Progress continues on the resolution of known issues in the Team Solution Software system.  Our development team is busy attacking that list, and our private beta testers continue to use it daily in their operations.  That beta testing use has helped substantially in tracking down those known issues in the system, and also given us an opportunity to make very small adjustments in the user interface to accommodate those glitches.  Want to know what that means?

In the development of custom software, there is always a difference between what you originally design for user interfaces and what you ultimately decide upon for the version 1.0 release.  What appeared to be a good idea on a mockup doesn’t always translate well in to a friendly interface that works well, smoothly and in an orderly way.  Once you start using a custom software system, there is the inevitable “I like this, but, I’d like it more if . . . . . ” and the list begins to grow.  Those kinds of tweaks are easy to make cosmetically, but there is always the programmatic change behind the curtain that has to be worked in order to make the cosmetic change fully integrated into the whole thing.

This is where we are right now in development.  These tweaks and edits will continue for another couple of weeks, and then we anticipate releasing the public beta version.  We have several companies who have agreed to be our public beta testers, and we’ll be setting up those accounts shortly.  In the meantime, KISS Computing, Inc. continues to use TSS for its daily project management tool, and we are liking its features.

We’ll be back here soon to tell more, and then in April the system will be available for public use.  We’re fairly excited about that.

For those of you who don’t already know, a Wiki is basically a collaborative website set up so that users can change the information contained on it freely. We thought it might be a nice addition to the TSS site, apart from the blog it will be used to describe the system, it’s features and how to use it.

Wikipedia.org is a free online encyclopedia, and the world’s most popular Wiki. All of the content on Wikipedia.org is submitted, maintained, and checked for accuracy by the global internet community. I decided to research a personal Wiki using Wikipedia, I first came across the Wiki software page which then led me to the List of wiki software page.

I decided on using a PHP based Wiki solution, and found TigerWiki on the List of wiki software page. The time between the initial download, installation and customization of TigerWiki was less than 25 minutes. I was floored at how easy it was to get it up and running. Although the english documentation for TigerWiki wasn’t that great, it proved to be extremely easy to use.

The customization of TigerWiki was the easiest I have ever seen. TigerWiki uses variables encapsulated with an open squiggly bracket “{” and a closing squiggly bracket “}”. Taking the variables from the existing TigerWiki template and putting them into a new TSS template took no more than 2 minutes.

Pre-Customization This is TigerWiki prior to customization, I had added some test content just to see what it looked like.

Post-Customization This is TigerWiki two minutes after adding the test content. Fully customized with the TSS theme.

Feel free to check out the Wiki, we’re adding lots of new content so keep checking back.

It’s been almost a month since our last Development update, and much has happened to the TSS system, although most of it is behind the curtain.

Our development team continues to upgrade, edit and improve the Private Beta and is looking forward to the final write off and the Public Beta stage.

Work this past week has focused on the Projects interface (editing of content) and a whole host (12-15) of issues reported the previous week in Mantis (our bug tracking software). As these changes are made, they will be moved to our Beta server where the team will again review and give the final sign-off or send back for more adjustments.

Here’s a screenshot of the ‘in place editting” on the Project page (just double click the field to edit, and click the save button when done, all accomplished without a page reload):

Well, the week has been event-filled with Team Solution Software.  We’ve been using the system here for more than a week now, and our notes are filled with thoughts on both functionality and interface. Mostly interface, though - - let’s move this over there, let’s make this feature a little more prominent on the page, that sort of stuff.  We’ve had a couple of locales, and staffs of up to 10, using it along with us, and the lists have been entered in Mantis, our tracking system for WRTBD (work remaining to be done), with the appropriate tasks sent to the right desks.

We’re going back to programming work now to attack the functionality task list; and, we’re going back to the production desk for the interface adjustments.  If we are diligent and earnest in our work, we should have a public Beta just after Labor Day.  We’ve had a few more companies sign up for public Beta testing, too, so there will be more than two and half dozen companies involved in that process.

We’ve also been mapping out the schemes for an invoicing component to integrate with the time tracking features in TSS, and have decided that will be one of the top additions to the system in its next iteration.  There are some interesting possibilities with a couple of open source invoicing systems we’ve reviewed, as well as the possibility we will  develop one of our own.  One of the partners in the management of TSS is a CPA, after all, so we have a very valuable in-house resource on that score.

Getting closer.

We’ve been using our Team Solution Software account for daily messaging and shared calendar this week, and so far we like what we see.  We’ve entered a few new projects, and assigned tasks, including the continued private beta testing of the system.  We’ve been logging in and logging out each day, using the “Take a Break” and “Lunch Break” features that automatically log a user in and out, and time tracking tasks to completion.  We’ve also been using the shared calendar for appointments all week.

In short, we’ve been using it as though it were already our Team and Project Management system, and it has been performing well.  Our account has nine users, and everyone has taken turns with their own task assignments.  Next week, our programmers will take the list we’ve been developing all week and attack the tasks assigned, and move this system along to public beta in the very near future.

We’re wrapping up a tough week (mostly due to a 90% finished beta) with a rainy friday and a server move.  Early this morning the move from our testing environment to our main server occured, and pre-beta testing will now begin and continue for the next week.  Coming up next is the Clients and Contact section, here’s the first of 3 screenshots:

This will be the top part of a client view page, with related contact notes, files, product and services, billing data and notes.  Below this will be a listing of Projects assigned to this particular client.

The Team Solution Software system has been moved, we’re pleased to say.  We chose PostgreSQL as the most appropriate data base for TSS, and installed that on the permanent server Tuesday.  PostgreSQL is an enterprise class,  powerful, open source relational database system. It has more than 15 years of active development and a proven architecture that has earned it a strong reputation for reliability, data integrity, and correctness.  As such, we deemed it the DB of choice for our system.

Following its installation, we moved Team Solution Software from the development platform to the permanent server, and have been verifying file validity since.  While there remains some loose ends on the Clients and Contacts section of the system, all other components are in place.  We’ll resume our testing once we’re certain of file integrity following the move, and will begin on interface modifications next week based upon our initial review and testing reported on earlier.

While technically we remain at Alpha, it’s sort of post-Alpha, pre-private Beta at the moment.  While we had hoped to be at private Beta by August 15, we’re going to miss that internal milestone by probably 10 days, maybe 14, and we’ve actually caused that delay ourselves by adding in some features not part of the original system design.

It’s getting even more exciting now around here.  We’ve a little ways to go, still, but we’re on the steep downside of software development now, and come September, we’ll be out in the sunshine with our public Beta.

We’ve been playing with Team Solution Software this week, passing messages back and forth among our team members, adding appointments and meetings to our shared calendar, uploading and sharing files, documents and images, time tracking our activities, and generally taking the system out for a test drive.  It’s getting excellent mileage, and our testing as been uneventful.

In the development of a web-based management system like Team Solution Software, there’s something of a time disconnect between the interface design and the functionality.  The design comes first, and is, therefore, very virtual - - it’s all in the abstract because the screens are purely images with just a little bit of HTML and simple navigation.  There’s no functionality behind it. At the Alpha stage in software development, the interfaces come alive as they are joined by the functionality.

Thus, review and testing at the Alpha is both of the functionality (programming) and the interface (design).  We’re finding the functionality to be pretty solid so far; the revisions and tweaks we’re making are in the design and the interface.  We’ll be at Private Beta before the week is out, and we’ll be reaching out to those who signed up to play with the system pre-Public Beta in a few days.

It’s an exciting time in our office, and we’re having fun.

It’s a hot Friday afternoon here at the TSS headquarters and work continues on the TSS Alpha. Today the development team needed a mockup of the Calendar Reminder system and we were all too happy to oblige. Once a reminder is set and the date/time passes the user is reminded with an attention grabbing fading popup that allows them to confirm or “snooze” the reminder (ensuring it will pop again before the event date).

Here’s a screenshot of the Calendar Reminder complete with an “alarming” graphic.

The Calendar is done, and development is working with Projects now.  Yesterday we revised the design mockups to integrate the “add project” functionality inline.  I think it came out rather slick, although development needs to make it fly before we pass final judgement.

We’re officially late now as it is August 01, but we’re still pleased with the overall progress and are looking forward to finalizing the Beta for a private go around.

Here’s a shot of the new Add Project interface and some more of the Projects screen.