Project management/Work load distribution

[floink]

i guess this kind of project wouldn't be feasible without any kind of planning or management. but i was wondering:

are any of the devs or anyone else doing this kind of work for xbmc? from what i can tell there are something like 4-5 (right?) main devs right now working on the project. then there are a whole bunch of people doing various patches and stuff that gets included now and then. and finally 3-4 administrators (1 main?) for forums and such.

in my eyes it looks like things get proritized and 'fixed'/'added' mostly based on a matter of time and willingness from the main devs (which is perfectly ok with me at least). and also based on the public demand (see forums).

my thought is; would a dedicated project manager/admin, that together with the rest of the team could plan stuff in advance, help out? in my eyes this could help take the load of some devs that could focus on the critical stuff and maybe this also could lead to that more people could get involved? get involved because their contributions could be planned for.

don't get me wrong this is not a complaint by any means. maybe there already is such a function in place? i'm just saying that maybe this kind of dedicated role could raise the effectivness even more? i must say again that it is amasing how much you people get done and i can't imagine how you get the time to do a 'normal' job aswell.

i don't know. do open source projects in this size normally have that kind of function?

thoughts, opinions?

/floink

ps
mind you that i'm probably not the person filling this function

[edit] (10 mins later) i hate that i just said that because i'd really like to help out. i would probably be able to do this kind of thing if needed/wanted. in my case it is a matter of time beeing @home with 2 small kids and building a new house. [/edit]
ds

[Frodo]

hi,

problem is that we dont have many devs right now.
for example i do about 80% of all the code
then there's :
bobbin007:
he's our cd/cdda/cddb/autorun guy. now busy with implementing a cdripper for xbmc

darkie:
the python guru. he's busy improving the python engine in xbmc

jmarshall:
made the spectrum analyser visz. and helped us with the aspect ratio code. is now busy with porting the tripex visz.

then there's a bunch of other devs which contribute some code now and then.

so in general, yes a project manager would b great.
but in reality, i would like to see some more serious devs. first
b4 i think a project manager would b needed
frodo

[Gamester17]

i agree with frodo, xbmc is in a too early stage to do any project management, however when the times come i'd gladly do it

[Bobbin007]

as frodo said right, there must be more devs first, then a project manager is needed, right now things synchronize well over cvs or email etc. frodo gives the direction and philosophy (look and feel etc.), everyone who can contribute or enhance xbmc in a way, does it. this also depends on the spare-time every dev has. if frodo once does not contribute 80% of the code and it is more "balanced" sometime, then it would be worth thinking about project management to avoid loosing the direction and philosophy of xbmc.

bobbin007

[franKiboY]

i think gamester17 is doing a great job today, organizing the forum, bug reports and feature requests!

you get my vote, g..

[Bobbin007]

you are right, what would we devs be without him and all the others from the support team, who manage the forum and prefilter bug reports and feature suggestions.
all are doing a great job today.

gamester17 would get my vote too.

bobbin007