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Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

zwischenzugs.com

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Re: Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

#51

Post by DenisM »

zwischenzug wrote: post #42
lostapathy wrote: post #41

Glad to see somebody else trying something like this. I was manually maintaining some charts like this for a while at a prior job and was toying with productizing it, it's super powerful, especially if you've got a large backlog or a large feature list ahead of you. I wanted to have another representation that generated the GraphViz files, though, so you could more easily do other work with the data. Some other featu…

We should talk. I was thinking size of node could == some kind of measure of size/risk/significance. There's lots of things one might want to visualise, so some collaborated standard would be good.

Don't forget other modalities. E.g.

  Size: effort estimate
  Number of edges to the shape: depth of dependencies.
  Brightness: size of dependencies.
  Hue: ...tbd...
  Border (double/triple/dashed): ...tbd...
  Font size: ...tbd...

Re: Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

#52

Post by zwischenzug »

DenisM wrote: post #51
zwischenzug wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should talk. I was thinking size of node could == some kind of measure of size/risk/significance. There's lots of things one might want to visualise, so some collaborated standard would be good.

Don't forget other modalities. E.g. Size: effort estimate Number of edges to the shape: depth of dependencies. Brightness: size of dependencies. Hue: ...tbd... Border (double/triple/dashed): ...tbd... Font size: ...tbd...

I like it. Another one for part 2.

Re: Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

#53

Post by qrv3w »

Thanks! I never thought about applying this to my todo list, but its a great idea!

I have done something like this for creating "recursive recipes" [1] which generates similar looking dependency charts when you start probing how to make a recipe from scratch [2].

[1]: https://github.com/schollz/timetomakefood

[2]: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6550035/34167929-6...

Re: Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

#54

Post by chrisbro »

This is great, thanks for sharing. I stumbled across this idea myself since no todo manager really represented complex dependencies of tasks - the "list" format is just so prevalent and usually ends up increasing cognitive load as I can sometimes get frustrated trying to figure out what's "next" on a non-linear project.

Have you seen DropTask? It's the same idea, I just haven't dug too much into it yet: https://www.droptask.com/

The key feature for me is being able to have multiple ancestor/dependency tasks to a task node, instead of a hierarchical "next action" setup like most task managers.

Re: Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

#55

Post by badminton1 »

zwischenzug wrote: post #40
badminton1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure a GraphViz digraph is the way to go. If you want to keep track of what is done and what is remaining eventually you will need to update that file. This will quickly lead to version control conflicts. Issue trackers I think are the way to go. You can integrate with one using their API.

I think version control conflicts are good in this case - they indicate the level to which there is conflict within the team around what the project consists of.

Version control conflicts in this case don't necessarily map to disagreement.

Imagine 2 team members that are in agreement add leaf 2 nodes. That would trigger a version control conflict.

Now imagine that situation in a team of 5, or 10. It becomes hard to maintain.

Re: Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

#56

Post by zwischenzug »

chrisbro wrote: post #54

This is great, thanks for sharing. I stumbled across this idea myself since no todo manager really represented complex dependencies of tasks - the "list" format is just so prevalent and usually ends up increasing cognitive load as I can sometimes get frustrated trying to figure out what's "next" on a non-linear project. Have you seen DropTask? It's the same idea, I just haven't dug too much into it yet: https://www.d…

Thanks for the kind words. I haven't seen droptask... I'll add it to the list. Although I have a prejudice for old and ugly tools like GV, Make et al.

Re: Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

#57

Post by zwischenzug »

qrv3w wrote: post #53

Thanks! I never thought about applying this to my todo list, but its a great idea! I have done something like this for creating "recursive recipes" [1] which generates similar looking dependency charts when you start probing how to make a recipe from scratch [2]. [1]: https://github.com/schollz/timetomakefood [2]: https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/6550035/34167929-6...

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Re: Show HN: Project Management as Code with Graphviz

#58

Post by maturz »

tezza wrote: post #13

a great gui editor for similar tree-node structures is freemind a lot quicker than code dsl -> git -> graphviz and freemind also has search, edit, history, links, export as HTML http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Screenshots

A more active fork https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeplane
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