Syllabus

Course facts, aims, learning outcomes, run of show, and assessment.

Course facts

Item Value
Course [PROJM] Github as a project management tool
Number and semester 526141, HS2026
Type Workshop, Digital Humanities
Lecturer Dr. Moritz Mähr, University of Bern, Walter Benjamin Kolleg
Date Friday, 16 October 2026, 09:00–13:00
Room Seminarraum F 001, Hörraumgebäude Unitobler
Credits 0.5 ECTS
Grading Passed or failed
Optional course Recognition as an optional course is possible

Registration and the detailed view: KSL course entry.

Aims

The course description in KSL reads:

GitHub is not only a powerful tool for versioning and code development, but can also be efficiently used to manage and document on-going projects. In this course, you will get an introduction to the different project management approaches, combined with best practices utilizing GitHub for such tasks.

Some GitHub experience and minimal command-line knowledge help, for example from the course “Introduction to DH”. The course “Introduction to Project Management” is a plus, not a requirement. Each exercise has a browser route and a command-line route; see Choose your route. If GitHub is new to you, read the cheat sheet first.

Learning outcomes

The instructor designed these outcomes.

After the session, you can:

  1. distinguish a repository, Issues, a Project, a release, and a deposit;
  2. derive a sourced Issue from a requirement that applies to you;
  3. create epics, sub-issues, one user story, milestones, dependencies, and planning views;
  4. complete an Issue through a documentation pull request;
  5. decide what you can publish;
  6. state what GitHub cannot guarantee: quality, deadline compliance, confidentiality, and long-term preservation.

Scenario

You plan, conduct, document, and share a fictional master’s thesis in one GitHub repository and one GitHub Project. The thesis asks how the landscape of Swiss periodicals changed between 1830 and 1960 by language, place, and subject. It uses 30 synthetic records. The fictional registration date is 2026-12-01; the fictional submission date is 2027-06-01. Nothing in the exercise is real research data.

Run of show

Time Activity Learner evidence
09:00–09:15 Frame the thesis workflow Identify tool limits and the rules that apply.
09:15–09:40 X1 Create the repository README, synthetic-data notice, visibility check.
09:40–10:15 X2 Turn requirements into work 2 epics, 6 sub-issues, 1 story, acceptance criteria.
10:15–10:25 Break —
10:25–11:05 X3 Configure the Project Backlog, Board, Roadmap, 3 milestones, 1 dependency.
11:05–11:40 X4 Complete one documentation task Branch, pull request, review, merge, Issue closure.
11:40–11:50 Break —
11:50–12:25 X5 Prepare a reusable output Data dictionary, citation and licence check, demo release.
12:25–12:50 X6 React to a delay and a restriction Updated dates and dependency, decision record, exported view.
12:50–13:00 Transfer to a private thesis and exit check Explain one rule, one dependency, and one disclosure safeguard.

The session lasts 240 minutes, including two breaks of 10 minutes each.

Minimum deliverable

By 12:50 you have:

  • a repository from the template, with a README for the synthetic thesis;
  • two epics (E01, E08) with six native sub-issues, one of them a user story;
  • three milestones with justified dates;
  • a Project with the views Backlog, Board, and Roadmap;
  • one blocking dependency;
  • one merged documentation pull request that closes its Issue;
  • a recorded rights and access decision;
  • a demo release, or a recovery package that you label as such;
  • a decision record for the delay and the restriction.

You can work alone, in a pair, or on the private path. See Setup.

Assessment

The course is graded passed or failed. The instructor set the pass rule. You pass when you do both:

  1. You attend the full session.
  2. You show the minimum deliverable in the exit check. A labelled recovery package counts.

Exit check (12:50–13:00)

Explain in two minutes, with your own repository open:

  1. one rule that applies to your thesis, with its source;
  2. one dependency in your plan, and why it is not a parent-child relation;
  3. one disclosure safeguard: what stays private, and why.

Sources

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