Features

ResQTrack automates and thereby encourages daily status reporting by users who have this responsibility assigned to them. These simple yet informative reports are prepared in seconds by the click of a button on a user’s My Page screen. Once submitted, the a Daily Status Report is automatically emailed to the appropriate manager(s), informing them of the Work Items that the user worked on that day, the number of hours they worked on each Item, and a brief description of what was done during those hours. In addition, there is a “Tasks for Tomorrow” section that indicates which Work Items the user intends to tackle on the following day. Finally, a “Things in my way” section allows users to inform management of impediments to the accomplishment of their assigned Work Items (e.g., “Awaiting clarification from the client”, “Internet connection down today”, or “Sick”), allowing .

Each ResQTrack Work Item has its own associated forum. This allows users to discuss a Work Item, ask questions specific to a Work Item, provide additional guidance and then to follow the complete thread of that discussion whenever they visit the Work Item page. Not only can users post forum comments directly to a Work Item via the Web application, however, but comments added to the forum on the Web are automatically emailed to users as well. A user may then post a reply comment to the forum simply by replying to the email. Their comment – i.e., the body of their reply email – will be automatically posted to the appropriate Work Item’s forum page. Upon receipt the system also sends the emailed forum comment to all other users associated with the Work Item. In this way, the forum discussion can take place via email, yet its entire thread is tracked by the system and always available for review in one place, the Work Item’s forum page.

Each ResQTrack Work Item has a default set of attributes associated with it. The standard attributes are:

• Work Item ID
• Summary
• Current Due Date
• Status
• Software Unit
• Description

Users with the appropriate permissions can add any number of additional attributes. And these attributes can be in the form of simple text fields such as “Requirement ID” or select lists containing predefined values such as a “Severity” dropdown containing “Major”, “Normal”, and “Minor” list items. Once created, these custom attributes can be assigned (or not) to one or many projects.

ResQTrack allows users having the appropriate permissions to assign duties to users. These duties include Timesheet Submission, Daily Status Report Submission, and Daily Source Code Submission. The system automatically sends an email notification to both the user and their manager whenever the user fails to make one of the required submissions. In addition, failure to perform an assigned duty results in an automatic entry in user’s performance log.

ResQTrack allows users having the appropriate permissions to keep track of developer performance and they can do so with the expenditure of little time and effort. The Performance Log screen contains a text field for a performance note, positive or negative, and for a rating associated with that note, ranging from 1 to 10. Positive issues receive a rating of 6-10, negative ones a rating of 1-5, allowing users to scale a positive or negative performance item. The rating feature is use by the system to calculate an average overall rating for each developer as well as an overall rating for organizations, which is simply the average rating for all users belonging to the organization.

This feature facilitates tracking the performance of individual members of large teams of subcontractor developers. It is indispensible to the process of identifying developers that might be in need of additional training or even replacement, and provide documentation of why such a training or replacement has become necessary.

ResQTrack facilitates communication among users through the inclusion of Project-specific Wikis. Users having the appropriate permissions may view and contribute to a Project’s Wiki, sharing knowledge and thereby creating efficiencies for other users. Among other features, the ResQTrack Wiki provides the ability to export Wiki pages from Project to Project, eliminating the need to manually copy Wiki pages that are useful to multiple Projects, pages such as ones explaining coding standards or developer responsibilities or ResQTrack usage guidelines.

ResQTrack automatically initiates many email notifications, keeping users apprised of Project and user activity, due dates, new user registration and much more. The volume of system email received by any user is controlled by their membership in the “Email Groups” associated with each of the various notifications. For example, if a user desires notification whenever code is committed to a Project’s Subversion repository, an administrator simply assigns the user to the Project’s “Code Commit Notice” email group. Other available email groups include, but are not limited to, “Wiki Activity Notice”, “Work Item Activity Notice”, and “Over Due Work Items Listing Notice”.

In addition, certain email notifications are sent to a user automatically regardless of their membership in an email group. For example, any Work Items that are past due cause the system to send an email to all of a Work Item’s assignees and customers, notifying them of such. As another example, ResQTrack sends an email notice/reminder to user’s having assigned duties whenever they fail to perform those duties on time.

If you use the Subversion version control system, the ResQTrack “Statistics” module provides you with very detailed information relating to source code modifications, including developer productivity metrics.

All ResQTrack reports are available in four common formats: PDF, CSV, RTF, and HTML. Version contains basic reporting with all reports designed against the CSV format. This allows users to generate reports that can be opened in a spreadsheet program and sort, filter and otherwise manipulate data in any manner they desire.