How to handle multiple intertwined projects?

Added by Anonymous about 16 years ago

The developers I am setting this up for are rewriting our entire product lineup. They have got one code base, and are making a bunch of very similar apps all based on the one base. We use Visual Studio. We have one solution called "Leaders 5." Within that, we have a ton of very similar projects: Desktop Client, Thin Client, Admin Utility, Toolkit, Custom Build of Toolkit for Home Office, Custom Toolkit for Field Workers, Custom Toolkit for Client #492, etc. Each project is on a different release cycle, and has it's own version numbering.

When I'm setting up Redmine, should I make one project, have one issue tracker for all these, and then try to keep some order with the "Category" property? Of course, if I do that, I lose the ability to track each little utility's categories. Or, should I create a bunch of subprojects, and just try to keep them all straight, with inter-project issue linking?

I'm new to this stuff, so go easy on my newbieness.

Replies (3)

RE: How to handle multiple intertwined projects? - Added by Eric Davis about 16 years ago

Stephen Cortiaus wrote:

When I'm setting up Redmine, should I make one project, have one issue tracker for all these, and then try to keep some order with the "Category" property? Of course, if I do that, I lose the ability to track each little utility's categories. Or, should I create a bunch of subprojects, and just try to keep them all straight, with inter-project issue linking?

I would go with this one. Subprojects are good when:

Multiple deliverables
Different release cycles
Different versioning
Separate teams

In your case, you hit one through three so that would be the best setup. You can always change it later (e.g. move subprojects into the parent or move parent project issues into subprojects).

Eric

RE: How to handle multiple intertwined projects? - Added by Anonymous about 16 years ago

Thank you. I have one more question. Consider this scenario:

I set up a main project "Leaders 5" and subproject "Admin"
Pointed the main project's Subversion URL to "https://server.local/svn/Leaders5"
Pointed the subproject's Subversion URL to "https://server.local/svn/Leaders5/Admin"

Now, if I check something in to "https://server/svn/Leaders5/Admin" it shows up twice in the main project's Activity log - once for the main project and once for the subproject. How to make it only show up once?

RE: How to handle multiple intertwined projects? - Added by John Whittenberger about 16 years ago

I'm in a very similar situation.
We have multiple application families (50 repositories) ((projects?)) that also have
sub-projects that fit the description:
1. Multiple deliverables
2. Different release cycles
3. Different versioning
4. Separate teams

Example for 1 repository:

                                       /tags/
  https://svn.fake.com/svn/steds/Linux/trunk/
                                       \branches

                                         /tags
                           steds/Solaris/trunk
                                        \branches

Some repositories have multiple applications (trunk/tags/branches instances).

When our developers have a release (bug or whatever) they fill in a screen form
with the URL of the tagged release. The form contains information about why the
release was created and has checkboxes for the various stakeholders (Software
Review Board, Ops Manager, etc). A serial number is generated for tracking. This
number is passed to the CM folks upon approval for install to Beta or Ops.

The CM team retrieves the tagged release and installs the release across our systems.

Is Redmine capable of tracking this kind of situation? Can you generate reports
within Redmine that display across-repository the status of the code within each
repository/project/subproject?

I'm trying to find out how many of my requirements could be met in
some way. We have folks who can customize. It's a matter of degree.

Thanks,

John

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