Current software  testing: GetTeamTasks, “a simple extensible task management tool” developed by  Phil Hawksworth, based on the TiddlyWiki platform (application?) and further developed by Hawksworth’s former colleagues at Osmosoft

.

GetTeamTasks screenshot - via GetTeamTasks.com

Within minutes, it was up and running – easy to set up. Not sure for our purposes– uses for community-based groups with multi-segment tasks, alternate plans for different combinations on the risk matrix  (power outage during heat wave requires different planning and response than power outage during the winter). But it’s designed for sharing without a constant connection – like Sahana – snd it has promise for our purposes.

There’s no question, though – that in some other contexts – wedding planning, collaborative grant writing, political and fund-raising campaigns. My guess is less so for film production or construction – but perhaps the new work Mr. Hawksworth has in mind for GetTeamTasks will provide functionality which stretches that way.

TiddlyWiki, the basis  for GetTeamTasks, has a number of other impressive mods – we’ll certainly be testing the others which, like GetTeamTasks, are to some extent worked around the GTD (Getting Things Done) approach. Phil Hawksworth:

If this one isn’t quite your cup of tea, perhaps consider trying the simple and elegant GTDTiddlyWiki, the ‘kinkless’ approach at d cubed

, or the more powerful MonkeyGTD.

We learned about all of this from the ever-useful Lifehacker.

Austhink, an Australian software firm, makes a package called Rationale,  which makes it easy to create diagrams of rhetorical and decision-making processes.

I downloaded a trial version last-night – and immediately started using it to map risk risks associated with energy production. I plan on using it in my work here at Popular Logistics and elsewhere. Which is to say – I think I’m already using it for an off-label purpose.

It’s as easy to use as any graphics program – outputs to a variety of graphic formats. And so far, I’m quite impressed. Since we test software principally to recommend them to community-based groups on zero budgets – we’ve got a strong bias for free software – but at $69 USD this may be an exception.

The people at Austhink think this is an educational tool. They’re right about that – it could be used from grammar school on up. And certainly in law school. But I think it’s got applications in planning and risk assessment.

Worth a look. Learned about this at Social Source Commons.

The British firm Helicoid

- which incldes the developer Alex Young – has come up with a number of fascinating applications: I’ve looked at two in the last two days – both excellent – I’m reluctant to put them in categories so I’ll just describe them: DeadLine and Helipad. Please note that at first I was thinking of the image of a helipad (helicopter pad); but the firm is named for a helicoid, a geometric shape which resembles Archimedes’ screw, but extends infinitely outwards (and thus is not appropriate for small apartments, although they’re otherwise fairly easy to care for).

Helipad is a note-taking application which, on first use, makes it much easier to categorize and organize information than Google Notebook – which, with index cards, Notebook++ for code, my Olympus digital recorder and Dragon v10, are my primary note-taking tools¹

Deadline is an easy to use deadline manager – and will alert you via email, mobile phone, and, now Google Calendar. It features a clean, simple interface. I don’t know yet if it can be used to  notify multiple users – although I believe it would work if a Google Group had a Deadline account.

Both are free and have very shallow learning curves. In other words, you can be using them in minutes. Since it’s my wife who can’t remember our anniversary, and not me, maybe I’ll get her a Deadline account next.

1. the latter are recent additions, resulting from a canine invasion of workspace while using a circular saw, attempts to separate aforementioned canine from the path of falling wood, and the ensuing hand surgery. But they may stay in the tool box, as I’m getting used to them.

Via Wide Aperture, we learn of the Digital Research Tools wiki. While the focus is for academics – the fact is that – apart from footnote style – everything else is has application outside academia.

Part of our mission is to develop/identify a “best practices” tool set for disaster planning – particularly community-based groups. So usability, interoperability, and price are critical variables. the DiRT Wiki is exceptionally well organized, and looks like a good place to look.

Thanks to Encyclopedia Braun for the link.

Smashings Apps

has collected a number of project management tools -  most if not all free. For community groups – disaster response

-related or other – there’s probably something useful for all but the most tech-savvy (or best-funded) groups.

My first thought was how intuitive and elegant an interface:

Low tech technology like index cards, colored sticker dots and a whiteboard is a fast way to visualize and change a plan. The Digital Planning Board is not meant as a replacement of this but as a tool for distributed teams, enhanced client communication and quicker storage and search functionality.

Using User Stories To Define Tasks
The work planned for an iteration is divided into tasks with a clearly defined deliverable and these tasks are represented as User Stories. User stories are represented by story cards and will not hold all information about a given task but enough information to remind involved parties what the requirements are. Ron Jeffries describes it as “The card is a token representing the requirement”.

The Basic Rules of a Planning Board
A planning board is managed using these basic rules:

• A lane represent a person or a team.
• Blocks represent a task
• The size of a block displays the estimated time to complete the task.

But Arb’s designers took this many steps further – ending up with an interface which looks like this:

Demo here

. Larger explanation and further resources here.

Arb Design Main Page here .