Review: Redmine

At many universities across Australia the audiovisual team has become a part of the IT department. While this makes sense because we work so closely with the IT services that we depend on, at the end of the day the two disciplines can find it a bit of a struggle to understand each other. However, there is a lot we can learn from each other, and as an audiovisual professional who works under the IT umbrella I have learnt a great deal. I think that the most valuable thing I’ve taken away from my time working within an IT department is the streamlined work processes for project management and system support.

There are of course many similarities between our industries and the AV/IT convergence has been the focus of many articles, round table discussions and tradeshows. Today’s audiovisual devices are networkable, run an operating system and control system software is a major component of any large project. Digital signage projects are a really good example of the AV/IT convergence; with content management software and content delivery over IP networks. So with such similarities between the two industries, it makes sense to take advantage of existing IT standards, work processes and project management tools. 

There are IT industry standards for support and project management such as Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) and Core Practice. These are frameworks to define processes and philosophies to streamline IT support and project management. They define standards to identify work priorities, problem management workflows and risk control. The IT industry being what it is, has of course built software applications with these standards as underlying principles. 

RED SKY MINING

Redmine is one such application. A web-based suite of tools for project management, issue tracking and file version control to name a few. It is open source, free and can run on pretty much any existing web server. Redmine has become my online bible for any project I manage. Previously I would have turned up to many site inspections juggling a large folder of system drawings and printouts of the project timelines. These days I turn up with an iPad running Redmine with a spare hand to hold my coffee. 

At the core of Redmine is an issue-tracking tool. In the project phase we can add all tasks and milestones to the issues list and track them on a timeline or calendar. After the project is complete the issues list can be used for logging support and maintenance tasks. Each issue can be set with priority levels, assignments to individuals, assignments to followers, estimated hours and deadlines. All issues are viewable on a Gantt chart or as a list of tasks. They can also be exported in a number of formats and pushed out as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. Gone are the days of emailing a new version of your MS Project file to all the stakeholders whenever you make a change to the project timeline. Clients and stakeholders can login at any time to check progress and there are access levels to control what they can see. 

I’ve implemented Redmine for the testing and commissioning phase at the recently-completed Australian School of Advanced Medicine at Macquarie University (see AV Issue 12). On such a large project an Excel sheet checklist wouldn’t cut it. All stakeholders needed to be on the same page, or in this case the same URL. Instead of emails back and forwards between the programmers, installation contractors, project managers and Macquarie University staff, we had a central list of managed issues. As I was testing each system, I was adding issues directly into Redmine from a laptop. The contractors were receiving the issues live via RSS before I had even packed up my pattern generator and walked out of the room. I set Redmine as my browser’s homepage and had a live view of the status of each issue throughout the commissioning phase.