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Technical Case Study
e-POT
All functionalities related to customers, users, projects, daily updates etc. are being handled manually at present. The client needs a Project Organization tool to manage all operations which enable the organization to work smoothly
The e-POT package has been developed to meet all these requirements. The main features include customer request for a project, the acceptance of project estimate, managing projects and various tasks under it, testing results of tasks, sending queries as tickets, discussion forums for users, managing permissions, calendar wise reports, address book and an option to view and send the daily updates of each task/project. Advanced Search options and quick links are also provided.
The e-POT (Project Organization tool) consists of mainly two sections:
Purely Customer oriented section which enables each customer to communicate with the e-POT team
All Admin and Staff (e-POT team) side functionalities are being performed in the User section.
Online registration is available in the site, registered customer can request for new project, approve project estimate prepared by e-POT team, view his ongoing projects, post the tickets and view daily updates concerning each project.
- New Customer
- Post a Request
- My Requests
- New Ticket
- My Tickets
- Projects
- Project Status
- Projects Updates
- Post a Comment
- My Account
- My Billing (not yet done
The ‘Comment’ control at the left is common to all sections and provides a facility to post customer comments to e-POT team. The ‘Meta Tag’ feature has been implemented in this section.
To create a new account or to register to the site, the customer has to enter his login details in ‘New Customer’ section. After registration, the customer details can be viewed in ‘My Account’ section.
To request for a new project, the customer has to enter the details of the project in ‘Post Requests’ section. He can also post a request regarding his ongoing projects
While creating request for a new project he need not select the Project name.
The requested projects can be viewed in ‘My Requests’ section
- Open: if the project estimate is not prepared,
- Processing: if the customer has not approved the estimate
- Closed: if the customer has approved the request.
The customer can view project estimate prepared by e-POT team.
If the customer is satisfied with the estimate prepared, he can approve it or he can edit the prepared estimate and send it back to e-POT team.
The tasks once removed can be added again. The facility of Atlas has been used in this module to avoid postback.
On approving the estimate, the status of the request becomes closed and after that customer cannot perform any modifications on estimate prepared.
Customer can post any queries regarding his project from ‘New Ticket’ section
All posted tickets and corresponding replies will be displayed in the ‘My Tickets’ section. The replies will get displayed within 24 hours of posting the tickets. If a holiday comes in between, it will take another 24 hours for the replies to get displayed. The tickets are categorized under the status Open, Processed and Closed.
- Open: If the ticket is not being opened by the e-POT team
- Processed: If the ticket has been opened by the e-POT team, but has yet to reply
- Closed: If the customer has received reply for his ticket
The customer can view his concerned projects in ‘Projects’ section.
The projects are categorized as Proposed, In Planning, In Progress, On Hold, Complete and Withheld. The count of projects will be displayed with each category. ‘Project Status’ section contains the above categorized projects except that come under ‘Complete’ category.
Main details related to the selected project will be displayed along with its tasks.
‘Project Updates’ section enables customer to view the daily updates send by e-POT team regarding each of his project.
There is an option for searching updates by posted date.
The customer has the facility to send his reply regarding each update.
From ‘Comments’ section, customer can post his comments to the e-POT team.
The user section is the section where e-POT team functionalities are included. The Admin and User login have got separate home pages.
The late projects, projects nearing completion and customer requests are displayed in the home page when Admin logs in to e-POT.
The assigned tasks and the user’s tickets can be viewed in the home page when a user/staff logs in to e-POT.
When a staff logs in, a control intimating unread customer tickets, user tickets, tasks, projects and customer requests appears at the top of all main pages in the user section. The technology of Flash has been implemented for this.
The user section of e-POT consists of the following main modules:
- Quick Links
- Customer Management
- Project Management
- Reports
- User Management
- System Admin
- Change Password
Quick links consists of the most frequently needed links for easier access.
The Customer Management module consists of
- Customer Management
- Customer Request
- Customer Tickets
The Customer Management section consists of sections to create/register new customer and to view all customer details along with their related projects details.
There is an option for searching projects by Customer name.
Here the user can view personal details of the customer, projects of a particular customer as well as the profile of the customer.
The Customer Request section consists of sections to add new request or to post a request on behalf of customers regarding ongoing projects, to view all customer requests and to prepare/view the corresponding project estimate.
From here user can post a request on behalf of customers regarding ongoing projects or can create a request for a new project (While creating a new project he need not select the Project name).
Here User can view requests posted by customers.
The Customer Request status will be
- Open: if the project estimate is not prepared
- Processing: if the customer has not approved the estimate
- Closed: if the customer has approved the request
User can view details of customer request. There is provision to edit each request.
“Transfer Request” provision is to transfer the request to another user to prepare ” Project Estimate.”
From here the user can transfer the request to another user. Now the assigned user will be responsible for preparing the project estimate.
The user can prepare project estimate by creating new tasks. The entire task entered by the user is displayed on the right hand side; user can also edit and delete these tasks.
On saving the estimate, the status of request becomes “processed”. “Submit to Customer” button is used to send the prepared estimate to the customer for approval.
User can view customer request for which estimate is prepared
Here user can view details of project estimate approved by the Customer and can add the estimate to the Project.
The Customer Tickets section enables user to view and reply to the tickets of assigned projects posted by the customers.
From here the user can view various tickets posted by customer. There is an option for searching projects by entering any letter/word related to the Customer ticket. The various fields indicates
- Author: Name of the customer who has posted Ticket
- Subject: Subject of the Ticket
- Date: Date when the ticket is posted
- Follow up: The time reply was posted
- Owner: The name of the person who is handling the particular project.
The user can view details of the customer ticket and send reply.
The user can view customer ticket details and can post reply for the same.
After the reply is posted, status of ticket becomes closed.
The Project Management module consists of
- Projects
- Tasks
- Software Testing
- Projects Updates
Projects section enables the user to add new project and view all projects.
View All Projects section has 2 levels of permissions:
ViewAllProjects
Can view all the projects.
Can view only the assigned user’s projects/ testing user’s projects. If a user is assigned to a task of a project, he can view the corresponding project with this permission. Same is the case with the testing user of a task. Also the assigned user/assigned testing user of the project can view the project with this permission.
The projects are categorized in tabs as Proposed, In Planning, In Progress, On Hold, Complete and Withheld. The count of projects will be displayed with each category.
Search Projects
There is an option for searching projects by project name. The ‘Adv. Search’ will take to the page from where the projects can be filtered based on ‘Customer’ or ‘Assigned User’ or ‘Posted From’ – ‘Posted To’ dates.
Main details related to the selected project will be displayed along with its Tasks and Files if any.
‘Give Comments’ is provided to give comments regarding the project.
Tasks section consists of provision to add new task under a project and to view all tasks of each project.
Any no. of files can be uploaded for a task and can be removed.
In edit mode, each file gets open on clicking it. There is provision to give comments to the task. If the progress of the task is changed, the corr. Project’s progress also gets updated.
All tasks are categorized and listed on the basis of their projects. 3 levels of permissions:
- ViewAllTasks: All the tasks of all projects can be viewed.
- ViewTheirOwnTasks: Can view only the tasks assigned to him, also the tasks of Projects of which he is the Testing user id.
- ViewTheirProjectsTasks: Can view all the tasks of Projects of which he is associated, also the tasks of Projects of which he is the Testing user id.
There is an option for searching tasks by task name or project.
The tasks enabled for testing and related functionalities comes under this. It consists of the following sub modules.
- View All Testable Tasks
- View All Assigned Tasks
- View Tested Results
- View Coder Replies
- View PL Comments
- View My Test Results
- Close Testing Tasks
All Tasks will get displayed in the list. The tasks whose Task testing Status is set as ‘No’ will be in red colour and those whose Task Testing Status is set as ‘Yes’ will be in blue colour. The latter tasks are ready to get tested and the user can assign user for testing the task.
‘Task Name’ or ‘Assign Task’ links will take him to the page where he can assign the user and estimated hours for that testable task.
On Transfering, that task will get assigned to the selected user.
All Assigned Tasks can be viewed in detail. All tasks for which testing users have been assigned will get displayed here. The user can send error report on that tested task.
Error reports generated will be displayed at the right side. There is provision to add/edit/delete the error report. On finishing, it will take to the summary page. It will finalize the error report and the further edition of that report will not be possible. The feature of Atlas has been implemented in this section.
Tested Results can be viewed. All tasks for which testing users have been assigned will get displayed here.
The ‘Task Name’ or ‘View Errors’ links will take to the detailed page where all error reports of that task are listed. Clicking on the non-approved button ‘X’ of each report will make it approved. Search option is available on these pages.
If the error report is already closed, the user may not be able to reply to it.
Coder Replies can also be viewed. All replies on the error reports will get displayed here.
‘View Replies’ link will display the errors and the corresponding replies of that task.
View PL Comments section is to view the comments posted by assigned user of the project. The comments of PLon the test report of each task and its reply will get displayed here. There is no provision to send error report of closed reports.
View My Test Results: All Approved and Disapproved tested tasks will be displayed here.
This section enables the user to send daily update of each task assigned to him and the corresponding person of that project can edit the update and send it to the Admin. Finally Admin sends it to the customer.
- Send Daily Report - Staff level
- View Posted Daily Report - Staff level
- View All Reports of Staff - Assigned user of a project level
- View All Posted Updates - Assigned user of a project level
- View All Reports of Staff - Admin level
- View All Project Updates - Admin level
- View All Posted Updates - Admin level
Send Daily Report: Staff level page. Admin cannot access this page. If the staff is assigned to a testing task, the corresponding task will be termed as (Testing) in the Task drop down list
Staff can view the daily reports posted by them. Date wise Search option facility is available in this page.
The assigned user of each project with permission ‘View All Reports of Staff’ can view the date and project wise list of daily reports sent to him by the staff. The assigned user has to send each project update to the admin. The updates already sent to the Admin will be in dark color. There is provision to resend the updates which have already been sent. The ‘Testing’ portion of a project will be listed separately. He can edit the billable hours and miscellaneous of each task and has to click on each task’s ‘Update’ button to save the editions made. The total billable hours will get updated as Total Billable hours. Finally he can give the description and send that day’s Project update to the Admin.
The assigned user of a project with permission ‘View All Posted Updates’ can view the date wise list of project updates sent to the admin. Date wise Search option facility is available in this page.
Other than Admin, Staff with permission ‘View Staff Updates By Admin’ can view the date-project wise list of updates of projects sent to the assigned staff of each project by the staff. The staff involved in sending daily updates on each project will be displayed under ‘Assigned Users’. The total count of daily updates send by the ‘Assigned Users’ over that project will be displayed under ‘No. of Entries’. The ‘Testing’ portion of a project will be listed separately. Date wise Search option facility is available in this page.
User can view the date and project wise list of project reports sent to him by the assigned staff of each project. He has to send each project report to the corresponding customer. The updates already sent to the Customer will be in dark colour. There is no provision to resend the updates which have already been sent. The ‘Testing’ portion of a project will be listed separately in pink colour. Admin has no provision to send the Testing report to Customer. User (Admin) can edit the total billable hours and description of each project report sent by the assigned user of that project and can send that day’s Project report to the Customer.
User can view the date wise list of project updates sent to the Customer. Date wise Search option facility is available in this page. Customer gets each report on logging in to e-POT and has got the provision to send reply to each report. User can view these customer replies on daily updates
Report Section includes Address Book and Calendar
Calendar section includes Monthly and daily wise viewing of each task.
Here user can have a view of all assigned tasks in a calendar format. The cell with blue color indicates current date, red color indicates holidays. The links in the date fields takes to daily format view of tasks and the link in task leads to task details.
In daily wise calendar, the user can view tasks assigned on a particular day. The arrow button at left hand arrow takes to the previous day and right hand arrow takes to the next day.
User can use Address book to store all contact info on individuals and companies. Address Book Section includes provisions to add Address Book and View Address Book.
Contact info added will be displayed in View address book section. Here the user can view address book details by selecting first letter of Contact.
User Management module consists of
- Users
- Discussion Forums
- User Tickets
- New User
- View Users
- View User details
- Edit User details
From here User can create new user. All the users can be viewed. Active Users will be displayed at the top. The rows with blue background indicate inactive users.
A user can add a new topic for discussion under an existing Forum category. Any one can Post a Reply to the topic added and all can view the Category wise Topics and Replies posted on these. All Forum Categories can be viewed.
Each Category link will take to the Topics posted under that category and again to the replies page. There is provision to ‘Post Reply’.
A new Topic under the selected forum category can also be started.
In User Tickets, user can post any queries regarding the project he handles to the assigned user of that project. All posted tickets and corresponding replies will get displayed in the ‘My Tickets’ page. The replies will get displayed within 24 hours of posting the tickets. If a holiday comes in between, it will take another 24 hours for the replies to get displayed.
The User Tickets section includes
- View All Tickets
- Post a Ticket
- View My Tickets
The user can view tickets posted by various users related to the project assigned to him.
The user can view tickets posted by him and also the corresponding reply.
The ticket status will be
- Open: If the ticket is not being opened by the assigned user
- Processed: If the ticket has been opened by the assigned user but has yet to reply
- Closed: If the customer has received reply for his ticket
The user can view all tickets posted by various users related to the project assigned to him.The assigned user can post the reply to the user using “Post reply” button.
After the reply is posted status of tickets becomes closed.
The System Admin module consists of
- Accounts/ Payment (not yet done)
- User Permission
- System Lookup Values
Manage User Permission: Only Admin is given provision to set the Permissions for various permission levels of users. The permissions already set for that Permission level will be displayed as checked. Admin can set or unset these permissions in order to access each of the functionalities, the user requires the proposed permissions set for that functionality.
System Look up values are set by Admin. The default data stored in Ticket Category, Project Type, Priority Type, Project Status, User Type, Permission Level, Action Main, User Category, Holiday Status, Rate per Hour are set in System look Up values section.
User is given provision to change his password
The Help facility is provided in all pages of both Customer and User section of e-POT package.
