Marketing Trac - A little introduction!

[Robyn Bergeron]

Greetings Friends -

I figured that since I just sent out a Call for help on Limesurvey and
referenced Trac... I should introduce everyone to Trac, and more
specifically, the fact that we actually really do have a Marketing
Trac instance, and how to find it, and use it.

Some of you may already be familiar with Trac, and others may not be;
it is, in a nutshell, a ticketing system where tasks or "bugs" can be
assigned to team members.  The tickets then can be prioritized (high
priority / needs to be fixed now, low-priority, etc.), tickets can be
assigned to certain projects or larger tasks (F13, Fedora Insight,
Fudcon, Limesurvey, etc.).  Tickets can be assigned to willing owners,
or reassigned in the event that a team member can no longer take on
the task.

Trac is important because it helps us have a centralized place where
tasks - or even things like "good ideas we'll get to someday" - are
being tracked, progress can be monitored, and most importantly - we
don't forget anything.  We have a great, diverse team with TONS of
ideas - and the last thing we want to have happen is to have those
great ideas get lost in the shuffle.  The other awesome thing about
Trac is that it gives us a sense of accomplishment; I'm sure we've all
had the day where we've said, I feel like I've been doing things, but
what have I finished? As a team, this allows us to go back at the end
of each release cycle and definitively say - THIS is what we've
accomplished! - and in the future, look at how many more people we
have who are contributing and accomplishing a larger number of tasks
than the previous cycle. It also does nice things like send email when
you've been assigned tasks, or if you have submitted a ticket - will
send you an email notifying you if the ticket has been modified in
some way, such as changed to fixed, or has been assigned to a new
owner, etc.

I encourage everyone to check out Marketing's Trac instance.  I'd like
to add that you need to LOG IN to Trac to do things like submitting or
modifying tickets - but not for viewing tickets. Marketing's Trac
instance uses FAS for logging in (someone, correct me here if I'm
wrong, but I believe that is the case) - so it should be the same
password you would use to log into the Fedora wiki to make edits.
Here are a couple of things of interest to look at to help you get
familiarized:

https://fedorahosted.org/marketing-team/ <--- front-end of Trac.
There is a small bar near the top of the page - it contains clickable
items like "timeline," "view tickets," "roadmap," etc.

https://fedorahosted.org/marketing-team/report <--- a list of varying
reports where you can see Trac tickets in many ways.  You can look at
tickets by filters such as "all tickets," "FUDCon tickets", "All F13
tickets," etc.  If you're logged in, you can also view the tickets
that you are currently the owner for.

https://fedorahosted.org/marketing-team/newticket <--- page where you
can submit a new ticket, if you are logged in.  Tickets don't have to
be for things that are "broken" - tickets can be for regular marketing
deliverables, brainstormed ideas, major multi-step projects, writing
wiki pages, etc.

I'm actually going to be cleaning up our Trac instance over the next
day or two, making sure completed items have been closed out and that
all the deliverables / task items that were identified at the
Marketing FAD have been entered into Trac.  If you volunteered for
ownership of any items at the FAD - you'll probably be getting mails
sent to you from Trac over the next few days. Once everything is IN
Trac, I'll be looking for owners for the remaining tasks - you'll be
seeing list mail about that, as well. :)

Also - I think it would be a great idea to have a Trac SOP for
marketing - how to get to the Marketing Trac, how we use it, the
basics of looking at tickets, creating tickets, closing tickets, etc.
Things like "who do i have to talk to to get additional categories
created," documenting who the current administrators are, etc. would
probably also be helpful for those new to Trac.  If anyone is feeling
bold and would like to create their first ticket - this is a great
opportunity.  Feel free to assign it to me - and drop a line in
response to this email saying it's been created, and list the ticket
number!

Happy Trac exploring!

-Robyn