Time management

[sitefinitysteve]

COULD THERE (I know there aren't :) be plans for someone there to develop a telerik WPF app which I can have in my system tray which will aggregate my teampulse work items so I can track my time, etc?

I find it being in the browser means I'm just another level disconnected from it so I forget to check\update it...but if I could use it to track my time against project items with a taskbar app it'd be more "available" to me

Just throwing that out there :)

[Joel]

Hello Steve,

You are correct that we currently don't have any plans to create a WPF time tracking app, but it is a very interesting idea.  We are in the planning stages for 2011 R2 and are thinking about ways to improve the time tracking abilities in TeamPulse.  Having a small desktop app to help developers keep track of their tasks could be a very useful feature.

Thanks for the feedback, it is always appreciated.  I've given you a few Telerik points for your time.

Regards,
Joel
the Telerik team

[Jonathon Stevens]

If you're thinking about doing this, I would take it a step further and sync the details to TFS which can track time.  This would allow people who connect Project Server to TFS the ability to roll that time tracking all the way back to Project Server.

I would also have an option to define a typical work day like you can in Outlook (or better yet, sync with outlook to grab the working hours) and at a configurable time prior to the end of your workday, it would pop up asking you to enter time and display the tasks/work items you're currently working on.

[David Harris]

Hi Jonathon,

When adding features and fields to the application we always attempt to provide synchronization abilities into the default templates where applicable (ie, if the TFS template in question supports the field(s) we are adding we will provide a default mapping into our entity mappings).

As for the Outlook integration, although we do not have immediate plans to sync with Outlook that is certainly an interesting idea that we will take into consideration if/when we do.

Regards,
David Harris
the Telerik team

[Jonathon Stevens]

Ability to tie a meeting in outlook to a work item in TFS and TP anyone? ;)

[Marc Gervais]

I, for one, would be ecstatic if TeamPulse simply allowed me to track time spent working on a specific task. I'm hoping this will be something that hosted customers could take advantage of as well.

This one missing feature is what is stopping me from moving to TeamPulse...doesn't seem like a big deal, but for me it is.

Thanks.

[Steve]

Hi Marc,

TeamPulse tasks allow you to track work remaining and work completed. Are you looking for additional fields of just an easier method to enter values into those two fields?

Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team

[Marc Gervais]

Hi Steve:

I'm looking for something more granular than that. The current implementation requires me to keep track of my track manually and then add/subtract the values to/from the values assigned to the task.

Ideally, I would like to see an on-going WorkLog idea. I click a button on a screen stating that I am now working on Task A. This starts a timer. When I am finished working on Task A, I click another button which stops the timer and allows me to automatically log the time to that task and the work remaining and work completed are automatically updated.

I am not convinced I am explaining this very well...but hopefully you get the idea. The person who began this thread has the right idea, but I would like to see this work from within the TeamPulse UI so that hosted implementations can make use of it as well.

Thanks.

[Steve]

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the feedback. I totally understand what you are looking for now.

Unfortunately, Time Management isn't currently on our short term backlog.

What is on our short term backlog is the creation of a public API that people could use to build their own tools. Hopefully once this happens, we'll get a community of people building just the sort of tools that you're looking for.

Ta.
Steve
the Telerik team

[Marc Gervais]

That's a shame. Do you have any improvements planned for this area of the application, short-term or long-term?

[sitefinitysteve]

Yes I agree with Marc

If you guys could implement time tracking, but also give me an API...we could make our own tools...but the time tracking needs to be an integrated part of TeamPulse...it's not something I want to hack in like putting meta data against a project item.

[Steve]

Hi Steve,

There's nothing planned for the next release in August. The release after that is still being planned, so it may get implemented there.

Ta.
Steve
the Telerik team