Computer programmer people? Anyone able to answer some general questions?

[Blane]

Hey folks,

Thinking about starting a tiny software development project that would result in a freeware program that some of my partners in Senegal would find useful.

I'm trying to get a few basic points covered so that I can see whether it's conceivable or not, and also to test the water and see if anyone is interesting in doing a bit of quasi-pro-bono (i.e. token payment) work to help a bunch of institutions with their work.

Basically, I wanted to develop a little software that helps people keep a record of the activities they're doing at this NGO that I work with. THere are a lot already out there but they're often complex and have to be used online.

THe idea I had was to do it in the same format as the interface you use when setting up a new software installation. you know, it asks you a question, you put in the info, and click next, until you reach the end and click finish. I don't know what language those "installation wizards" are made in or if they're easy to use. Anyone able to give me a few hints?

Thanks!

[bradm]

Rather than use a wizard to ask questions, a full form with separate fields might be better. You might even consider just leveraging a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel or the one in Open Office; I know people who use Excel for project management tasks (planning and tracking), which sounds similar to what you want. You set up a sheet (or set of sheets) with places to enter stuff (tasks names, start date, end date, resources needed/used, etc.), and have a separate summary sheet do all the calculation and report formatting that you want.

Aloha,

Brad

[bouche]

You want to make a task tracking wizard?

what is wrong with the online tools? They are great for collaborating. There are some really good ones out there. Vitalist.com is a good system for tracking activies in projects.

sounds like you need a shared database that everyone would need access to which means they'll all have to be on a network. That leads me to assume anyone using the software will have internet access. so why not an online tool that is already made?

Otherwise, if you're looking at a disconnected "Smart Client" app then you're looking at a more complicated system. You need a central database that all of the clients would need to connect and resolve their data with.

just my 11 cents.

[Blane]

see, there you computer programmers go making it more complicated than it needs to be .

What I actually want is a project monitoring wizard. I don't want it to be online (because 1/2 the time the internet is down), and I don't want it to be even remotely difficult to use because people are often not very computer literate here.

We are using a simplified version of a monitoring process called Outcome Mapping. Essentially I'd create a cross between a questionnaire and a blog that anyone can set up and configure on their own (according to the parameters of their project) and then write updates for any time they want. The updates would then be "outputtable" in a file form (maybe .pdf or .rtf) so that at the end of a project period you'd have a sort-of diary of how the project went.

So in reality, the questions would configue the interface page which they could then fill in whenever they want to add an entry. If we got fancy it could be set to a calendar so that they could have a reminder that say, 2 weeks had gone by since they wrote an entry.

Make sense?

[ollie]

Thinking about starting a tiny software development project that would result in a freeware program that some of my partners in Senegal would find useful.

No such thing. You sound like a project manager already.

[bouche]

So they wouldn't share data? There would be no collaboration on projects?

as far as the internet being down half-the-time, that's where notepads come in handy. then you can update your online repository when it's back up.

[Blane]

they'd share, but htey'd share face-to-face. You have to remember the cultural differences here. People like to do their planning a lot more directly as opposed to through some digital interface.

We already have a collaborative platform built using dot.project which is used between international partners, but this is something to be used more in-house.