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Issue Workflow

Issues have a status in EDN. Status changes follow a configured "workflow" intended to mimic how issues should be properly handled.
The lifecycle for an issue is:

The EDN system has been configured to (mostly) operate ONLY in this order to help reinforce proper progression. It may seem cumbersome, but is certainly sensible.

  • Examples
    • "Why can't I assign multiple people? - A task with that much work should be separated into multiple issues for better tracking and accountability?
    • "Why can't issue move from New to Complete?" - How can it be finished if no work was done?

Of course there are always exceptions (and corners to cut) as shown in green and red

  • Examples
    • Task identified later in semester after initial project plan entered into system -> Create task and immediately start @ Working status, skipping over New and Assigned
    • Work begun immediately after owner is chosen -> Skip over Assigned status, moving from New to Working
    • Incomplete documentation or output to be at Ready to Close status -> move issue back to Working. For example, there was no link to a discussion forum or a link to file(s) in the repository where the work results would be

For multi-semester projects, it is generally appropriate to begin by a) reassigning old incomplete issues from a prior semester, or b) closing old issues, or c) rejecting old issues. There is NOT one correct answer for all old issues, so they must be individually reviewed and dealt with.

Completion percentage

% Done is automatically reported in the Gantt chart based on the status of the Issue

Status % Done
New 0
Assigned 10
Working 50
ready to Close 100
Complete 100

For parent tasks, the % Done is computed from completion statuses of all the sub-tasks.

Using Issues to Manage Your Tasks

A task's duration cannot exceed 7 days. Therefore, students　update the issue (task) status at least twice weekly.

1. Start Working on a Task (Issue)

  • Start a message thread under Forum/Design
    • Subject: It is the same as the issue
    • Sample Message: "This thread documents the design process of #XXXX.", where XXXX is the issue number.
  • Edit the issue
    • Status: Change it from Assigned to Working.
    • Sample Notes: "message#YYYY documents the design process", where YYYY is the number in the URL of the corresponding message.

2. End Working on a Task (Issue)

  • Upload the output(s) to the Repository
  • Edit the issue
    • Status: Change it from Working to Ready to Close
    • Sample Notes: "The output of this work is rZZZZ.", where ZZZZ is the revision number of the output in the repository.

graphics above are slides 19 & 20 of Quick Start Guide - EDN FAQ