CURRENT TASKFIT RELEASES

RELEASED 30 APRIL 2002

Contents:

TIMESHEETS

Each time you make a timesheet entry, for any client allocation of BA/DEV/DES/QA, it will prompt you to add an estimated time to completion. Null entries are not accepted, but zeros are. Please note that if you retrieve the timesheet entry later, it will not show this figure; if the entry is being modified, the estimated time to completion should be done again. The latest estimated time to completion for each allocation is displayed against the WTI on the Estimates and Allocations form.

EXTERNAL ACCESS TO UPGRADES 

Users outside the firewall can see upgrades again. LIFEsource data cannot be displayed, so individual details like items in the upgrade and reviewer comments are not visible, and only the first 100 characters of the description are shown. (The long description is stored in LIFEsource, and retrieved from there when our internal TASKfit displays an upgrade. This means that if the description is updated in LIFEsource, it will not be reflected in the external TASKfit until that upgrade has been retrieved in the internal one.) Also, now when external users close WTIs they will no longer get an upgrade-related error.

UPGRADE STATUS 

Two new statuses have been worked into the status flow, "sent to client" and "acknowledged by client". When an upgrade is downloaded from LIFEsource it now sets the WTI to "sent to client" rather than "closed", and when an upgrade is set to "sent to client" (whether automatically or not) the WTI is set to "awaiting approval by client". (NOTE!! This latter status has now been reopened, so WTIs of this status will now appear on timesheets again.) The Audit report has been modified accordingly.

UPGRADE DETAILS 

New upgrades have an automatic template added to the description to prompt correct entries. (These can't be stored as separate fields without significant changes and additional overhead for both TASKfit and LIFEsource.) The sections are to be used as follows.
Purpose of the upgrade
  • What is it for? What functionality does it cover? This should uniquely distinguish the upgrade from others.
Installation notes
  • Pre upgrade (installation requirements before the upgrade is applied i.e. creation of new file)
  • Post upgrade (cataloguing of new programs)
Plan Settings 
  • Plan settings required to initiate the functionality; any new batch programs that need to be added to the batch.
How the new functions work
  • How the functionality is run and additional useful information: i.e. what future records are created.
Technical notes
  • Any technical information that would be useful for the next programmer coming in, i.e. screens, commuter modules, main batch program etc.
  • LIFEsource will also be amended to display related upgrades, that is any from that DBS, in the readme file.

UPGRADES GENERALLY 

Some ARev table names weren't showing and this has been fixed. Also a "WTI" button has been added to this form. Reviewer comments are now copied over when an upgrade is consolidated into another one. Closing a WTI now closes all open upgrades (bypassing the upgrade status flow). Printing the upgrade form now prints to show all comments instead of only what is in the window.

LOGOUT 

There is a new "logout" option on the security menu.

PROGRESS REPORTS 

Progress reports now have date parameters to enable you to limit results to a range of status history entries.

WTIs AND PHASES 

If you retrieve a WTI and the related phase is closed, it now displays the phase anyway so that you can save the WTI if required. 

A "phase" button has also been added to this form.

COMPANIES 

Companies no longer appear on dropdowns if they have no active projects.

ATTENDANCE 

Attendance is now collected on TASKfit and will be the subject of a separate note to those involved. 

To check the status of staff, you can inspect the Attendance Report.

SECURITY 

The administrator level has been split into two, administrators and managers. All staff can now see code maintenance but can't necessarily change individual entries. 

Managers can see others' timesheet entries using Timesheet Report, but can't add new entries.

USER INTERFACE GENERALLY 

The cursor now defaults to the first editable field on each form. However there are some inconsistencies with certain versions of IE that are still under investigation.

LINK TO MICROSOFT PROJECT 

You can extract any project into Microsoft Project. This link takes selected information from TASKfit and creates a project file. Having updated links between tasks, levelled your project, and so forth, you can then collect updated information from TASKfit and update your project, without affecting the changes you have made (unless you have changed the data in the fields populated by TASKfit such as actual work). You can also ask TASKfit to collect the Microsoft Project end dates and add them to the project and WTI records.

To employ the link you must have two data sources set up on your PC, one called "TASKfit" and one called "TASKfitMSP" (NB if you already have a TASKfit DSN, it will not work if it doesn't have that precise name). Jamie can assist. You must also have the modules "TASKfitUpdateForm" and "Module1" from GLOBAL.MPT (use Tools -> Organizer). Once these are ready, choose Tools -> Macros, and run "LoadProject". You then specify which project it is, using the project ID; whether you want to recreate the project or update it; and whether you want all WTIs or just the open ones. Click on "Load from TASKfit" once these options are set and it will retrieve the relevant project details. Once you have opened and saved a project, to retrieve it later, choose File -> Open, then click on ODBC. Your project will be listed there.

The task in Microsoft Project is the equivalent of the estimate, or work type, so there will be three or four subtasks against most WTIs. Estimates are held in the "work" field. Please note that if the actual work done on a WTI is equal to or greater than the estimate, Microsoft Project will set the "work" field to whatever the actual work is, and the % complete to 100 (and then the task will not respond to levelling). The TASKfit estimate is held in one column for reference, and where the actual time is greater than or equal to the estimate, the link will add one hour to the actual time and place that value in "work" (this has to be done for each person allocated to that work type). This is not ideal, but we have not found a more satisfactory solution so far and suggestions are welcome.

Also, the actual start date is set to "N/A" if no time has been spent. But if any time HAS been spent, there is no way for the link to avoid setting an actual start date. This means that the task will not level properly unless you allow Project to split tasks that are not yet complete when you are levelling. You can also ask Project to "Update Project" and then specify that incomplete tasks (or parts thereof) should be scheduled to begin no earlier than today. This works fine, but it does set a "start no earlier than" constraint type.

It is advisable to set your defaults to show Duration in hours, but it depends what you are used to.

When you have loaded a project you may be interested to add the columns TASKfit estimate, WTI status ("text1 (status)"), WTI client ref, DBS title and status, Actual Work.

To retrieve dates from Microsoft Project, go to the Project form in TASKfit, retrieve the relevant project, and click on "get MSP dates". When it is finished you will find these behind the "dates" buttons on the Project and WTI forms.

These fields are updated when reloading (as opposed to recreating) a project. All other data is unchanged, unless it is updated automatically by Microsoft Project as a result of changes to these fields.

  • Project name (summary task)
  • Phase Name (summary task)
  • WTI Title (summary task) against which are stored:
  • WTI Priority - TASKfit priority multiplied by 250 (Microsoft Project allows 1000 different levels)
  • WTI Status
  • Client reference
  • DBS Title
  • DBS status
  • Work type against which are stored:
  • Estimate ("work") (duration will also change if data changes)
  • Actual work
  • TASKfit estimate
  • Predecessor (only updated for new tasks at this level)

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