What is Partial?

Partial is a purpose-built work management platform for hardware development. It connects engineers’ work items (tasks, deliverables, issues) directly to the parts they own, giving teams a single source of truth. Managers gain instant insight into program health, dependencies, and bottlenecks, while teams and the customer benefit from increased transparency and fewer status meetings.

Key Features

For Engineers:

• Track work items for parts they own
• Manage tasks, deliverables, and issues
• Collaborate with team members
• Update progress and status against program milestones

For Program Managers:

• Monitor program status
• Track team performance and workload
• Identify bottlenecks and blockers
• Manage milestones and trace their dependencies

Hardware-Specific Features

• Hierarchical part management to reflect the actual hardware assembly (component → subsystem → system)
• Work items (tasks, deliverables, issues) link to specific parts, enabling part-centric views rather than people-centric stories/epics
• Hardware-specific deliverable types (drawing, BOM, CoC, ATP, etc.)
• Hardware-specific issue types (defect, failure, requirement waiver, etc.)
• Cradle to grave ownership of parts and work items through required user assignments
• Program analytics, team workload visualizations, and dynamic burndown charts
• Engineering discipline-based team organization (mechanical, electrical, structural, etc.) rather than feature/product-based

Technology Stack

• Frontend: Next.js, Tailwind CSS, Redux Toolkit, Redux Toolkit Query, Material UI Data Grid
• Backend: Node.js with Express, Prisma (PostgreSQL ORM), better-auth
• Database: PostgreSQL
• Cloud: Railway

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Ensure you have these tools installed:

• Git
• Node.js (v18 or higher recommended)
• npm (Node Package Manager)
• PostgreSQL (download from postgresql.org)
• PgAdmin (optional, for database management - download from pgadmin.org)

Installation Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/FionnRuder/partial.git
   cd partial

2. Install dependencies in both client and server:

   cd client
   npm install
   cd ../server
   npm install

3. Set up the database:

   cd server
   npx prisma generate
   npx prisma migrate dev --name init
   npm run seed

4. Configure environment variables:

   Create a .env file in the server/ directory with:

   NODE_ENV=development
   PORT=8000
   DATABASE_URL=postgresql://user:password@localhost:5432/partial
   SESSION_SECRET=your-session-secret-here
   BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=your-better-auth-secret-here
   BETTER_AUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000
   FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:3000

   Create a .env.local file in the client/ directory with:

   NEXT_PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL=http://localhost:8000

5. Run the project:

   In one terminal, start the server:

   cd server
   npm run dev

   In another terminal, start the client:

   cd client
   npm run dev

   The application will be available at:

   • Frontend: http://localhost:3000
   • Backend API: http://localhost:8000