RedmineStudio Review Issue Creation Quick Start

Introduction

This is a quick start guide for the Review Issue Creation feature in RedmineStudio.
Originally provided as a separate OSS application, we have integrated it into RedmineStudio to make it more convenient through integration with time tracking.

RedmineStudio proposes a “issue-driven” approach to review work.
We hope you can relate to its goals even a little.

First, let’s look at the benefits of “issue-driven” reviews and the actual issue structure.

Benefits of “Issue-Driven” Reviews

• High expressiveness for feedback
  • By making feedback as issues, you can use not only text but also tables, images, GIF animations, and links to external sites, allowing extremely flexible and versatile expression. Additionally, if integrated with a version control system, you can link to deliverables and responses to feedback, making verification work very smooth for reviewers.
• Clear visibility of task ownership
  • If there are “people who haven’t reviewed yet” or “feedback that hasn’t been addressed,” these are immediately visible through “Assignee” and “Status”. They remain as open issues, making it easy for users to be aware of them, and they can be picked up in morning meetings. Of course, since they are issues, you can also set deadlines.
• Accurate time tracking
  • You can accurately record time spent on each task, such as a reviewer’s “review time” or the organizer’s “time spent addressing issues.” This allows you to look back not only at the total time spent but also at how much time was spent on each piece of feedback. This can be useful for analyzing reviewer tendencies and user strengths and weaknesses.
• Complete record of all interactions
  • “Review participants,” “who made which feedback,” and “the flow until feedback is resolved” – all of this is recorded as issues in Redmine. No special work is required. Of course, there’s no need to separately create meeting minutes in Excel, and you won’t have issues like being unable to add feedback because someone else has the file open.

Issue Structure

Next, let’s explain how to create issues for “issue-driven” reviews. RedmineStudio implements review work with the following issue structure.

• Review Target Issue (e.g., #1274)
  • This is the issue for the work being reviewed. Since review work is part of that work, each review issue is placed under the review target issue.
• Organizer Issue (e.g., #1275)
  • This is the issue for the “Review Organizer” to manage the series of review-related tasks. The series of tasks includes everything from planning and hosting to completing all feedback responses.
  • The “Review Organizer” progresses work related to the entire review using this issue. Once all reviewers have completed their reviews and all feedback has been addressed, close this issue.
• Request Issue (e.g., #1276 and #1277)
  • This is the issue for the “Review Organizer” to request a review from a “Reviewer.” It becomes a child issue of the “Organizer Issue.”
  • The “Reviewer” progresses their actual review work using this issue and closes it when their assigned review work is complete. If there is feedback, create it as a “Feedback Issue” below.
• Feedback Issue (e.g., #1278 and #1279)
  • This is the issue for each “Reviewer” to request the “Review Organizer” to address feedback. It becomes a child issue of the “Organizer Issue.”
  • The “Review Organizer” addresses the issue, and once the “Reviewer” confirms, close the issue. For larger tasks, a different person may actually handle the response.

In the example above, the “Organizer” has requested a review of #1274 from “A” and “B.”
Also, from these issues, we can see the current state is as follows.
(This easy visualization is also a benefit of issue-driven approach!)

• “A” has completed the “Review Request (#1276)” (= Closed),
  and added “Feedback A (#1278)” and “Feedback B (#1279)”
• “B“‘s “Review Request (#1277)” is not started (= New)
• “Feedback A (#1278)” has already been addressed and is awaiting confirmation from “A” (= Pending Approval)
• “Feedback B (#1279)” is awaiting response from the “Organizer” (= New)

RedmineStudio turns review work into issues in this way.

However, you might think creating such a issue structure is difficult.
That’s where the Review Issue Creation feature comes in.

How to Do It

Let’s look at how to actually proceed with review work.
Here, we’ll explain the flow focusing on minimal features and settings.

Preparing for Review

This is the review organizer’s task.
Create the “Organizer Issue” and “Request Issues” for the review.

Creating Review Issues

Select “Review” from the left side of the input screen, set the “Review Target,” “Period,” and “Reviewers,” then click the “Create Issue” button.

This will create an “Organizer Issue” with the organizer as the assignee, and “Request Issues” for each reviewer will be created as child issues.

The review preparation is now complete.

How to Proceed with Review

From here, the review organizer and reviewers work together to proceed.

Conducting the Review

Reviewers should proceed with the review.
The assigned “Request Issue” looks like this.

To add feedback, click the “Feedback” link.

Clicking it displays the issue creation screen. Fill in the “Subject” and “Description” according to the feedback content, then click “Create.” The “Feedback Issue” you created will be registered as a child issue of the “Organizer Issue” as shown below.

Once the reviewer has gone through all review targets and submitted all feedback, close the “Request Issue.” This lets others know that you have finished reviewing.

Incorporating Review Feedback

When reviewers add feedback, the review organizer should address them.

After incorporating the feedback, ask the reviewer who provided it to confirm the content. If the reviewer confirms there are no issues, the work for this review feedback is complete, so close the “Feedback Issue.” If there are any shortcomings in the response, communicate on this “Feedback Issue” to complete the work.

Completing the Review

When all reviewers have completed their reviews and all feedback has been addressed, the review work is complete. In terms of issues, once all “Request Issues” and “Feedback Issues” are closed, you can close the “Organizer Issue.”

Conclusion

This completes the review work using RedmineStudio.

What did you think?
Even though we call it “issue-driven,” the actual work isn’t that difficult, is it?

Although this is called a quick start, we didn’t get to talk much about the app itself.

There are still many features we haven’t introduced.
There are also features realized from feedback from users, so please look forward to them.

However, for those of you seeing this approach for the first time,
some might think it’s unrealistic and far-fetched.

Of course, what has become “customary” in daily work has accumulated achievements.
And there must have been rational reasons in the past for it to have accumulated this far.

But I still want to suggest it.

“Why not stop using Excel for reviews?”

Review Tracker Settings>>