Open Source Automation

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

Andre Diamond

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

Individual

[GENERAL] Requested funds in ada

55500

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

7

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language.

No

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

We will develop open source tooling that works with the GitHub API. This will create a user interface that will provide milestone reporting, resource allocation, documentation & project management.

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

No

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

Yes

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

Project will be fully open source using the Apache licence 2.0

https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

[METADATA] SDG rating

n/a

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution.

How we perceive the problem 

There are barriers to entry in efficiently managing open source projects. This includes a lack of use of open source tools that are needed to assist in milestone reporting, contributor resource allocation and project management. A lack of these tools inhibits Open Source project development and growth.

Our solution 

The Fund 11 Open Source Automation proposal will offer a solution by developing Open Source tooling including GitHub automation, a user interface and procedural documentation and guidance.

This will include - 

1 - The specification, development and implementation of an automation solution on GitHub.

The first part of the project will set up and develop API calls needed to access GitHub issues and data from a project board. This will include the installation of a JavaScript framework, writing the code for API calls, and processing the returned data.

2 - A user Interface - dashboard

The second part of the project will build a user interface in the form of a dashboard that will present the processed data collected from the API calls. This will provide insight on a project’s monthly performance and assist with resource allocation. 

3 - Procedural documentation and guidance.

The final part of the project will provide documentation and guidance on how the tool can be forked and implemented by other users. This implementation will be made quite simple. To supplement the tool, guidance will be provided on the use of GitHub project boards and issue tracking.

 

4 - A flexible code template.

The code is a template that can be tweaked to fit the way any project operates. Collaboration will be made easier as resource allocation will be more straightforward. A clear view of status and progression will help with project management and provide contributors with relevant information.

Reasons for our approach

Automation of routine tasks in open source projects enhances their functionality and broadens their utility to a wider audience. We intend to target the project management overhead tasks that are familiar to many Catalyst proposers and build tools to assist with milestone management and reporting. In addition our dashboard will assist with user accessibility and our documentation will advise on developer reuse.

Who we will engage

We will engage, support and provide resources to existing and new project teams and share our work widely with the community. Our focus will be on helping Open Source users in Catalyst with their projects. For example this project management solution will be used by the SingularityNet Archive workgroup, QADAO, Treasury Guild and Community Governance Oversight. 

How we will demonstrate or prove our impact 

• We will demonstrate and prove the impact of our proposal by tracking the use of this resource, incorporating feedback and documenting lessons learnt on our GitHub project board.

• Once the tool is completed, GitHub repositories will be created in our partner organizations. 

• The use of the tool in these organizations will be tracked in the forked repositories. 

• This will include how the tool assists with milestone planning and reporting.

• This tool will also make resource allocation much easier for open source collaborative projects. 

• Seeing tasks on the project board be completed and resource allocation can also demonstrate impact.

• Write procedural documentation of how people can use GitHub Project Boards, training on GitHub commits and commit revisions and comments.

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community.

We plan to spread our project's outputs over discrete stages that run for 6 months. The detail of our milestones can be referenced in the Milestones section.

We will share our outputs with the aforementioned project teams (SingularityNet Archive Workgroup, QADAO, Treasury Guild and Community Governance Oversight) who can take advantage of efficiency opportunities.

We will share these dashboards with people we work with. (For example if we are in a call and someone shows interest in one of our projects, we can share this dashboard to show the progress of the project)

A successful completion of this proposal will support further research and development in streamlining project management of other community proposals. We expect to continue to develop further tools and enhancements that build upon this proposal.

Any future projects that we will work on will make use of this tool and hopefully people in other groups using the tool will also start using the tool in other projects they are involved with. We will gather any feedback from them as well as look for improvements that can be made as we use this tool in different projects.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Our capability is spread between our project manager, our lead developer and treasury guild support. Our team (outlined in the [RESOURCES & VALUE FOR MONEY] section below) has already delivered a treasury platform, has implemented several proposals successfully and worked in collaboration with a broad range of community projects.

Our experience in managing projects and project payouts as well as building the tools for these tasks/projects has been our main focus for the last 2 years in Catalyst and other ecosystems.

Part of our team is a Treasury Guild with extensive experience in fund management, and disbursement. They are trusted with the management of funds for several projects, including the ones that will use these tools. Our project boards will feature the ADA amounts to be paid out for specific tasks.

[Project Milestones] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

Preliminary work

Main task & Key Activities (Outputs) - Preliminary work, Planning, Administrative setup and purchase of software

Success or acceptance criteria - A Populated Project board of all tasks and milestones. GitBook space for the new tool’s documentation. CSV export of project board.

Proposed cost - 5806 ADA

Expected timeline - March 2024

Set-up infrastructure

Main task & Key Activities (Outputs) - Create repo, install framework, create GitHub API calls and deploy using Netlify

Success or acceptance criteria - Infrastructure setup, deployment and creation of API calls (Netlify url and git commits)

Proposed cost - 10000 ADA

Expected timeline - April 2024

Write code to process data

Main task & Key Activities (Outputs) - Write code to process and structure GitHub issues and project board data

Success or acceptance criteria - Demonstration of code function to extract and process available data. CSV export via tool and/or screenshots of data

Proposed cost - 10000 ADA

Expected timeline - May 2024

User Interface Development

Main task & Key Activities (Outputs) - Design and build UI

Success or acceptance criteria - Demonstration of the UI with video and git commits

Proposed cost - 10000 ADA

Expected timeline - June 2024

Testing

Main task & Key Activities (Outputs) - Test performance and function. Make improvements

Success or acceptance criteria - Successful test cases, feedback forms or reports, list of commits made to improve the tool.

Proposed cost - 10000 ADA

Expected timeline - July 2024

Documentation

Main task & Key Activities (Outputs) - Create documentation on how to setup and use this tool for your project, Write close out report

Success or acceptance criteria - Completed documentation and Close Out Report

Proposed cost - 9677 ADA

Expected timeline - August 2024

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Andre Diamond has experience in Javascript frontend web development, GitHub automation and Database management. In November 2021, he joined the Catalyst Circle Admin team as Treasurer and later co-founded the Treasury Guild to amplify support for projects in the Catalyst community. Andre has also worked alongside Stephen to provide Automation tools to projects operating in Catalyst. Currently responsible for development on the Treasury Guild treasury dApp and other tools in the ecosystem. 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andré-diamond-45871242/

Stephen Whitenstall is the co-founder of Quality-Assurance DAO, https://qadao.io/ , and has provided project management consultancy for many Catalyst projects since Fund 4 including Catalyst Circle, Audit Circle, Community Governance Oversight, Training & Automation (with Treasury Guild), Governance Guild and Swarm. A Circle V2 representative for funded proposers. Also engaged in cross chain collaboration with SingularityNET managing an Archive project. He has 30 years experience in development, test management, project management, social enterprises in Investment Banking, Telecoms and Local Government. A philosophy honors graduate with an interest in Blockchain governance.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-whitenstall-166727210/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/qa_dao

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources.

Milestone 1 - Preliminary work - March 2024 - 5807 ADA

Fixed Costs -

• Software Licences - 968 ADA

Human Resources - 

• Development and Technical setup - Technical design and development planning. - 1613 ADA
• Project Management and documentation - project management configuration, GitBook preparation. - 1613 ADA 
• (Treasury) Administration of Budget by Treasury Guild -1613 ADA

Milestone 2 - Set-up infrastructure - April 2024 - 10000 ADA

Fixed Costs -

• Any additional software licences or services - 323 ADA

Human Resources - 

• Development and Technical setup - development framework setup, creation of API calls and deployment. - 6452 ADA
• Project Management and documentation - project management, GitBook documentation. - 1613 ADA
• (Treasury) Administration of Budget by Treasury Guild - 1613 ADA

Milestone 3 - Process data - May 2024 - 10000 ADA

Fixed Costs -

• Any additional software or services - 323 ADA

Human Resources - 

• Development and Technical setup - technical extraction and structuring of data . - 6452 ADA
• Project Management and documentation - project management, GitBook documentation. - 1613 ADA 
• (Treasury) Administration of Budget by Treasury Guild - 1613 ADA

Milestone 4 - User Interface Development - June 2024 - 10000 in ADA

Fixed Costs -

• Any additional software or services - 323 ADA

Human Resources - 

• Development and Technical setup - Design and development of the user interface. - 6452 ADA 
• Project Management and documentation - project management, GitBook documentation. - 1613 ADA 
• (Treasury) Administration of Budget by Treasury Guild - 1613 ADA

Milestone 5 - Testing - July 2024 - 10000 in ADA

Fixed Costs -

• Any additional software or services - 323 ADA

Human Resources - 

• Development and Technical setup - testing of performance and subsequent improvements - 6452 ADA 
• Project Management and documentation - project management, GitBook documentation. - 1613 ADA
• (Treasury) Administration of Budget by Treasury Guild - 1613 ADA

Milestone 6 - Documentation - August 2024 - 9677 ADA 

Fixed Costs -

• Any additional software or services - 323 ADA

Human Resources - 

• Development and Technical setup - reference to development and technical setup - 3871 ADA 
• Project Management and documentation - project management, documentation on how to use this tool for your project - 3871 ADA
• (Treasury) Administration of Budget by Treasury Guild - 1613 ADA
• Development and Technical setup - Write a close out report   
• Project Management and documentation - Write a close out report 

-----------------------------------

Totals

Milestone 1 - Preliminary work - March 2024 - 5807 ADA

Milestone 2 - Set-up infrastructure - April 2024 - 10000 ADA

Milestone 3 - Process data - May 2024 - 10000 ADA

Milestone 4 - User Interface Development - June 2024 - 10000 ADA

Milestone 5 - Testing - July 2024 - 10000 ADA

Milestone 6 - Documentation - August 2024 - 9677 ADA 

Total cost - 55484 ADA

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

These are self-employed rates that take into account the employment overheads of the resources contracted. The rates are based on the low end of US and European averages. The amounts are calculated for each milestone based on the hours to complete.

The average JavaScript developer hourly rate is $50/hr. In addition this tool needs to accommodate different kinds of projects, so the design process for each step needs to take that into consideration. [Source - JavaScript Developer Hourly Rate Guide | Flexiple]

A freelance Accountant can charge from $50/hr. Treasury Guild is charging $50/hr for wallet setup, admin and payments. [Source - Accountant Hourly Rates | Crowdsourced List (contractrates.fyi)]

A freelance project manager can charge from $50/hr. In addition management of this project requires knowledge of open source software tools and an awareness of blockchain technology. [Source - Project Management Fees | Hourly & Consulting Rates | Salaries – OCM Solution]

In addition all the resources working on this project are taking on the currency risk of being paid in ADA. This means that a fall in the ADA price will result in being paid less or delivering less in each milestone. Any rise in the ADA price will represent a reward for investing in the Cardano ecosystem.

Consequently, given these factors, we believe this proposal offers excellent value for money in a volatile cryptocurrency environment

[IMPORTANT NOTE] The Applicant agrees to Fund Rules and also that data in the submission form and other data provided by the project team during the course of the project will be publicly available.

I Accept