Quick Start Guide for OnTime Now

Transcription

1 Quick Start Guide for OnTime Now Set up your OnTime Now Account... 2 What you see... 3 Create a Project... 4 Add a Work Item from the main grid... 4 Launch the Planning Board... 5 Add a Work Item from the Planning Board... 5 Adding Team Members... 6 Next Steps... 8 Upgrading & Account Management... 8 Upgrading a Trial Account to a Full Subscription OnTime Add-ons Become an expert on OnTime Join a live web demo Watch a tutorial video This guide is intended to be quick start guide and is not intended to replace the information for either the OnTime Administrator s Guide or User s Guide. Please refer to those documents for more detailed information on any topic related to OnTime.

2 Set up your OnTime Now Account When you visit your OnTime Now web URL for the first time you ll see a login dialog like the one below: Replace the Login Id Admin with the address you entered during your hosted account signup and fill in the corresponding password and then click Login. Once logged in for the first time the page will ask you if you d like to create Sample Data in your database. Click OK to create sample data and Cancel to start with a fresh database.

3 What you see The OnTime interface is extremely flexible so that it can work and visualize information in whatever way is most comfortable for the end user. When you first login you ll see OnTime default view which is a smart grid of Work Items between Panels which provide details on OnTime s organization tools and your Work Item s details. Clicking on the or button on either panel will unpin it from the main page freeing up more room for OnTime s gridview and simplifying the interface. Clicking on either panel open it up temporarily and clicking on the will pin the panel back.

4 From this page you ll be able to manage many projects at a time, see and work with many Work Items simultaneously and manipulate how OnTime displays the work items quickly. Create a Project The first thing you will want to do after logging in will be to create a project to store work items. Creating projects is easy; simply click the Add button in the Projects section of the organize panel and type in a name for your new project. Once you have an initial project you can begin creating Work Items in that project for you to manage. Work items are the things that you track in OnTime, they may be called Defects, Features, Tasks, Incidents, User Stories or something else but they all represent work that needs to be done. Add a Work Item from the main grid The most basic way to use OnTime is to create work items for your team. The simplest way to begin doing this in OnTime is by creating them manually. Choose the project where your work item will be stored in the Organize Panel on the left. Choose a work items tab such as Defects or Features and click the Add button in the toolbar above the main grid. The Add Work Item dialog is a simple form or field template for you to fill out. Making certain that any required fields are filled out, click Save or Save and Close. As soon as you ve saved at the Add Work Item dialog you ll now have a Work Item id and the item will be added into OnTime. You can now begin working on this item by prioritizing it, moving it along its workflow, updating its status or assigning it to a team-member.

5 Launch the Planning Board OnTime also includes another interface called the Planning Board which allows you to view and interact with your work items as cards on a board instead of rows in a list. This allows you to interact with many work items at once, reorganize work quickly and efficiently and see your data in a completely different way. The planning board is also an ideal interface for using OnTime during a planning meeting which makes release planning and prioritizing a backlog easy. Click on the tab at the top of the interface labeled Planning Board to get to the planning board. Add a Work Item from the Planning Board Adding work items from the planning board is easy, simply click on the green + button in the top left hand corner of the planning board. This will open up the planning board s Quick Add dialog, which allows you to rapidly create work items.

6 Adding Team Members By creating multiple user accounts in OnTime you can begin taking of advantage of OnTime s full breadth of features which are useful for the entire development team and open up a list of collaborative opportunities. To create users in OnTime, open the main menu at the top of the interface by clicking on the button, go to the People submenu and choose Users. In the resulting Manage Users dialog, click the green + button in the toolbar above the user list to create a new user account. In the Add User form fill out the user s First Name and Last Name and the correct address for the user. Under security, you should note that you can apply multiple security roles for a single user. Stacking security roles will always add privileges as there are no exclusive security settings in OnTime.

7 The user s status will affect their ability to login as well as their license consumption. If a user has been marked as inactive then they will not be able to login to OnTime and they will no longer consume a user license. It is almost always preferable to mark a user as inactive rather than delete them from OnTime. The Authentication tab defines how a user can log in to OnTime and will allow you to set the user login id and password. The third tab under the new user dialog is labeled Access Type. This section controls which types of licenses this user will use. Client Licenses: Axosoft currently only sells Mixed-Mode licenses which work with the Windows, Web, Eclipse and Visual Studio clients but the legacy option still exists to use older client specific licenses. If you do not own any of these types of licenses then you would choose Mixed-Mode for your users. OnTime Remote Server: The OnTime Remote Server is a web-service that the OnTime Windows client and Visual Studio client can use as an alternative to connecting directly to the OnTime database. Since the Remote Server uses a license in addition to the regular client license it has a separate section to allow some users access to it. iphone Client: This is a simple checkbox that can be toggled on and off to allow and disallow users to use the iphone client. When all three tabs have been completed, click the Save button to create the new user account. If this user is active then he/she will immediately be able to log in and start using OnTime.

8 Next Steps This document is not intended to be an exhaustive guide on OnTime by any means. Once you have the basics in place take some time to explore some of the other aspects that make OnTime such a powerful tool. Customize your Workflow: OnTime allows you to build out and enforce your own custom development or support process. You ll also be able to build in your own notifications, role-based security, data-field automation and several other settings that let you truly customize how your team works in OnTime. For more information about workflow and how to set it up check out the quick tutorial at this link: - p/search/0/4sppnbbsj3a Build a Field Template: Field templates are the edit forms that your users will use as their primary way to interact with their work items. You ll be able to build your own custom field templates, define field behaviors and define default values, even for custom fields that you create. Custom field templates can also be defined at different points in your workflow giving you total control over how your team interacts with their work. To learn more about field templates and how to build them, watch this tutorial video: - p/search/1/7qcgdyg9zhe Set up Notifications and Alerts: OnTime can keep you and your team up to speed on what s happening via automatic notifications that you control. You can build these notifications globally, in a single project or even in a single work item that might be of interest. To see more about setting up notifications and alerts, check out this video: - p/search/1/xpgmfnlhutu Plan a Release and/or Sprint: OnTime allows you to take the work items that you ve been gathering and organize them into releases or sprints. These development milestones allow you to easily plan work in the planning board, track progress in burndown charts and find individual work items in OnTime for reporting. For a quick primer on releases in OnTime watch this quick walkthrough: - p/search/0/ydrgj40g2jo Upgrading & Account Management Any and all information that you ll need to know about your OnTime Now account will be located in your OnTime Now hosted dashboard. From the hosted dashboard we can make configuration changes such as toggling the automatic services on or off and forcing communication via SSL. You ll also be able to find information about the account itself such as: Hosting costs (free during evaluation) How many user licenses you have How many Customer Portal licenses you have

9 Your backup schedule (nightly) The URL for any of the OnTime components you may need Getting to your hosted dashboard is pretty easy, open the Tools menu at the top of the OnTime interface and choose Add User Licenses and Addons. From there you ll be able to log in to the Axosoft Store using the same address and password you used when you signed up for your OnTime Now account (your hosted OnTime Now instance is linked to your store login). Click My Account and you ll see a screen that shows you any license keys or hosted accounts tied to your login. Hosted accounts here will have a Settings button next to them, click on this button to be taken to the Hosted Dashboard for that OnTime Now Account. Once in your hosted dashboard you ll see a page like the one below with information about your hosted account:

10 From here you ll be able to find any relevant information about your OnTime Now hosted account. You can also purchase OnTime directly from this dialog by clicking on the Buy OnTime Now button in the upper right corner. From there you ll be taken to a dialog that allows you to add user licenses, add-ons, upgrades and training as well as professional services.

11 Upgrading a Trial Account to a Full Subscription It s actually very easy to upgrade your OnTime Now free trial to a Full Subscription. From the top of your OnTime Now hosted dashboard click on the Buy OnTime Now button, this will take you to a page that allows you to configure your purchase. At the top of this page you ll be able to specify your total user count and below you ll find options to purchase some OnTime Add-ons such as the Customer Portal, the OnTime Remote Server, the iphone Server, and OnTime SDK. You ll also see options to purchase Axosoft University Training, OnTime Upgrades and Training and Professional Services to help you get up and running as quickly as possible. Once you ve chosen your options and set the number of users for your OnTime Now subscription you ll scroll to the bottom of the page. To continue on with your OnTime Now hosted purchase choose either the Hosted Monthly or Hosted Annually option to add to your cart to purchase through the Axosoft.com store.

12 OnTime Add-ons OnTime also encompasses several add-ons that expand and enrich the functionality of the tool over-all. Customer Portal: Customer Portal quite simply provides a quick, dynamic and cost-effective link between your dev team and your customers. Instantly give your customers the ability to view current defects and features, or even make them part of the process by giving them permission to request features, and report defects. Check out this quick video to see how Customer Portal will add new dimensions to both your customer relations and development process: - p/search/2/rafvwsowj8g iphone Client: OnTime's iphone accessibility provides a great way for team members to stay on top of their projects while mobile. Using your OnTime Web or Hosted account, you can keep tabs on your project from anywhere you have wireless, 3G or EDGE coverage. Dev teams expect flexibility and availability from their project manager. Shouldn't a project manager expect if from their software? Your built-in OnTime Admin user can download and utilize the Free OnTime iphone Client. Keep the power of OnTime at your fingertips. Just point the OnTime iphone Client to your web installation URL or hosted URL, enter your admin credentials, and you're ready to go. With the purchase of the iphone Server add-on you can give access to additional users other than the Admin to the iphone client as well. Check out this video overview for a quick demonstration of the OnTime iphone client: - p/search/1/_mcaiz4imya OnTime SDK: Build Work Item tracking and other OnTime features right into your own software apps. Your developers can create customized web pages and win-form applications, fully integrated with the OnTime Database, in C#, VB.NET or any other.net language. Watch and learn more about the SDK: Adding a Defect: Getting Data: - p/search/1/wilgwdgwmri Locking and Editing: - p/search/0/esppim2j4ii Using the SDK with OnTime Now: - p/search/0/k9xwlmth_ga

13 Remote Server The OnTime Remote Server gives hosted customers the ability to use the rich Windows client against their hosted OnTime database. With the OnTime Remote Server connecting to a database is as simple as typing a URL. You can keep the robust functionality of the OnTime Windows or VS.NET clients without VPN headaches and slow-downs. Remote Server acts as a liaison between OnTime and the SQL Server. Become an expert on OnTime This document covers the basics of setting up and using OnTime and should be all you need to begin shipping software on time but OnTime has many more options and is almost infinitely configurable. To begin learning more about what you can do with OnTime, feel free to make use of any of the resources below: Join a live web demo Axosoft's live demos provide the best opportunity for new users to evaluate OnTime. We pack our 60-minute guided tours with what would otherwise require up to 40 hours of self-lead evaluation. It's fast-paced, jammed with information, and there are plenty of opportunities for Q&A. To find the best time to attend a demonstration and register for a seat visit us at Watch a tutorial video Every week we release a new tutorial video for OnTime and we ve kept this up for the past two years. What we ve ended up with is one of the most comprehensive video knowledge bases on the internet. Visit us at to view a short tutorial video on nearly any subject related to OnTime from managing releases to configuring and everything in between.