I hope I am not doing a terrible disservice to Hansoft in my coverage. I have managed projects, though not using any software, and not using SCRUM methodologies. My apologies up front for any ignorant statements. I was asked to blog this session at the last minute. :)
Demo of Hansoft by Patric Palm, CEO, Hansoft
Patric’s excited to finally be giving a talk where he can actually talk about his product instead of avoiding the subject.
Premiering the next version of Hansoft for us today.
Flexible tool that can be used with several PM methodologies. Allows mixing and matching methodologies. Customizable workflow and columns. Set access and restriction rules. Easy to switch from one to another and share assets across methodologies.
Also has a bug database, with work assigned to people in the task database. Can function as workload and timeline for the whole company. Allows view of where people are allocated and which are over-or under-allocated.
Seems like it has a robust “find” function, that allows printing.
I’ll ask my friend Victor Meinert what he thinks after we’re all done here –
You can use Hansoft to delegate responsibilities. Delegation functionality allows managers to give tasks or groups of tasks to other team members, and that designates that member as a PM on that task set – allowing him or her to add tasks, delegate further, etc
You can use Hansoft either as a project manager with an overall view, or individual contributors (IC’s) can look at it as a prioritized task list.
When an IC’s Hansoft and workflow has been updated they’ll get an email. IC can update completion in real time and the info is communicated immediately to the team and management.
Outsourcing – view for outsource user can be limited
Bug tracking – lots of great functionality here, and it’s clear that including bug tracking in an agile PM tool is critical to keeping all the tasks on the same task list.
Document management – full version history and full version rollback – (Victor says: awesome) – not for full project version control, but great for GDDs etc. Customizable integration of document tools.
New stuff with 5.3:
More recent adoption of QA functionality has allowed further feedback on that module, so there are more goodies coming in the future for that.
Pipelines and workflows: some studios messing with the QA part to use it also as an art pipeline tool. This functionality will have more abilities in 5.3.
Pipeline functionality: a user can view the pipeline, change it, and have all the changes and updates show in the task lists. Completion automatically opens up the next step.
Several types of pipelines can be set up in advance, art, sound, levels, whatever. Set up the template once and you can use it any time you need.
Tasks are grouped and nested together.
Pipeline tasks can set new workflows. Pipeline task editing seems very easy.
Many teams are struggling to combine the linear workflow of asset creation with the agile process. Hansoft allows that combination. Allows treating the backlog as an asset list.
End of presentation, beginning of Q&A
Q: A lot of team members struggle with the software’s complexity. Are there any plans to have a simplified interface, a team member client? A:. There are several ways to simplify the view, but you have to know how to do it.
Q: How collaborative is it? A: All live networked in real time, so several members can use it simultaneously. Works for small and very large teams.
Q: Are there plans for a higher level exec view? A: you can make a template, or data can be sucked out of hansoft to an executive dashboard software. There are a lot of v expensive but not so great BI tools out there, so we have
Q: Web access? A- no. Users typically ask for this up front, and then realize that as they use the tool they don’t really need it.
Q: Print stories out of the backlog? A: Yes, but it’s a little complicated and limited. When previously prioritized, found that this became less important the longer you use Hansoft.
Pitched his bottle openers – “important to open the beer in a timely fashion.”
Victor says: Pretty impressive, he went to the demo last year and it’s obvious they listen to their users – lots of feedback is showing. Interesting that it supports both waterfall and agile in the same product. Wonders: Does that take away from their engineers ability to make a better agile product? Supports legacy task based groups. Allows the use of one tool, has a good intention, interested to see how it works.
Also great that it has backlog support, which a lot of tools don’t support. Also integrating the bug database is great because it exposes bugs as tasks. Brilliant. That consolidation has to be a demand for the future of this tech. Victor has been doing research on scrum tools for about 6 months now.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my notes. See you tomorrow for the Book Jam.
Respectfully Submitted,
Robin McShaffry
www.mary-margaret.com
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