Managing project members and their roles

Add project members and assigning roles

Project Owner Administration: Index

Project Owner Administration
  Managing project site news
  Managing project files and documents
  You are here: Adding project members and assigning roles
  - Viewing project members
  - Inviting new members
  - Adding new members
  - Member roles
  - Member requests
  - Member issues and tasks
  Managing project mailing lists
  Managing project documentation
  Managing project source code with CVS version control
  Tracking and managing project issues

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Project members and their roles

A project can succeed or fail depending on the character of the community formed by its members. This is true regardless if the project is open- or closed-source. It is the members who contribute their effort and time (for whatever compensation) to realize the project's ideas and goals. Accordingly, because the project members are so important to the eventual success of the project, it is important that the project owner or whomever she designates to be Project Admin, clearly establish the rules and guidelines determining member participation, including their roles, and articulate what they can expect from the project.

Viewing project members

Project members are often added at the time the project is created. However, you can invite and add new members at any time by going to your Project Home page and clicking on the Members link in the "Project Resources" tool bar. The following discussion first goes through the procedure of inviting someone to be a member of your project, then looks at how to add a new member.

Inviting new members Once in the "Members" page, clicking on the "Invite New Members" link on the top right allows you to send an invitation to a prospective member. Click on the link, and a new page opens with fields allowing you to specify the e-mail address or addresses of the persons you wish to invite, and an invitation message. There are two parts to this message. The first, which you compose here, should be in plain text only (HTML is not supported), and should be a greeting and welcoming message. You can, depending on your needs, stipulate here what role you would prefer the invitee to take. There is time later, both for the invitee and for you, as project owner, to change the member's role.

The second part of the invitation message comprises the project description which you composed at the time the project was created. If you added several e-mail addresses in the "People to Invite" field, each will receive the same message, so the welcoming message should be inclusive enough to accommodate the interests of the several people you've invited.

You can invite anyone to be a member of your project. They need not, at the time of invitation, already be registered users. However, those you invite who are not registered users are prompted to register on the site as part of viewing your project information.

Adding new members

Users you have approved for project membership (whether by your invitation or their request), are listed by user name on the Project Members page along with boxes indicating their role or roles (project members may hold more than one role). As project owner, you can change those roles by checking the box by the role name and then clicking on "Revoke Checked Roles" button.

If you wish to add a registered user (without inviting her beforehand), click on the "Add New Member" button. This takes you to the Add Members page, where all registered user groups and users are listed with empty boxes to the left of their usernames. User groups also include a brief description of the group; individual registered users are listed by both user name and real name. Each user name links to the user's profile, so you can learn something about that user before adding the user by checking the "Add" box.

You can add as many users to your project as you wish. Because every member in a project must have a role, when you add someone to your project you must, at the same time, specify her role. Accordingly, at the bottom of the Add Members page there is a box listing all available roles. Once you have selected the user(s) you want and the appropriate role(s), click on the Grant Roles button. Those users will be added to your project with the roles you have stipulated. For more information about member roles, see the help information on project roles.

Member roles

Members have roles; these roles are usually specified when the member is invited, or when you add a member. However, as project owner, you can later change the role given to a member by clicking on the member's underlined name and changing the role already assigned to her. If you wish to revoke a role, check the box adjacent to the stipulated role and then "Revoke Member Roles."

You can also change your own role in the project. First, click on the underlined "Request New Project Role" link on the upper right. Doing so takes you to the "Membership Request" page, where you can see your current role and choose a new role. After you have chosen, click "Submit Request."

Member requests

A member might request a new role at any time. As project owner, you can approve, reject, or defer the request. To do any of these, check the appropriate box under the "Requests Pending Approval" and "Edit Roles" headings. The change is effective immediately.

Member issues and tasks

This site's issue tracking tool enables you to manage and assign tasks to your project members. An "issue" in broad terms basically refers to project activities to be done. As the project owner, you may assign issues to members, or you can give other members the ability to assign issues by virtue of their role or expertise. To learn more about issue tracking and administration, see the project issues help information.

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