Support Tutorial - Shared Development

5. Shared Development

5.1.Introduction

Public (Shared) Issues are custom development issues that are displayed publicly also to other users. If any user would also like the issue to be completed, he/she can join it and co-finance the development. The more users will participate on a shared development issue, the cheaper (smaller charge) it may get for each of them.

If you have a suggestion or idea about a possible new feature or functionality improvement, you can suggest a new shared development issue. You can also view the list of the existing ones and if you find some of them useful for yourself as well, you may consider joining it (co-financing).

5.2.Shared Development Advantages

The main advantages of the shared development include:

• saving the costs to develop a requested feature (the more users participate, the cheaper the development gets for each of the participants)

• possibility to suggest new features or functionality that may also be useful for others in the community

• ability to develop and finance more complex features, that would be too costly for an individual

• faster introduction of new features

• ability to influence what new features will get more attention; you can help prioritize the features that are beneficial for your own project

• in result, the cost of the development may be even less that you decided to invest in the start (see Shared Issue Cost Reduction)

5.3.Shared Development Details

With a shared development, it is only up to you, how much you decide to invest (your participation share). You can participate starting from 1 hour of development time.

Of course the more you invest, the sooner the issue you joined may get into realization phase.

Before a shared issue gets into a locked phase you can even freely change your participation share or resign from the issue completely. This means that the hours will be credited back to your account.

We aim to motivate users to join the shared issues as the more users join an issue, the less they will pay. So anytime you see a suggested issue you consider useful, please do not hesitate to join it, even with just 1 hour. You may help others as well as yourself to get it done and in the end, everyone will benefit from it.

The more the suggested issue is interesting and beneficial for you, the more you may invest, as it will speed up the issue development.

5.4.Shared Development Phases

Open phase – a shared issue is published and can be joined by other users; at this phase, users can also freely adjust their participation share (number of hours invested) or resign form it completely. During this phase, users can also see what % of the estimated time has already been invested in by all the participants. This shows how close the issue is to get realized.

Locked phase – when an issue get close to a situation, when the estimate time is covered by the investments of the individual participants it becomes locked. Locking an issue means that those, who already joined cannot lower their participation share anymore or resign from it. However, new participants can still join and the existing ones can increase their existing share. The % of how close the issue is to reach the estimation time is not shown anymore (see Shared Issue Cost Reduction chapter to learn why).

The locked phase ends after a certain period when the sum of all investments has reached the estimated time.

Realization phase – if a sufficient number of participants who joined the shared issue was gathered – that means their investment hours will cover or even exceed the issue estimation time – the issue will automatically fall into a realization phase, which means it will be assigned to the development team and started to be worked on.

5.5.Shared Issue Cost Reduction Principle

This is one of the most interesting parts of our shared development concept. The principle is, that the users who decided to “invest” (participate on a shared issue development) may in result be charged less then expected.

The principle is, that after the shared issue enter the locked phase, other users are still welcome to join the issue or increase their share in other to make the issue switch to realization phase soon. At this phase, we do not show anymore, what % of the total estimation time has been already reached.

This can result to a situation when the users participating on the issue are together willing to invest more than is the total issue estimated time. Lets say that the issue estimation was 100 hours, but the participants all together invested 120 hours.

In such case, the extra hours will be recharged back to all the participants, equally to their original share. So if we assume John has invested 20 hours of the 100 hours estimated (20%) he will be credited 20% of the extra hours. (20% of the 20 hours extra = 4 hours).

This means, John will in result be charged only 16 hours, instead of the 20 hrs we originally was willing to invest.

We hope that this principle will make the shared development popular and stimulate users to invest into issues they consider interesting as in result in can result in very cheap development many users can benefit from.

5.6.Shared Development Workflow

1. A suggestion (specification) for a new Shared Development issue is received.

2. Our support team will cooperate with the user suggesting the issue on exact specification and on the time estimation. We reserve a right to adjust the original specification according to what we think may suit the best for the majority of users. If the suggesting user would disagree with the adjustments, we may still be able to do the final customization as a private customer support. The communication about the specification is very similar to Custom Development communication (check the Custom Development Workflow chapter for details). The output of this phase is a final specification and time-estimate for completing the issue.

3. After the time-estimate is set, in contrast to a private issue which needs to be accepted or rejected by the suggesting user, the public (shared) issue will be listed at the Shared Issues List page so it can be viewed by other users.

4. At the time of publication of a new shared issue, an issue Due Date is set. This date sets a deadline until when a sufficient number of participants need to gather. In case when not enough participants to cover the issue development is gathered, the issue will be unpublished and not realized at the moment. The deadline is proposed by the user suggesting the issue, however can be adjusted by us.

5. The shared issue will be published in the Shared Issues List as long as either enough users (participants) joins it or the due date is reached.

6. During the period the shared issue is published any other user who considers it useful and beneficial for himself or simply wishes to support the development can join it. Joining means that the user will participate with a specific number of development hours. It is solely a users will, how much he wishes to invest (a minimum amount is 1 hour). See Joining an Existing Shared Issue for details.

7. An user who has joined an issue can also adjust his participation share or resign from the shared issue completely. This can be done before an issue locking rate is reached. See Adjusting Your Participation Share or Resigning for details.

8. When the investments exceed the locking rate, the issue will switch from open to locked phase. (see Shared Development Phases) This means that the issue is getting close to its realization, although the estimated time was not reached in full yet.

9. During the locked phase, new participants can still keep joining and the existing ones can increase their investments. However, the existing participants cannot anymore lower their shares or resign completely. If during this phase, the estimated time is reached or exceeded, the issue will be realized.

10. In case the estimated time is not reached, the issue will be canceled and removed from the Shared Issue List and all the hours invested are re-charged back to the participants.

11. After the realization, the new code or product version will be made available to all the participants.

5.7.Suggesting a New Shared Issue

The process of suggesting a new shared issue is very similar to a Custom Development, there is just a few differences.

To open a new Shared Issue, at the Support Dashboard or in the left menu, click the New Development link.

In the form that will be displayed, select the „shared“ value as the Type. In that case, the issue (if approved by us) will be shared with other users who can join-in and co-finance the development.

Also select a suggested Due Date for the issue. The value entered denotes a date until when enough participants must join the issues, otherwise it will be unpublished and not realized. You should suggest a date that suits you (e.g. your project deadline) but it should be also far enough so others have time to see it and consider joining it. Note that the date you suggest may be adjusted by us.

The rest of the fields are similar as with the customer development (check Starting a New Custom Development for details on those).

Same as with the custom development, the more precise your initial specification will be, the better time-estimation we can do and the better the result will match your needs.

You need to expect, that with a public shared issue (compared to a private custom one) we will put more focus on that the issue specification has to fit the needs of majority of users. That means, we may adjust your original specification before publishing it.

In case the adjusted specification does not meet your needs 100% you can still participate and after the public part is completed, request a final customization tailored fully to your needs. Such finalization would fall then within a Custom Development, meaning that the final customization would have to be financed by you in full. Still the overall cost of such development should be considerably lower, then financing the whole development on your own.

5.8.Shared Issues List

The Shared Issue List is accessible by clicking the Shared Issues link in the left menu or from the Support Dashboard.

The list shows the approved shared issues suggested by other users assigned to individual project. By clicking on the certain issue, you can open its detail to find the specification and more details about the issue.

You will also find here the Due Dates of the individual issues, the total Estimated Hours, current Issue Phase and what % of the estimated time is already funded (% Funded).

For detailed explanation of the terms above see Shared Issues Vocabulary.

You can use filtering (by project) and searching the issue subjects in the list to find the issues that may be beneficial for you easily.

In case you are already participating on some of the issues, you will also see you share here. You can join the issue or change your participation share by clicking the icon in the list easily.

5.9.Joining an Existing Shared Issue

Besides suggest a new one, you also have an option to join in to existing shared issue. The existing Shared IssuesList is available under the Shared Issues link in the left menu or though the list at the Support Dashboard.

By clicking the Issue # or name of specific issue, you can enter Issue Details page, where you find exact issue specification as well as all details about the issue, including the Estimated Hours and Due Date.

To join the issue, just click the Join button and fill-in how many hours you are willing to invest to the issue development.

If you do not have enough hours available under your account, you can buy additional ones through our e-shop. Procedure of purchasing the development hours is described in chapter Purchasing Hours for Development. The hours purchased can be used either for private or shared issues.

It is only up to you how much hours you want to invest. The more you do, the bigger is the probability the issue will be accepted and realized, so you might invest even to multiple issue, based on their importance to you.

You do not have to worry, as until the issue is locked, you can change your participation share or resign from the issue completely. Also, in case the issue does not collect enough participants and is canceled, you will be refunded all the invested hours back to your account.

Hours that you are investing into an issue that is not yet being realized are showing as blocked hours in your account.

5.10.Adjusting Your Participation Share or Resigning

As long as an issue is in open phase you can freely change the amount of hours you have invested in or resign from it completely (set your investment to 0).

You can do do by visiting either the Shared Issues List or locating the issue at your Support Dashboard. By clicking the Issue # or Subject you can enter the Issue Details page.

At the Issue Details page you can also see information about your current investment into the issue. You can adjust the number of hours you are willing to invest here or you can set it to zero and thus resign from the issue completely.

If you do so, the blocked hours will be credited back to Development hours available for your account.

After the issue enters the locked phase, you cannot decrease the number of hours invested or resign anymore. Still, you can increase the number of hours invested to speed-up the issue acceptance.

5.11.Shared Issues Vocabulary

Investment – (participation share) is a number of development hours purchased you are willing to invest into a shared issue

Estimated Hours – total number of hours needed to realize the issue; if the sum of individual user investments reaches or exceeds this value, the issue will be developed

Due Date – a deadline before which the Estimated Time needs to be reached, otherwise the shared issues will be canceled and removed from the Shared Issue List without being realized

Issue Phase– a phase in which the shared issues currently is; this defines whether users can still freely change their investment or resign from the issue (see Shared Development Phases)

% Funded – a percentage ratio of the Estimated Hours already funded by the individual users investments

Blocked Hours – hours you have invested in issues, that are in open or locked phases