Open Project Management Using Github Projects

open-project-managment-using-github-projects

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+# Open Project Managment Using Github Projects 
+
+# Pattern Summary
+
+Utilizing Github Projects to publicly and transparently organize and manage OSPO tasks.
+
+# Problem / Challenge
+
+Academic OSPOs with a small staff or team of student workers face similar challenges to other organizations in managing their tasking and resources, but they face the additional challenge of trying to walk the walk of being open and transparent.  Extending open source best practices beyond software to open project management is an aspirational attempt at experiential learning where even non technical staff can learn git and GitHub as their team manages issues in the open.
+
+# Pattern Category
+- Community Building
+- Education & Skills
+- Open Source Development
+- Open Source Discovery
+- Promoting Best Practices
+- Tools & Infrastructure
+
+# Context
+This pattern applies to university-based OSPOs that use GitHub as a primary collaboration platform and coordinate work across multiple contributors, such as staff, faculty, and student workers. It is very relevant for OSPOs managing recurring activities, including events, training, consultations, and open source projects.
+
+# Forces
++ **Transparency vs. sensitivity:** OSPOs aim to work openly, but some tasks involve sensitive information that cannot be fully public.
++ **Learning curve:** GitHub Projects requires contributors to learn a new tool, which can be challenging in academic OSPOs where students and short-term contributors rotate frequently.
++ **Timely updates:** Project boards are only useful if issues are consistently updated, which can be difficult to maintain.
++ **Tracking sub-issues:** Many OSPO tasks involve subtasks, which can be difficult to represent clearly without added structure.
++ **Tool integration gaps:** Limited integration with tools like Slack, Gmail, or Logseq can cause work to be discussed or tracked outside GitHub, reducing visibility.
+
+# Solution
+
+Adopt GitHub Projects as the OSPO’s centralized, shared workflow system and integrate it into all active projects and repositories. Use it as the default place to plan, track, and discuss OSPO work.
+
++ **Centralized and transparent tracking:**
+Use an organization-level project board to make all OSPO work visible, allowing team members to see, comment on, and follow progress without requiring work to be “perfect” or closed immediately.
+
++ **Consistent team usage:**
+Program coordinators and technical team members use the project regularly to plan, update, and coordinate work, establishing shared habits and accountability.
+
++ **Onboarding and collaboration:**
+Label “good first issues” to support student onboarding and task tracking, as well as enable external collaborators to participate in discussions. 
+
++ **Simplified planning and reporting:**
+Project views, milestones, and iterations provide a straightforward way to track progress over time and generate reports without additional tools.
+
+### Key steps include:
+
+1. **Create a single organization-level GitHub Project:**
+Use one shared project board as the central place to track all OSPO activities across repositories and teams.
+
+2. **Standardize work intake using GitHub Issues:**
+Represent tasks as issues and link them to the project board, including required fields, such as assignees, ticket, and project details. 
+
+3. **Structure work with labels, milestones, and iterations:**
+Apply labels for work type and priority, use milestones for large deliverables, and iterations to plan work over time. 
+
+4. **Streamline managment of multiple repositories:**
+Github enables issues from any repository to be managed within any project. 
+
+6. **Support onboarding and collaboration:**
+Use “good first issue” labels to onboard new contributors and enable both internal and external collaborators to participate openly.
+
+
+# Resulting Context
+**Positive Outcomes:**
++ The OSPO gains a clear and collaborative picture of ongoing work across all teams and repositories. Staff can easily report progress and plan across projects. 
++ Work is publicly visible, enabling simplified reporting not only for the OSPO but also for funders and PIs. Ongoing tasks can be aligned with grant requirements and grant work plans.
++ Everyone on the team can see and comment on each other’s issues. This creates a sense of accountability and positive peer pressure, and it is extremely satisfying to complete each issue. 
++ Keeping work open makes it possible for those external to the OSPO to follow along and contribute. An instance of this has already occured, enabling international collaboration. 
+
+**Potential Trade-offs:**
++ Contributors unfamiliar with GitHub Projects may require additional training at the start.
+
+# Known Instances
+
+- [The GW Open Source Program Office, The George Washington University](https://ospo.gwu.edu/)
+
+# References
+
+- [GW OSPO Github Project Board](https://github.com/orgs/gw-ospo/projects/)
+# Contributors & Acknowledgement
+
+- Jood Alfadhel, George Washington University
+  <https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2827-4036>
+
+- David Lippert, George Washington University
+  <https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6444-9595>
+
+- Sunil Shah, George Washington University
+ <https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4567-8679>