---
# System prepended metadata

title: BayJSConf Project Management

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# BayJSConf Project Management

This doc outlines basic advantages and disadvantages to get us closer to choosing a suitable project management tool.

## Table of Contents

* Rationale
* Process
* Timeline
* Tools

## Rationale

https://community.bayjsconf.com/team/pl/pwjrfpux6tdp9bfebtgb76b7qo

So long as people can get notifications in email, we can use any tool :-)

## Process

* What is our existing process as a team?
* What is our individual existing process?
* How can we find the right balance to improve the efficacy of the tools we choose?

## Timeline

Proposed timeline by `@Flaki`:
- `Dec 04` - start evaluating proposed tools, play around in test instances
- `Dec 11` - end of evaluation period, put up poll (and optionally a call, if needed) to make final decision
- `Dec 12 and onwards` - start migrating all tasks and data into chosen tool
- `Dec 16` - switched to chosen tool, all new tasks (and potentially other documents) are created in the chosen tool. Write up process/workflow doc.

## Priorities

* Email notifications: We have many teams, and likely use many tools. There will even be overlap. It shouldn't be expected that we open BayJS' chosen tool notification page. It should be possible to get email notifications and be able to filter those in our email system as necessary to see them only when we need to.

## Tools

### Basecamp

I have not used Basecamp. I had a good excuse to play with it because I had feedback that Basecamp is designed to _encourage_ async collaboration and that seemed to align very well with our goals :-)

Video walkthrough of my short feature exploration: https://youtu.be/RyBHoWaT1g0

**Pros:**

* Noise management is easy: One can subscribe to items on a message board. These items are discussions, and if you don't want to see changes, don't subscribe. 

**Cons:**

* Email filtering may be difficult: Notifications by email from Basecamp look like they might be difficult to filter as they are all collected in single email and originate from the same address. _Workaround: You can filter by specifying origin email (notifications@3.basecamp.com) AND target email (you@bayjsconf.com) so long as the email of the Basecamp account you're using for the BayJSConf Basecamp project is not used for other projects in Basecamp. It's a pain to implement but if you aren't already using Basecamp, you're fine._

![](https://i.imgur.com/3USB7gT.png)


### Notion

Initially proposed by Sara, seems like in the "replace all your tools with just this one"-camp like Basecamp.

Test instance is at [`notion.so/bayjsconf`](https://www.notion.so/bayjsconf/).

> _Note: apparently Notion does not allow multiple email addresses, and you can only register to the BayJSConf workspace if your Notion account uses your `@bayjsconf.com` email address, so if you are already a Notion-user & don't want to create a new account DM `@Flaki` your notion user account info and I'll add you to the Workspace!_
 

**Pros**:
- Built-in tooling for tabular data that makes Google Spreadsheets mostly unneccessary for many of our usecases (like [budgeting](https://www.notion.so/bayjsconf/d3d2a4f1f48d4a4bab86483274048fbb?v=4210c68dcb184aaf90584af84d2ad8ae))

**Cons**:
- Exporting more complex docs is a bit clunky still
    - no "copy as markdown" option
    - descriptions of documents are not exported
    - at least, you _can_ export, but the nuance of the data is often lost
- Built-in tabular data support for calculations is very limited (e.g. does not support mixing of formulas & values within the same property/column)
- Notion requires you to have separate given and family names, both. For whatever reason...? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Because of its complexity it might take several weeks to find ideal processes, create templates for some tasks etc.
    - This makes Notion very efficient and customizable (I would imagine)
    - ...but this increases the process burden and the learning curve for team members and esp. newly onboarded team members in the future
- Does not embrace markdown natively but co-opts it with its own formatter toolbar (the Slack Toolbar-effect :D)
- Seems to duplicate the functionality of Hackmd.io for us
- Seems less like a project management tool than Trello or Asana


### Github
**Pros**: Simpler than the rest. Very likely we all have accounts. Excellent notification sectioning. 

* Email filtering is possible: From experience, it's easy to mark emails from different repos with different labels. If you have a lot of repos, the email notifications won't all go into the same place.

**Cons**: Private repo in org costs money. And we'll def have sensitive info.

### Trello
**Pros**: More features than Github, like due dates. A few of us are confirmed to have used it. Private team will cost no money.
**Cons**: Unopinionated. Trello is very flexible and I've seen it in several places fail to bring value when either of the follow is true - there is no existing established process (so everyone uses Trello differently) or folks are not as familiar with the same organizational methods.


### Asana
**Pros**: Many features specific to task management. A few people have used it. Opinionated. For example, the task management is oriented around due-dates.
**Cons**: Too many features? Can't populate this section well.

## Next Actions

We've got a few options. Either do more research into unanswered questions (like, what are the confirmed incumbents? how many people actually do regularly use which app) then decide. Or start using a tool, and be totally willing to drop it in 3ish weeks if it's not working out :D