Forem: OpenProject

Raspberry Pi project: Install project management software

Jen Wike Huger — Tue, 26 Nov 2024 16:01:10 +0000

Did you know OpenProject can run on Raspberry Pi?

OpenProject is a versatile project management platform supporting methodologies like Agile, Scrum, and Kanban while offering classic tools such as Gantt charts and work package management.

In this detailed guide, learn how to install OpenProject on a Raspberry Pi. OpenProject user and author of the tutorial, Giuseppe Cassibba, uses a Raspberry Pi 5 Model B, but this tutorial is adaptable to any 64-bit Raspberry Pi setup.

Here's a short summary.

Requirements and preparation

This guide outlines the necessary hardware, including a Raspberry Pi with a compatible power supply and a high-speed microSD card (minimum 16 GB, Class 10). The installation process relies on Docker for simplicity. It begins by installing the Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) for a lightweight operating system, updating the system, and setting up Docker.

Installation steps

After preparing the system:

Check OpenProject versions: Identify the latest compatible OpenProject Docker image for the Raspberry Pi's Linux/ARM64 platform.
Run Docker command: A single Docker command initializes OpenProject. The guide explains each part of the command, including setting up environment variables, mapping ports, and creating persistent data volumes to avoid data loss on container restarts.
Monitor initialization: Use docker logs openproject to track the installation progress. The setup typically concludes with the server listening on port 8080.

Access and administration

Once installed, OpenProject is accessible via the Raspberry Pi's IP address and port 8080. Users log in with default credentials (admin/admin) and are prompted to update the admin password. OpenProject's interface includes preloaded example projects to explore its features.

The guide also covers administration tools, including user management, system settings, and email notifications. These allow for extensive customization and configuration of the platform.

For more information on OpenProject, see our docs.

Conclusion

This tutorial highlights the simplicity of hosting OpenProject locally on a Raspberry Pi, ensuring data privacy and control. With Docker, the installation is streamlined and efficient. For further Raspberry Pi projects, explore other tutorials by Giuseppe Cassibba.

Project management for software projects – 9 features to consider

Jen Wike Huger — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 18:00:31 +0000

The roles that make up a software engineering project may range from a team of programmers and the team leader to a team with more variety, like developers, UX designer, QA engineer, project manager, and DevOps engineer.

Regardless of whether their roles are similar or different, all of these people must come together to understand the project requirements, constraints, resources, and timeline. They must work together to achieve a result that satisfies the business and customer needs.

Project management features like shared task lists and timelines enable efficient communication across and within these teams.
In this article, learn about the many other features your engineering project management software should offer to help you handle complex workflows, resource management, and technical project requirements.

1. Complex workflows
Engineering projects often involve detailed planning and scheduling. Gantt charts and roadmaps allow teams to break down projects into smaller tasks, set dependencies, and schedule deadlines.
This helps engineers plan long-term projects and keep track of progress. Milestones can be set to track essential stages in the project lifecycle, ensuring the project stays on schedule.

2. Agile (or waterfall or hybrid) methodologies
Engineering teams often use Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid project management approaches depending on the project.
A tool that offers flexibility between the methodologies is ideal for engineering projects with different phases, such as research, design, testing, and implementation.

3. Task and issue management
Engineers need a tool to break down complex engineering projects into smaller, manageable tasks. Then, they can assign specific tasks to team members, set deadlines, and track the progress of each task.

An issue-tracking system is especially useful for identifying and managing problems during the project lifecycle. Engineers can document bugs, defects, or problems in the system, assign them to team members, and track their resolution.

4. Document management and version control
Engineering projects require the management of technical documents, specifications, designs, and blueprints. It's imperative to use a tool or system with document management features that allows teams to store, organize, and share project-related files in a central location.

This feature helps engineering teams maintain version control, ensuring all team members work from the latest design documents, plans, or specifications.

5. Time tracking and cost control
Engineering projects often involve careful management of resources, including time and personnel. You need to be able to log time spent on specific tasks, which is critical for project estimation, cost tracking, and billing.

6. Support for large-scale and long-term projects
Engineering projects often span long periods and involve multiple phases, from research to design, implementation, and maintenance.
Choose software that allows for detailed tracking and reporting over extended periods, ensuring that long-term engineering projects stay on track.

7. Integration with other technical tools
Engineers need to be able to choose their favorite tools for optimal design and development. To keep project management centralized, select a system that integrates with some of the more popular developer tools, like GitHub and GitLab.

8. Data security and privacy
Engineering projects often deal with sensitive data, including proprietary designs, specifications, and research. Self-hosting options allow engineering teams to keep data in-house and secure.
This feature ensures compliance with industry-specific security standards for industries like aerospace, automotive, or IT, where data security is critical.

9. Compliance and reporting
Many engineering fields require adherence to industry regulations and standards. Look for detailed reporting features that allow teams to track progress, ensure compliance with technical and regulatory standards, and generate documentation required for audits or certifications.

Wrapping up

Many project management tools on the market support some or all of the features listed in this article. To choose the right one for you, start by considering the importance of these features to your project and team. If you aren't sure, ask for feedback from others involved in the projects.

For engineering teams, OpenProject provides an all-encompassing platform tailored to the specific needs of projects involved in development and software. With features focused on adaptability, security, and collaboration, engineering teams can efficiently manage short- and long-term projects.

Fullstack Developer, Solutions Engineer Wanted at Remote Tech Company

Jen Wike Huger — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 14:05:32 +0000

OpenProject is special. The culture is 10/10.

I've heard it several times this year after speaking with employees who have been with the company for two years... or ten years. And I've been in the industry since 2012—working for stellar culture companies like Red Hat and difficult ones as well. The difficult companies teach how important it is for your daily mental health to work for a great company that leads with kindness and positive energy.

Like OpenProject, open source project management software for on-prem or cloud. This awesome team has roles open for a Solutions Engineer and a Ruby on Rails Backend Engineer.

Hear what OpenProject employees had to say about them this year:

OpenProject is such a great place. It just clicks. Before OpenProject, I worked for Audi. My new role at OpenProject has been an excellent transition for me to a smaller, more connected team again. - Aaron, a Fullstack Dev

Remote work has always been accepted at OpenProject. Today, I’m working to improve our compatibility with service providers beyond AWS. It's an exciting challenge. - Markus, an SRO Engineer

I have worked on open source projects with people from around the world, so when this role opened up, I was excited. As the only Kenyan on the team, I feel respected and valued. And I respect and value my colleagues. I love to learn about other cultures. - Kabiru, a Software Engineer

We have a small office space in Berlin, and some employees love coming in. But we’re remote first and allow our employees to choose what they prefer. We are as productive as ever and organize offsite meetings to get to know each other better in person. - Birthe, the Chief Marketing Officier

Right fit for you?

If you identify with these characteristics, we'd love to hear from you.

passionate about open source
find joy in working together to find solutions
can accommodate working within European time zones
want a supportive, remote job

Apply for an open role or submit your resume.

20 reasons (and a tutorial!) to deploy OpenProject with Kubernetes via Helm

Jen Wike Huger — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 16:21:57 +0000

Managing your project management software (like, OpenProject) in a cloud-native environment allows you to customize your instance with the added security benefit.

Deploying OpenProject on Kubernetes using Helm offers several advantages, particularly for organizations and teams looking for a scalable, manageable, and efficient way to run their project management software.

20 reasons to deploy OpenProject with Kubernetes via Helm:

Comprehensive Feature Set: OpenProject provides a wide range of features that cater to various aspects of project management. This includes task management, time tracking, project planning, and Gantt charts. It also supports agile methodologies with features like Kanban boards and Scrum management. The tool's flexibility allows it to be used for different types of projects, from simple task tracking to complex project portfolios.

Open Source and Customizable: As an open source platform, OpenProject allows organizations to customize the software to fit their specific needs. This flexibility is a significant advantage for businesses that require tailored solutions. Additionally, because it is open-source, there are no licensing fees, making it a cost-effective option for organizations looking to manage projects without incurring high software costs.

Scalability: Kubernetes can scale OpenProject horizontally (adding more instances) or vertically (increasing resources per instance) based on demand. This ensures that the application can handle varying loads efficiently.

High Availability: Kubernetes can manage multiple instances of OpenProject, ensuring the application remains available even if some instances fail. Helm charts can be configured to deploy OpenProject in a highly available setup, distributing workloads across different nodes.

Simplified Deployment with Helm: Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes that simplifies the deployment process. It allows you to define, install, and upgrade complex applications like OpenProject using charts, which are collections of Kubernetes resources.

Version Control and Rollbacks: Helm tracks the version history of your deployments, making it easy to roll back to a previous version if something goes wrong during an update. This version control is handy in maintaining stable environments.

Consistent Deployments: Helm charts encapsulate all the necessary Kubernetes resources, ensuring that deployments are consistent across different environments (development, staging, production). This Infrastructure as Code (IaC) approach reduces the risk of configuration drift.

Repeatable Deployments: With Helm, you can easily replicate the deployment process across different clusters or environments, ensuring consistency and reducing manual errors.

Parameterization: Helm allows easy customization through values files, where you can override default settings to match your specific requirements. This includes configuring storage, databases, networking, and other critical components of OpenProject.

Centralized Management: By using Helm, you can manage all your Kubernetes resources for OpenProject in a single place, simplifying updates, configuration changes, and monitoring.

Optimized Resource Usage: Kubernetes can optimize resource usage by efficiently scheduling pods across the cluster, ensuring that OpenProject uses only the necessary resources. This helps reduce operational costs, especially in cloud environments where resource utilization directly impacts billing.

Cost Control: With Kubernetes, you can set resource limits and requests for OpenProject, ensuring that it doesn't consume more resources than allocated. This is particularly important for managing costs in a shared environment.

Seamless Integration: Deploying OpenProject on Kubernetes allows easy integration with other cloud-native tools and services, such as monitoring with Prometheus, logging with Elasticsearch, and security management with Vault. Helm charts often include pre-configured options for these integrations.

Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Deployments: Kubernetes supports multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, giving flexibility in where and how to deploy OpenProject. Helm facilitates deploying OpenProject across different cloud providers with consistent configurations.

Enhanced Security: Kubernetes provides robust security features like role-based access control (RBAC), network policies, and secrets management. Helm charts can be configured to leverage these features, ensuring OpenProject is securely deployed.

Compliance Management: Kubernetes and Helm allow for detailed control over the deployment environment for organizations with strict compliance requirements, making it easier to meet regulatory standards.

Open Source Ecosystem: OpenProject and Kubernetes are both open source projects with strong community support. Helm charts for OpenProject are often maintained by the community, providing access to updates, patches, and best practices.

Continuous Improvement: By deploying OpenProject on Kubernetes with Helm, you benefit from the continuous improvements and innovations in both the Kubernetes ecosystem and the OpenProject software.

Adapting to Growth: As your organization grows, so will your project management needs. Deploying OpenProject on Kubernetes using Helm ensures that your deployment can scale and adapt over time, avoiding the limitations of traditional, static environments.

Flexibility: Kubernetes and Helm provide a flexible deployment framework that can accommodate changes in infrastructure, technology, or business requirements, helping you stay agile in a rapidly evolving environment.

Tutorial: How to deploy OpenProject with Kubernetes and Helm

We will store attachments via an S3-compatible Object Storage system and automatically generate a TLS certificate via Let's Encrypt. To get started, create a Kubernetes cluster and connect to it with kubectl.

Follow along in this video with our engineering team:

Or, follow along via our GitHub documentation.

How to escalate a problem the wrong way; 4 steps to do it right

Jen Wike Huger — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 15:32:59 +0000

In projects, escalation occurs when one's own or team's understanding is insufficient to resolve an issue.

When something needs to be escalated, unresolved problems, conflicts, or requirements beyond the project manager's or project team's decision-making authority must be passed on to the next level of management... or to another team.

The wrong way to do this is to drop the problem into someone else and walk away.

So, what's the right way?

A timely and appropriate way to handle an escalation includes the following elements:

Escalation Criteria
Escalation Paths
Escalation Process
Follow-up and Feedback

Escalation Criteria

First, a team or department or company should clearly document when and under what conditions an escalation is required.

The realization that escalation is necessary usually results from a comparison of the actual state against the planned state. The plan can be a project plan or any other baseline. It is helpful if the project is managed according to the exception principle and tolerances are established at all levels. This way, it can be determined that an escalation is necessary if a certain type of tolerance is expected to be breached. The types of tolerance may include: time, cost, goals, scope, benefits, risks, and sustainability. Tolerances at all levels of management effectively prevent every minor issue from escalating to the top.

Escalation Paths

An escalation path is a defined chain of individuals or committees to whom issues are escalated, usually from the specialist to the team manager, who escalates to the project manager, and then to the steering committee. From there, it may go up to higher management levels or specialized committees.

Escalation Process

An escalation should be done in writing and as quickly as possible.

Because the recipients of the escalation need to make a decision on how to proceed, the escalation must serve as a decision template. It is not enough to merely deliver bad news; it must be clearly documented:

What is the reason for the deviation from the plan?
What are the consequences in terms of time, cost, goals, scope, benefits, risks, and sustainability?
What can be done? What are the available options?
What are the consequences of these options?
What is the plausible recommendation for the next steps?

A suitable template should be used consistently across all projects.

Follow-up and Feedback

This should be self-evident, but it should be documented in the project contract or project handbook how the mechanism for tracking the progress of the addressed escalation works and how feedback is communicated to the project team.

Do you have any stories how how this was handled the wrong way? The right way?

Should we or shouldn't we? Create a project management mobile app

Jen Wike Huger — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 19:01:49 +0000

If you're new to OpenProject-we're a leading open source project management tool that helps teams make progress in a busy world.

The OpenProject team is close with the community and regularly asks questions, takes requests, and sends new updates.

This summer the team is asking: Do you want an OpenProject mobile app?

👉 Take our quick survey

🔒 Your responses are completely anonymous!

🗓️ The survey will be open until July 15, 2024.

In the comments, tell us if you already use a project management mobile app? What features do you love about it? What do you miss?

7+ open source software tools for the public sector

Jen Wike Huger — Fri, 07 Jun 2024 16:25:00 +0000

Open source software is becoming more and more important, especially in the public sector in Europe.

Open source implies providing access to its source code or segments of it, permitting utilization, modification, additions, and distribution. This means that the software is particularly transparent and therefore secure and reliable. By using an open source software in the public sector, you make sure to play it safe. You also stay independent by avoiding a vendor lock-in, which could save a lot of money.

OpenProject is a popular choice in the public sector when looking for project management software. But what about other software categories like file sharing, messaging or an office suite? There are several great software solutions on the market which are gaining more and more recognition in the European public sector.

Here are seven open source software tools to check out. Links take you to more detail and screenshots.

1

OpenProject – Project management software

*Similar to Jira (but more comprehensive and customizable)

2

Nextcloud – Content creation, collaboration, and storage platform

*Similar to Google Drive (but with video conferencing, mail, and more)

3

Univention – Identity and access management

*Proprietary options include Datadog, Splunk, and Site24x7

4

Element – Chat and messaging

*Similar to Slack (but with end-to-end-encryption)
*Nordeck offers open source widgets for Element

5

Open-Xchange – Email

*Similar to Gmail (but open source and secure)

6

Collabora Online – Office suite

*Similar to Microsoft Office (but well-integrated with NextCloud)

7

XWiki – Enterprise wiki

*Similar to Confluence (but open source)

Learn more about why you should consider open source software tools in this article: 8 reasons to choose an open source software

Read the full article on the OpenProject blog.

How to get started with OpenProject on-premises installation

Jen Wike Huger — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 15:31:48 +0000

(see the original blog post)

We offer two versions of OpenProject on-premises: the Community edition and the Enterprise edition.

The OpenProject Community edition covers a wide range of features and is free of charge.

The OpenProject Enterprise edition offers additional features and professional support for various affordable pricing options.

Each on-premises edition is installed in your environment, offering the highest security level and allowing for customization. Installation is straightforward, and our documentation will guide you step by step.

Requirements

Package install for most Linux OSes
Docker install for Mac, Windows, or Linux OS

Find the latest information about hardware and operating system requirements here.

Installation

We offer OpenProject Community and Enterprise on-premises editions as package or docker-based installations. You can do it yourself, or our engineering support team can get you up and running in 15-20 minutes.

For production environments and when using a supported distribution, we recommend using the packaged installation using DEB or RPM packages. This will install OpenProject as a system dependency using your distribution’s package manager and provide updates similar to most other system packages.

Watch this video for step-by-step instructions for the Ubuntu installation.

Adding users or seats

Our intelligent pricing tool makes choosing the right edition and number of seats easy. OpenProject also offers horizontal scaling to quickly increase processing power anytime needed, such as adding new users or increasing your feature set.

New and improved features

The OpenProject engineering team constantly extends and improves the feature set by adding new features, enhancing current features, and fixing bugs. Users benefit from these upgrades, and it’s as easy as running the “openproject configure” command.

You can find detailed information on upgrading here and how to back up your installation here.

Support for Community and Enterprise editions

The OpenProject support team is available to install, assist with installation, and answer any questions. Our support team covers your technical questions and how to best set up OpenProject for your team and needs. Each team can configure and customize OpenProject differently depending on their size, project type, and collaboration preferences.

The Community edition includes support via the OpenProject Community forum and user guides.

The Enterprise on-premises plan includes professional support via email with the OpenProject team, including a promise to fix critical incidents within eight hours during office hours.

We offer Premier or Corporate support levels if you require more extensive telephone support and a quicker turnaround time.

Please compare here or contact us for more details.

Special editions and integrations

Edition for architecture and construction projects

A special edition of OpenProject is available for architecture and construction projects through OpenProject BIM on-premises. In addition to the comprehensive project management functionalities of OpenProject, the BIM edition adds features for architecture and construction projects.

OpenProject BIM includes a 3D model viewer that supports the IFC format and adds the functionalities of a complete model viewer to the web-based project management solution. Thus, architecture and construction teams can better plan, communicate, and exchange information in their building projects.

Integration for an integrated file system

OpenProject integrates directly with NextCloud and OneDrive/SharePoint for file creation and sharing.

Integration for integrated software development

OpenProject integrates directly with GitLab and GitHub, enabling users to merge requests to link software development closely to planning and specification.

Get your free Enterprise trial

You can test out OpenProject for free via the Community edition or create a free 14-day Enterprise on-premises trial. If you don’t extend it after 14 days, you will automatically be downgraded to the free Community edition.

How to call out contributions to your new, open source releases

Jen Wike Huger — Thu, 23 May 2024 18:40:25 +0000

OpenProject is committed to a release cycle of every four weeks. Is this ambitious? Yes. Does it offer them special opportunities despite the extra effort? Also, yes.

One of them is the chance to call out those who contributed to bug fixes, feature requests and feedback, and other types of support in that cycle. This includes companies, institutions, and individuals by name.

In the latest release (14.1.0), OpenProject shares the following:

Contributions

A very special thank you goes to our sponsors for the features and improvements of this release:

The City of Cologne for sponsoring features on project attributes.

Deutsche Bahn for sponsoring the OneDrive/SharePoint integration.

German Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs (BMI) for sponsoring the features on progress reporting.

Also a big thanks to our Community members for reporting bugs and helping us identify and provide fixes. Special thanks for reporting and finding bugs go to Marc Burk, Silas Kropf, and Hanley Loller.

Last but not least, we are very grateful for our very engaged translation contributors on Crowdin, who translated quite a few OpenProject strings! This release we would like to highlight user Syvert who has done an outstanding number of translations for the Norwegian language in recent weeks.

Would you like to help out with translations yourself? Then take a look at our translation guide and find out exactly how you can contribute. It is very much appreciated!

Thus, the OpenProject Community is strong and growing. The software is open source, and the company is open in the way that it takes and responds to feedback. The door is open.

Have you considered calling out your contributors on new releases?

Which AI feature would you want MOST from your project management tool?

Jen Wike Huger — Mon, 20 May 2024 14:59:51 +0000

In a recent poll on LinkedIn, I asked my network what their top AI feature request would be from their project management tool.

Project management tools and systems, like OpenProject, are considering how best to implement AI to best serve their customers' needs.

"Interestingly, I did my masters in artificial intelligence. At the most basic level, AI can do simple things like duplicate detection or summarize a conversation. So, we’re considering integrating it into OpenProject while staying focused on solving problems our users and customers tell us they are facing today," said Senior SRE Markus Kahl.

And in a recent chat with the Open Source Initiative (OSI), Community Manager Nick Vidal shared with me: "We'd love an AI-integration focused on a template of tasks for a certain type of work package. For example, if I create a work package for an event series we're going to do, a template of everything I need to think about and complete would be awesome! I don't have to start from scratch, things I would have forgotten are added for me, and I can delete things we won't be doing as needed. Same for adding things we will be doing."

5 things about SRE Markus Kahl, modern cloud software

Jen Wike Huger — Fri, 17 May 2024 17:04:44 +0000

Interested in the role of an SRE?

Learn a bit about Markus Kahl -- OpenProject’s Senior Site Reliability and Operations Engineer -- in this interview about how he approaches his top responsibility at the company: maintaining and improving (maturing) the OpenProject cloud offering.

"I’m working to improve our compatibility with other service providers. We’re solid with US-based companies like AWS, but we have customers in Germany, for instance, who prioritize data sovereignty and only host servers in Europe. To move this forward, I am working on making the infrastructure and the software work across different providers.

Part of that is also maturing other parts of our work, for instance, we needed a disaster recovery policy, so we created that. This ensures we’re prepared to act quickly and efficiently if a ransomware attack or data loss catastrophe occurs. And there are other security certifications and checklists we adhere to when working with large corporate customers.

It’s all part of the next phase of maturity and growth for OpenProject Cloud, so it’s exciting."

5 things about Markus

🎸 What is your favorite music?

Genre: Metal, Rock, and Electronic
Band: Coheed and Cambria
Thanks to my wife: Classical

📚 What are you reading?

Current book series: The Dresden Files
Forever favorite book: The Raw Shark Texts
Learning: Technical articles about Terraform, etc.

🎮 What are your favorite activities outside of work?

Video game development
Gaming, like D&D
Sports, like Volleyball

🏫 What did you study at University?

Computer Science and AI

🗞 Where was your first job?

At 13, I worked in a kitchen washing dishes and as a paperboy—basic stuff.

I wasn’t happy with it, so at 15, I started taking software development freelance gigs!

Read the full interview!

New integration with GitLab: Replaces user-generated plug-in

Jen Wike Huger — Wed, 15 May 2024 15:32:20 +0000

Link your software development roadmap in OpenProject closely to planning and specifications in GitLab with our new integration.

Universities, like Temple, love it.

OpenProject: What features matter most to you and your team?

Brent Whiting: We love the work packages, but the big one for us is coming in your next release! The integration with GitLab. In higher education, we use GitLab more than GitHub.

Getting started

First, configure all the things.

Features

Then, learn how to use the features, like creating merge requests in GitLab and linking them to work packages in OpenProject.