X6 React to a delay and a restriction

12:25–12:50 · 25 minutes

Re-plan after a two-week source delay and a rights restriction, choose and justify one option, keep the official deadline, and record the decision.

At a glance

Time: 25 minutes
You produce: two new sub-issues with dates, one dependency that follows from your decision, an unchanged submission milestone, a decision record, and a Project status update. Optional: an exported view.
New terms: dependency, milestone, view. All terms are in the cheat sheet.

Why this step

Plans change. A good plan makes the change visible and traceable: what changed, why, what follows from it, and what did not change. In this exercise two events occur at once. There is no single correct answer. You choose one option, and you justify it.

The most important rule is about deadlines. The submission date of a master’s thesis is an official date. An extension needs an important reason and a formal decision: the supervisor can extend the period once by one semester, and the Collegium Decanale decides on any further extension (requirement R-12). A late submission is graded 1. You therefore never move the official deadline in the plan to absorb a delay. You move the planned work, you check what still fits, and you record the decision.

The scenario

16 October 2026, 12:25 (fictional)

Delay. The fictional archive delivers the scans two weeks late: on 2027-01-29 instead of 2027-01-15.
Restriction. The archive restricts reuse of the scans of record SYN-P021. They must not appear in any public output.

The restriction is not optional: no public file may contain a scan of SYN-P021. The open question is what this means for the release v0.1.0-demo and for the plan.

Steps

Record the two events

Open the epic E08 and click Create sub-issue.
Create E08-T6 Receive the scans from the fictional archive with the label kind:task and milestone M2.
Create E08-T7 Exclude the restricted scans of SYN-P021 from public outputs with the label kind:task and milestone M2.
Write acceptance criteria for both. Use the example below.
Open E08-T7 and mark it as blocked by E08-T6. You can only exclude scans that you have received.

Open a terminal in the folder projm-thesis. Define the helper issue as in X3, if this is a new terminal:

issue() { gh issue list --state all --limit 100 --json number,title \
  --jq ".[] | select(.title | startswith(\"$1 \")) | .number"; }

Create E08-T6 as a sub-issue of E08 with milestone M2. The body holds the example acceptance criteria.

gh issue create --title "E08-T6 Receive the scans from the fictional archive" --label kind:task --parent $(issue E08) \
  --milestone "M2 Data documented and validated" --body "**Acceptance criteria**

- [ ] The archive delivered every requested scan.
- [ ] The archive stated the reuse terms per record."

Create E08-T7. It waits for E08-T6, so --blocked-by gets the number of E08-T6. You can only exclude scans that you have received.

gh issue create --title "E08-T7 Exclude the restricted scans of SYN-P021 from public outputs" --label kind:task --parent $(issue E08) \
  --milestone "M2 Data documented and validated" --blocked-by $(issue E08-T6) --body "**Acceptance criteria**

- [ ] No public file contains a scan of SYN-P021.
- [ ] The data dictionary explains the restriction."

Set the new dates

Browser only

gh can set a field value only with the internal IDs of the Project, the item, the field, and the option. To open your Project from the terminal, run gh project view 12 --owner @me --web.

In the Project, open the view Backlog.
Set E08-T6: Start date 2027-01-04, Target date 2027-01-29 (originally 2027-01-15).

Choose one option

Discuss the options with a neighbour for three minutes. Choose one.

Option	What you do	What it costs
A Release 29 records	Publish the release without the scans of SYN-P021. The data dictionary explains the gap. Mark E08-T3 (release) as blocked by E08-T7.	The release is incomplete. A reuser must read why.
B Release metadata only	Publish the metadata of all 30 records, but no scans. Update the rights decision (E08-T2). Mark E08-T3 as blocked by E08-T2.	The release is less useful, but complete and simple to check.
C Find a substitute	Ask a second fictional archive for a comparable record. Create `E08-T8 Obtain a substitute record`, blocked by E08-T6. Mark E08-T3 as blocked by E08-T8.	More work and one more third party. A second delay can push the release towards M3.

Apply your option

Create the dependency that your option needs. Option C: create E08-T8 first.
Open the view Roadmap. Check that E08-T6 and E08-T7 end before the marker of M2 (2027-03-01).
If a bar ends after M2, move M2. M2 is a proposed date. Write the reason in the description of M2.
Check that M3 (2027-06-01) did not move.

Create the dependency that your option needs. Run only the lines of your option.

# Option A: E08-T3 (release) waits for E08-T7
gh issue edit $(issue E08-T3) --add-blocked-by $(issue E08-T7)
# Option B: E08-T3 waits for E08-T2
gh issue edit $(issue E08-T3) --add-blocked-by $(issue E08-T2)
# Option C: create E08-T8, blocked by E08-T6; then E08-T3 waits for E08-T8
gh issue create --title "E08-T8 Obtain a substitute record" --label kind:task --parent $(issue E08) \
  --blocked-by $(issue E08-T6) --body "Find a comparable record in a second fictional archive."
gh issue edit $(issue E08-T3) --add-blocked-by $(issue E08-T8)

Open your Project with the command below and select the view Roadmap. Check that E08-T6 and E08-T7 end before the marker of M2.
```
gh project view 12 --owner @me --web
```

If a bar ends after M2, move M2. M2 is a proposed date. The new description replaces the old one, so keep the justification and add the reason.

gh api -X PATCH repos/{owner}/{repo}/milestones/2 --jq .due_on -f due_on=2027-03-15T12:00:00Z \
  -f description="<old justification> Moved on 2026-10-16: <reason>."

Check that M3 did not move. The result is 2027-06-01T00:00:00Z.
```
gh api repos/{owner}/{repo}/milestones/3 --jq .due_on
```

Record the decision

Open project-management/decisions.md in your repository and click the pencil icon.
Add a record from the decision template below at the end. Fill in every line.
Commit with the message docs: record the decision on the delay and the restriction.

Get the latest state from GitHub:
```
git pull
```
Open project-management/decisions.md in a text editor.
Add a record from the decision template below at the end. Fill in every line.
Save the file.

Save the change as a commit and send it to GitHub:

git add project-management/decisions.md
git commit -m "docs: record the decision on the delay and the restriction"
git push

Report the status

Browser only

gh has no command for Project status updates. To open your Project from the terminal, run gh project view 12 --owner @me --web.

In the Project header, click Add status update.
Select a status, the start date 2026-10-19, and the target date 2027-06-01.
Write two sentences: what changed and what did not change. Name the decision D-T02.
Click Post update.

The private test Project. In the table, E08 is expanded and shows the new tasks E08-T6 “Receive the scans from the fictional archive” and E08-T7 “Exclude the restricted scans of SYN-P021 from public outputs” with a blocked icon. The side panel shows a status update “On track” from 2026-10-19 to 2027-06-01 that explains the delay, the new task, and the unchanged submission date. — (1) New tasks; E08-T7 is blocked; (2) Status update; (3) Add update. Captured 2026-10-12.

Optional: export a view

Open the view Backlog.
Click the arrow next to the view name. Do not use the View button.
Select Export view data.
Save the .tsv file (tab-separated values). It is a snapshot of the plan for your records or your supervisor. It is not a backup of the Project.

The menu of a Project view tab with the items Rename view, Move view, Save changes to new view, Delete view, Generate chart, and Export view data. — (1) Export view data; (2) Menu of the view tab. Captured 2026-10-12.

gh cannot export a view with its filters. It can save all items of the Project with their field values as JSON.

Save the items as plan.json in the folder that contains projm-thesis. Use the number of your Project.
```
gh project item-list 12 --owner @me --format json > ../plan.json
```

The file is a snapshot of the plan for your records or your supervisor. It is not a backup of the Project.

Texts to copy

Example acceptance criteria

**E08-T6** Acceptance criteria
- [ ] The archive delivered every requested scan.
- [ ] The archive stated the reuse terms per record.

**E08-T7** Acceptance criteria
- [ ] No public file contains a scan of SYN-P021.
- [ ] The data dictionary explains the restriction.

Decision template

## D-T02 Two-week delay of the scans and a reuse restriction

- **Date:** 2026-10-16 (workshop; fictional)
- **Context:** The fictional archive delivers the scans two weeks late. It restricts reuse of the scans of record SYN-P021.
- **Options considered:** A release 29 records; B release metadata only; C find a substitute.
- **Decision:** Option <A, B, or C>, because <reason>.
- **Changes:** <dates and dependencies that changed, with Issue numbers>
- **Consequences:** <what this means for M2, for the release, and for a reuser>
- **Not changed:** The official submission date (M3, 2027-06-01). An extension needs a formal decision (RSL Phil.-hist. 21 Art. 56).

Expected state

There is no single correct plan. Check your plan against these criteria.

E08-T6 and E08-T7 exist; E08-T7 shows “Blocked by: E08-T6”.
One more dependency follows from your option, and the roadmap shows it.
M3 still has the due date 2027-06-01. If you moved M2, its description says why.
decisions.md holds D-T02 with the option, the reason, the consequences, and what did not change.
The Project header shows a status update.

The solutions show one possible answer.

If something goes wrong

Problem	Cause	Recovery
A bar ends after the M2 marker.	The delay does not fit.	M2 is a proposed date: move M2 and record why. Never move M3.
Add status update is missing.	The window is narrow.	Open the Project menu (…) or widen the window.
Export view data is missing.	You opened the wrong menu.	Use the small arrow on the view tab, not the View button.
You moved M3 by mistake.	—	Set the due date back to 2027-06-01. The Issue history shows the change.
Time runs out.	—	Write the decision record first. It is the most important output of X6.
A command fails.	Usually the installation, the sign-in, or the folder.	See Command-line problems, or do the step in the browser.

Alternatives

Pair: choose the option together. Then one person edits the Project, the other writes the decision.
Private path: identical. A status update in a private Project is visible only to people with access.

Official documentation

The exit check and the transfer to a private thesis.