Some suggestions to make your tool the perfect one!

[Venge]

Pretty nice work guys!
I was looking for a proper timetracking tool for some time and finally I've found you.
Worktime Studio is pretty much the thing I was looking for.
There's so much crap out there (I can't even think about organising my tasks without having a tree...)
You are miles ahead of all the tools I've found so far!

I think I will buy it in some weeks when my next project starts.

Here are a few small suggestions that would make your product almost perfect (from my point of view):
(in decreasing priority; most important first)

0. BugFix License Issue: Sometimes I get a license issue with the demo version that closes the program.
1. Double-Click Action Clock Start Stop: Starting and Stopping the Clock for a task (besides task change) has to be VERY easy and fast
2. Context Menu for Actions: Clock Start Stop: same reason
3. Hierarchical table Report View: Basically the Activity Tree to print (to archive and present project progress)
3.1 Filtering options for this report: max. tree levels, item types, etc.
4. Better Tray Menu:
4.1 Quickly Choose tasks (from a tree or from the active task set) without opening window, Start Stop Clock
4.2 Single-Click to Start Stop Clock
4.3 Double-Click to reactivate and show main window (ignore minimized state and always show main window)
5. Mutiuser Access and Administration: Central DB, User-Profiles, User-Groups, Reports for all users, user groups or single users
   (VERY important for our projects!)
6. Studio Bar: Quickly change current task: Drop-Down-Box with Tree-View (complete or only active set)
7. Quick Search (Name or Fulltext) in Activity Tree and Quick Tree
8. User-Roles with rights management (rights for creation of item types, management, visual stype adjustments, etc.)
9. Combine Clock Start/Stop to only one single button (Easier Access)
10. Flexible Active Set: Not only a single group but a freely choosable set of items from all over the tree (multi-selection -> context menu: Use this as active set; Add to/Remove from active set)
11. Quicktree shoul disappear automatically if click outside of it (to quickly change task. Each time closing the window is not comfortable)
12. After restart of programm remember the expand-state of all nodes in the Quick Tree too
13. Outlook Calendar Sync
14. Excel Export
15. API Access: Event-Hooks, DB-Changes, Custom-Fields, Request current task, times, etc.
16. Minor bug: Copy task notes if task is copied
17. Reminder when StartDate of a unstarted task is reached, simple postpone action
18. Different Languages Support (for us German would be interesting )
19. AutoPilot-Feature: Automatically use active window title as task. Start/Stop Clock automatically when switching windows/window titles

Keep on going! This will get a great tool!
And definitely the best of its kind!

Is there a dev roadmap?

Thanks alot!
Tom

[mitcheljh]

Hello Tom!

Thanks for the compliments on WTS, and your very good suggestions and comments.
I'll try to respond to each of the suggestions and comments that you made.

0. BugFix License Issue: Sometimes I get a license issue with the demo version that closes the program.
I'm very interested in determining what's causing this.  If it's OK, we can correspond via email to try to resolve this issue.

1. Double-Click Action Clock Start Stop: Starting and Stopping the Clock for a task (besides task change) has to be VERY easy and fast
I agree that starting and stopping the clock needs to be fast and accessible.  But, double clicking is already used for two other (user determined) operations....
1) Renaming the WorkItem
2) Expanding/Collapsing the WorkItem.

Have you been using the clock switches on the status bar and on the Studio Bar?  
Don't you think they are both very fast and accessible?

You can also create shortcut keys for these operations if you wish, as well as almost any operation from the toolbars.
See Help:User Interface/General Interface/Customizing Toolbars and Their Operations.

2. Context Menu for Actions: Clock Start Stop: same reason
I do remember giving this some thought while working on the context menu, and was thinking there are already 3 ways to perform clock operations, the Activity Tree Toolbar, status/Studio Bar, and user defined shortcut keys.
I think you're right, though...  for completeness sake, clock operations should be included in the context menu, and will be added within the next month.

3. Hierarchical table Report View: Basically the Activity Tree to print (to archive and present project progress)
I couldn't agree more.  The tree control I use (SFTTree) has an add-on which includes some really good print functionality.
I think it will be a BIG asset for users to be able to print all or portions of their hierarchy.  I hope to have this included in version 2, which should be out by Feb.  

3.1 Filtering options for this report: max. tree levels, item types, etc.
I think the addon library mentioned above will provide these features.  I agree, it will be a big asset.

4. Better Tray Menu:
Anything specific?  I hate to get it too cluttered, but will consider adding specific operations/actions if you think some may be needed.

4.1 Quickly Choose tasks (from a tree or from the active task set) without opening window, Start Stop Clock
I agree that a user needs to be able to switch WorkItems as well as perform clock operations on WorkItems quickly.  I put a lot of thought into this, and even considered building some kind of expanding tree menu from the context menu of the system tray.   After more thought, though, not only would the implementation be very messy, but the behavior would as well.  If the user has a very large active WorkItem group, and some WorkItems with long names, and deep levels, the context menu would be very unwieldy,  and could even cover their whole desktop.  That's why I came up with the 'Studio Bar Pane' buttons, explained below.
This is my thoughts...
User will usually have WTS in studio bar mode.  In studio bar mode, user can perform all clocking operations on the current workitem very quickly with the clock switches.  
When the user wants to change the current workitem, they can use the pane buttons on the studio bar to open either the Activity Tree or the Quick Tree.  No need to take WTS out of Studio Bar mode.
If there's a current WorkItem (clocked WorkItem) the user can open the quick tree, select a workitem, then click the clock button on the Quick Tree toolbar which will change the current workitem and start clocking it.
If there isn't a current WorkItem, the user can open the Activity Tree.  By selecting a WorkItem in the Activity Tree, that WorkItem will be displayed on the Studio Bar, so the user could then use either the Studio Bar clock buttons, or the Activity Tree clock buttons to start clocking the new WorkItem.



4.2 Single-Click to Start Stop Clock
The only problem with doing that on the system tray icon, is that many users might click it by mistake when trying to click another tray icon, or thinking they want to get the context menu.  I have given some thought about adding clock operations to the tray menu, but there's issues with that, since you couldn't have a 'Start clock' operation since you need to know what WorkItem you're starting the clock on.  Even a 'Stop Clock' button would have issues, because you'd really need to display the name of the WorkItem that's current (which the stop button would apply to), and the name of the WorkItem can be very long, or too long for a context menu anyway.  Having the clock buttons very access-able on the Studio Bar doesn't have these same issues, and the Studio Bar was designed to be easily accessable, quick to use, easy to use, and compact.

4.3 Double-Click to reactivate and show main window (ignore minimized state and always show main window)
This sounds like a good idea, and is standard behavior for most programs which have a system tray icon.  

5. Mutiuser Access and Administration: Central DB, User-Profiles, User-Groups, Reports for all users, user groups or single users
This will take WTS into the collaborative market.  I've given this some thought, but if it's in WTS's future, it will be a long term project, since this would be a lot of work.  This could be a possibility in the future, if WTS is expanded to include collaborative features.

6. Studio Bar: Quickly change current task: Drop-Down-Box with Tree-View (complete or only active set)
As with the workitem context menu for the system tray, I also gave this some thought.  I think there would be the same issue as described above for the system tray.
Even if just showing the active group, WTS has no control of how large the active group is, the user only does.  So, the dynamic drop down of WorkItems could get very messy.
Plus, by the time the user uses the dynamic expanding and contracting branches to find his desired WorkItem, they could have used the available method (described above) to select it from the quick or activity Tree.
Another benefit of using the Activity Tree for this method, is that the current WorkItem is already expanded and selected when they open the Activity Tree from the studio bar, so any switching to an adjacent WorkItem should be very fast.
Also, the Quick Tree and Activity Trees open pretty much instantaneously from the studio bar... it would probably be more time consuming to build and navigate through a drop down list to find the desired workitem.
I'm still open to suggestions, though....  If you feel strongly about this (or any other point), please feel free to argue your point more.  If you feel strongly about something, I hope you do...  I'm old enough to know that I don't have all the right answers.  

7. Quick Search (Name or Fulltext) in Activity Tree and Quick Tree
I agree.  I was going to add a 'Quick Search' pane, but time didn't allow it.  The quick search will also provide filter options to narrow your search.  I did manage to squeeze something like this into the Prioritizer pane.  Did you know you can double click on an item in the prioritzer, and it will take you to the WorkItem in the Activity Tree (or quick tree) at your option?


8. User-Roles with rights management (rights for creation of item types, management, visual stype adjustments, etc.)
Again, I think this is getting into the collaborative realm.  This might be something to consider down the road a bit, if WTS goes after that large market.

9. Combine Clock Start/Stop to only one single button (Easier Access)
Interesting Idea, but the only problem with this is that WTS allows you to start the clock on a WorkItem when another WorkItem is current.  Doing this automatically stops the clock on the current WorkItem and starts the clock on the selected WorkItem.  If these buttons were combined, the user couldn't start the clock on a different WorkItem when another is already current.

10. Flexible Active Set: Not only a single group but a freely choosable set of items from all over the tree (multi-selection -> context menu: Use this as active set; Add to/Remove from active set)
Not a bad idea, but would be tough (not impossible) to implement.
It would also conflict with the optional Active-Clocked dependencies, which are in the Active WorkItem User options.
These dependencies expect a hierarchical relationship between the current Workitem and the active group.  
Also, the active WorkItem/Group is something that should be quickly and easily set.
This might also cause some issues with some future plans for WTS.  

11. Quicktree should disappear automatically if click outside of it (to quickly change task. Each time closing the window is not comfortable)
Do you mean when it's opened from the studio bar?  Or when it's used in the main interface?   Isn't this behavior available now in the main interface with it's collapsed, and it's opened just to perform an activity, while being unpinned?


12. After restart of programm remember the expand-state of all nodes in the Quick Tree too
Not a bad idea, but it might be hard to implement.
WTS currently does this when it's closed with a current WorkItem.  In this case though, only the current WorkItem id needs to be stored in the database in order to restore the expanded state to that WorkItem.
In order to do what you suggested, every workItem which is expanded would have to have it's ID stored in the database when closed, twice, one for the Quick tree and one for the Activity Tree.
This might be more work for what it's worth.   Still, not a bad idea.

13. Outlook Calendar Sync
Good idea!   Definitely worth working on.  I'll try to get this into Version 2 also.

14. Excel Export
Also good idea.  Do you think this would get used much though?  I see the Outlook sync getting used, but not sure if this would much.
It probably wouldn't take a lot to implement exporting to a cvs file, though.

15. API Access: Event-Hooks, DB-Changes, Custom-Fields, Request current task, times, etc.
Not a bad idea.  Many good apps have features like this.  I'm guessing, though, that they were added as the application matured.
It's not something I'll be able to do soon, but will be good to keep in mind, maybe for version 3.
Did you know, though, that WTS does allow a little something like this?   You can download skins from places like deviantart, stick them in the Skins folder, and WTS will recognize them.

16. Minor bug: Copy task notes if task is copied
I may need to give this some thought.  I see the copy operation being used to create a new fresh project branch from another old project.  If this is the case, the user probably doesn't want the notes copied along with all the workitems in the old branch.   Maybe a user option to turn it on and off?

17. Reminder when StartDate of a unstarted task is reached, simple postpone action
I'm currently working on a feature which should take care of this one, which will be in Version 2.0 early next year..  WorkItem Events!   The 'WorkItem Event' pane will be a sub pane to the Activity Tree, and will work much like the WorkItem Properties pane, but will instead show the events associated to the selected WorkItem.  The user can add any number of events to a WorkItem.  The events can also have reminders with options (reminder shown as a popup or a dialog), ability to choose wav file, ect.  Events can also be categorized, and a new option screen will be available in the User options to maintain Event Categories.  Event categories will have their own color and wav file.  Events can also be made recurring, with a bunch of recurring options...  daily, weekdays only, weekly, xx week of xx month, monthly, xx week of every xx month, yearly, ect.

18. Different Languages Support (for us German would be interesting  )
This would be very nice indeed, and would help sales enormously.  Unfortunately, WTS is programmed in C++, and is heavily dependant on STL and with boost which uses STL.  STL doesn't work too nice with unicode.  Most of the apps which have good language support use CStrings and more microsoft specific features.   I'd have to change a lot of code to get this working right.  Maybe something to think about down the road, for sure.


19. AutoPilot-Feature: Automatically use active window title as task. Start/Stop Clock automatically when switching windows/window titles
You read my mind on this...   This is something I've had on the back of mind ever since I started working on WTS.  
I've given this a lot of thought... even to the point which would allow the user to configure which applications trigger which WorkItems.

The big thing that worries me about going forward with this idea is....  WTS encourages users to use Divide and Conquer, which involves the frequent creation of new child and descendant workitems.
With new WorkItems being created so frequently, the user would always need to go and reconfigure their application-WorkItem associations all the time they create new workItems.
This idea works well when you're dealing with very general projects which don't change often.  But, when you start breaking down projects into smaller and smaller workItems, and your hierarchy changes very dynamically, the idea kind of falls apart.
For this reason, I might decide not to pursue this idea, unless there's some kind of way to get around this issue.

Is there a dev roadmap?
I should start one.  Maybe as a new forum group, or possibly in this one.  


Thanks again Tom.   Many good suggestions!

Look for many of them to be implemented and released in upcoming versions later this month.  For the ones which will take longer to implement, I'll try to get them out in Version 2, which is scheduled to be released before the 2nd quarter of 2010.

[Fantasio]

Hello,

I haven't gone through Tom's numerous suggestions yet, so there may be duplicates in my input compared to his. If so, I apologize in advance.

My first impression of WTS should have been a negative one. I am working on a user account with limited rights and only log into the Administrator account to install or uninstall programs. My system is an up to date Windows XP Pro SP3. When I try to create a new database, WTS invariably crashes. It works fine under the Administrator account. I know how difficult and time consuming debugging can be and I am more than willing to comprehend and encourage you. As Tom puts it, this is a very promising piece of software.

Please find below the features I wish you can add.

I need a tool that enables me to apply my own mix of Stephen Covey's and David Allen's respective productivity enhancement methods.

I particularly relate to Covey's idea of mission/purpose in life, from which all your actions follow.

Users should be able to define  their Purpose(s)/Mission(s) in life: overall direction, which should ideally be described into an itemized "Mission statement"

which breaks down into

Visions / dreams : major, definite aim or future state that is 3-10 years away

which can be further broken down into

Goals - 1-3 year strategy (hich level description of how you plan to get there)

Then

Projects : You need to define projects (used to implement stragegies, plan the details and track progress) to reach your goals

Then

Tasks : you need to break down projects into Sub projects and tasks to complete them.

Beside the above mentioned planning steps, you may have

Values/principles : an important part of who you are: what is most important to you, they reflect your wisdom conscience and character

Roles you play and that are important in your life.

I adhere also to the concept of quadrant 2 in the importance / priority matrix.

I think WTS should enable users

1. refine their tree structures by introducing more categories (like purpose, visions, goals, etc.)

2. to sort each item in each level (Purposes, Visions, Goals, Projects, Tasks) by order of importance - from the most important at the top to the least important at the bottom, using drag and drop if possible (more ergonomic),

3. to assign to each item in each level a priority, using ABC123 or a scale with a clear specific index, using drag and drop if possible (more ergonomic).

Besides,

4. I would also need a feature enabling me to assign, on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis, a specific amount of time per vision, per goal, per project, per value, per role, etc. In other words, I should, ideally speaking, devote a certain amount of time to making progress towards a certain vision, goal, project, value, role etc. WTS would then enable me to check whether the sum of time I am using on the tasks I have scheduled for the next day, week, month or year is less than, equals or is more than the amount of time I should ideally devote to a vision, a goal, etc.

5. I wish WTS could fully synchronize with Outlook, since most smartphones are designed to sync with it.

These are the first suggestions I can think of for the time being. If some of the features I just described are already built-in, then please please insctruct me on how to use them. I will post further if I can think of other areas of improvement.

Thank you in advance for your attention.

H

[mitcheljh]

Hello H,

Thanks for your comments and suggestions.  
Regarding the issue with limited accounts, we believe we have that issue fixed in our latest version (1.4.0).  The problem with earlier versions is that the default user database folder was in the application folder, which limited users do not have access to.  In version 1.4.0 (and later versions) the default user database path is in 'My Documents\Work Time Studio\Database', where all users, including limited users, have access to.  I'd encourage you to download the latest version and give it a try.  I think it'll resolve this issue.  You'll have a full 30 days of trial with the new version, regardless of the number of days you have been trying the previous version. 

You have a good list of features that you'd like to see in you're ideal tool.  I feel that in it's current state, Work Time Studio meets most of these criteria.  I'll discuss this below.

1. refine their tree structures by introducing more categories (like purpose, visions, goals, etc.)

Work Time Studio allows you to create your own WorkItem Types, which I think you refer to as categories.  As far as we know, Work Time Studio is the only software application in it's class to provide this feature.  The context help discusses WorkItem Types in much detail, and how you can create your own types for the specific nature of your work.

2. to sort each item in each level (Purposes, Visions, Goals, Projects, Tasks) by order of importance - from the most important at the top to the least important at the bottom, using drag and drop if possible (more ergonomic),

This is the purpose of the Prioritizer.  We wanted to give users this ability in a different window than the Activity Tree, as to not take away the purpose and hierarchal benefits of the Activity Tree.  We have recently added more functionality to the Prioritizer, since it's so important.  Now, you can drag and drop WorkItems listed in the Prioritizer right to the Activity Calendar, to schedule a time you wish to work on the specific WorkItem.

3. to assign to each item in each level a priority, using ABC123 or a scale with a clear specific index, using drag and drop if possible (more ergonomic).

This is currently possible in the Activity Tree, where WorkItems are entered.  Along with assigning a level of priority, you can also assign a level of difficulty, a status, and an estimated time for the WorkItem.  These properties are then used in the Prioritizer to sort the prioritized list based on the importance you give to each of the properties.

4. I would also need a feature enabling me to assign, on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis, a specific amount of time per vision, per goal, per project, per value, per role, etc. In other words, I should, ideally speaking, devote a certain amount of time to making progress towards a certain vision, goal, project, value, role etc. WTS would then enable me to check whether the sum of time I am using on the tasks I have scheduled for the next day, week, month or year is less than, equals or is more than the amount of time I should ideally devote to a vision, a goal, etc.

Because of the hierarchal features built into the Activity Tree, Work Time Studio can allow you to track or limit your estimated, allocated, or actual time on tasks (leaf WorkItems) as well as projects or goals (branch WorkItems).  All WorkItems have a property called 'Collective Estimated Time' and 'Collective Actual Time'.  These properties show the total amount of time from all their descendants, so it's easy to see at a glance the overall picture and progress of a project or goal.  Plus, these properties are updated in real-time as you work on tasks that are descendants of those projects or goals.

5. I wish WTS could fully synchronize with Outlook, since most smartphones are designed to sync with it.

We hear you there.  We hope to have export and import capabilities, as well as synchronize capabilities added to Work Time Studio in the next couple releases.

If I mis-understood any of the ideas you had in any of the above, feel free to correct me.  I may not be visualizing the ideas you're presenting properly.  I appreciate your input!

[Fantasio]

Hello Mitchel,

Thanks a lot for your very early reply.

I am downloading the latest version right now, will test it over the next few days and provide you with my feeback. 

H