[thor] Proposed Thor changes

[Jason M. Felice]

This is an excerpt from our internal "software roadmap".  These are the
additions we'd like to make to Thor, plus Thor-related additions we'd
like to make to other applications.

We envision using Thor to track all the stages of a project, including
the preliminary proposal, the specification-writing and research phases,
tracking approval status working on the project, quality assurance,
delivery and signoff, follow up and analysis, and then (hopefully) back
to preliminary proposal.

* Add the concept of "Objectives"
  
  An objective is a unit of work.  It is one concrete, measurable
  action, for example "add an invoice entry screen."  It contains many
  pieces of information:

  * Description of problem
  * Description of solution
  * Estimated number of hours to implement.
  * Test script (human-readable instructions on how to prove that the
    modification was made and works)
  * Estimated number of quality assurance hours.
  * Required resources (conference rooms, projectors, particular
    employee (Joe Fabetes), or a class of employee (Web Designer) etc.)
  * The objective's history (using Horde_History::)
  * Business case information about the objective (estimated ROI, net
    present value, how the return is generated e.g. labor savings or
    revenue increase or increased accuracy, etc.)
  * The objective's state (e.g. "initial", "agreed", "completed",
    "in progress", "cancelled")
  * Required expenses (e.g. hardware purchases).
  * Dependencies (on other objectives).

  Refining objectives in our organization is an interative process which
  happens outside of a proposal (sometimes before a proposal is
  written).  We want to have our consultants refine objectives even if
  there is no immediate plan to implement them.  Maybe six months or a
  year later we can review unproposed objectives and go back to the
  client.

* Add fields from our proposal template.

  I'd like to add fields from our proposals to Thor projects:

  * Project overview
  * Project assumptions
  * Project deliverables
  * Project milestones
  * Executive summary
  * Project approach
  * Check off legal boilerplate which applies.
  * Project scope (what we are and aren't quoting).
  * Organizations affected, project organization (sponsor, executive
    sponsor, maybe an org chart).  We actually don't use this much,
    though we should.
  * Estimated cost for different types of labor.
  * Name and title of person signing to approve project.

* Add PDF-print capability.

  We'd like the ability to provide a template for the proposal (probably
  a .xsl stylesheet) and have Thor create a PDF.  It would also be nice
  if we could have it directly email or fax proposals.  Nah, not worth
  it :)

* Add payment schedule ability.

  Add information about payment on the proposal.  Are we billing hourly,
  and for what sort of labor are we billing hourly?  Is it fixed bid?
  What's the down payment and how much is paid per milestone and on
  delivery?  What are the invoice terms for milestone-type payments?

  Is there a recurring service payment (for hosting or retainer)?  What
  interval and how much and until when?

  This information will allow us to project our cashflow to some degree.
  Also, billing will eventually be done completely out of Horde and I'd
  like completed milestones to be automatically billed with the next
  billing cycle.

That's it for Thor, but there is also:

* Add the ability to bill time to a project (or objective?) in Hermes.

  So we can track actual vs. estimate.  Also so we can bill with correct
  rates per project automagically.

* Export Thor workflow hooks when we get workflow stuff implemented.

  So we can make Thor tasks (refining and sending proposal, reviewing
  requirements, QA testing, post-mortem or follow up, etc.) part of the
  organization's workflow.  Also, each project has a sort of
  sub-workflow with dependent tasks assigned to different users.  This
  seems like an interesting interrelation, but it's something I'd like
  to put forth.


There is no set timeline for these additions.  We've estimated the
amount of time and/or money each would save and/or make us, and we'll do
whichever is most valuable at the moment--probably not for a few months,
anyway.

FYI, all of these points would be "objectives" in our system, had we the
system now.  Except of course that if we had the system, we wouldn't be
doing any of these because they'd already be done.

-- 
 Jason M. Felice
 Cronosys, LLC <http://www.cronosys.com/>
 216.221.4600 x302