]po[ Forum

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References

]project-open[ emphasizes the possibility to integrate clients and providers into the planning and execution of projects. However, communication across organizational boundaries requires special communication means (and skills!), due to diverging interests, cultures etc. of the participating partners. The Task/Incident Tacker module formalizes the communications related to the distribution of work amongst project members. It allows the definition of clear responsibilities within a project and the holding of project members accountable for the progress or tasks.

]project-open[ Forums are based around metaphors from "speech act" theory. These metaphors capture the way humans are structuring their communication into Statements, Questions, Commands and Exclamations.

These concepts are represented using the "topic types":

	Incident (one-to-one) Somebody needs to resolve an issue. The initiator of the issue does not necessarily know who should resolve the issue and he may be lacking the authority to delegate the task. The assignee can be held responsible for the resolution of the incident.
	Task (one-to-one) There is a task to be done. The initiator knows who should do the job and has the authority to delegate the task. The assignee can be held responsible for the completion of the task.
	Discussion (many-to-many) An open (informal) discussion around a subject. There is no predetermined outcome.
	News (one-to-many) Somebody informs a group of people about something. News items may spark discussion later, however.
	Note (one-to-many) Somebody comments on something.

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Status Engine

State Variables

• Owner (creator/ client)
• Responsible (responsible for overall resolution)
• Asignee (resolving partial aspects)
• Priority
• Due date
• % Completed
• Owner requires update reports (all, major, none)
• Privacy Scope (private, project, public)

Communication Spheres and Permissions

The client, staff and provider communication spheres

Frequently we have encountered the situation that a customer should be integrated into a project, but that he should not even know about the existence of external providers in the project.

For this reason we have separated the communication between customers, staff and (external) providers into separated into three "spheres" (see below) with the project manager as the pivotal point to route (distribute, assign, ...) customer incidents to other project managers.

The permissions to post to the different spheres are defined using the OpenACS permission scheme:

• add_topic_public
  Add global messages
• add_topic_group
  Add essages for the entire (project) group
• add_topic_staff
  Messages to staff members of the group
• add_topic_client
  Messages to the clients of the group
• add_topic_noncli
  Message to non-clients of the group
• add_topic_pm
  Message to the project manager only

Typically, customers only get the "add_topic_pm" permission and freelancer "add_topic_noncli". However, these permission are configurable, so that they can be adapted to less rigid environments.

Thread Permissions and Notifications

Forum topics can form threads when people reply to an initial topic. In this case all permissions and notifications are inherited from the topmost partent topic.

­References

Related Object Types

• Forum Topic Object Type

Related Packages

Related Modules

Tutorials

• Forum User Guide