Why Electronic Design Notebook is the ONLY choice¶

The choice of what collaboration tool to use for RPI's Capstone Design course was thoroughly discussed, researched, tested, and ultimately chosen based on a number of criteria. We drank our own Kool Aid and treated it as a Engineering Design problem. Because we're engineers and that's what we do.

Stakeholders

• Design Lab students
• Clients
• PE
• CE
• Teaching assistants
• System Management (IT)
• SysAdmin (configuration for the use of system)
• RPI (for funding)
• Design Lab management

Customer Needs (not prioritized)

1. Record keeping
   1. 5-10 person team
   2. continuity across multiple semesters
   3. write only, similar to using a pen and ink, or edit history must be recorded -> patents
   4. revision control
   5. threaded discussions
   6. support attachments
2. Availability
   1. 24/7
   2. cross platform compatibility
3. Security
   1. backed up
   2. public and private areas
   3. traceability of access and modifications
4. Project Management
   1. task tracking
   2. individual assignments
   3. tasks can be organized (grouped) by milestones (versions)
5. Grading evaluation
   1. user statistics
   2. team statistics
   3. customizable queries
6. Support
   1. configurable
   2. stable
7. Cost
   1. initial setup
   2. ongoing maintenance & administration
8. Inventory Management
9. User Management
   1. groups/roles
   2. variable account rights (read only, change, delete)
10. User Experience
    1. familiarity
    2. complexity
    3. training for real world experience

The EDN software may not be the PERFECT choice, but nothing is. It meets the Design Lab's needs better than the alternatives.
To compare to other systems/software that students typically request instead:

Why Forums & Repository beat out Google Docs

• Accountability - Difficult to tease out which team member contributed what part of a document
• Continuity, longevity - lose the link, or accidental deletion of entire document
• Security - Google terms of service allow them full search with free product
• Version control - no easy way to understand WHY changes were made

Why MS Office & Repository beat out Office Online & Box/Dropbox/OneCloud

• Microsoft Online products are crippled for many features needed for documentation
  • Word Online - POOR or no support of headings, table of contents, numbered lists, citations, bibliography
  • PowerPoint Online - cannot integrate Excel charts, no header/footer

Why Forums & Repository beat out chat, email and text messages

• Threaded nature of conversation not preserved
• Deletion and reply-all vs. reply-one issues
• Chats are not archived to become part of a project's permanent history

Why Issues beat out Microsoft Project

• Accessibility - not all students, faculty, and staff have MS Project installed
• Team work - full team (students, instructors, client) should be able to access and modify
• Auto-updates of Gantt chart
• Database vs. continuous updating of file

And if none of that convinces you that our choice makes sense, we can only offer this:

On day 1 of new employee onboarding, you signed a legal document that you would use only the EDN for all project related work. If Design Lab was a company, a true "industry experience" and not a class, you could potentially get arrested and/or fired on day 2 when you used Google Docs or other alternative. You are welcome to take another course, but those are the rules here.

Redmine software was not written by RPI, but is a freeware package. It is used throughout industry and academia by many organizations - http://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki/WeAreUsingRedmine

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Based on J. Kanai, M. Anderson, "Redmine in an Academic Setting", ASEE Conference 2012