Project and task management
This page presents tools and methods for project and task management, and refers to past and current practices.
Note that the term management is not culturally aligned with p2p and the OVN model. We prefer to use project and task stewardship. The technical reason is that there are no relations of power within an OVN, contributing to a task or a project is at will, no one can impose something and anyone can quit anytime. Determinism in p2p processes is established through redundancy or long tail.
On assigning tasks
from Tibi
It is impossible to assign tasks to others in the classical sense, because no one as power over any other. We need to change the term here, for everything to become more clear: assign -----> suggest. In some projects (PV characterization) we have created the role of "project responsible". But even in these cases, there is no mechanism of coercion. I cannot force Abran, who's in Pakistan, to so what I think he should do, even if Joshua Pearce thinks of me as a "project leader". There is no instituted power between me and Abran, I have no means to force him into doing something or other. This would require a rule like: the "project responsible" can cut someone's reward from the value equation if that someone doesn't follow the his will, or the will of another person. We're back to hierarchies, and I am not saying to stay away from hierarchies just because I hate hierarchies, but because we would create all sorts of other effects in doing that, which would diminish our ability to generate the unexpected by being open and reaching out to the worlds wisdom (the Internet allows that potential). So, what the project responsible can do, in that case, is to send the same suggestion to 10 people like Abran, with the proper incentives, with skills, tact, in order to create a probability of 100% that at least one Abran will do the job. We call that adding redundancy into the process. That's how a Wikipedia page gets corrected within seconds after an act of vandalism. So yes, we do need to ability to suggest, we also need to extend it to many people that someone can chose from a list. This will allow local knowledge about the project to be used in a process, Tibi knows that Abran 1, Abran 2, ... Abran 10 are really good in this and that, they know already the project, the process, they can hit the ground running. At the same time, that process needs to remain open. In other words, NOT ONE CAN MONOPOLIZE A PROCESS. This last requirement is important to allow the unexpected to happen, to get that genious mind from the other side of the planet to drop in that genius idea that the 10 Abrans put together will not have in a million years. We are now deep into open innovation.
Tools
NRP-CAS
Currently, planning, project and task management is implemented into the NRP-CAS through recipes and resource type list.
Requirements for NRP-CAS
The project and task management module, part of the open value network infrastructure OVNi, must be intimately linked with the value accounting system. That is because value is created by performing tasks in the context of projects.
Moreover the reputation system must also interface with the project and task management module. We believe that it is very important that affiliates respect their commitment, in order to increase the level of predictability of the value creation process.
One of the main features of open systems of value creation is decentralization with respect to allocation of resources. Time is a resource. Every affiliate decides where to allocate time and how much. Time allocation is considered as an individual investment. All affiliates can participate in setting priorities and are allowed, and even encouraged to influence others to take tasks that are deemed important. But no one can force anyone else to do anything.
Praxis
See Project management - past and current practices within SENSORICA
Discussions
See also
- Value network recipe design principles
- How internal exchanges and schedules must work in a value network
- Design notes for work contribution interfaces
- Project management - past and current practices within SENSORICA
- Process coordination links