Redmine plug-in and productivity of tool series

Redmine is a multi-platform web-oriented open source project management platform, which is also very powerful as a research and development management platform, and "information transparency" on how to use Redmine for research and development scope and time can refer to my article: "Information transparency" in research and development scope and time The Redmine unified platform.

For historical reasons, the Redmine currently used at the company's organizational level is 2.3. version 0. Although the version is relatively old, the basic functionality is not much different from the new version, and it is able to meet the daily project management and development management needs. At the same time, Redmine is a powerful integrated environment, and as a service provider and consumer, it provides a good platform for the introduction of third-party plug-ins. From the angle of how to improve the working efficiency of the team, this paper introduces the functions and usage scenarios of several plugins under the Redmine 2.3.0 version, and other versions of Redmine are also available for reference.

The introduction of each tool is explained by the scene analysis, plug-in instructions, usage and screenshots, precautions, and several other parts. 1. Redmine_agile

Scenario Analysis: Today's agile development is in full swing, whether it is XP or scrum, the task Board as the most classic management tool, for task tracking, teamwork and division of information to play a role in transparency. Redmine_agile provides a task board view for practitioners who use Redmine for Agile research and development management. At the same time, the Burndown chart (burndown chart) function like scrum provides the information radiator for the convergence and predictability of the research and development process, and Redmine_agile also provides the data Automation integration function to maintain and manage the Burndown chart to some extent.

Plugin Description: Http://www.redmine.org/plugins/redmine_agile, plug-in points free light version and the full version of the charge, we use light version, specific download and installation, etc. do not expand.

Usage and screenshots: After the plugin is installed and configured successfully, an "Agile" tab appears on the Redmine project, where we use the "Agile Board" and "Issues Burndown" features, where "agile Board" It can be combined with Redmine's own filters and options to form the desired view through a combination of various conditions, with the following renderings:

Similarly, "Issues Burndown" can also be set up by the appropriate categories, tracking and other information filtering, the effect of the picture is as follows:

Note: For agile teams, individuals feel that "agile board" is particularly suited to synchronizing team information in stand-up meeting every day, while the "Issues Burndown" application requires a clear planning of the development process, a high degree of collaboration and execution of the team And can be used where appropriate. 2. Redmine_checklist

Scenario Analysis: The granularity of the development of the basic unit is a key point in the development process, if the granularity is too large to be fine-grained management; Conversely, if the granularity of the rules need to be invested in the management costs will also increase significantly, here also pursue a balance. This idea reflected in the redmine is that if we grasp the size and number of issue, for a larger workload of the project or module, the individual believes that if the number of issue too much will have a side effect on communication and collaboration, this time redmine_checklist plug-in can come in handy.

Plugin Description: Http://www.redmine.org/plugins/redmine_issue_checklist, follow the instructions to install.

Usage and Screenshots: Imagine a scenario where if we are going to implement a function that has several steps or parts, then we can manage these steps or parts in the form of checklist when we create the issue, and tick each step/part to indicate its complete status. Attention to the content of the checklist in the developer, and to the manager is more inclined to issue as the basic unit of work, the completion status of the entire issue will depend on the completion status of each step/part of the synthesis, the effect diagram is as follows:

Note: Each tick to checklist is equivalent to updating the issue, so the issue tracker can also receive notification messages to ensure the synchronization of the information. 3. Redmine_mylyn_connector

Scenario analysis: The role of the Mylyn plugin in Eclipse is to seamlessly integrate task management and context management from some of the mainstream tools platforms into Eclipse, Redmine is also one of them. With this plug-in, we can manage and maintain issue directly on eclipse, which is a tool and work-mode improvement for developers who do not like frequent work platform switching.

Plugin Description: http://danmunn.github.io/redmine_mylyn_connector/, when using this plugin redmine need to expose the rest service to eclipse, so make sure that in the Configuration tab of the Admin interface " Enable rest Web service. At the same time, eclipse as a client also needs to install the appropriate plug-in, can download on GitHub: Https://github.com/ljader/redmine-mylyn-plugin. Enable REST Web Service "

Usage and screenshots: Using the Redmine_mylyn_connector plugin can be in the Eclipse integrated Redmine interface, operating mode and Redmine basically the same, all the data will be in real-time synchronization through the plug-in, the operation effect diagram is as follows:

Note: The integration of the operation context is sometimes not necessarily a good practice, and everyone chooses according to the actual needs. 4. Redmine_issues_sort

Scenario Analysis: Some scenarios next larger than the main issue need to collaborate with multiple members of the team to complete, usually we break the issue into multiple sub-issue, this time need a clear tree view of the main issue and sub-issue between the association. Redmine itself provides us with a tree view by setting up parent-child issue, but there is a bug in 2.3.0 and other older versions, that is, parent-child issue the tree structure is displayed correctly only if the issue number is adjacent. The main function of the Redmine_issues_sort plugin is to fix the bug.

Plugin Description: Https://github.com/logical-and/redmine_smart_issues_sort, follow the instructions to install.

How to use and screenshot: After installing the plugin and setting issue's parent-child relationship, the system operation effect diagram is as follows (note that there is no connection between each issue):

Note: In various saved custom query views, Redmine does not display a tree structure. 5. Redmine_issue_templates

Scene Analysis: The team according to the different division of Labor will have different issue input methods, such as the QC team will often abstract the problem description of the bug to form a departmental level uniform template, so that each bug's description style is almost convenient for everyone to create a unified understanding of the bug. Redmine_issue_templates is used to help the team manage these template classes issue to improve the efficiency of issue entry.

Plugin Description: Http://www.redmine.org/plugins/issue_templates, follow the instructions to install.

Usage and screenshots: After installing the plugin in the project configuration will appear in the "Problem template" tab page, we can use the configuration portal to maintain the existing template list and the creation of new templates, the interface effect of creating a new template is as follows:

After creating the template, a list of optional templates appears when you create a new issue, selecting one of them, and the issue theme and description are automatically exported from the template to the current issue.

Caveats: useful when creating a large number of repetitive issue, or as a template for Working Group/department or even organization level.

This article lists the above 5 Redmine plug-ins, and subsequent plugins that contribute to team productivity improvements are also updated in this article.