Team management tools and tips needed

Now I really need help...

[Macguru]

I work (at least try to) with some new Web production team. Some use Allaire's HomePage, others DreamWeaver and others GoLive. Some are working on Macs and others on Wintel boxes. Since they work in the same office each on specific sections of some site they do not get in each others way too much.

I have to optimise the whole thing while the rest of the team regularly change part of content. Since it is in a cross platform environnement, I made a small FileMaker file for people to know wich pages are optimised so they overwrite theyr local copies, before editing them. They also can paste URL into it, so everyone knows about new content. The problem is that some people dont use it and overwrite optimised pages.

Talking to them do no good, they often "forget" to do it. In theses conditions, do anyone of you know some good tool or technique to get out of this mess?

[agerhart]

You need to emphasize how important it is that they stop working while asleep and pay attention.....have a meeting. Do you have management support?

[Rusky]

We use Visual Source Safe here MacGuru, (not ideal but functional) everybody works off a developerserver and their is only one version of the file workable at any one time. There has to be some adherence to rules ie, no working locally, but it works and you can also regress back to earlier versions of the databaseif it goes wrong.

Rusky

[Macguru]

agerhart, are you reading my mind? :) I have the same feeling here. We already had 3 meetings about it. Yes I have management support. But don't want to use that option yet. We really have to work it out togheter. (It is a year long contract.) I try hard to stay positive.

Rusky, that seem to be a good option. Before I check that out, can you tell me if it has cross platform support? If they can use it with any HTML editor? Also if it supports remote networking? I dont want to go there to work.

The last option will be to bill the culprits for the extra work, then they will listen!

[agerhart]

The last option will be to bill the culprits for the extra work, then they will listen!

A beautiful way to get their attention!

When you bill them, you should list the services as something like "Fixing Your Dumb Mistakes"

[Rusky]

Now those are tricky questions to answer, I only have our own experience to go on neither of which includes cross platforms or remote networking.

So with regards to the cross platform abilities, I would doubt it, as it is a M$ product not known for their working across platforms.

We only use Allaire's Homesite, because this has a built in project tab that interfaces with the source safe database.

As for remote networking, I am sorry I cannot say, as none of us here are lucky enough to be in that situation. :(

Sorry I could not have been of more help, but we are purely M$ based here.

[ritualcoffee]

are you thinking of a version control tool?

[Macguru]

Yes, something that would "force" them to work from the most recent version instead of theyre local copies.

I dream of something that could work cross platform, multiple HTML editing tools, and from remote access to.
I recently learned some remote "content suplier" was working directly on online server pages too.

The more I get involved, the more I fear this thing as to be completely reorganised.

[ritualcoffee]

a bit expensive - Rational ClearCase

Moderator - you might want to delete this since I work at Rational, but we do use it for version control on our website, and it is what we use to take care of exactly the same problem)

[Macguru]

Thanks ritualcoffee! I went trought the site to find out that the client side only supports the windows environnement. Unfortunatly, we need a cross platform solution that support both Macs and PC. Also, I could not find the price anywhere.

[nat]

I think a company I used to work at used CVS, which is an open source version control system. We switched from VSS because of the compatibility problem you mentioned. It has to run on a Linux machine, but there are GUIs you can use to get to the files from other OSs.

Do a Google search for 'version control software linux' and select the link titled 'Linux Version Control & Configuration Management Tools.' Halfway down the page there's a heading for open source version control, it specifically mentions a GUI add-on compatible with all the main platforms including Mac, called gCVS. Most open source installations aren't for the weak (like me), but I'm sure you have a friendly Linux guru bouncing around the office somewhere.

Software of some type is definitely the answer to your troubles, though. Anytime you get more than 2 people working on a project, it becomes impossible to rely on memory. Preferably, you should use a system that will do a line by line comparison of the files in the case of changes and merge changes that don't overlap. As Bucky always said, 'reform the environment, not the man.'

[Macguru]

Wow! Thank you nat. This is great! I will be looking after this.

By the way nat, I did not get the chance to welcome you: Welcome to WmW nat! I hope you will like this place as much as I like you already.

I was getting uncomfortable with this situation.

Thanks again.

[nat]

MacGuru - Thank you <blush>, glad to help. If we don't all hang together, we shall all hang separately. I've been lurking here for a while, and yes, I like it very much.

[Macguru]

Hi nat!

I tried all client side versions. The more I play with these the more I consider including the use of this free package in the plan.

All people in this company team are already working too hard. Hope we can come up with some plan to improve the quality standards.

And you did help for that!

Thanks nat!

[Macguru]

Update: 2 weeks later

We finally got trough this! We will have a Linux/Perl expert to install the free product in this place.
It does everything I hoped for.

Thanks again nat!

By the way, do you know supernat?

[Slade]

Macguru,

We are getting close to a situation where we've already planned on using Visual Source Safe. (I'm not a big M$ fan, so I was hoping for CVS.)

What are the gui's like? I mean I can deal with manually checking in/out stuff, because I understand the importance of it... But the rest of the people in my office, they'd run kicking and screaming. :)

[Macguru]

>What are the gui's like?
I agree it is plain ugly. But at least it's free and functionnal.

Most of the other agencies I work with all use DreamWeaver's site management features. But I think this product is great for cross platform, multiple software and remote access version management.

[nat]

macguru - Glad it worked out for you so well, and no, I don't know supernat.

I could swear there was a decent gui for the system, but I called a friend of mine and they said that the decent gui I remember was from a program called Perforce which works kind of like CVS, and which they upgraded to. Goes to show how involved I was in all this. But Perforce is not shareware, and these days, all good team managers must be concerned with the bottom line. OTOH, if you're going to plunk down for M$...