We are happy to unveil the latest version of IssueNet, IssueNet 6.0. One major new feature in this release is its integration with both Outlook 2010 and Visual Studio 2010. Options such as “refresh” and “close all” have been added to the tabs in the interface of the IssueNet Manager, Administrator, and Architect. The program’s appearance has been updated, with 3D effects removed, gradients added, and toolbars replaced by more easily configurable tool strips. Roll over tool tips have also been implemented for items that contain descriptions and for items such as contacts. Spell-check is now done in real time, or it can be done on command by pressing the F7 key.

These are just a subset of the features we’ve added to this latest release of IssueNet. Visit our evaluation page to learn more about obtaining a copy of IssueNet 6.0, or visit our product page to learn what IssueNet can do for you and your organization.

Has your team ever complained about the confusing issue submission form?

Have you had to alter how you’d like to handle certain issues due to the constraints of your software?

Do you have an issue tracking solution for facilities, software development, IT, HR, product management, and your help desks?

There are many issue tracking solutions available, but most are designed specifically to work within a certain department or group. For example, software development has a host of industry-specific solutions. These solutions can be tweaked or modified to marginally work for other teams, but inherent limitations persist due to the software’s designs.

IssueNet was developed with an object-oriented architecture that allows teams to completely customize all facets of the software to meet their specific needs. The options are endless and quite exciting when you consider the opportunities. For example, each issue type can have its own form, workflow, users, and notifications. Additionally, a single database can be used between all the solutions to allow better communication between teams, making implementation quicker and easier. Take a look at what an object oriented issue tracking can do for you! http://www.elsitech.com

Many global organizations are working on standardizing the best practices for workflows. One of the most notable practices is the business process modeling notation (BPMN). The BPMN provides a set of symbols and guidelines for charting the flow of a business process. In this second installment of our workflow discussion, we’ll talk about the different elements that comprise a BPMN compliant workflow.

 

Annotations – These are small text paragraphs that are often added by the workflow designer to explain what is being done at that stage of the workflow. Annotations can provide additional information, but they can also take up a lot of additional room on the canvas. Because annotations are not necessarily required in a workflow, there are a few modes of use:  always visible, visible if the mouse is over a particular element or icon (also known as “tool tips”), or toggled on and off as the user requires through a button or similar mode of use.

Events –Events, denoted by circles, signal “something happening,” such as an email notification, a scheduled meeting, or the end of a particular process. Icons may be present inside the circle, such as an email icon or a clock picture. Though a user will immediately know the type of an event by the icon or color of the circle, the user will not know exactly what transpired during that event. Annotations may be added for clarity, which will result in a workflow with more elements.

Activities –Activities, such as meeting requests and task assignments, are sometimes represented as rounded rectangles with small icons. However, these icons only tell the user that “something” is happening at that point; the user will not necessarily know exactly what happened at a meeting, who is involved, what was said in an email, etc. Having more information about the activities can be useful, but it creates additional design elements in the workflow.

Question:  If you are assigning the same task to multiple individuals, should workflow designers use one task element to represent this activity? Or should the designers use multiple elements?

Gateways – These are elements that take transitions from the output(s) of elements and then transition them to the input(s) of others. There are two main types of gateways: combiners (fork/join) and multipliers (inclusive decision/merge). A combiner takes multiple inputs and creates a single output, while a multiplier takes a single input and creates multiple output transitions. These elements are not required in a process. However if the goal is to show as much detail as possible about the events of a workflow, they can be very useful.

Question:  Should a gateway that has internal logic denote that to the observers of the workflow?

Swimlanes – Represented as horizontal or vertical lanes (often different colors), swimlanes help teams and designers to keep track of what work is done by which department or what category the work falls under. These can add complexity to the layout and design of the workflow.  

There are many more elements within the BPMN standard that can be added to a workflow. Again, however, we must ask the question: which elements are the most important? By utilizing a large variety of geometrical icons, will the workflow become too cluttered, hindering the understanding of the user?

The team here at Elsinore has spent quite a bit of time this past week reviewing how workflows should look and feel to users.  We thought it would be great to hear our customers’ and visitors’ opinions on workflow design usages.

For the purpose of this blog we will focus specifically on business processes, though the principles could apply to any type of organization. A typical workflow diagram will have geometrical elements (such as rectangles, diamonds, and triangles), each representing or describing some action, activity, or decision that has to be made during the process. Most of these elements will typically have a one or two word label to help observers keep track of the flow. These elements are however only a few of the possible graphical and text representations available.

The amount of detail provided by a workflow diagram is determined by the workflow designer. Workflows can be designed at a high level, only outlining the general scope of the process and keeping the layout simple. On the other hand, workflows can be very detailed, showing exactly what activities are being performed, to whom the emails are sent, what divisions are doing the work, who is responsible for scheduling a meeting, etc. The information is all available but the key is balance. When we consider these and other elements that could be represented, are they useful or do they add clutter to the workflow canvas? What elements do you think are important?  And should workflow designers err on the side of simplicity, or should they strive to display as much information as possible?

It’s a difficult philosophy to capture in a single blog, so in the next installment we’ll capture a few of the most common design elements of a workflow and discuss some of their pros and cons as graphical representations on a workflow.

Yesterday I was talking with a friend who asked me what it is I do at Elsinore.  I explained we are an issue management company and the minute the words came out of my mouth I realized the vagueness of the statement.  If I wasn’t already sure, the confused and pondering look on his face confirmed my suspicions.  So like most people I dug into examples, explaining how customers use our software for help desks, call centers, software bug & defect tracking, and a few other examples.  The entire process took me about 5 minutes and if it had been giving an elevator pitch I would have failed miserably.  I needed to be able to explain what issue management is without giving a 10 minute dissertation on the subject. I still need to be able to explain how our products relate to issue management but explaining the term issue management correctly was my first hurdle.

So like most people today I went directly to the almighty source of wisdom, Wikipedia.  There I found a pretty good definition of the term; Issue management is the discipline and process of managing business issues and usually implies using technology to electronically automate the process.   I say pretty good because I am not convinced that if I share this with my friend he will not still have a similar look of confusion but it’s a starting point.

My next step was to interview about a dozen colleagues and friends to get their response to what issue management meant to them.  I did my best to find a random sampling of different backgrounds and experiences.  I contacted people in staffing, construction, software development, stay at home parents, teachers, and engineers.  The responses I got were varied but not surprising, every person I talked with related issue management to their own day to day life and industry.  Staffing people described services to manage labor cost and customer issues, construction managers related the term to managing and coordinating the problems with each build, developers talked about tracking software bugs, and stay at home parents gave examples of scheduling conflicts and work that needed to be completed at home. 

It was becoming apparent that issue management was a marketing buzz word that meant different things to different people, maybe not as vague as terms like “business intelligence” and “B2B” or as over used as “out of the box” or “best in class” but still difficult to quickly explain.  But there was something about this term that resonated with everyone I spoke with today.  They were all able to relate the term issue management to a problem they were having and needed a way to resolve.  I read through everyone’s responses again and it started to mesh, stilling a bit from different passages I have a working definition that I am pretty happy with going forward.  It may still raise a few questions from time to time but overall I think it works. Issue management is a methodology by which problems, events, and other issues are identified, tracked, and ultimately resolved.