The full power of Team@Work reveals in its everyday use. Hundreds of people work together in a perfect synchrony. All these people use Team@Work Task Manager - either in the local network or in Internet.
The Team@Work aim is to provide to every user the needed information for his/her tasks and serve as a mediator among the interacting team members.
Entering the system the user receives a full and actual list with his/her current tasks. For every task it is indicated the project in which it is has occurred, the task priority and the final term for its completeness.
How the user can manipulate the tasks list?
First of all he/she can mark the task as completed. Then it automatically vanishes from the list and the Team@Work server starts notifying other workflow participants for this action (this can cause new tasks generation in the lists of other users).
The user can fulfill a task not entirely, but only partly. In this case he/she can mark only these parts that are already completed in order to inform the server for the work done.
Along with the list of his tasks, the user has on his display another similar lists with the tasks, that are devoted to his department, not appointed personally. These are the so called common tasks or department's tasks. They appear on the screens of the colleagues from the whole department. Everybody can chose one or several tasks from this common list and accept them as his "own". This means that from that moment he becomes responsible for the completion of these tasks. The tasks move to his list and disappear from the "common" lists of all colleagues from the department.
Everyone can make the opposite action - if he estimates that he can not fulfill already taken or handed "task" he can waive it, i.e. pull it out from his list and place it into the list of common tasks. Of course it is not good fellowship, but sometimes is very useful.
What then happens with a task nobody wants to take? The department leader should interfere and hand it to someone. The department leader has special rights to move each task (common or personal) within his department.
The department leader has one more functionality: to manage team members availability. The department leader can also lock a team member for a certain time and to re-direct his/her tasks to another team member.
Some of the workflow participants have another special rights - to start new projects, based on a certain workflow or to stop already running ones.
Sometimes unusual requirements to other departments occur in the everyday work. Such incident services which we require from our colleagues can not be predicted and put in the workflows. They do however take time and resources, and should be included in the official working lists. Team@Work has a special option named "Task request" which is available to every user. Using the task request you can send a out-of-order task to some another department in the organization. This task will be noted by the server and will be counted in the working lists.
So, the actions a Team@Work user can perform are:
Complete task
Update task
Accept task from the common list
Reject task (shift task to the common list)
Task reallocation (if such right is granted)
Manage team members (if such right is granted)
Start new project (if such right is granted)
Stop project (if such right is granted)
Send task request
Only nine functions, but true enough for Team@Work server to organize the whole working process.
Team@Work users can access the system in two ways: by a special client application or via Internet (only if the Team@Work web application is installed). The two methods have same functionality but the client application has some additional auxiliary functions.
In order to use the Task Manager application you should install it on your personal computer. (See the Installation guide). To access the system via Internet you need only browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.
Several steps must be done before you start using with Team@Work in your everyday work. These steps include both installations and data definitions in Team@Work server.
Installations needed (all procedures are described in the "Installation guide"):
the Team@Work server must be installed and running.
to work with Team@Work client application, it must be installed on your computer and network connection parameters should be set. This step is not required if you prefer to work only via Internet
to allow access from Internet, an Web server must be installed and running and the Team@Work Web application must be installed in it. You need to know the web address of Team@Work web application.
Initial data, needed to be inserted in the Team@Work server before you start working:
the Organization structure must be defined
your job data must be inserted: name, nick name, department
your user's data must be defined: user name, password, user rights
at least one workflow scheme must be defined in which you or your department is involved.
After all these long preparations (in which only the managers and administrators are involved) you can start working with Team@Work.
Note: we will illustrate the work with Team@Work client with screenshots from the application. The user interface of the web-client is almost the same. The minor differences will be denoted separately.
Team@Work is essentially a network application. Therefore we need to setup the connection parameters in order to allow the server and the clients to recognize each other. The procedure is very simple and does not require any technical experience, but if you feel problems, please call your administrator.
There is a special tool for setting up the connection parameters. See the Installation notes for more details.
Team@Work uses many of the world languages. When the application is stared for the first time you have the opportunity to chose its language. Once selected Team@Work speaks this language. Of course this does not limit the information entering. You can enter data on any language.
Be careful, the language choosing is only once, at the first star up. After that you can not change the language or at least no easily.
The Web application does not passes this phase. It adjusts itself automatically depending on the local computer settings.
Naturally, the first step is the user identification - by user name and password.
Attention! The user name is not case sensitive, while the password is strongly dependent.
When the user is identified and his authenticity passes successfully the main application screen automatically appears.
You may be asked to identify yourself again. This happens in case the connection with the server has temporary failed and then again restored. An additional situation is foreseen for the web client: If you have left the application for more than 30 (thirty) minutes, the system will ask for second identification. This is done for security reasons to preserve situations of non authorized access.
Two task lists appear on the screen: the personal tasks and the common tasks of the department. Each task is described with its name, the name of the project it belongs to, the start date it is activated and the final day it should be completed. The task priority is on a separate column. There is a color indicator as well. If the task term has expired, the indicator is red, if the final date is still not reached it is yellow. The user can arrange the lists by mouse click on the column title that has to be sorted. The user can also rearrange the columns by moving their titles and also to change their width.
Some tasks have a prefix "CP". This means that these tasks belong to the critical path of the project. Users have to pay more attention to these tasks because any delay in completion of a task from the critical path leads to delay of the whole project.
In order to start the application commands the tasks from the list that will be manipulated have to be selected. Therefore our fist task is to select one or several tasks from the corresponding list. The selection is fast, easy and well known:
For the client application: a mouse click anywhere on the task row - the color of the row changes
For the Web client: a mouse click on the check box at the left side of the task row.
The most easy is when we complete a task at once. This happens when we mark it in the list and click the button "Complete task". With this command we inform the Team@Work server that we have completed this task. The result for us is that this task disappears from our list. The server itself starts all automatic output links that can cause the start of new workflow tasks. Thus the work moves on.
What does happen with the output links of the completed task that are not automatic? Links of type "optional" remain inactivated. But in case there are links of type "Selector" the server gets problem, because in its definition one of these links always should be activated. In such a case the server will reject the completeness of the task and will hold it in our list. In order to finally complete our task in which we have "selector" type output links we should use the command "Edit task".
Sometimes we cannot carry out a certain task at once. At the same time several our colleagues depend on our progress and wait for our task completeness. If we have reached some intermediate results with some work left, but want to inform the others for already achieved we cannot mark the task as completed. In such cases we use the command "Edit task".
Roughly speaking the editing means activation of some output links. The task editing is done by the marking task followed by single mouse click on button "Edit task".
Groups of output links are displayed on separate panels with group name displayed on the top. Groups of type "selector" are presented as radio buttons - you can select only one of them. Other groups are presented by check boxes.
You can check some of links and click on the "Update" button. In this case the selected links will be activated but the task itself will stay in your task list. This allows you to handle the task again after some time. On the contrary, if you click on the "Complete" button the task will be completed and will disappear from your task list.
There is a special panel on the right which holds the project's parameters and notes. Every project has its own collection of text messages which are written by the team members during working on a task. Every user may write a note and it immediately becomes visible for all participants in the project who has active tasks. Team members can exchange information in such a way for development of the project, some specific conditions etc. Every note has attached information about its author, the task name and the date when it was added. Adding a note is simple and straightforward: just write the text on a text filed below and click on the "Add" button.
Starting a new project means creation of a new process ruled by a certain workflow scheme. This is the only way you can generate new projects in Team@Work. Not every user can start new projects. These rights are delegated to users by the administrator (see Team@Work User Administration section). Team@Work has a very comprehensive scheme for distribution of rights to start projects. Every user may have rights to start projects under some workflow schemes but other schemes may be forbidden for him.
If you have rights to start new projects a special button "New project" will appear on your user interface (this button is missing for the not authorized users). On starting this command the following dialog appears:
Here you have to enter the name of the new project and the workflow under which it will run. Note that only the workflows allowed to you will be displayed in the combo box. For example, if there are five workflows defined in the organization, but you have right to start only three of them, then only these three workflow names will be displayed in the combo box. Also a list of project's parameters appears as they have been defined in the workflow scheme. You should enter values at least for the required parameters (marked with an asterisk and colored in red). The last parameter is the project's priority. It has a value of 1000 by default. You can change this value on your decision. The dialog allows you to enter a text note as well. This note alone with the parameter list will appear in the beginning of the notes collection and every participant in the project will be able to read it.
After entering all the data, you can actually start the project by clicking the "Start project" button. On this command Team@Work server will create the new project and will send the initial tasks to the corresponding users.
Canceling a project means that all activities, connected with this project stop, all tasks are deleted and the project moves to the archive.
This right is delegated only to certain users (rights are managed by the Administrator). Is the user has no such rights this option does not appear in the user interface.
To stop a project you must select a task from it and start editing. A button named "Stop" ("Cancel project" in the web application) appears in the editing dialog. Click on this button and you will get the standard question "Do you really want to cancel the project?". Click "Yes" and the project will be stopped.
Two buttons allowing the tasks transfer between the two tasks lists panels are situated into the middle among them, i.e. the user can accept a task from the common tasks list and join it to his own or to reject a task from his own and transfer it to the common list. These commands act directly: you select a task from the list and push the corresponding button. As a result the task vanishes from the first list and appears into the other one. When you accept a task from the common list, this task is removed from the common lists of all you colleagues from the department and vice versa - putting a task in the common list puts it in the all common lists. You can move a task several times between both lists.
Work requests are out-of-project tasks that eventually appear in every organization. These tasks are very hard to organize, report and take into account. Team@Work supports a function available for every user to send a work request directly to any department in the organization. The sender can enter a descriptive task name and attach a text note to it. He also can choose to require a notification respond when the task is completed. Notification respond will occur as a "task" in his task list with the same name and a prefix "RE:". The task is always sent as a common task to the targeted department.
Team@Work supports special functionality for department leaders. Users with this granted role can manipulate both team members and tasks. They can temporary stop or limit the task flow to a team member and redirect it to another. Also they can manage the task lists of all department staff assigning and re-assigning tasks to any of department members.
Team management consists in managing the status of every team member. The status means whether this employee may continue receiving tasks and managing his task list. The status has three levels:
Active: the normal state.
Locked: the user can manage his task list, but he cannot receive new tasks. Any task which is directed to him is re-assigned to his substitute, or to the department's common task list. This option is useful when a department member is overloaded with tasks and the department leader temporary frees him from receiving new tasks.
Suspended: putting a user in suspended state means he is locked for receiving new tasks (as above) and additionally he cannot manage his task list. All current tasks belonging to the user are re-assigned to his substitute, or are put to the common task list. This state is useful when an employee totally is excluded from the organization's activities, for example when he is on holidays or on a business trip.
The department leader can manage the status of department members using a special dialog. A table is displayed on the top containing the name, current assigned tasks and current status of the department members. By selecting one of them and clicking the button on the rightmost column you can edit the status. You can change the status, the period when this status is valid (except if the status is "Active" - it is the default status) and optionally select a substitute, who will receive tasks instead of the suspends or locked person. Also you can add some text notes for the reason the person's status has been changed, e.g. holidays, business trip etc.
If you define a substitute he will receive all newly generated tasks for the suspended/locked person. In case of locking he will also receive all the current tasks of the locked member. If no substitute has been selected, all tasks (current and future) move to the department's common task list.
This function can be invoked by clicking on the button named "Task Distribution". This button is available only if the user has corresponding rights.
The working field is divided in two areas. Each area holds a well known task list and a combo box above it. The combo box serves as a filter for the corresponding task list. It contains names of all department members plus additional option "Common tasks". When you select a name from the combo box, his/her task list is loaded in the task list. There are two buttons with arrows between the lists.
How task distribution works? If you want to move a task from one person to another just select both persons in order to display their task lists (the manipulation of common task list is absolutely the same). Then select the task and click the corresponding arrow button. The task moves from one list to another. That is all.
The Web client uses Internet for communication with the Team@Work server. It has some specific commands.
There are two buttons on the bottom of the most pages: "To task list" and "Logout".
The "To task list " button returns you to the main page. Sometimes you can return to this page using the "Back" navigation button of the browser. We recommend to use the "To task list" button, because it automatically forces refreshing of the task list.
The "Logout" button is used to stop working with the current Team@Work user. It redirects you to the login page. You can login again, or close the browser. Of course you can close the browser at any moment without using "Logout" button. However because of the Internet links specifics Team@Work server will still consider you linked for some time. In any case the server will continue doing its job correctly.