becomes more and more powerful BUT it stills very simple to use, and it's not a very easy combination ;)
Of course, I had to make some patches to fit my own use but I appreciated the way Redmine is developed: it's smart and I always agree with the choices that Jean-Philippe made. It's very funny to see that most of my own patches are superseded now...

Now, about the roadmap, I have the same feeling than Eric. From my point of view, the next features will give to redmine the ability to interact with all the others applications we use and that's the future of a such product. My vision of Redmine: A robust core, an easy-to-use interface and a great adaptability (using plugins, hooks and interfaces...). I think we are on this road...

Thanks to all contributors,

Arnaud