The Task Manager

The main window of the task manager lets you keep total control over any task that requires completion.

Editing:

The data entry is straight forward and it allows you to enter:

• Project number
• Type (bug, new project, testing, enhancement, etc.)
• Current program / EXE used in the task, module and version
• Who it was reported by.
• Status (pending, in progress, completed, etc.)
• Environment (production, testing, development, etc.)
• Priority (low, medium, high)
• Person assigned to the task.
• Person that verified the task.
• Estimated start and completion dates, time (hours).
• Actual start and completion dates, time (hours); Completed percentage.

Below you have an infinite text area where the task can be described in detail as well as a resolution to the problem. This feature is excellent as it keeps track of all of the task/resolutions to any given problem. Later on, a search can be made to find the solution to a problem. The task manager also keeps track of the date it was created, modified and who created the task.

E-mail Notifications

An optional feature of the task manager is the use of email to send immediate notifications to the analyst who is assigned to the task. With this option turned on, I.S.Unified will send an email every time a task is created or modified. You can also choose to send a notification to all the I.T. professionals that need to know about any changes made to a task.

Stake Holders:

The Stake Holder section allows people involved in the task to receive notifications when something changes in a specific task. Other options include the ability to:

• Bookmark a task.
• Export to an excel sheet.
• Send to SQA.
• Send to timesheets (the current task or using a wizard to send multiple tasks).
• Duplicate a task.
• Generate outlook tasks (it should be set in 'personal options' window).

Task Listing - Easy Browsing

The task list lets you see a list of the tasks available. I.S.Unified was developed to provide easy browsing. It not only sorts the data by any defined criteria but it also lets you group data in categories that can be nested into each other. This is done using dynamic reporting.

You can define the columns you want to see or hide. The task listing allows you to save different views.

Find Task

It’s easy to find records using I.S.Unified. Any criteria can be met using the provided find field. After the criteria are met, it returns to task listing with a list of records that match your query.

Task Document

An I.T. project always involves many documents that work together to compose a task or a solution. Task document allows you to upload to the server these files so that they stay centralized and to organize the documents belonging to a specific task, and under a version number allowing you to keep all document changes.

Project Manager

Every Project and its status at the tip of your fingers.

This module keeps track of all the projects in an organization and it links to the task manager to coordinate and estimate how long a project is going to take.

The project manager module also helps you to estimate and organize all the projects in your organization. It also gives you return on investment calculations, calculations on how long it will take to complete, and what resources you need to finish your project. You can assign a main and backup project manager in order to make summary reports (see summary reports module).

Summary Reports

Allows project managers to create reports to present to clients. Once the report is created each user should fill in their own report with the tasks they have completed. When the report is ready the user marks the report as complete and an email will be sent to the Project Manager in order to add user reports to the final report. The process should be repeated for every user involved. The reports editor is a small text editor where the user can change text color, font sizes, add bullets, numbering, etc. The final report can be exported as pdf or rtf formats.

Servers

Document all the servers within your organization.

To document the servers efficiently, I.S.Unified lets you specify:

• Server name.
• IP address.
• Server type (production, testing, development, etc.)
• Location.
• Admin log in name.
• Password.
• Client.

It also allows you to set a third party application to access the server.

Any changes made to the settings are recorded and the user that made them is registered in the program for maximum security.

Applications, Modules and Versions

The number of applications, modules and versions used to compose a project is very large. It is easy to get confused by the different releases and what modules are used to do what.

I.S.Unified keeps an inventory of all the application and modules being developed by your organization or I.T. Department as well as the applications being used and supported.

To document and to make inventories more efficiently, I.S.Unified lets you specify:

• Module name.
• Status.
• Last reserved by.
• Last modified.
• Created by.

It also lets you specify a number of options to keep track of release and testing information, some of these options are as follows:

• Last release date.
• Release version.
• Date sent to testing.
• Testing version.

A consultant active option is available to specify that the current application or module is being developed by a third party outside the organization.

All this information can be linked to the task manager to specify the status of the application.

Database Script Management

Changes to databases that need to be done are recorded in this module.

It allows you to save scripts under an application, indicating what kind of script it is (DB creation script, data initialization, other).

Components Software

The components provided with your favorite IDE are not always enough to meet your needs. Many programmers, when working on large projects, rely on third party components to facilitate the creation of solutions.

The components software module lets you keep an inventory of all the components you use and what programs they are related to. It also keeps track of any third party applications used by your development team.

The data entry for this module is as follows:

• Component name.
• Description (Serial numbers or any credentials).
• Version number.
• Is it a third party component?
• Source code and installer locations.
• URL.
• Date created.
• Data modified.

Release Notes

A wizard that allows you to create documents for the releases you make.

The data entry for this module is as follows:

• Program.
• Version.
• Filename (of the document created by this module).
• Created by and date, modified by and date.

Clients & Contacts

I.S.Unified lets you easily save the client data, the servers information used for each one as well as the applications.

It allows you to save contacts for each client making it easy to link contacts to clients.

You can synchronize ISU contacts with MS Outlook.

Software Quality Assurance

Using a wizard you will be able to create a new SQA plan, add tasks to an existing SQA plan or execute an existing SQA plan. The SQA plan can be exported as xls format.

Timesheets Manager

Its purpose is to store the hours worked by users, as result of this, a weekly timesheet is generated, sending it to timesheet manager (set in I.S.Unified administrator options).

The data entry for this module is:

• Date.
• Project.
• Hours.
• Description.

The user can obtain a monthly report with the totals of hours worked. Only administrators can obtain reports for all the users as well as reports by clients and projects.

Members Profiles

This module keeps track of people that have license to access I.S.Unified. Basically this is your user maintenance system. It also helps you to keep track of all your developers' personal information like phone number, email, etc. This is where you set the privileges for each user.

Some options you can change for the users are:

• Developer Name.
• Log-in.
• Location.
• Phone Number.
• E-mail Address.
• Skype, MSN, Gtalk usernames.
• Active Status (if the user is not active he cannot start ISU).
• Photo.
• Access level:
• Administrator.
• Task manager access only.
• Task manager client access (the user will see only tasks for the client here assigned).
• Access module (the user will only have access to the selected modules).
• Access module only by client (selected modules + only data from a client selected).
• Password:
• Passwords in I.S.Unified are encrypted at the database level, providing the ultimate level of security. Not even the system administrators have access to them.