Looking back on 2012 at TeamworkPM

It’s been another exciting year at TeamworkPM and we hope all of you have had an equally eventful 2012.  Thankfully the world didn’t end which is all anyone can hope for!
To finish off the year we thought it would be a good idea to take a look back at some of the highlights of 2012 at TeamworkPM.

Since our inception as a company we have always strived to make Teamwork the standout Project Management System. This year saw us roll out some of our best features to date.

 

JANUARY

We hit the ground running at the start of the year with the launch of Teamwork mobile. This new update enabled customers to access accounts across a wide range of smartphone devices with a new HTML5 version of the app.

See January newsletter

 

FEBRUARY

February saw one the biggest and most important updates we have ever released: Lockdown. This was the groundbreaking permission system enabling you to fully control who could see what on a project giving total control to the user even with multiple clients working together on a project.

See February newsletter

 

MARCH

March marked the start of a lot of the behind the scenes updates carried out on the framework in 2012. First up was "pushState" which led to an instant and much commented on speed boost to the whole of Teamwork.  And as if that wasn’t enough, in the same month came the integration with Google Docs, now Google Drive.

See March newsletter

 

APRIL

April was an eventful time for TeamworkPM as we continued with more integrations, this time hooking in with Box.com and Quickbooks online.We also introducted the Trash Can this month, which allows you to easily restore those accidentally deleted projects, files and tasks.

See April newsletter

 

MAY

May was all about enhancing features we already had, adding more integrations this time with Xero.com. Emails, notebooks and the Dashboard also received a lot of attention this month. In other news, Mike Butler has now joined the TeamworkPM team as our mobile application developer lead.

See May Newsletter

 

JUNE

In June we continued with more updates, rolling out the new look message section which enabled users with a lot of messages to finally get a handle on what messages were coming in, plus we released our new enhanced file viewer.

See June newsletter

 

JULY

July was a tough month for TeamworkPM. As they always say, be careful what you wish for. The growing pains associated with a jump in the amount of users and usage unfortunately led to a couple of short outages for the app. Our expansion and contingency plans had to be ramped quickly and that would lead to a massive August. On the plus side, in July, we released our super handy method of removing email signatures from messages, a positive end to an otherwise trying time!

See July newsletter

 

AUGUST

August was without a doubt one of the most important months for TeamworkPM. Due to our growing user base we made the big decision to move our entire application to Amazon's EC2 cloud. It’s hard to describe the amount of work and planning that went into making this move happen. We couldn’t have been happier with the transition and we were delighted with the outcome and the options it now gives us moving forward as a company.

See August newsletter

 

SEPTEMBER

After a manic August, September rolled around very quickly. We introduced a vital new feature; Start dates on tasks. This feature really belongs to our users as it’s 100% due to the amount of feedback we received from you all.  While we have plans and visions for the product, this feature really is a testament to the fact that as a company we have to take on board what our customers say.

See September newsletter

 

OCTOBER

October was another example of a customer driven feature. This month saw the launch of sub-categories across most areas within the app. The TeamworkPM crew also headed to Dublin to take part in the Dublin web summit, which is now one of Europe's biggest tech events.

See October newsletter

 

NOVEMBER

With November came the launch of the new real time notifications centre. This new feature was designed to make you feel more connected to your team by enabling you to see in real time what’s happening across your TeamworkPM account. There was a lot of important groundwork laid down with this feature; you’re going to love some of the stuff we have planned for this in 2013!

See November newsletter

 

DECEMBER

Then came December marking the end of another manic but progressive year. Even though December is a difficult month to get a lot done, we still managed to push new features out the door. This month saw the introduction of the ability to download multiple files as well as the start of user contacts.

Another big milestone for us is that we’re moving offices again. This time the move is not too painful, we’ve stayed within the same office block with a move to the top floor. We needed the extra space for our growing team and it’s an exciting way to end the year!

See December newsletter

 

All in all 2012 has been an amazing for us here, from rolling out new features, growing in both customer base and in staff size.  All this is down to you for your continued support of TeamworkPM. We have some exciting new features planned for 2013 so stayed tuned.

Happy holidays and here’s to great new year ahead for you all.

– from everyone here at TeamworkPM.

You now have the ability to download multiple files from a project.

You guys have asked us time and time again for the ability to download a bunch of files in one go. This month, Dan took some time out and secretly implemented this feature. The result is awesome and very easy to use.

To download multiple files first pick the option from the left hand bar, Select multiple files.  

This will now make check boxes appear next to all your files.

Simply check the files you wish to download and then click on the download button at the top of the page.

We hope you enjoy the last feature to be rolled out for 2012.

New filter options for company calendar

This month we have added a much requested feature to the company calendar within TeamworkPM.

Have you ever looked at your calendar and thought “What is going on, I can’t make any sense of this?”

The company calendar is your hub for seeing what meetings people are attending, what events are on and what important milestones are coming down the line. With all these items on display the calendar can become overloaded with information making it difficult to pick out the content you are interested in.

We have now added a very handy update to help combat this issue. Now at the top of the calendar you will see you have the ability to filter the content by project and by person.

This allows you to quickly see all items that involve you, as well as being able to focus on a single project. This option is very useful if you operate with a lot of milestones.


Quickly change a tasks priority

Priorities can change quickly during your working day depending on what needs to be done and what your clients are screaming for the most.

This month we added a new way that allows you to quickly change the priority of a task to reflect these changes without having to go right into the task edit screen.

From today if you mouse over a task without a priority set you will see a greyed-out priority icon at the end of the task description. Tasks with priority set shows the High/Medium/Low priority icon. If you move your cursor over this icon a box will appear that will allow you to pick a new priority for the task.

This was another frequently requested feature via feedback and we’re delighted to finally release a quick intuitive interface for quickly changing the priority of tasks.

Quickly attach a file to a task

We’re always looking at ways to speed up your daily use of TeamworkPM and take some of the pain points out of common actions. This month we’ve added a very handy shortcut for attaching files to a task that has already been created.

Normally what would happen is that people would create a task and then as an afterthought think, “shoot I really should attach a file to this task to give it more meaning” Before you would have to edit the task, click the Files tab, attach your files and then hit save.

As of today we have a number of ways to make this faster. Mouse over the task and then hit ‘F’ on your keyboard. This will bring up a handy dialog which gives you the option of attaching a file to the task nice and fast.

How handy is that!

Now if you’re not a fan of keyboard shortcut or if you can never remember the key to press we have also added this quick add option to the Task Options menu on the left of each task. Mouse over the task, hit the arrow at the front of the task to toggle the menu and then select the option “Attach files...”. The same quick add menu will then appear. Now just upload or pick your file and you’re done.

Another pain point of attaching files to tasks was from the View Task page. Again, you’d have to edit the task, click the Files tab, select your file and save the task. We’ve added a link on this page to bring up the same quick add files dialog right from the View Task page.

As always we hope this small change makes a big impact on your work flow so let us know what you think in the comments!

The iPhone App gets an Update

Hi Five

You just might have heard some whispers that Apple has released a new iPhone.  The big new feature ( apart from those gorgeous maps! :) was the larger screen.  Now, whether your managing a complex project or a weekend trip, every extra pixel is worth it's weight in gold. We downloaded the SDK straight away and went through every screen in the app to make sure that it could take advantage in every way possible.  That means extra room to read your messages, more space to edit your tasks and less scrolling to find out what has to be done.  It works wonderfully in the simulator and we're literally sitting in a cafe waiting to collect some iPhone 5's to give it a good test on the actual hardware.   For me it was the extra row of bookmarked Task Lists that I found most useful. 

Here in Ireland the iPhone 5 only came out today - a week behind the US, but we wanted to make sure everything's perfect before we hit submit.  Happily I have an iPhone 5 in my hand as I write this and it's all working well!  So check the App Store in little over a week ( it's takes Apple a few days to get through the 15,000 or so apps submitted every week! )

That's all very nice for those lucky few with new phones, but what about the rest of us older iPhone owners?  Don't fret, we took the opportunity to add in a few of the most requested features so that all iPhone owners can benefit from this update.

Where to start?

Top of those requested features has to be Start Dates.

With the addition of start dates to the web app you can now manage the tasks in your project with more control than ever before.  Dan has written a blog post covering it's genesis and extolling it's virtues.  Obviously, we now support start dates throughout the iPhone app.  On tasks list you'll see both start dates and due dates and if the room permits we expand them out to include day and month names.  The task editor, too, allows you to easily specify both the start date and the end date of a task.

On the subject of tasks and dates here's a couple of quick Power User Tips:

  • Swipe right or left on a date in an editor for a quick way to move up or down through consecutive dates.  So when one of your tasks is moved by a couple of days - swipe, swipe, tap and the task is updated.  Fast.
  • Dan also covered this one very well, but it's so useful I have to repeat it here : ever had the problem of optimistically marking a bunch of tasks as due today, then when they run late you have to keep changing each one so that it appears in your Due Today list?  Well, now just set a start date, then as long as the task has started and not finished it will appear on the My Tasks : Today screen.  Sorted.

New Links Section added

 Another big ticket item added in this update is support for the recently renamed and revamped Links section.  Links gives you an area to keep all of those handy links that you've found and that you think will be useful for your project as some stage.  Whether it's the link to a contract winning Architect for an upcoming build, some background research for a new project, or even an embedded survey for the office night out, Links is the place to store it.  

As you'd expect, the iPhone app can now list, view and create Links.  It also makes it easy to copy a URL from any app into TeamworkPM.  Now when you're out and about and you find a gem, keep track of it with Links.

There are a few other subtle changes as well as a bug fix for an Authentication problem which was affecting a small number of users ( where the app wouldn't save the password ).  In the meantime, let us know what you think.  As always, we love feedback, both the good kind and the harsh kind, so get in touch.  If there's something you'd like to see added, or if there's a tip or topic that you'd like us to write about then drop us a line or leave a comment.

Enjoy your updated iPhones, whether it's a 5 or earlier!

 

 

New Feature: Start dates on tasks

Top of our Roadmap was a feature that we've had many many requests for - Start Dates on tasks.  

For an absolute age we've held off tackling this feature but in the last few months we've been inundated with requests. It was one of the main reasons people cancelled their trial accounts. I made it my mission to get this added in time for this months Newsletter.

To give a bit of background on why we didn't add Start Dates from day one and why we took so long to add them let me step down memory lane for a bit...

5 years ago our consulting business was on the up. We had more work than we could handle and new projects landing on our doors every day. We hadn't anything in place to help manage and co-ordinate these projects and customers were getting annoyed.

Tasks were being forgotten, emails were not getting answered, projects were taking longer to finish as we jumped between "the next most important thing" depending on how loud each customer was shouting.

We looked at various products and signed up for Basecamp. We used Basecamp for a while but we found it lacking in features that we needed. We thought we could do better so we started our own internal app to help manage the load. Like Basecamp we started with basic to-dos that could be assigned to a person. We didn't have dates and you had to associate the task list to a Milestone to get a rough date. It worked for a while but it wasn't ideal.

The next iteration of tasks brought Due Dates. At this time we had launched Teamwork as a product of it's own. We split our time between consultancy work (4 days) and Teamwork (1 day and weekends) Friday was "fun" day. This was the day where we could improve Teamwork and add the features suggested by people who started to use Teamwork.

People loved the due dates. We got a tonne of people moving to Teamwork from Basecamp because we had due dates on tasks!

As Teamwork got more popular and more people started using it the feedback kept pouring in.

What about recurring tasks? What about multiple people on a single task? What about dependencies...nobody was asking for start dates!

What happened next? We added all the features I just listed and put Start Dates on the long finger...

Lets jump back to the present day and look at the next top requested feature. Gantt Charts. Absolutely impossible to do 100% without start dates. With start dates added Gantt Charts are finally a possibility!

The hardest part of adding Start Dates on tasks was the cascading effect it had on existing areas of the app. Take for example the Dashboard/Project Overview. We have 3 handy tabs on these relating to Late, Today and Upcoming tasks.

The Today and Upcoming tabs needed to change to take start dates in to account. Because a start date is optional and a due date it optional we need to allow for the following:

  • Tasks with a due date only
  • Tasks with a start date only
  • Tasks with both a due date and a start date

 


The Today tab will now list any task that has a due date of “Today” or any task that was due to start on or before today.

The Upcoming tab will now list any task that is due with-in 14 days (if it doesn’t have a start date) or due to start with-in 14 days.

If you don’t add Start Dates to your tasks these tabs will function as they always have.

My personal favourite benefit of start dates is that I no longer have to re-schedule my late tasks every morning. The way I work is I queue up a load of tasks for myself every morning and I set the Due Date to Today so I can work off my Today tab on the Dashboard. The problem is I’m always over optimistic and the next day I may have a few late tasks from the day before.

It’s a pain having to go in the next day and set the due date to Today. Now with Start Dates on tasks, I just set the new start date field on the tasks I hope to get done and leave the Due Date blank. They all show on my Today tab and if I don’t get them done, they’ll still be on my Today tab when I get in to work the next day!

There are other areas where Start Dates greatly enhance Teamwork. We added the export to MS Project and GanttProject a while back so people could visualize their tasks on a printable Gantt Chart. The problem was that the Gantt was generated using a Due Date only so it didn’t represent a true Gantt chart.

We’ve updated both these exports to include the Start Date so the Gantt chart export is now much more useful.

We also got to update the iCal feeds for the Calendar. Tasks with a Start and Due date set will now show as spanned events in your favourite external calendar such as iCalendar or Google Calendar.

We’re excited about the new features we can add to Teamwork over the next few months so stay tuned!

Task Timer: Improvements to logging time

When using the Teamwork Web App you can start a timer for any task that you are currently working on. When the timer is complete you can log the time directly to the task and add a description to the new time log entry.

This month we've also extended this form to include the hours and minutes to be logged so you can adjust them to account for lunch breaks etc

We've also added a new keyboard shortcut so when you are looking at your list of tasks you can put the mouse over the task name and press "T" to bring up the Log Time dialog for that task. This shaves 2 mouse clicks off the effort to log time on a particular task - especially handy if you need to log time on multiple tasks in a list.

We didn't stop there though. When you log time on a task, we've added a new checkbox to also complete the task when the time is being logged. Again this shaves a few clicks off the process of logging time on a task and marking the task as complete.

Logging time is very important and a core feature of Teamwork. We have more great additions coming down the line to make logging time less of a chore and we'd love to gather more ideas so drop us a comment on this post with your thoughts.

PS: Don't forget to install the Teamwork Desktop Timer App to make time logging easier

Activity History Management - Remove items from the Dashboard and Project Overview

When an action is performed in Teamwork, we add an activity item to the Project's Overview screen which in turn shows up on the Dashboard. This is a great way for people to check regularly what has been completed, added or edited on a project and at a quick glance you can see progress being made.

Sometimes mistakes happen and a task has a typo or a milestone is added with an incorrect due date and people requested that we add the ability to delete specific items from the history log. This month we added a new function for Administrators on a project to do just that.

An Administrator can scroll to the end of a project's activity log on the Project Overview and click the "Delete Activity" button. The last 60 entries for that project are displayed in a dialog.

Select the entries you want to remove and bingo!

Dashboard Improvements: Sort activity by date & quickly view comment items

One of the most important areas of Teamwork to keep up to date on what's happening across your projects is the Dashboard section. The Dashboard shows the last 8 activity items from the last 10 updated projects. Sometimes though only 1 item may be changed on a project and the last 7 items for that project were also shown. 

Lots of people told us via Feedback that they wanted to see more projects that had items added to them and also a greater number of "changed" items shown.

This month we've extended the Dashboard and added a "Sort" function.

The new sort function lets you toggle between the "old style" of listing the last 10 modified projects and a new view which lists the last 100 items that changed.

This new view makes it super easy to stay on top of your Teamwork projects and colleagues actions.

We also took this opportunity to add a much requested feature to the Dashboard and Project Overview - Comment Context

When a comment is added to a file, milestone, task, notebook or resource, it was shown on the activity list. You had to click in to the comment to see what item the comment was added to. This month we added a tooltip to the comment entries on the Dashboard/Project Overview so if you hover your mouse over a comment for 1 second, we'll show you the underlying task, file, milestone etc that the comment was added to.

This gives much better context to the actual comment without having to jump in to the comment view page.

This is only the start of our list of improvements to the Dashboard and we have plenty more ideas to implement over the next couple of weeks.