Work with Google Wave
We are a small team (30 people) that leads one rather big and quite successful project. We, like many IT-companies, had problems with documentation, planning and organization of our work. For half a year we have been using Google Wave for teamwork, which has helped us to make significant progress in solving the above problems. And this is despite the fact that the product is not even in beta.
Before switching to Google Wave for 5 years, we used Trac, half a year - Microsoft Project, got acquainted and tested almost all systems of planning and organization of work. But simpler and faster than other systems, we got accustomed to the google wave, and we are very happy about it. Perhaps to large companies that have ERP-systems implemented, our achievements will seem ridiculous, but Google Wave really made life easier for us.
The purpose of this article is to draw attention to Google Wave, to the collective work in Google Wave, to the development (with or without us) for Google Wave (and indeed everything related to collective work). We really want the work to become even more convenient, more interesting and more efficient.
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At first sight
The first plus, which I would immediately like to note, is the low threshold of entry. Dealing with how to use Google Wave is easy. Half of our employees are not from the IT field at all, but after a small presentation and training, a discussion of all the tasks, they moved into the wave quite easily.
The second plus is that the service is in the cloud, and we do not need to spend our own resources and funds to support our server. Although, if we have a need or paranoia, we can transfer all this to our Wave server.
Correct wave
But the wave in its pure form, of course, is not a panacea, we came up with a lot of rules, according to which we work. In the following articles I will describe our rules, tell and show the robots, browser extensions and gadgets that we wrote for more convenient work with the wave, as well as provide access to the sources.
But before starting the acquaintance, it is necessary to at least briefly tell some rules that we adhere to:
Under these simple rules we have invented our own system of work organization. A very important point when creating a system was that it was convenient to use.
How did the problem set before the introduction of Google Wave?
In certain cases, we used Trac, but the creation of a ticket for setting the task took a lot of time, and describing the whole task did not always work out at all - there were questions. For their discussion, we went to Jabber (ICQ) or set the task verbally. But at the same time, this task became divorced from the situation as a whole, from the context in which it was discussed. Such tasks were difficult to analyze, some of the information was lost, etc. Google Wave helped to get away from these difficulties.
Problem solving through Google Wave
In the process of conversation and communication we talk in such a way that as a result we have documentation (as it happens, it will be described in the following articles), and we set the tasks directly inside the content, which is a discussion, and future documentation. We try to minimize all communication through other channels.
When setting a task, the person who puts it writes the corresponding tag, thus marking to whom it is addressed and within what time frame it should be executed.
Tags are written in parentheses in the task itself, directly next to the text of the task. The first two letters of the tag mean the task performer (Last name, Full name, for example, PI - Ivanov Peter). The third letter of the tag is the task status (example: n - New task). Jokes that we will not take a person to work, if his initials are repeated, we already had. At the moment, we can all easily recall the initials of all employees, and you can write 2 letters very quickly.
Also in the tag is indicated deadline (the deadline for the task).
Example tag: (tpn 18.05)
Decryption: New task to Test User, due date - May 18.
With us it usually looks like this:
When the task is executed, the tag is corrected by the performer to the appropriate. The task is checked by the director, and if he did not accept it, he re-puts the tag "n". If the performer cannot do the task on time, he unsubscribes according to the state of affairs, calls the new term and changes the deadline in the original tag.
In the navigation panel in searches you can make relevant search queries for yourself. And call them natively (for example, “outstanding tasks”, “discussed tasks”, “all my tasks”, etc.).
Deadline recording format
Write the day and month number (with leading zero):
Statuses
Search query examples
Quotes in queries are required.
Search queries can be saved. And quickly open up your tasks in search.
Each employee, leaving work, must check if he has any unlocked tasks for today.
If you use only the search system, then finding your task inside the wave is not very convenient and difficult to analyze a list of all your tasks. And a special robot helps us in this, which analyzes such tags, and writes them into personal calendars of employees with links to the waves (we’ll tell about it, how it was written and lay out the source code in other articles).
In this article, I described our system very briefly and simply to find out if there would be interest. If it is, then in the next article I will tell in more detail how we arrange information, communication, documentation in waves.
Before switching to Google Wave for 5 years, we used Trac, half a year - Microsoft Project, got acquainted and tested almost all systems of planning and organization of work. But simpler and faster than other systems, we got accustomed to the google wave, and we are very happy about it. Perhaps to large companies that have ERP-systems implemented, our achievements will seem ridiculous, but Google Wave really made life easier for us.
The purpose of this article is to draw attention to Google Wave, to the collective work in Google Wave, to the development (with or without us) for Google Wave (and indeed everything related to collective work). We really want the work to become even more convenient, more interesting and more efficient.
')
At first sight
The first plus, which I would immediately like to note, is the low threshold of entry. Dealing with how to use Google Wave is easy. Half of our employees are not from the IT field at all, but after a small presentation and training, a discussion of all the tasks, they moved into the wave quite easily.
The second plus is that the service is in the cloud, and we do not need to spend our own resources and funds to support our server. Although, if we have a need or paranoia, we can transfer all this to our Wave server.
Correct wave
But the wave in its pure form, of course, is not a panacea, we came up with a lot of rules, according to which we work. In the following articles I will describe our rules, tell and show the robots, browser extensions and gadgets that we wrote for more convenient work with the wave, as well as provide access to the sources.
But before starting the acquaintance, it is necessary to at least briefly tell some rules that we adhere to:
- Each task must have a responsible person who is responsible for solving this task.
- Each task must have a timeline. Even if the dates are not clear, we indicate approximate.
- Under no circumstances should situations of overdue tasks be allowed, but they can be transferred with a description of the reason for the postponement.
Under these simple rules we have invented our own system of work organization. A very important point when creating a system was that it was convenient to use.
How did the problem set before the introduction of Google Wave?
In certain cases, we used Trac, but the creation of a ticket for setting the task took a lot of time, and describing the whole task did not always work out at all - there were questions. For their discussion, we went to Jabber (ICQ) or set the task verbally. But at the same time, this task became divorced from the situation as a whole, from the context in which it was discussed. Such tasks were difficult to analyze, some of the information was lost, etc. Google Wave helped to get away from these difficulties.
Problem solving through Google Wave
In the process of conversation and communication we talk in such a way that as a result we have documentation (as it happens, it will be described in the following articles), and we set the tasks directly inside the content, which is a discussion, and future documentation. We try to minimize all communication through other channels.
When setting a task, the person who puts it writes the corresponding tag, thus marking to whom it is addressed and within what time frame it should be executed.
Tags are written in parentheses in the task itself, directly next to the text of the task. The first two letters of the tag mean the task performer (Last name, Full name, for example, PI - Ivanov Peter). The third letter of the tag is the task status (example: n - New task). Jokes that we will not take a person to work, if his initials are repeated, we already had. At the moment, we can all easily recall the initials of all employees, and you can write 2 letters very quickly.
Also in the tag is indicated deadline (the deadline for the task).
Example tag: (tpn 18.05)
Decryption: New task to Test User, due date - May 18.
With us it usually looks like this:
When the task is executed, the tag is corrected by the performer to the appropriate. The task is checked by the director, and if he did not accept it, he re-puts the tag "n". If the performer cannot do the task on time, he unsubscribes according to the state of affairs, calls the new term and changes the deadline in the original tag.
In the navigation panel in searches you can make relevant search queries for yourself. And call them natively (for example, “outstanding tasks”, “discussed tasks”, “all my tasks”, etc.).
Deadline recording format
Write the day and month number (with leading zero):
- (tp n. 19.02) February 19.
- (tp n. 02.02 p.m.) at 12 noon
- (tp n. 19.02 09.02) the first deadline on the 9th, which was rescheduled for the second term of the 19th.
- (tp n) A task without a date is considered a task that needs to be done today. Running a little ahead, our robot will automatically set the current date for this task.
Statuses
- n - unsolved problem
- c - the task requires additional questions (this tag in order for the task to disappear from the list of tasks that you should still pay attention to before the appearance of new information.)
- p - realized task.
Search query examples
Quotes in queries are required.
- in: inbox "(tp n" - all unsolved tasks of the test user.
- in: inbox "(tp p" - implemented tasks of the test user.
- in: inbox "(tp n 21.02" all unsolved tasks on February 21 of the test user. Unfortunately, this query cannot be added to the used ones, and everyone will have to write this query daily manually, adding the current date.
- in: inbox "(?? n" - all unsolved problems.
- in: inbox "(?? n 21.02" - all unsolved tasks of all users on February 21st.
Search queries can be saved. And quickly open up your tasks in search.
Each employee, leaving work, must check if he has any unlocked tasks for today.
If you use only the search system, then finding your task inside the wave is not very convenient and difficult to analyze a list of all your tasks. And a special robot helps us in this, which analyzes such tags, and writes them into personal calendars of employees with links to the waves (we’ll tell about it, how it was written and lay out the source code in other articles).
In this article, I described our system very briefly and simply to find out if there would be interest. If it is, then in the next article I will tell in more detail how we arrange information, communication, documentation in waves.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/94078/
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