TargetProcess v.2.5 New Features

All the features described below appeared in TargetProcess v.2.5 (July-10)

• Help Desk Module
• Help Desk Portal
• Email Integration
• Individual Velocity Report
• Priority Visualization via Rank
• Other Improvements

Help Desk Module

Help Desk module provides the complete feedback loop between customers and project development team.

The Help Desk module structure shown below. Help Desk in TargetProcess consists of several sub-modules:

• Help Desk Admin. Integrated into TargetProcess application.
• Email Integration. TargetProcess may receive emails and convert them into requests, bugs, user stories and features.
• Import from Excel. It is possible to import requests from Excel into TargetProcess.
• Help Desk Portal. External application that may be installed on your web server and integrated with your web site.

Typical request workflow:

1. Customer sends request with idea via Help Desk Portal.
2. Team Lead accepts request and creates user story from request.
3. Team Lead assigns user story to next release.
4. Customer logins into Help Desk Portal and sees that request accepted and scheduled for the next release.
5. Customer sees related user story and leaves some comments.
6. Development team implements user story and Team Lead marks request as Closed.
7. Customer sees that request is implemented.

Requests may be added from different sources:

1. Manually using Add Request action.
2. Semi-automatically from whole email or from part of the email (select text and click Create Request link).
3. By end users via Help Desk Portal.

Help Desk Portal

Help Desk Portal is a separate application written on ASP.NET 2.0. It may be installed on any server and interacts with TargetProcess via Web Services API.

Help Desk Portal provided with source code and you may customize it as required.

Help Desk Portal provides the following functionality to end users:

• Post requests/ideas/issues
• View requests with statuses
• Discuss requests via comments threads
• Attach files to requests
• View related bugs and user stories

Request view area shows all related information. User may add comments and attachments.

Email Integration and Internal Messages

Starting from version 2.5, TargetProcess may retrieve emails from specified mailbox and do some actions with the emails:

• Create requests from emails
• Bind emails to user stories, features, bugs and other entities

You may read emails, delete them, and mark them as read or unread. Also you may compose emails and internal messages.

There are two types of inboxes: Project Inbox and Personal Inbox.

• Project inbox should be used for general project communication.
• Personal inbox should be used for your own needs. It contains internal messages (sent by TargetProcess users inside the system) and emails sent by other people.

You may bind emails to user stories, bugs and other entities. Messages section in Entity View contains all attached emails. Thus you may communicate right from TargetProcess and see all related emails with questions and discussions.

Individual Velocity Report

Individual velocity report shows individual velocities of all team members in current project. It helps to plan next iteration by predicting how much effort each team member may accomplish.

Priority Visualization via Rank

Prioritizing items, you assign them a specific Rank that is visible in User Stories List, Bug List and ToDo. Rank is a visualization of Priority.

Other Improvements