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Streamlining
Project Management with
Mura CMS
Using Mura’s Built-in tools and custom code to build an Intranet
Application designed to promote efficiency in the workplace - public or
private sector.
About
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Proud ColdFusion “5-Tagger” since 1997 (Allaire)
Mura CMS since Sava
CFUG Mgr, PMI, Agile Government Leadership
Spare Time: Ironman 70.3 World Champion Qualifier
Retirement Plan: Parlay 20 years of material in State Government to
launch new career producing cartoon copy...
Agenda
● Defining our Unique Problem(s) with how the State of Illinois does
business, current office project management tools and techniques (Time: 10
Minutes)
● Overview of the Solution - Systems Request Tracker (SRT)
○ Original Solution - Class Extensions/Subtypes Infrastructure
■ Creating Class Extensions
■ Managing Projects on the Back End
■ Displaying Projects on the Front End
○ Paradigm Shift - M7 Solution - Full Application Infrastructure
■ Mura Display Objects
■ Mura ORM
Project Management Problems
And How to Take Corrective Measures Using Mura CMS
The Systemic Document Management Problem
● Entire department that essentially handles paperwork.
● Even with Sharepoint and other document asset
management capabilities, still need connect people to
project documentation.
Document Management Issues
Project Management Issues
Introducing The Project Methodology
AKA “The 12 Steps of Misery”
All the things that programmers love...
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Process driven
Strict Controls
Documentation heavy
○ Waterfall (- The 12 Steps)
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viii.
ix.
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Systems Request Form (Shared Drive/Paper)
1.
Obtainable from: Sharepoint, Intranet,
Shared drive, Email, local system
Organize/Schedule a Meeting (Outlook)
Write a Functional Overview
Write a Technical based on Functional
Document Approval
Develop
System Test
User test
Deploy
etc...
It’s not the process that’s the problem, but rather the execution.
12 Steps Poorly
Executed Leads To:
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Scattered Documentation
No Audit Trail
Poor Security
Information Silos
Problem: Scattered Documentation
Documentation hard to find;
version control a problem.
● Shared drives
● Emails
● File cabinets
Solution: Mura CMS tracks
paperwork for through
structure and search
capabilities.
Turned this...
… into This
Audit Trail/File Sharing Concerns
Mura’s built in backups and audit trail using its History tab.
Problem: Security Complications
Files stored and shared via
network drives and emails
create mistakes and cause
control issues.
Control and organize
project workflow through
Windows Authentication
using the Mura User
Bridge.
Problem: Lack of information sharing
Information Silos create unnecessary barriers.
The silo mentality is really an organizational way of thinking. It occurs
when departments or management groups do not share information,
goals, tools, priorities and processes with other departments. Not
necessarily willful, but rather procedural or organizational
information silos can occur even within IT departments. Since we’re all
on Mura, we can set up permissions at a very granular level.
Mura CMS allows for team-building collaboration exposure across
departments.
Issues Exacerbated by Governmental Red Tape
American Government started using the word Red Tape as a derogatory term for the
excessive bureaucracy linked to the difficulty of gaining access to Civil War veterans
records. It was used by H.W. Longfellow in his journals of 1869. However, this word
actually came from British English literature around 1736.
Simply put, once government creates a way of doing
something it is very hard to change.
Problem: Unwillingness to Change
Many people in an organization accept the current
mediocre state of affairs because it’s they way they’ve
always done it. In addition, governmental organizations
are slow to accept new technologies. These hurdles and
others make it much easier for people to continue doing
business as they’ve always done.
Solution:
Mura as a Change Agent
A change agent is a person piece of technology from inside or
outside the organization that helps an organization transform itself
by focusing on such matters as organizational effectiveness,
improvement, and development.
Addressing the Concerns of Waterfall, Agile, and Everything
in Between
Agile Concerns
“No structure.” You can have
structure with Class Extensions
“No audit trail.” You can
provide audit trails and
artifacts through file
management
Shotgun
Waterfall Concerns
“Lack of team involvement.” You can
foster active user involvement and team
collaboration between devs, designers,
and management.
“Lack of predictability.” You can
make sound predictions and
estimates by addressing
management concerns through
visibility
Getting Started > Effective Intranet Planning Slide Deck
Solution Criteria
Solution must provide product owners, users, auditors the easy
access to status of any given project, so whatever direction we
went, we had to:
● Filter by program, department, or programmer
● Keyword searching or sorting options
● A way to do all of this without spending $$$ per user
Solution Criteria, Continued
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Consolidate and secure project documentation;
Maintain backups/version control;
Associate project updates with individuals, and
Track the status of each project including the number of
days in each phase to detect potential bottlenecks
Architecting the Solution:
State of Illinois’
Project Management System
Tracking Three Key Factors: Documents, Dates, and Teams
A look at the Systems Request Tracker (SRT)
SRT Implementation:
Creating Class Extensions* To Capture
Project Documentation, Dates and
Teams
*And their Extended Attributes
I remember the day a light bulb went off in my head
about class extensions...
Defining and Creating Class Extensions for the SRT
Class
Sub-class
Creating the Project Class
Extension
We need the class extension to
contain the following details:
● Project Description
● Project Team
● Project Dates
Project Class
Extension Breakdown
A one-time setup of the extension, via XML
Or Admin
● Select Base Type: User, Address,
Page, Folder, File, Calendar,
Site, Component, and more.
● The variables you are presented
depend on the class you extend
Edit Project Class Extension
Extended Attribute Sets
Breaking the class extension
down into logical sets for
management.
Show Extended Attribute
Sets
Attributes Set: Project Dates
● Order the project dates logically to make it
intuitive for data entry (UX).
● Calculating number of days between two
dates allows you to
○ Address bottlenecks, employment
augmentation requirements, etc.
○ Astound your managers with colorful
graphs, charts and statistics.
● Determine average time to production for
Minimum Viable Products compared to
final versions, etc.
Attributes Set: Team Members
● Easily provide managers with development
team info/makeup to determine current
asset allocation.
● Compare dev teams with project status to
assess who will be available soon for next
project/phase.
● Track projects per product owners/director
needs/requests to determine which
departments need most support.
Extended Attribute Options
Collect data via various form field types
(dropdowns, radio buttons).
Validate data using regex, date, color, etc.
Populate/prepopulate form fields with
various options/default values.
Class Extension Heirarchy - Documents within Projects
Repeat process for each Class Extension to create artificial relationships.
Entering Projects into the SRT
Using Site Manager or
From Front End Toolbar
Entering a Project into Mura from the Admin
Entering a Project from the Mura Front End Toolbar
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Adding Project via Admin Toolbar (Screencast Demo)
Adding Design Document to Project (Screencast Demo)
Displaying Projects to the Team
Solutions:
M6: Class Extensions (Version 1)
M7: Application (Version 2)
Talking to Mura: Using the Mura Scope
getBean(‘feed’) & feed.getIterator() to display project status, team and dates
Systems Request Tracker > Main Page
Here, “item” holds the next feedIterator object, and
SystemsRequestNumber is the name of an Extended
Attribute in our Class extension.
Systems Request Tracker > Detail Page, Part 1. Displaying Attributes
m.content - Most common way to display Extended Attributes - pull content bean and ask for attribute
Systems Request Tracker > Detail Page Part 2. “Summary Information”
m.content(‘assignedTo’)
m.content(‘submittedBy’)
m.content(‘SAPAssigned’)
Systems Request Tracker > Detail Page, Part 3. “Documentation”
Looping Project’s Iterator To Display Project
Forms
Using getKidsIterator() to pull children from
conttent bean.
Looping through Project Documentation - Creating arrays
for multiple docs
Looping through Documentation to Identify Type of Doc by
its Class Extension
Populating Array with Document Data
Displaying Content Step 4 - Outputting data
Displaying Content - Searching and Filtering
What’s Next for SRT: M7
Leveraging M7’s Custom Display Objects and Mura ORM for more
granular control to create project communication tools, approval
workflows, and deploy as a plugin
Application Development Mura 7
Adding SRT display_object to Mura Page
Application Development Mura 7
● Class Extensions
are great for
what they are,
but they have
limitations.
● Greater control
of the data entry
environment,
layout and
workflow.
● Improved UX
Mura ORM - Creating the Table
Mura ORM /model/beans/srt.cfc
Creating our own custom objects to
access and set properties, and create
relationships.
● Project name, number, and other
attributes that you’ve seen as Extended
Attributes.
● Project has relationships that can be
established with the documents
○ Zero or more Test Scripts.
○ Zero or more Migration Forms.
○ etc.
Mura ORM Database Creation of Projects Table
Saving Data - Still no SQL
Displaying Data using the Feed Bean API
Next Steps / Features
Raining Emojis
DataTables, JSON, ORM
Approval Chains
Canned and Custom Analytics
Chat/Communication using APIs
○ Slack API
○ Axosoft API
○ Asana API
● Uploading/Editing from the Front End
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Roll Credits
Thank You!
To collaborate on GitHub for the SRT, contact [email protected]