Catapult Public Relations

Elevating the Status of Task Management

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 21:00:43 +0000

By Jason Brooks, eWeek

Tasktop Pro 1.8 stitches together application-lifecycle-management systems with the Web-browsing, document, calendar and e-mail activities that form the context of a specific task.

Task management, while no less central to one's workday than e-mail or calendaring, is the ugly stepchild of productivity applications. At worst, tools for managing to-do-list items tend to occupy some unnoticed corner of a larger application. At best, these capabilities are pushed off into separate products that integrate only weakly into a user's desktop environment. Most often, tracking tasks across a team ends up as yet another chore piled onto an e-mail system not designed for the job.

Tasktop Technologies is out to elevate the status of task management, starting with software developers. Through their use of issue-tracking systems, software developers tend to be more tuned to collaborative task management than most, though they still depend heavily on Web-based applications and e-mail for accessing these systems. Tasktop Pro 1.8, based on the open-source Eclipse Mylyn project, elevates task management for developers by stitching together various application-lifecycle-management systems with the Web-browsing, document, calendar and e-mail activities that form the context of a specific task.

However, more than simply stitching together views of the many different information sources that are required to work on a project into an unwieldy developer dashboard, Tasktop only displays the pieces of information relevant to an active task. In my tests of the product, Tasktop dutifully watched as I opened documents, Web pages and specific source-code files, and added these elements to the context of my active task.

Tasktop 1.8 is available as a stand-alone application or as an Eclipse plug-in. Tasktop Technologies is working on a version of the product, currently in beta, that's delivered as a plug-in for Microsoft's Visual Studio. Tasktop integrates with external issue-tracking and product-management systems through connectors. I tested Tasktop 1.8 with Mozilla's Bugzilla issue tracker, and with the connector for Google Apps. A list of supported connectors, which include Jira, Rally and CollabNet, is available.

Tasktop 1.8 Pro is $99 per seat, and the stand-alone version of the application is available in Windows, Linux and 64-bit Linux versions. I tested the product in its stand-alone Linux 64-bit version, and as a plug-in to Eclipse on both Windows and Linux.

Tasktop 1.8 in the Lab

I tested Tasktop in a couple of different scenarios. I used the product in a hosted environment provided by Tasktop Technologies and pre-populated with Bugzilla and Hewlett-Packard Quality Center repositories. I used this environment to collaborate on a handful of tasks with my contact from the vendor. I also tested the product on my production notebook with a handful of pending projects, including a project for the writing and testing required for this review. For this latter scenario, I mostly stuck to a local task repository that ships with the product, and I integrated my Tasktop installation with my Google calendar and e-mail accounts to test those integration points.

The first step in configuring Tasktop is adding a task repository via one of the available connectors, and configuring the repository with your account information for the system. Next, you create a query to grab some portion of the tasks stored in the repository.

With Bugzilla, for instance, I could create queries using the same dropdown options and search fields that appear in the system's standard Web interface, or I could provide a URL to define the query. Since each repository type stores different information, the interfaces for building queries and for individual tasks look a bit different. However, once configured, tasks from various sources all automatically synchronize with the local Tasktop installation, with each appearing in the product's task list under a folder for each query. I could also apply my own categories to each item so that tasks from different sources could appear together in my list.

In addition, I could schedule due dates for my tasks and synchronize those events with my external calendar-in my case, a Google calendar, though I could also synchronize with an Exchange-based calendar from a Windows machine running Outlook. My tasks appeared alongside other events on my calendar in a schedule applet docked at the bottom of the Tasktop interface. Also on the scheduling and time-management front, I was able to track the amount of time I spent working on each task, create reports based on this information, and export the reports in CSV (comma-separated values) or HTML format.

When I selected a task to activate, Tasktop tracked the files, Web pages and source packages I used while working on the tasks, and stored that information alongside the task. I could remove elements from the stored context, and adjust, with a slider control, the amount of context displayed. When I was working on tasks backed by an external task repository, I was able to attach the task context I'd assembled to the external task source, so that people collaborating with me could access that context.

For the Web-browsing tracking, I could use a browser embedded within Eclipse. Or I could use Firefox 3.6, which (combined with a Tasktop extension) would track the pages I browsed while working on a particular task and add them to my task context. When I switched to a new task, Tasktop directed Firefox to close the set of tabs and open the tabs from my newly activated task.

I ended up writing this review into Google Docs, using the embedded-Web-browser configuration. When I was ready to work on the story, I would activate my Tasktop review task, and my review document at Google would open in the middle pane of my Eclipse instance.

I configured my Tasktop instance to connect to my Gmail account-although I could have similarly accessed any IMAP-based mail account-and created a query that matched messages with a "task" label. I could then label mail messages I wished to act on, and those messages would automatically sync to my task list. From there, I could categorize and edit the e-mail-based tasks, but unlike the issue-tracker-based task repositories, the editing relationship was one-way. I couldn't see the modifications I'd made in Tasktop from Gmail, nor could I attach comments or context back to the Gmail messages.

To the original article on eWeek, please click here: (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/Elevating-the-Status-of-Task-Management-466228/)

TASKTOP 1.8 CONNECTS DEVELOPMENT TO AGILE ALM WITH NEW SUPPORT FOR HP QUALITY CENTER, MICROSOFT TEAM FOUNDATION SERVER AND IBM RATIONAL TEAM CONCERT 3.0

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 22:24:02 +0000

TASKTOP 1.8 CONNECTS DEVELOPMENT TO AGILE ALM WITH NEW SUPPORT FOR HP QUALITY CENTER, MICROSOFT TEAM FOUNDATION SERVER AND IBM RATIONAL TEAM CONCERT 3.0

From Agile point solutions, to open source tools and enterprise ALM platforms, Tasktop has created the de-facto standard for ALM system interoperability and IDE integration

VANCOUVER and BARCELONA, November 30, 2010 - At the HP Software Universe conference in Barcelona, Tasktop Technologies (www.tasktop.com), creators of the Eclipse Mylyn project and a leader in Agile Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) integration and productivity, today announced Tasktop Enterprise 1.8. The new product further integrates its Agile ALM partner offerings, open source solutions and thriving ecosystem of Mylyn extensions. It is the first commercial and full-featured release of Eclipse IDE-based developer tooling for accessing HP Quality Center and HP ALM, as well as Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server based on Eclipse Mylyn. In addition, Tasktop Enterprise has been updated to support the recently released IBM Rational Team Concert 3.0. Tasktop is also proud to announce it is now an HP Gold Partner, a Microsoft Visual Studio Premium Partner and is IBM "Ready for Rational" validated.

"ALM has become increasingly complex as organizations rely on a growing number of best-of-breed and open source solutions to compete, while remote teams, employee churn and outsourcing make developer collaboration and tracking of progress more and more difficult," explained Mik Kersten, CEO of Tasktop and creator of the open source Eclipse Mylyn project. "In this new ALM landscape organizations need improved transparency and coordination more than ever, but the heterogeneity of the typical ALM stack makes it very challenging. With this latest release, Tasktop has emerged as the leader in federating enterprise ALM systems that help organizations scale the benefits of Agile across the enterprise."

Tasktop created its task management tools to help developers be more productive by making it effortless for them to organize their work around tasks. Serving as an ALM integration suite, Tasktop Enterprise has become the de-facto standard for integrating disparate development tools and platforms that are the reality within today's enterprise software development organizations. By providing traceability and knowledge sharing between tools and platforms that are often provided by separate companies, Tasktop helps reduce the complexity and challenges of successfully scaling Agile programs beyond small teams. Organizations using Tasktop are able to integrate and gain added value from heterogeneous systems, improve the happiness and productivity of development teams, and integrate and manage emerging technology platforms, such as cloud computing and mobile applications, into existing development practices.

"Enterprise software development organisations have processes baked into a wide range of tools and platforms, and avoid rip and replace," said James Governor, co-founder and industry analyst at RedMonk. "Tasktop is an ALM stack that works with existing tooling and testing environments, providing full traceability and reporting for management, without affecting the most important aspect - developer flow and productivity."

Pricing and Availability
Tasktop Enterprise 1.8 is available immediately. Pricing for the Tasktop Enterprise subscription is $199-per-user per year and includes enhanced support, advanced productivity features, automated time tracking and integration for IBM Rational ClearQuest, ClearCase and Team Concert, HP ALM and Quality Center, and Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. For a guided evaluation of Tasktop Enterprise, please call 778-588-6896, or visit (http://tasktop.com).

About Tasktop Technologies
Tasktop Technologies is the company behind the Eclipse Mylyn ALM integration framework and its revolutionary task-focused interface technology. The task-focused interface is proven to make developers more productive by showing only the relevant information for each task, dramatically reducing search time and facilitating multitasking. Tasktop Enterprise is the company's commercial product based on Mylyn, with task-focused support for web browsing, time tracking, documents, email, calendars and commercial ALM components. Tasktop also provides consulting, connector development services and training to the growing number of companies adopting the task-focused paradigm and tools. For more information please visit www.tasktop.com.

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