Difference between revisions of "Product"

From TUTOS

 
(=Introduction=)
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There are many things you can do with projects. Below is a small list of the possible things you could do:
 
There are many things you can do with projects. Below is a small list of the possible things you could do:
  
    * Make a relation between a customer and a related project.
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* Make a relation between a customer and a related project.
    * Enter time spent to a project.
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* Enter time spent to a project.
    * Define subtasks of a project.
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* Define subtasks of a project.
    * Make an invoice related to this project.
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* Make an invoice related to this project.
    * Define an installation of the results of a project (or a product).
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* Define an installation of the results of a project (or a product).
    * Allocate human resources to a project.
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* Allocate human resources to a project.
    * Make some nice graphs about the current state of the project.  
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* Make some nice graphs about the current state of the project.  
  
 
As you can see, there is a lot to talk about. So without further ado lets start!
 
As you can see, there is a lot to talk about. So without further ado lets start!

Revision as of 16:03, 6 July 2004

Introduction

The TUTOS system has a lot of functionality dealing with products and projects. Well, to make one thing clear from the start, both 'product' and 'project' refer to the same thing. During this chapter we will refer to this thing as a project since that is what TUTOS is most used for. But if your business requires you to do otherwise, simply replace 'project' with 'product' and you'll be fine.

There are many things you can do with projects. Below is a small list of the possible things you could do:

  • Make a relation between a customer and a related project.
  • Enter time spent to a project.
  • Define subtasks of a project.
  • Make an invoice related to this project.
  • Define an installation of the results of a project (or a product).
  • Allocate human resources to a project.
  • Make some nice graphs about the current state of the project.

As you can see, there is a lot to talk about. So without further ado lets start!

List

The first thing we will do is show you how to get a list of available projects in the system to start playing around with. To display a list of available projects click on the "Products & Projects" link in the menu on the left. Next you will see a search screen to narrow the display of the available projects.

The search project screen


In this screen you can enter part or all of the projects name. The system will It is even possible to do an extended search where we can specify more criteria than just part of the name.

The extended search project screen

If we simply click on "Search" we will get a list of all available projects.

The project list screen

As you can see, there are currently not a lot of projects stored in the system, only one project called "TUTOS" version "20020327" and two projects called "Linux", one for version 2.2 and one for version 2.4. On the left side of the screen, in the upper part of the menu, you can check all the fields that you would like shown in this list. For our exercise we will click on the name 'Tutos' and this will give us the screen as shown in the next picture.

The project details screen

There are a lot of things to take not off so we will stop here while I try to explain all the different options available. Since a lot of things will also be talked about later, we will be done sooner then you might think.

The upper left part of the menu contains a number of options but only the first three are relevant to this chapter. The "Search" options is used to start a new search for a project, the "New" option is obviously for entering a new project in the system, and the "Printable" options will present a screen similar to this one but without the menu to ease the proces of making a printout of this page.

The detail screen itself contains a lot of information. Let's try to explain some of it here.

   * Created by: This will bring you to a detailsscreen about the person who created this project (in this case its Gero). The date and time mentioned will bring you to that specific date in the calendar.
   * Product/Project TUTOS: This obviously tells you something about the name of the project.
   * Version 20020327L Every project can have a version number attached to it. Projects with the same name and a different version number are not automatically related.
   * State Acquisition: Every project can be in one of several states. The standard definition includes the following states:
         o "Acquisition": The project has been acquired but work has not yet started.
         o "Ongoing": Work is under way on this project.
         o "Finished": The project is finished.
         o "Cancelled": The project is cancelled.
         o "Quote ongoing": The project is being quoted to the customer.
         o "Quote Cancelled": The customer was not interested in the bid/quote.
   * Probability 100%: To make a reliable sales forecast report one must estimate the chance this project will be sold.
   * Manager Gero Kohnert: Every project has a project manager. It is possible to change the manager later but one manager is mandatory.
   * Partner Linux Consulting: A partner role in this project has been reserved for the company "Linux Consulting". There are several roles possible within a project. And they are not restricted to peoples roles either! The standard definition includes the following roles:
         o Manager: The mandatory project manager
         o Commercial Manager: The commercial manager involved in this project.
         o 2. Manager: A second manager (backup or otherwise)
         o Sales: Contact person from the sales department.
         o Development: Contact person from the development department.
         o Customer: The way to link a project to a customer.
         o Supplier: involved suppliers.
         o Reseller: involved resellers.
         o Partner: involved partners like subcontractors.
   * Description: Here you can enter the project description.
   * Classification 1 Software: Every project can be classified into two separate classes. The entries in these classes come from a language file and can be easely adjusted to fit your company's needs.
   * Classification 2 North Region: See the first classification.
   * Price 0.00 Cost 0.00: Both project price and cost can be entered.
   * est. start ------ est. end ------: here you can enter the estimated start and end date for this project.
   * Bugs OPEN 1 0.00 hours (too fast): This will present an overview of bugreports related to this project (more about bug reports in a separate chapter). As you can see, the current state is 'OPEN' and there has been 0.00 hours spent on solving this particular bug.
   * Links homepage: Links related to this project will be displayed here.
   * Appointments 24/6/2002 invitation to the ball. Visit from: Gero Kohnert 22/6/2002 Meeting Visit at: Linus B Torvalds: Both entries show appointments related to this project. When you make a new appointment and you enter a unique part of the projects name in the 'project' field this link will be established.
   * Notes Remember this ! 22/06/2002 20:00 CEST L. Torvalds: A note related to this project (more on notes in a separate chapter).
   * Tasks Tasks Overview: Clicking on this link will bring up all related tasks in a new screen.
   * Demo Task 1: A customizable maximum number of tasks will be shown here.
   * Demo Task 2: see last note.
   * Effort 2.10 hours (Tasks): how much time has been spent in total on this project.
   * see history: Show the history of database mutations related to this project.

As you can see, there is a lot to tell about projects. And it is understandable if you feel just a little overwhelmed. So let's continue with simply creating a new project in the TUTOS system.

Create

Making a new project is actually quiet simple. We'll start by clicking on the "Products & Projects" link in the menu on the left. This will bring us to the project search screen but also shows a little option in the upper left part of the menu called 'New'. When we click that one we'll be presented with a screen very similar to the one you see in the next picture.

The new project screen

Personally I think that with all the information I already supplied before filling this form can't be too difficult. However, there is one thing you should be aware off. Linking a project to a customer or a partner or something else involves entering all the data, clicking on the 'Enter' button and after that clicking on the 'modify' menu option to enter the second role related to this project. Ah, wait, let me show you. We start by entering some data as shown in the next picture:

The filled new project form

There is something on this form that we have not yet discussed. That is the 'new relation'. This field is used to define a relation between this project and another. You simply enter the name of the other project and the type of relation you want. You can choose from the following list:

   * Project Base: to make a link to a base project of which this is a subproject.
   * Ancestor Project: to make a link to an ancester project.
   * Succesor Project: to make a link to a succesor project.
   * Sub Project: to make a linkt to a subproject.

As you can see, this all looks very easy. Now we click on the 'Enter' button to submit and store our data. Next we will see a screen with the project details we entered. But since we are still not completely satisfied we will continue with the next section about modifying this project.

Modify

In our menu there now is a new menu option visible called 'Modify'. Obviously since you created the project you should have the rights to change it as you see fit. Since the project we saw earlier ('TUTOS') wasn't created by us we weren't allowed to change it. Anyway, the screen displayed should look similar to the one in the next picture.

The project details screen

Since we would like to define an extra relation in this project we click in the 'modify' link in the menu on the left. This will bring us a screen similar to the one we saw earlier.

The modify project screen

As you can see there is now a second role entry field visible called "New Role". Since we would like to partner with the Linux Consulting company that is what we will enter before clicking on the 'Enter' button again.

The new project details screen

As you can see, all the data is there and it's all very 'clickable'. The one this we now need to learn is how to undo all our hard work. So the next section will tell you something about deleting a project.

Delete

It probably is never a good idea to delete a project. For one thing, all associated data will also be erased like tasks, invoices, time recorded working on the project, etc. But since you are allowed to make a project you should also have the possibility to delete it. Deleting a project is the same as with other TUTOS entities. Just click on the 'Delete' link in the upper left part of the menu. A confirmation message box will pop up asking you if this is what you really want to do (see next picture). Just click on "OK" and you're ready.

The deletion confirmation message box