Release Manager Project Plan


Rather than attempt to retro-fit a plan to the beginnings of the project, this document will instead proceed forward from the approximate date of May 5, 1999.

[ Overview ] [ Dependancies ] [ Planning ] [ Conclusion ]

1. Overview

The Release Manager project as a whole consists of the following individual components:

The status as of May 5 is as follows:

2. Inter-Component Dependancies

The following diagram illustrates the dependancies between parts of the release management system. In this diagram, an arrow points from a component with a dependancy to the component that is depended upon:

Dependancy Diagram

In the diagram, it is shown that the database elements of the system are the the closest to a bottleneck in terms of any impact that changes would have on the remaining pieces. Also note that the documentation elements are not shown as having any direct dependancy on the library/API or the database.

3. Plan for Development and Testing

This table outlines the development track for the Release Manager as a project. Each column is self-explanatory, save for the S column which refers to the sequence number of each component. This is to illustrate the parallel nature of the client- and server-side components.

S Component % Complete Estimated Time to Complete
 1  Database 100% Complete. Further development is frozen until the completion of initial deployment.
 2  Library and API 100% Complete. Further development is frozen until the completion of initial deployment.
 3  Server Side (a) 100% Complete. All server-side functionality is currently in place. The remaining library call in the Lib/API component does not affect this component (though it will be used here, in the planned next generation). This has been in stable deployment for over 6 months. No new work is expected until after the initial stable deployment of the entire system as a whole, including the development of the supplemental documentation.
Client Side (b) 70% There are three primary branches of this component: a CVS Command Wrapper, the Developer Management Tools and the Path/URL Translation Engine. Of these three:
CVS Command Wrapper
Complete.
Developer Management Tools
95% Complete. The coding is complete. The FTP support is written and fit into the tool, but still needs testing.
Path/URL Translator
Not started. Certain points regarding the design are still being finalized. The existing wrapper is functional, though slow and difficult to maintain. Work will commence after that last parts are done on the release tool. Given that, a rough estimate places this at 2 weeks to develop and 1 week for testing.

Besides these, there is a requirement for a command-line to that would allow batch-mode release of small numbers of files, to assist projects that use nightly jobs to generate semi-static content from databases. This tool is still under consideration.
 4  Additional Documentation 0% Not started. Requires completion of both Server Side and Client Side. Current estimate is for two documents, tentative topics of "System Setup and Administration" and "User Manual and Process Guide". Approximately one week for development of initial draft of each (two weeks total). An additional 4-5 days for gathering of proofreading feedback and making corrections and clarifications is also expected. The first document completed can overlay the majority of proofreading with the development of the second document. All told, expect this component to need 3-4 weeks, or simply one month, to complete.

4. Conclusion

Due to my departure, I cannot say exactly how much of this will be completed prior to 23 July.


Email: randyr@nafohq.hp.com