A project is not a project unless it has a well-define schedule: Exception genealogy projects

 In the mid-1990s I attended a software Project Management course that left some lasting ideas. The biggest takeaway was to "make decisions that 'facilitate change'". This idea extended beyond software development and project management. It pushed the idea that no matter what decisions you make, choose those options that 'facilitate change'. When requirements or the environment changes does your decision lock you into something. From a software point of view, the idea of being highly configurable is one way to address this idea of 'facilitating change'. However, the idea needs to extend to our designs, managing project members, and the project in general.

As project managers, we need to understand what a project is and what it is not. A project must be measurable and it must have an ending, or it is not a project. As a genealogist I struggled with that one. At that time, I was not tracking my genealogy projects or tasks. I suspect most of us do not. What I did know was very few of my projects came to a natural finish. Some would get forgotten because I was not tracking them. Most would be caught in this forever ongoing work, continuously looking for more proof and capturing what I could.

One approach is to break down ongoing projects into smaller sub-projects, something that is measurable and you can put a deadline on.

Nope. That did not help me. Genealogy work is like a detective working on a murder investigation that is going colder as the days go by. Then years later I would bring out the old filing boxes. You know the ones. They are marked "cold case".

In practice I had to produce well-defined software development projects, defining all the resources I needed with a well-defined schedule that showed when specific milestones would be complete. Targets had to be defined.

In Memory Keeper (MK) I can define high-level projects--which I do without any idea when they will be completed. That is because they are "ongoing" projects. I know that means they are not a project. But damn it, they are.

I provide a description of these projects just to remind me and keep me focused.

MK uses the TiddlyWiki plugin Projectify.

Projects can have tasks, tiddlers tagged with "todo". A "todo" tiddler can be converted into a project or sub-project (a task with tasks).

Tasks can be generated without being assigned to projects or sub-projects. Those unassigned tasks are associated with an Inbox. Projectify has a feature that enables users to quickly add a number of tasks to the Inbox with the idea that they can later move these tasks to a project by dragging and dropping from the Inbox to the target project.

MK extends the definition of a task, enabling the user to optionally further categorize a task as a "fact check" or an "appointment". In addition, users can define their own task types.

Fact checks are those statements someone told you about, or perhaps you read about. Why not capture them. My great-uncle Courtney told family members we were descendants of Sir Francis Drake. I created a task dedicated to confirming or denying it. In the notes and in research journal entries, all available in MK, I captured my findings. These findings were then associated with the task. In the end, the task was marked completed as "FALSE". There was no evidence Sir Francis Drake had any children.

Appointments are just that. This will not replace your online calendar, but it provides a nice reminder when using MK. More importantly, it provides traceability in your research. Maintain these records, linking other MK records to these appointments.

I remain adamant. Genealogy projects are projects, with and without an end target date.