TeamworkPM’s Engine Room

It's always nice to hear from customer who use TeamworkPM as it's a great way to learn more about all the different types of users we have. Which in turn helps us come up with new features and ideas for TeamworkPM that will benefit everyone. We have learn't so much from this type of interaction with our customers. If you would like to share your experience with us, as well as share your stories with other users, then please just drop us a line. We would love to hear from you.

TeamworkPM has helped our company Soulneeds.com in many ways. I tested and tried out about 50 project management programs, and finally found TeamworkPM. It really helped us organize our website creation and duties, get the team working in one place (online) since we are in four different cities - and when i got our programming vendor (Vividminds in Encinitas,CA) to start using it on our project, they ended up switching their whole company over to it as well and use it with all their clients now. 

We are just about to launch our website at www.soulneeds.com and expect to really help the world with the best content from the best teachers around the planet, the most social conscious network, and so much more - and i can honestly say your program has really helped us get there faster and more efficiently, which means you saved us time and money along the way.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Paul Thornton
President - Soulneeds LLC

We are going to make more of an effort to show you behind the scenes here at TeamworkPM HQ. As part of this initiative, we are going to introduce you to each of the team members. First up is Digital Crew Founder and Lead Developer Peter Coppinger...

OK, over to you Peter... tell us a little about your background...

Hi All, it's good to introduce myself and come out of my programming dungeon office for some air...

I'm 32, live in Cork City, Ireland and I love my job. In fact I started programming on a commodore 64 back in the day when I was just 8. At 10 years old I was inspired when reading about good old Bill Gates and even then I knew that I wanted to make amazing software with a like-minded team of great developers.

I co-founded Digital Crew over 11 years ago. For many years we were a small web consultancy and we completed hundreds of content managed websites for small and medium sized companies. We transitioned to developing powerful web applications for multinational clients.

About 3 years ago we decided that we needed to get more organised and so we searched for an online project management application. What we found dismayed us and so that summer while visiting my sister in Boston for a few weeks, I set about creating TeamworkPM. I programmed version 1.0 on my lonesome sitting on my sisters sofa in the sweltering heat. TeamworkPM has come a long way since that version 1.0 and we have learnt a lot in the progress. I thoroughly enjoy getting down and dirty with both the code, database and interface design.

I love making great software for you and I'm more motivated by your positive feedback and the satisfaction of a job well done than I ever will be by money.

 

So what do you work on each day...

I'm responsible for developing the TeamworkPM codebase and keeping everything running efficiently. We have a rule that bugs must be fixed before any new features are added so every day I come to work and check the bug list. We typically try to clear the list of small and large bugs before moving on to feature development. When any bugs are cleared, I turn to the roadmap, pick the most important task and I get stuck in. 

I also spend a lot of time optimising TeamworkPM so that everything is nice and fast. I check logs for slow queries, add indexes and optimise them and implement caching mechanisms that allow us to scale and provide a better, faster experience. We believe that speed is an important feature for TeamworkPM.

Finally we're a small team so we are all stay involved in answering your feedback and marketing TeamworkPM.

 

What are you working on today?

During the week we added in formatting support to our message and comment areas within TeamworkPM. The new formatting option is called Markdown. It allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML). 

Markdown is a way to format your text to add bold and italic text, headings and a few other things, without having to use HTML.

Since we have added this new formatting feature in we thought we better give you a way to see what your messages will look like before they are sent. So we have also included a new preview option into the message section to allow you to see how your formatting will look before it's published

Markdown: An introduction

Below is a brief introduction into Markdown and how to use it. You can also check out the Wikipedia page which goes into more detail as well as given examples of other tricks and tips for using it.

Bold and italic text:
To create italic text, surround one or a few words with stars:

This is how you create *italic text*.

To create bold text, surround one or a few words with double stars:

This is how you create **bold text**.

If you have to, you can make your text both bold and italic:

This is how you create ***bold and italic text***.

A bulleted list:

Create bulleted lists using stars:

 * Item 1  

 * Item 2  

 * Item 3

The text above will look like this:

• Item 1
• Item 2
• Item 3

You can also use plus (+) or minus (-) instead of a star.

Creating links:

Combine brackets and parenthesis to create links in the text. It's quite simple:

Here's [a great website](http://www.teamworkpm.net). It'll really help you manage your projects.

The text above will look like this:

Here's a great website. It'll really help you manage your projects.

 

Quotes:

Add a greater-than sign (>) in front of anything you are quoting, and the text will be moved slightly towards the middle.

 > " Time is the scarcest resource,   

 > and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed."  

 > – *Peter Drucker*

The text above will look like this:

 Note how the name, Peter Drucker, is surrounded by stars to make it render in italic text.

Headers:

Markdown has support for different levels of headers using the hash sign (#):

 # This is the title

Here's some very good boiler plate text. I don't even know what a boiler is, even less a plate. 

 ## This is the subheader

Subheaders are awesome. Even better than you think. 

 ### This is the third level header.

And so on.

The text above will look like this:

This is the title

Here's some very good boiler plate text. I don't even know what a boiler is, even less a plate.

This is the subheader

Subheaders are awesome. Even better than you think.

This is the third level header.

And so on.

Buffalo Fundraising Consultants  provide personal, flexible and transparent fundraising solutions for the not-for-profit sector. Our areas of expertise include feasibility studies, telethon audits and a wide variety of telephone fundraising services. We work closely with our clients to tailor the services we offer to the individual client and work in partnership with them to produce the best results.

TeamworkPM has been invaluable in assisting us organise our workload, as well as helping us work together with our clients towards their goals. With TeamworkPM we are able to manage our projects online, breaking them down into manageable tasks. This not only enables both us and the client to ensure we are on track, and plan the upcoming workload appropriately, but also allows us to do this remotely when away from the office. With many clients and projects running concurrently it also allows the company directors to keep a close eye on the company’s performance.

In the past, the company used paper based methods for project management, but this does not compare to the ease of using TeamworkPM. With the paper based system it was difficult to keep our clients up-to-date with progress and inflexible when needing to change dates. The paper system was also less environmentally friendly.

Before finding TeamworkPM the company trialled several other alternatives, none of which offered the quality of service and ease of use that TeamworkPM offers.

TeamworkPM are a pleasure to work with and we look forward to all the exciting new features the Teamwork guys are working on.

James Hairsnape
Campaign Manager 

Buffalo Fundraising Consultants Ltd
4 Oakfield Court
Oakfield Road
Bristol
BS8 2BD
United Kindom

Today is finally the day we release a feature that we have had on our roadmap for quite some time now, and boy is it a great feeling.

I have lost count of the amount of times people have requested this feature in the past and it was always hard to just say to them all, "it's on our roadmap, so we will be adding this in down the line." That's why it fills me with great joy to finally announce the full release of the new feature — "Task Dependences".

(pause for loud thunderous applause)

We have spent a large, huge incredibly massive amount of time working on making Dependencies powerful but incredibly easy-to-use and understand. One of the major issues we faced was deciding how to go about adding in this type of feature in — if it wasn't done correctly TeamworkPM would start to move us away from our vision: Project Management Made easy!

To make sure we stayed true to this statement we spent a a lot of time and drank large amounts of coffee debating, designing and re-designing every part of this new feature. We really hope you all enjoy the outcome...

 

So, how do you use task dependencies?

Well now when you click into the add a task section you will see for the first time a lightly greyed out link called more.  We did this to keep the interface as clean as possible and to avoid adding too much confusion to new users and well as users who don’t wish to use dependencies.

Once you click on the more link it will reveal the new Dependencies tab. To hide this tab again just click on "less" on the right hand side.
When you go ahead and add a task you will now have the option to make the task linked/dependent on other tasks within the task lists in the project.

In these screen shots I have my first task added in called "Design the new look".

The second task on the list is, "Sign off on design", which I assigned to Dan.
I set up the task so Dan can’t start his task until my first task of "Design the new look" is completed.  A red stop sign appears in-front of his task to let him know that there is another task on the project holding him up.

These stop sign type icons allow you to quickly see what tasks can’t be completed because they are waiting on other tasks within the project to be completed first.

You will notice the last task on the list has a green stop sign in front of it. What this means is that the task can be started but can’t be completed until certain tasks are completed first.

Below is a short video I have made to show you just how task dependencies actually works when you are using them; sometimes it’s a lot easier to see a feature in operation.

We are delighted to finally cross this one off the roadmap and we are really looking forward to hearing all your views on this new feature and hope you all enjoy using it!

One of the most requested features, for the iPhone app, was to have some way to track and log time.  And to be fair, the phone is a perfect device for this kind of thing.  Whether you're in a meeting with a client or working at your desk, the chances are that you'll have your phone near by.  As I write this post, in a café in Blarney, the phone is serving me some Hotspot goodness while displaying a full screen TeamworkPM timer - reminding me to stay on the straight and narrow.  Time is money after all.

So what have we done?  Well, as you'd expect you can quickly start a timer from any task or project. (Sorry Martin not from a Milestone!).  When you do, a big, easy to read, timer is displayed. Stick the phone in the dock and the screen won't dim.  So while you work, a single glance towards the phone will remind you what you're working on, and how long you've been doing it.

But you don't have to stay on the big timer screen. You can continue moving around the iPhone app as normal.  To remind you that you're working on something a small timer will appear at the bottom of both the Task List and the Dashboard.  Clicking on the small timer brings you straight into the full screen timer.

Now, when it comes to tracking time it seems people fall into one of two camps: some like to set out what they are going to do at the start, while others prefer to wait until the end when they say what they've been working on. You can work either with TeamworkPM.  For example, if a call comes in and you want to know how much time it sucks up - just hit the project timer and press play.  You don't have type anything until after the call. But if you want to set out what you're going to do, tap the edit button, enter a description and hit continue instead of upload.  That way you can work away and have the timer remind you what you're working on.

As with the previous post, seeing this stuff is better than reading it.  So I've recorded another screen cast.  When you're watching it, just try to imagine that your finger is the little arrow moving around :)

That's it.  Version 1.5 of the TeamworkPM iPhone app should start showing up in the App Store at some stage today, so keep an eye out for it and as usual, let us know what you think!

 

      Mike.

The Task Editor

I was going to write a long post describing the new Task Editor.  But I figured a picture, or maybe two and a half thousand brief pictures, would make it all a whole lot easier.  So, I put together some screencasts instead.

 

Screencast 1 : Editing a Task

We'll the start the 'casts by looking at tasks, and in particular, editing. With the new layout, our goal was that after getting to the task screen, you shouldn't be forced to leave task screen.  So you get all of the information that you might need, but when you want to change something you simply do it right there, in place, and not on a separate edit screen.  

We didn't want to have a lot of clutter either.  So when you hit 'Edit', the things that should be edited get bigger and things that shouldn't be edited, disappear.  Just as it should be really.

We followed that up by allowing attributes of the task such as dates, priority and assignment, to be set not just with the normal tap, but also by swiping left or right. Now, a gesture like swipe is one of those things that you're better off seeing rather than reading - so take a look at the screencast to better understand just how quick it is to move the due date on a few days, or assign the task to yourself. Try it a few times and you'll soon find the new gestures becoming second nature. 

 

Screencast 2 : Creating a Task

All of the goodies from the Task Editor screen have been brought over to the Task Creator screen as well. So when you're hit by inspiration and you want to give yourself a task to complete today it becomes as simple as:

1. Enter the title, 
2. Swipe once on "Assigned To" 
3. Swipe once on "Due Date" 
4. … and 4? there is no Step 4! :)

Also in the second screencast you'll notice that the new layout displays any comments attached to the task.  New comments can be added and individuals in the company notified.  Judging by the feedback we've had, this alone is something that will make quite a few of you happy!

 

That's it, hope you like it, and as usual let us know what you think about the changes.

      Mike.

If you've talked to us via the feedback page you'll know that we've been working hard on the latest version of the TeamworkPM iOS app.  You'll also know that we've put blood, sweat, tears and a lot of love into this one.  Prototypes were built and thrown away.  Finer points were argued and sometimes even agreed.  A bucket load of Costa coffee was consumed.  But that doesn't matter any more.  What matters is that TeamworkPM 1.5 is queued up, ready to roll, and will be hitting the App Store in a few days.

 

And we think you'll like it...

 

 

Background

The first releases of the TeamworkPM iOS app focused on giving you the necessities - the basic features you had to have to be able to work with TeamworkPM in a mobile world. But now we want to take the creativity and spark from TeamworkPM on the web and distill it for iOS. That's what we've started to do in 1.5.

 

So what did we work on?  Well, Tasks, Statuses and Timers were our main focus.  But the challenge that we set ourselves was to find a way to add these extra features without adding clutter. We think we've done a pretty good job at meeting those goals and over the course of the next few posts we'll walk you through some of the changes.  So check back regularly and let us know if you agree.

 

       Mike.

 

[this wouldn't be much of a sneak peek without a few teaser screenshots now would it?]

 

When we started to build TeamworkPM we built it primarily to scratch our own itch. As the product progressed and we added features that helped us, we used to think of how proud we'd be knowing that our software would be out in the real world helping other companies manage their projects.

I don’t think any of us here thought that our system would actually be used help to make some peoples lives better in the world or to give those who need a hand in life a better chance.

We received the email below from Mark Pluimer in Mission of Mercy letting us know that TeamworkPM has been of huge benefit to them. It was a great email to get and we're delighted that our work makes their great work easier.
 

This is the email I received last week from Mark:

Mission of Mercy is a child development organization with 40,000 children in 17 countries.  As a child sponsorship organization, we’re small, but we play a vital role in the lives of the children.  It is not uncommon to have several members of our team traveling out of country at the same time.  We have been searching for a solution to the endless cycle of emails and attachments, and after testing several platforms, made the decision to go with TeamworkPM.  We are thrilled with the decision.  One of the first projects was a communications piece that was under a tight deadline.  The revisions were able to be posted on TeamworkPM with each team member being able to add comments.  The final revision was signed off on by our Marketing Director, who was in Kenya, and I gave final approval on my iPad from India!
 
We started out with just a handful of projects.  By the end of the first month, we were at 25 and growing, as each of our leaders is finding it useful for projects within their departments.  It is already helping us become more efficient and effective in our communication.  As President, I can now review projects underway, ask or answer questions, grant approvals or reorder priorities regardless of my location.  I’ve added discussion projects for our Executive team, with files, notebooks and resources online.  This gives everyone a chance to review pertinent discussions and related information, as well as to make discussion comments prior to any meeting.  We’re much better prepared for decision-making in our meetings.
 

You staff has been very responsive to our questions, and you even updated a couple features at the request of our MIS staff.  You can’t ask for more than that.  With a mixed environment of PCs, Macs, iPhones and iPads, it has been a great benefit for our organization.  We are looking at working with some of our national leaders in different countries through TeamworkPM, as well.  Ultimately, though, whenever we can work more effectively, it benefits the children we serve.  Thank you for the role you play in our organization.
 
Because One Child Matters,

Mark Pluimer
President
Mission of Mercy15475 Gleneagle Drive
Colorado Springs, 

CO 80921
www.missionofmercy.org

Contact us:

If you have an interesting story how you, your company or your orginisation use TeamworkPM just let us know 

You may have noticed new enhancements to your TeamworkPM account this week. Over the weekend we rolled out the latest updates which we have been working on for the last few weeks.

Some of them are new features and others are improvements we have made based on the great feedback we receive from our users. :-)

The ability to edit comments

This feature has been a long time coming. It has always been put on the back burner because of other features jumping the line. We finally got around to adding this in. Now you can edit all comments throughout the application.

 

View & Edit Milestones from the Milestone Calendar

We have improved the upcoming Milestone calendar to be far more useful. You can view the details of a milestone and make adjustments by hovering over the milestone name.

 

 

Choose files by category when attaching files to Tasks or Messages

This feature is thanks to all the feedback we received. What users were saying was that once a project had a lot of files on it was to hard and time consuming to find files when attaching an existing file to a message or task without the file categories being loaded into the file picker. We have now corrected this and added this feature in. You will now see the file categories on the left hand side so you can quickly filter through your files to help you find the one your looking for to attach to your message.

 

 

Improved Language strings throughout application

Another area we spent a lot of time working on this month was our localization support for multiple languages within the application. We still had a lot of areas where we weren’t translating the text but hopefully these should all be fixed now. We have used quite a lot of machine translation so if you come across words that don’t make sense in your own language let us know and we will be happy to correct these.

 

 

Fixed bug with attaching the same files to multiple messages and tasks within a project

We have now fixed an issue that arose when you tried to attach the same file to more than one task or message at a time. Before when you selected a file that was already attached to task it removed the file from the first task and attached it to your new one. We have now corrected this so you can now attach the same file within a project to as many tasks and messages as you like.

 

Completed tasks now show time icon if time was logged

This feature is again due to the feedback we received from a lot of users.  The problem was if you had logged time on a task and then completed it you lost the time icon which displayed next to tasks that had time logged against them. We have now corrected this so all completed tasks still have the time logged icon displayed and if you hover over the icon the detail of the time logged will also display for you.

 

When adding a comment the task title displays to help with context

This is a small tweak that was suggested to us last week. We were told that when you have a lot of tasks and you go to add a comment to one sometime you weren’t sure if you picked the correct one so by us now adding the task title to the comment window this issue is now resolved.

 

Added in option to download Excel file of milestones

If you are a mad excel junkie you will be delighted to know that we have now added in the ability to download an excel file from the all milestones tab in Everything or from the Milestones tab in a project. Once you have this you can go crazy doing all your excel magic and create as many reports from this information as your heart desires.

 

Improvements to the API

For the techies out there we have added a lot of extra calls to the API and improved some of the ones there already. For more information on the API make sure you check out our developer page http://developer.teamworkpm.net

 

Reordering Task lists feature improved

This is a nice example of improving a feature we already had.  Before when you decided to reorder the task list all the last list names remained on the left, so if you had a lot of task lists it make it a little more confusing on how to save your changes to the list as the complete button was actually hidden from view under all the task lists.

Now when you go to re-order the task list it’s not only easier to drag and drop the lists but now the task list names disappear form the left which brings the complete button up into view.

 

Desktop timer App

For those of you who don’t read our blog or "like us" on Facebook (shame on you) you may have missed the news about the launch of our new desktop timer app. This cool new application allows you to place a timer on your desktop, and gives you the ability to quickly track and log time across a number of tasks within your projects.

Improved Notification Emails

Our notification emails sucked. We got so sick of answering feedback and looking at them ourselves we finally did something about it. We still have more improvements to make to them but the new update really improves readability.