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.

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):

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 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.

The excitement and buz from last week’s Alpha release has died down as work has continued on Alpha bug reporting and our march towards a private Beta release.   The development team is hard at work on finishing up the Calendar function with only a few remaining logic issues to be worked out.

Here’s a screenshot of the mockups we prepared for the Calendar:

A little late but we have some pretty exciting news to report;  We’ve reached the Alpha stage!  Late Friday the development team gave out access to the team here at TSS and we got a sneak preview before the weekend of some working system modules.

The team is currently in the process of reviewing several modules of the system such as Messages, Settings, and Files and reporting bugs into our bug tracking software Mantis.

Here’s a screenshot of the upcoming Projects section;

July has been a busy month around the Team Solution Software offices, as we’ve been rushing to both promote and complete the Beta version of TSS CRM. Development last week was centered around Messages, that being complete development has moved onto the Files section and it’s related functionality.

Here’s a peek at a portion of the File screen and some of the relevant navigation…

A furious pace continues on Team Solution Software as our PHP developers race to finish the Alpha and soon-t0-be-released Beta for internal testing. This week we’re focusing on the client and contact detail pages, as well as putting the finishing touches on the entire messaging system.

Here’s a sneak peek at a design mockup screen for the client details section:

Progress continues at a brisk pace on Team Solution Software, a small/medium business system designed to keep all team members on the same page. Most of the system admin settings panels have been completed this week. Additionally, we’ve come close to finishing the individual account admin features - - the account owner will have a control panel to grant various levels of permissions to different aspects of the account for staff access. We want our account owners to be able to exercise system management authority in establishing chains of command as well as tiers of responsibility among team members. Here’s a sneak peak at some of those control settings at the “god-level” in each account:

The thought occurred to us that team captains might not want to delegate access to all company information to all team members, and so it just made sense to include the ability to control access. These features accomplish that goal - - whether it be for Messaging, File Sharing, Project/Task Tracking, Time Cards, Client/Contact Management, Reporting, Calendar, or some other feature we haven’t mentioned yet. If you want to know what those “other features” might be, you’ll just have to check back often.

Hey folks, this blog posting is intended to give everyone an update as to where we are in the Alpha stage of development

Completed:

The administrative back end where the TSS staff will manage new account sign ups, renewals as well as system settings, pricing packages and overall reporting was started first, and is roughly 90% complete (we will fill in the holes once we populate with data and make final tweaks)

Current Work:

As some of the work has shifted to the front end, common components such as the time card, and user status control are being programmed. The user signup process is being worked on and work continues on our newly launched sales and information/pr site (hint, it’s the site you’re on now).

Screenshot: This screenshot represents the development mockup made to guide our programming team. The data is bogus but should give you an idea on the components being worked on now and how they fit into the user interface.