We’ve been working hard through the summer and have some big updates coming up soon: iPhone/mobile version, better sub-tasks and a time tracking desktop widget:
Upcoming 5pm features (sneak preview)
Next post: 5pm updates: Image preview on rollover
Previous post: 5pm will be phasing out support for IE6
Any indications on when?
Excellent news. The iPhone version and time widget both look great.
Karl-Johan Strandberg> iPhone version will come out very soon. Within 1-2 weeks. Or may be even this week.
Sub-tasks – 1-2 weeks.
These are the plans, at least.
Time Tracker widget a bit longer, since it’s in AIR and it’s a new technology for us.
Hi !
Do you have some issue tracker features in your magic bag ?
Dominique> We use 5pm internally for issue tracking and it works pretty well for us – we use tasks for issues. It’s just a different name, but works the same.
Wow, super! Cant wait to try the mobile version!!!
Excellent news, i love you, guys. 😉
Any news on the time tracking widget?
Karl-Johan Strandberg> 90% done at this point.
I think Dominique’s query is a good one. Issue tracking (or help desk ticketing) is a separate kind of feature that would really be great to have in 5pm. We have warranty periods that can generate hundreds of CRM tickets over the year for our service department. Tracking them from within the PM tool would be great since all the info about the initial project is right there for service techs to utilize for job history.
Dan> Why tasks can not be used for tickets? That’s how we manage our support tickets (we just keep them in a separate project) – we just use tasks in 5pm. Is there anything you can’t do with them?
The paradigm of using tasks for things like meetings, one-time events, and tickets is problematic on a couple of levels.
Mainly, tasks are timeline based objects. A ticket is a submission of an issue and is put into a queue based on priority, not specific time. A tech gets around to it when the item comes up in the queue and not on a predetermined date. It still needs to be associated with a project since the ticket is related to a given job.
Events are the opposite of a ticket. They are for a very specific point in time (i.e. 9:30am-11:30 am every other week). These tie up resources just like tasks do so but on a time slot basis.
I think what I am asking for is simply another category of activity that is tailored to tasks that are non-timeline based and a second that is calendar based.
Cheers!
Dan
P.S. Going into the boss tomorrow to pitch 5pm. He wants service ticket capability and right now all I can do is tell him what you are telling me “we have to use tasks and we have to assign specific dates to them”. He’ll cringe but there you are.
Dan> Thank you for the explanation. Makes perfect sense. Something for us to think about (separate application? separate category?).
BTW, tasks don’t have to have deadlines – this is how we treat them as tickets. We just never assign a deadline and treat them FIFO style, or depending on priority. All 5pm tickets are managed through 5pm.
I agree with the earlier comments that an issue tracker feature would be a great addition to 5pm. This would really round out the system for software shops. Thanks!