Today I want to talk to you about bugs and how to prevent them from falling through the cracks and getting ignored.
I don’t like bugs. Bugs cause problems. But bugs are a part of the programming game. I hate it when you think that the product is ready for release and after it’s out clients call to report bugs. That can be pretty embarrassing.
But you know what can be even worse? When a bug is discovered by the client, and then you find out that this bug was actually known to the team before the release — but because of a weak reporting process, it fell through the cracks and was never fixed.
It’s like when you make a grocery list for a big meal. You buy everything on the list, but then when you’re in the middle of making the meal, you realize you’re missing an ingredient. You look over your list and realize you did include it – it’s just that you scribbled it on the back of the paper instead of putting it neatly on the front with everything else, so it was overlooked.
That’s annoying enough in cooking, but it’s really bad news in project management, because the stakes are much higher. For instance, I was once working on a project that we had just finished and released, only to discover afterwards that there was a significant bug. Well, when my team and I re-traced our steps to try to figure out what went wrong, we discovered that someone had found the bug and simply didn’t report it correctly. As a result, a problem that could have easily been fixed long before the software release was overlooked.
That’s why Elementool utilizes the Bug Life Cycle model, an effective method for preventing bugs from falling through the cracks.
The cycle starts with new bugs and enhancements being submitted into the Elementool account by Quality Assurance as new issues.
Next, team leaders assign priority to new issues, and those issues are assigned to developers in the Elementool account.
After that, R&D fixes issues according to priority, and the issues’ status is changed to Fixed in the Elementool account. The issues are then assigned back to the QA for testing.
Following that, R&D releases a new internal version with fixed bugs and new features.
Then QA checks fixed issues in the new release, using the Elementool report engine.
Finally, fixed issues are closed in Elementool by QAand non-fixed issues are reopened in the Elementool account, allowing the cycle to resume.
By using the Bug Life Cycle model, Elementoolis able to keep bugs in check, making sure that any reported bugs are fixed before software is released.
You can get Elementool’s Issue Tracking for only $89.99 a month with unlimited users.
I would like to offer you to add three more services to your Issue Tracking account. Any combination of three additional services from the following:
• Help Desk – for running customer support and making your clients happy.
• File Sharing – for sharing files on the online and saving time.
• Test Cases – for making sure everything is tested and no bugs are slipping through the crack
• Requirements Management – for making sure the project is developed according to what your clients want.
• Scheduling – for managing the project plan and schedule and making sure tasks are completed on time.
• Conference – for running online meetings and improving communication.
Pick three of these services for only additional $30 a month.
Yes, that’s right.
For $119.99 a month you can have any combination of 4 Elementool services.
But that’s not all, if you upgrade your account now, I’ll give you 50% off the rate of the first month.
For example: if you upgrade now to $119.99, you will pay only $59.99 this time.
You better hurry because this special discount will expire at the end of the day.
So click on the button below and upgrade your account now!
Today I want to talk to you about bugs and how to prevent them from falling through the cracks and getting ignored.
I don’t like bugs. Bugs cause problems. But bugs are a part of the programming game. I hate it when you think that the product is ready for release and after it’s out clients call to report bugs. That can be pretty embarrassing.
But you know what can be even worse? When a bug is discovered by the client, and then you find out that this bug was actually known to the team before the release — but because of a weak reporting process, it fell through the cracks and was never fixed.
It’s like when you make a grocery list for a big meal. You buy everything on the list, but then when you’re in the middle of making the meal, you realize you’re missing an ingredient. You look over your list and realize you did include it – it’s just that you scribbled it on the back of the paper instead of putting it neatly on the front with everything else, so it was overlooked.
That’s annoying enough in cooking, but it’s really bad news in project management, because the stakes are much higher. For instance, I was once working on a project that we had just finished and released, only to discover afterwards that there was a significant bug. Well, when my team and I re-traced our steps to try to figure out what went wrong, we discovered that someone had found the bug and simply didn’t report it correctly. As a result, a problem that could have easily been fixed long before the software release was overlooked.
That’s why Elementool utilizes the Bug Life Cycle model, an effective method for preventing bugs from falling through the cracks.
The cycle starts with new bugs and enhancements being submitted into the Elementool account by Quality Assurance as new issues.
Next, team leaders assign priority to new issues, and those issues are assigned to developers in the Elementool account.
After that, R&D fixes issues according to priority, and the issues’ status is changed to Fixed in the Elementool account. The issues are then assigned back to the QA for testing.
Following that, R&D releases a new internal version with fixed bugs and new features.
Then QA checks fixed issues in the new release, using the Elementool report engine.
Finally, fixed issues are closed in Elementool by QAand non-fixed issues are reopened in the Elementool account, allowing the cycle to resume.
By using the Bug Life Cycle model, Elementoolis able to keep bugs in check, making sure that any reported bugs are fixed before software is released.
You can get Elementool’s Issue Tracking with unlimited users.
I would like to offer you to add three more services to your Issue Tracking account. Any combination of three additional services from the following:
• Help Desk – for running customer support and making your clients happy.
• File Sharing – for sharing files on the online and saving time.
• Test Cases – for making sure everything is tested and no bugs are slipping through the crack
• Requirements Management – for making sure the project is developed according to what your clients want.
• Scheduling – for managing the project plan and schedule and making sure tasks are completed on time.
• Conference – for running online meetings and improving communication.
Pick three of these services for only additional $30 a month.
Yes, that’s right.
And it gets even better.
You can try Elementool for 30 days for free.
So there is nothing for you to lose.
Open a free Elementool trial account. Use the system with all its features for free for 30 days. If you like it, keep it.
If not, don’t use it. No strings attached and no questions asked.
I hope my last video helped you to setup your account. If you still have any questions, please contact
Today I’m going to show you how to use the account. It is so easy, even your grandmother can do it. This is done with the application section of Elementool, which includes the ‘Welcome Page’, ‘New Issue’, ‘View Issue’ and ‘Issue Report’.
The first thing you want to do is to submit new issues to the account. Once issues have been submitted, you can assign them to team members and run reports to track their progress.
To submit a new issue, click on the ‘New Issue’ button. Do you remember this form? We set it up in the previous video. Fill out the form and click on the Submit button to submit it to your account.
A few things you should know about the form: • To assign an issue to someone on your team, select this person’s username in the ‘Assigned to’ field. If you want to send them an email with the issue details, check off the email checkbox next to this field. • It is recommended to use a Status field to define the status of the issue. Your account comes with a default list of status values. The new issue is setup to have the status of Open Bug by default. • Sometimes you need to attach files to an issue, such as screenshots, spreadsheets, etc. To do that, click on the Attach button below the form. Select the file you wish to attach, and upload it to the website. • When you submit the new issue, the system will assign it a unique Issue Number. You will be able to use this number every time you want to reference this issue or view it. Next is View Issue.
This is very simple. To view an issue, click on ‘View Issue’, submit the issue number and it will be displayed. You can now make changes to the issue and submit the update to the account.
A few things about the View Issue Form: • The Remarks message board enables the users to submit remarks about this issue. It could be comments with further instructions, questions, explanation of how the problem was fixed, etc. • The History Trail automatically tracks all the changes that have been made to the issue from the moment it has been submitted. It shows you the progress of this issue and helps you to identify a problem in its development.
Let’s run reports now: Click on Issue Report. You can customize the issue report by title, description, status, severity, assigned to, and much more. You can also customize the fields that appear in the report by clicking ‘customize report’. The customize report option enables you to select the columns that are displayed on the report, the report’s sorting order and the query filters.
Next to the “customize report” tab is the “View type” option. There are several view types: Normal, which displays the report on the page; Excel, so you can export the report to Excel; and Dynamic, to perform bulk field changes to the issues on the report itself – so you don’t need to update the issues one by one. Choosing the “print view” displays the report in a printer friendly fashion. Quick Reports
If you frequently run the same report, you should add it to your quick reports. This feature allows you to run reports based on predefined criteria, rather than customizing your report each time. It is very simple to set-up.
Click on the ‘add report list’, and select the accounts and query fields you want present in the report. Customize the report based on your preferences, and click step 3. Select the report fields, such as the field list and report columns, and go to step 4. Lastly, name your quick report and click “save”. Once you setup your quick reports, you can send the report results to people by email. Last but not least is the Welcome Page When you sign into your account, you see the “Welcome Screen” where your automated dashboard is displayed.
The Welcome page is fully customizable and enables you to add new items, change their location on the screen using drag n’ drop and have easy access to your quick reports Clicking the ‘edit’ button on the dashboard box allows you to filter and customize the item based on your preferences. If you have several Elementool accounts, you can setup your dashboard to display your entire workflow. For example: you can display all your open issues, all the high priority tasks, and so on.
To add a new item to the Welcome Page, click on the ‘Add New Item’ button on the bottom of the page. For example: Let’s say I want to see all the open issues that are assigned to me, and I would like to sort them by their priority. • I click on ‘Add New Item’. • In the Caption field I type: Open Issues Assigned to Me • Display all ‘Assigned to’ and I select my username • I click on Add Filter to add the status field as a filter. • Select Status and Open bug. • Group by: Priority • Show as: Pie chart. • Now I click on Save. • You can now see the new item on my ‘Welcome Page’, which shows all open issues that are assigned to me.
This should get you started with your account. I’ll show you more advanced and cool features in a few days. Tomorrow I’ll send you an animated video that will explain the principles of Agile Development in three simple steps. I have a feeling you’ll love it. Bye for now.
In the next few weeks, we’re going to be making some design enhancements here at Elementool.com. But don’t worry, these changes will not have any affect on the way that you utilize our site.
During the redesign process, the application functionality will remain completely the same throughout the website, so you can continue using it without interruption. Here’s a sneak peek at the changes we have in store for Elementool.com.
Hi, I’m Allison, and I’d like to introduce you to a feature known as Field Dependencies. This is a very helpful feature that allows you to quickly locate and select relevant information when filling in a form.
What the dependencies feature actually does is it enables the creation of relationships between fields in such a way that a dependant field’s value list is determined based on a value selected from the source list.
For instance, let’s say that you have two fields on a form: State and City. The State field lists all 50 states in the U.S., and the City field lists the 10 largest cities in each of those states. Currently, without using Dependencies, the State field list shows all 50 states and the City field displays a long list of 500 cities in those states. So if a user wants to choose their city from that list, they need to scan through all 500 to find the one they want.
However, by using the Dependencies feature, the process becomes much easier. It allows the person to first select their state in the State field. At that point, the Dependencies rule automatically filters the city list so that the City field only displays the 10 cities from the selected state. This means that the user can simply select the appropriate city from the list of 10 rather than poring through a long list of 500.
As you can see, the Field Dependencies feature makes filling out and submitting forms much easier and far less time-consuming.
The workflow feature will make your life a lot easier. The great thing about it is that it allows you to define workflows so that field values are automatically updated based on the changes made in one or more fields.
You can define processes to prevent team members from forgetting to update certain field values – or updating the wrong values. This feature saves you a ton of time because users don’t need to manually update a long list of fields anymore. The fields are updated automatically based on the value of selected ones. For example: Let’s say that every time an issue is fixed, I would like to automatically track the fix date, the name of the person who fixed it and assign it back to QA. I can do that by defining a rule using Workflow. To use Workflow you should follow these easy steps: Go to Control Panel, click on Edit Issue Form and then on Edit Workflow. Click on ‘Add New Rule’ to create a new Workflow rule or on the Edit button of an existing rule to edit it. In Step 1 we are going define the workflow conditions. For example: when status = fixed and Priority = High. In Step 2 you define the fields that are going to be updated once the rule has been met. In this example, I would like to change the fixed date to today and assign it to a tester.
In Step 3 I’m going to give the rule a name and save it. Now the rule is added to the list. When I’ll go and update an issue, the system will automatically update the fields based on the rule definition.
We are going to share with you another hidden secret related to the rules of the game. But I’m not sure you can handle it.
Can you handle it? OK come closer because I don’t want anyone to hear.
The secret is: “The bench”.
This clip is about risk management. Risks are those things that usually have low changes of happening. But if they occur, their results might be bad for us.
The primary objective is to insure that the client and their investment is protected as best as possible
Risk management is an activity that:
1. Looks for problems that could occur.
2. Evaluates how big these problems are.
3. And the best way to manage them via risk response plans.
Risk management a process that you do usually before the project starts. It is a very important stage that is being neglected often because it is being considered as a waste of time. People just want to start working on the project right away. In our “game rule” model risk management is like the basketball bench. There are 5 players on the court and about 10 on the bench. Now let’s think about it for a minute. You need only 5 players to play the game, but the teams go through all the effort and spend so many resources to keep another 10 players sitting on the bench.
The coach keeps more players on the bench than on the court to deal with anticipated risks of players getting tired or fouled. And the unanticipated risks of players getting injured or losing their mojo.
There are a lot of reasons why people might resist the risk management process:
1. People don’t always understand the importance of this process and would consider it a waste of resources.
2. People think that risk management is a pessimistic activity, but the project manager should act as a good coach and present it as a positive thing to reach project objectives.
3. The team feels that they can fight the fire when we get there, which is often not the case.
The 4 Steps of risk management process are:
1. Develop the risk management plan.
2. Identify the risks that might occur.
3. Assess the risks in the project.
4. Response to risks in when they happen.
You also should keep monitor and manage the project risk throughout the project development to ensure that the risk management and response plan are working properly.
We are going to teach step by step how to build your bench and manage risks. We have developed a simple system that you can implement right way. In fact, this new system is so powerful that you will call us and ask us not to sell it to anyone else.
Hi, it’s me, Allison. Welcome to Elementool Issue Tracking. I am going to show you how to setup and use your account. Issue Tracking is so easy, even your grandma can use it. The account is divided into two sections: The Control Panel and the application section. On the top of the screen are tabs that correspond with each action in Issue Tracking. Click on a tab to perform that particular action. As you can see, you have the option to create a new issue, view issue, display issue reports, and access the control panel. The Control Panel is where you setup the account. It can be accessed only by users that are part of the Admin group. The application section consists of “new issue”, “view issue”, and “display issue reports”. Users of all groups can access the application portion of Issue Tracking by logging in to their Elementool account. Let’s start with the Control Panel
Control Panel
The green tab is the ‘control panel’. I am going to go through a quick overview of the control panel with you. Click ‘control panel’. Here you will see edit accounts, edit issue form, and edit user profile. Let’s click on ‘edit accounts’. The ‘edit accounts’ section enables you to manage different administrative aspects of your account. It includes the following options: Manage account list, update billing info, download database, empty trash, set time-zone, and sms settings. I’ll go through each option one by one. Let’s start off with ‘manage account list’. This option allows you to add or remove services for each account. The “update billing information” tab is just that! Here, you can enter your billing information or change it.
The ‘download database’ option allows you to download your database into an Access file. It allows you to save a local backup of your account, export the data to external applications and also run advanced queries on your issues.
The next tab is “empty trash”. Here, you can delete issues that have ‘Trash’ status assigned to them. This is a perfect way to make room for new issues. Isn’t that the whole point of emptying trash? So you can have new trash? The ‘set time zone” tab is self explanatory, right? You can set the time zone according to your geographical location. Lastly, the “SMS setting” allows you to add SMS notifications to your SMS bank by account. Later you will be able to use this feature to send text notification directly to your team members’ mobile phones.
Now that we have a feel for ‘Edit Accounts’, let’s go back to the main control panel screen and click on ‘edit issue form’. Here, you can customize the issue form to work exactly the way you prefer. You can customize the existing fields or create unlimited new fields. Let me show you how to do this. Click on the caption you wish to change or click “add new” field. Here, you can change field caption, type, set field width, or create a value list.
Going back to the main screen on the control panel, the last icon is ‘edit user profiles’. This is where you add users to the accounts. In order for people to have access to your Elementool accounts, they need to have usernames and passwords. The username is unique to each user. Here you can assign users to particular groups based on job function or assign them to accounts. You can also create new user groups and define access permissions based on user and group privileges.
Welcome Page
When you sign in your account, you see the “Welcome Screen” where your automated dashboard is displayed. You can customize this to your liking. Clicking the ‘edit’ button on the dashboard box allows you to filter and customize the item based on your preferences. If you have several Elementool accounts, you can setup your dashboard to display your entire workflow. For example: you can display all your open issues, all the high priority tasks, and so on. The Welcome page is fully customizable and enables you to add new items, change their location on the screen using drag n’ drop and have an easy access to your quick reports (more on quick reports later.)
Notice how the top of the screen displays the account name that you are logged into currently. You can switch accounts by clicking on the dropdown menu and choosing the account of your preference. On top of the left hand side of the screen, below the Elementool logo, is a display that shows the current online users who are using the account. If you drag your mouse over the display, it will show you the actual users. Clicking the display will enable you to instant message online users in a chat room setting.
Creating an issue is as simple as pie. Click on the ‘new issue’ tab and simply fill out the fields. It can’t get any easier! As you can see, you can set the status, priority, frequency, and severity of the issue. In the same area, you can assign users to the issue. These features are extremely important in keeping things organized so issues don’t fall through the cracks! Below is the remarks field. Here you can write comments regarding the issue. All comments in the remarks field are displayed in the remarks message board. The History Trail preserves a complete audit trail of all the changes that have been made in the different fields.
In the same section is the ‘linked issues’ and ‘attach files’ button. The file attachment feature enables you to attach HTML, PDF, Word, Excel and other file types to an issue by clicking the ‘attach button’ and uploading the file. This is useful because users will have direct access to files that are related to the issue, as opposed to wasting time looking for the files in the company’s server.
Issue Tracking is part of a suite of applications that are seamlessly integrated. The ‘Linked Issue’ option allows you to link issues between the different Elementool applications. To do this, scroll to the ‘linked issues’ field near the ‘remarks section’ and choose the account name and application from the dropdown field that you want the current issue to be linked with. Then type the issue number in the text box. Your issues are now linked!
The Issue Form enables you to assign the issue to a user by selecting the user from the ‘Assigned to’ list. Checking the email or mobile phone checkbox will send a notification with the issue details to the assigned user’s email or cellular phone. Each issue has a unique issue number that is assigned by the system when you submit a new issue. You can later use this number to reference this specific issue.
If you know which issue you would like to view in particular, type in the issue number in the “view issue #” box located on the top, or click on the ‘View Issue’ tab and type the issue number there. You can also view issues by running a report and opening the issues on the report itself.
To run reports, simply click on the “issue report” tab. You can customize the issue report by title, description, status, severity, assigned to, and much more. You can also customize the fields that appear in the report by clicking the ‘customize report’.
The customize report option enables you to select the columns that are displayed on the report, the report’s sorting order and the query filters.
Next to the “customize report” tab is the “View type” tab
There are several view types: Normal, which displays the report on the page; Excel, so you can export the report to excel; and Dynamic, to perform bulk field changes to the issues on the report itself-so you don’t need to update the issues one by one. Choosing the “print view” displays the report in a printer friendly fashion.
Quick Reports
If you frequently run the same report, you should add it to your quick reports. This feature allows you to run reports based on predefined criteria, rather than customizing your report each time. It is very simple to set-up.
Click on the ‘add report list’, and select the accounts and query fields you want present in the report. Customize the report based on your preferences, and click step 3. Select the report fields, such as the field list and report columns, and go to step 4. Lastly, name your quick report and click “save”. Once you setup your quick reports, you can send the report results to people by email.
As you can see, Issue Tracking is very easy to use. We work closely with our clients and are open to ideas and suggestions regarding enhancements and new features. If you have any questions, suggestions or requests, please don’t hesitate to contact our support at support@elementool.com
Hi I’m Allison, and I am going to show you how to use Elementool Test Cases. Test Case is so easy, even your grandma can do it.
Let’s begin!
On the top of the screen are tabs that correspond with each action in Test Cases. Click on a tab to perform that particular action. As you can see, you have the option to edit tests, view tests, display test reports, and access the control panel.
The account is divided into two sections: The Control Panel and the application section.
The Control Panel is where you setup the account. It can be accessed only by users that are part of the Admin group.
The application section consists of “edit tests”, “view test”, and “display test reports”. Users of all groups can access the application portion of Test Cases by logging in to their Elementool account.
Now that we have a feel for ‘Edit Accounts’, let’s go back to the main control panel screen and click on ‘edit test form’.
Here, you can customize the test form to work exactly the way you prefer. You can customize the existing fields or create unlimited new fields. Let me show you how to do this. Click on the caption you wish to change or click “add new” field. Here, you can change field caption, type, width, or create a value list.
O.K, great! That sums up the control panel. Now let’s move onto the application section.
When you sign in to your account, you see the “Welcome Screen” where your automated dashboard is displayed. This will show all test cases assigned to you.
Notice how the top of the screen displays the account name that you are logged into currently. You can switch accounts by clicking on the dropdown menu and choosing the account of your preference. On top of the left hand side of the screen, below the Elementool logo, is a display that shows the current online users who are accessing the account. If you drag your mouse over the display, it will show you the actual users. Clicking the display will enable you to instant message online users in a chat room setting.
Edit Tests
Editing and creating test cases is very easy using Elementool Test Cases. To create a new test, group, or subgroup, or to edit any of these, click on the “edit tests” tab. To create a new test group, click “new” on the left hand side and choose “group” from the dropdown. If you would like to add a subgroup to an already existing group, click on the group to highlight which group you would like to add a sub group to, and on the left, click “new” and choose “sub group” on the dropdown.
To add a test case to a group or subgroup, click on the group to highlight which group you would like to add a test case to, and click “new test” on the right hand side. Fill out the test form and you will be set!
To edit a test group’s name, highlight the test group you wish to change, and click “edit” on the left. To edit a test case, click on the particular test group or subgroup that the test case is associated with, and click on the test case you would like to edit on the right. It’s really that easy!
You can do some other nifty things on the “edit tests” screen, such as copying test templates to new test groups and importing test cases from Excel. To learn how to utilize these more advanced features, check out our blog and watch the tutorial videos!
View Test
Now that we covered the “edit tests” tab, let’s examine the “view tests” tab. After you click on the “view tests” tab, you will see all of your test groups on the left. Clicking on a test group will reveal all associated test cases along with their priority, severity, completion percentage, and expected execution date. Clicking on a particular test case will allow you to edit it. Easy, right?
Let’s move on the last section, “test reports”.
Test reports
To run reports, simply click on the “test report” tab. You can customize the test report by title, description, status, severity, assigned to, and much more. You can also customize the fields that appear in the report by clicking the ‘customize report’.
The customize report option enables you to select the columns that are displayed on the report, the report’s sorting order and the query filters.
Next to the “customize report” tab is the “View type” tab. There are several view types: Normal, which displays the report on the page; Excel, so you can export the report to excel; and Print View, to create a printer friendly report.
There you have it! Test Cases is so easy, even your grandma use do it!
The multiple file upload features enables you to upload and attach multiple files to an issue instead of one file at a time.
Click on the file attachment button.
Click on the Browse button and select all the files that you wish to upload. You can use the keyboard’s Control button so select multiple files.
The files that you selected are displayed on the screen.
You can remove files by clicking on the red X button and you can also type a short description to each file.
Clicking on Upload will upload and attach the files to the issue.
The progress bar shows you the upload progress.
