What's New in 9.1?

OnTime 2009 Version 9.1 includes some great new features and brings OnTime to the iPhone platform.

It includes:

• A new Enterprise Edition that includes unlimited base functionality & maxed out OnTime add-ons (Customer Portal, Remote Server, iPhone Server)
• A new iPhone Client available in the iTunes App Store
• "Comments" as a custom field for all item types
• Canned Responses
• Improved Burndown charts, web experience, and IMAP email integration

New iPhone Client

The new OnTime iPhone client provides a great new way for team members to stay on top of their projects, even when they're on the go.

In OnTime Express, the OnTime iPhone Client is limited to the built-in admin user. This functionality is free.

In OnTime Professional, the admin user is free as well -- however with the OnTime iPhone Server add-on, all other users can use the iPhone Client, too (as long as their security settings allow it).

OnTime Enterprise, the OnTime iPhone Server is included, and it can be used by all users.

How Does it Work?
To setup the OnTime iPhone Client, you simply point it to an installation of OnTime Web and login with your normal OnTime credentials (this does not work with Windows Authentication at this time).

You can even have multiple accounts in the OnTime iPhone client that point to different OnTime installations.

Comments for All Item-Types

Defects, Features, Tasks, and Incidents now have a “Comments" field type. Comments are similar to the existing "Description" large text field, however they cannot be edited by other users. The Comment field can also be added as a custom field on your templates.

Canned Responses

A 'Canned Response' is a saved section of text that can be quickly inserted into a large text field or e-mail in OnTime. If you find yourself typing the same kinds of responses to customers and users fairly often, then canned responses will help you save a lot of time and work more efficiently.

Multiple canned responses can be added to a single large text field or email.

Canned responses can be private or shared. Your support staff is going to love this feature - it's a huge time-saver!

Improved Web Experience

In version 9.1, you'll find a tuned up, snappier, more responsive and ultimately more usable iteration of OnTime Web.

We have reduced the number of database round-trips and also decreased client-side rendering on several screens.

Improved Burndown Charts

Burndown charts can now:

• display data across multiple sprints
• combine data for different types (for example, one burndown that includes defects, features, tasks and incidents).

We have also added a new date at the Releases level called "Velocity Calculation Date."

IMAP E-mail Integration

You can now monitor an IMAP email account for incoming features, defects, incidents, and tasks.

Access these new email settings under Tools -> Manage Email Accounts.

What's New in 9.0?

This is the ninth major release of OnTime, and it includes over 50 new features and a number of defect fixes.

• Release Management & Scrum
• New Project Dashboard & Burndown Charts
• Item Voting
• Email Improvements
• Convert to Scrum
• Enhanced Keyboard Shortcuts
• Wiki Comments & Notifications
• Improved Task Items
• Deep Copy of Entire Projects
• Many, many additional new features & enhancements!

Release Management & Scrum

OnTime 2009 introduces a new releases hierarchy tree, which is separate from the project hierarchy. It allows for the easy creation of item backlogs at the product, version, and milestone (sprint) levels.

When a product is created in the releases tab, it can be associated with one or more projects. Items in the related project(s) automatically become the product backlog. When releases and milestones are added, backlogs are created via a simple drag'n'drop procedure.

The new release management tab has three tiers: product, version, and milestone. In keeping with OnTime's trademark flexibility, all of these release-types can be renamed to accommodate your team's development methodology.

Release management makes it easier for testers, developers, managers and others to quickly look at items that pertain to a given version or milestone for a product -- this provides a significant leap in the area of visibility. As a handy side-effect of the new release management system in OnTime, generating release notes is now easier than ever.

New Project Dashboard with Burndown Charts

• Saved Dashboard Views - Define the number of rows and columns on your dashboard, with each "cell" containing its own configurable graph or chart. You can save this configuration as a private or shared view. The overall appearance and the settings for each individual graph are saved.
• Burn-down Charts - The new Project Dashboard now includes burn-down charts. This Scrum staple can be used by teams using any methodology for a quick snapshot of total work required and remaining for a given product, version or milestone / sprint.
• Treemap Charts - A treemap chart is a unique way of looking at the really big items in a given project or release. In a treemap graph, the physical size of each item corresponds to the estimated work remaining to complete that item. The color of the item indicates how much work has already been completed.
• Chart Customization - Each chart in the project dashboard can now be filtered and grouped, in order to display different types of information. For example, you can choose to view a pie chart or bar chart...or you can group information by assignee, status, priority, or other fields.

Item Voting

Customers, dev teams, and QA can vote on the importance of defects, features and help desk tickets.

Because customers get to vote on the importance of each item, it's easy for dev teams to immediately address the most desired features as well as the most urgent defects and help desk issues.

Email Improvements

OnTime's email interface is better than ever, making it easier and more intuitive for heavy users of email within OnTime.

• Email replies automatically select the correct account
• Emails can be viewed in a popup window (Windows)
• Emails now support inline images.

Convert Terminology to Scrum

OnTime 2009 includes a one-step feature for converting an existing database to a scrum database. This simple process will change the system's terminology, add a Story Points time unit, and add Scrum-specific security roles.

As you can see in the screenshot, you can select which terminology categories you would like to convert to scrum.

Enhanced Keyboard Shortcuts

To make navigating and performing common tasks as easy and quick as possible, OnTime 2009 has been improved with additional keyboard shortcuts. A list of keyboard shortcuts is available from the Help menu.

Wiki Comments & Notifications

Two huge usability features have been added to the OnTime Project Wiki:

• Wiki Comments - Add comments instead of editing the actual document. Comments also provide a straightforward way to describe the changes being made to a document as it evolves.
• Wiki Notifications - Now you can monitor a wiki page by receiving a notification each time a change is made.

Improved Task Item-Types

In OnTime 2009, tasks have been given the full features and capabilities of other item types, including workflow. Now, instead of tasks being used solely as a personal to-do list, they are more easily worked into the overall development methodology being used by the team. For example, tasks can be created based on the feature (or user story) backlog, with full workflow capabilities.

Deep Copy of Entire Projects

We've received several requests from OnTime users for a feature that would allow for project templates to be set up. Hence, when a new project is started, it can be based on a previously configured set of workflow rules, security groups, item-types, field templates, etc.

The new Deep Copy feature can be used on template projects or existing projects to eliminate redundant setup work.

Additional Improvements

• Revert wiki pages from wiki history
• OnTime attempts to relate new incoming emails to OnTime users, by email address
• Redesigned reports management UI

• Management of time unit types
• Ability to display custom fields on the user dashboard
• Item locked message displays username holding the lock

• Due date calculations can exclude weekends
• Sort users by Security Role
• Over 50 new features in all and many defect fixes