MCluck90 / esti

esti

Quickly estimate projects. Given a project specification, it will give you a solution to assigning work and an estimated total time to execute the project.

Outputs the total length of the project and a Graphviz DOT file showing the dependencies and assignments.

Getting Started

git clone https://github.com/MCluck90/esti
cd esti
npm install
npm run build
npm start examples/todo-app.json

Creating a Project

For the most up-to-date information, check out the examples.

Projects can be written in JSON or a custom format called ST

A minimal JSON project can be written like this:

{
  "title": "My Project",
  "resources": {
    "Me": {
      "tags": ["Some tag"]
    }
  },
  "tasks": {
    "Task ID": {
      "title": "Name of the task",
      "days": 1,
      "anyOf": ["Some tag"],
      "blockedBy": []
    }
  }
}

or the equivalent ST:

title: `My Project`

resource Me {
  tags: `Some tag`
}

task `Task ID` {
  title: `Name of the task`
  days: 1
  anyOf: `Some tag`
}

Assigning Resources

All resources must have a list of tags. These tags are used to determine which tasks they can be assigned to. In this example, Joe will be assigned to TASK-0 and Jane will be assigned to TASK-1.

{
  "//": "...",
  "resources": {
    "Joe": {
      "tags": ["Frontend"]
    },
    "Jane": {
      "tags": ["Backend"]
    }
  },
  "tasks": {
    "TASK-0": {
      "//": "...",
      "anyOf": ["Frontend"]
    },
    "TASK-1": {
      "//": "...",
      "anyOf": ["Backend"]
    }
  }
}

If a task has multiple tags in anyOf then it will give the task to a resource that contains at least one of those tags. Here, either Joe or Jane may get assigned the task.

{
  "//": "...",
  "resources": {
    "Joe": {
      "tags": ["Frontend"]
    },
    "Jane": {
      "tags": ["Backend"]
    }
  },
  "tasks": {
    "TASK-0": {
      "//": "...",
      "anyOf": ["Frontend", "Backend"]
    }
  }
}

Dependencies

To ensure that some tasks are completed before others, you can say that a task is blockedBy any other tasks. In this example, TASK-1 and TASK-2 can be started immediately but TASK-3 cannot start until both of them are completed.

{
  "//": "...",
  "tasks": {
    "TASK-1": {
      "//": "...",
      "blockedBy": []
    },
    "TASK-2": {
      "//": "...",
      "blockedBy": []
    },
    "TASK-3": {
      "//": "...",
      "blockedBy": ["TASK-1", "TASK-2"]
    }
  }
}

Declaring dependencies in ST works the same way gives you a different way of writing simple dependencies.

task `TASK-1` {
  // ...

  > `TASK-3` {
    // ...
    // Automatically blocked by `TASK-1` but can other blockers
    // `blockedBy` is an optional attribute in ST
    blockedBy: `TASK-2`
  }
}

task `TASK-2` {
  // ...
}