New in Pivotal Tracker for iOS: Search, My Work, New iPhone Interface

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Version 1.1 of the Pivotal Tracker for iOS app is now available in the iTunes App Store. This update adds the Search and My Work panels, a redesigned iPhone interface, and many overall usability improvements. All the details after the jump, below.

Search and My Work

You can now find and filter stories quickly with the new Search panel, which supports all of the Tracker search syntax that you’re used to. The new My Work panel shows you all of the stories that you’re currently working on, that are assigned to you, or that are waiting for your acceptance.

Add Stories Anywhere

Adding stories is easier now, just tap the new story button at the top right corner, regardless of where you are in the app (on the iPad or the iPhone).

Faster Access to Story Panels

Switching between panels on the iPhone is now much faster with the new tab bar at the bottom. It even works while dragging a story – tap the desired target panel with the other finger.

Similarly, the iPad version now has a row of panel buttons at the top right, tap them to reveal a given panel quickly or just swipe the panels side to side as before.

Story States on iPhone

Story states are now displayed for in-progress stories on the iPhone, and easily changed by swiping a story to the left.

Other Improvements

Drag and drop and scrolling has been significantly improved, particularly on older iPhone and iPod Touch models. We’ve also updated the app for iOS 5, and added many detailed interface tweaks to make stories easier to find and work with.

Feedback

We’re committed to bringing the best of Pivotal Tracker to the your iPhone and iPad, while taking full advantage of all the user experience and portability features of the iOS platform. Many more improvements are on the way, but we’d love to know what you think so far! Give us a shout at tracker@pivotallabs.com.

By the way, we’re thrilled to see all the positive reviews in iTunes. Thanks everyone, and keep them coming!

New 3rd party tool: pWidget – Embaddable Tracker Widget

Dan Podsedly

Monday, November 7, 2011

pWidget is a new 3rd party tool for Pivotal Tracker. It’s an embeddable widget, that can be shown in any iframe, and shows stories from multiple projects. Configure it via URL params to show stories matching a search result, from specific projects, in label-specific priority order, and more!

Check out the pWidget page for more details.

For other helpful tools, see the Tracker 3rd party tools directory, and subscribe to the RSS feed to stay on top of new ones as they’re added.

Scheduled Pivotal Tracker Maintenance this Saturday

Dan Podsedly

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

We’re planning database server configuration changes and maintenance work for this Saturday, Oct 29, at 2pm PDT (21:00 UTC). Tracker will be unavailable for approximately one hour.

For the most up to date status information, please follow @pivotaltracker.

TrackerDashboard – 3rd Party Tool to Help Manage Large Projects

Dan Podsedly

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Our friends at CaseCommons have built TrackerDashboard – a tool to help manage a large team of 25 developers, 2 designers, and 4 product managers as they build a world class enterprise application. It’s open source, and available for use to anyone, so check it out!

Pivotal Tracker Customer Profile: Mavenlink

Dan Podsedly

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

This is the first of regular featured Pivotal Tracker customer profiles. If you’d like to share your own, let us know!

What does your company do?

Mavenlink is a SaaS application that allows consultants and their clients to manage the full lifecycle of their projects together in one place. Our platform allows for project budgeting, task management, team collaboration, file sharing, time tracking, invoicing, and payments – basically every step of a paid engagement.

Has Tracker changed the way you work?

Absolutely – our team collectively has 30+ years of experience managing the software development process. Like many software guys, we all came from waterfall-based development in our prior lives and set out to build our own company using agile principles. We’ve had the benefit of working with Pivotal Labs and they’ve helped us embrace XP-principles generally. Tracker is essential to that process: it’s just simple enough to get out of your way, but be extremely effective.

What tools do you use in conjunction with Tracker?

Why, Mavenlink, of course! We’ve had the luxury to be developing a product we use to run our own business. We manage all of our external resources & projects through Mavenlink and do all development work in Tracker.

What’s your favorite Tracker feature?

As I mentioned before, we love the simplicity. Tools to manage people and projects need to stay out of your way – you can’t spend more time managing the tool than doing the work itself. From a pure feature standpoint, I really like where the new Epics are going. We’re right in the middle of a fairly significant feature re-factor & release and it’s been great to track progress on that effort. We’ve always been a heavy label user to visually distinguish multiple tracks of work.

Any pearls of Wisdom?

I really like the notion that user stories are an invitation to have a conversation about the thing that’s going to be worked on. It’s important to keep in mind that Tracker is, above all, a communication tool. It’s up to the team to use Tracker to reflect communications that have already been had: how long something will take, when it’s being worked on, what’s most important, etc. To get good estimates, it’s also vital to keep your stories broken down and specific (like talking points), not high-level and vaporous.

Pivotal Tracker User Group Meetup in NYC on Oct. 19

Dan Podsedly

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Pivotal Tracker user group meetup in SF last week, we really enjoyed meeting everyone and the great 2+ hour discussion.

Next up is New York City! We just scheduled the NY.TUG meetup for Wednesday, October 19, at 6:30pm, in the Pivotal Labs office in Union Square.

Come get an intro to Tracker, share feedback, and get a sneak preview of Epics – a big upcoming feature to help with high level visibility as well as feature-level planning and design.

RSVP and more details here.

Integrating Your Tracker Account with Google Apps

Dan Podsedly

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Pivotal Tracker has been in the Google Apps marketplace for a few weeks, and we’re excited to see that it’s already in the Top New Apps list! Thanks to everyone who jumped right in, and for all the great reviews!

For the most part, provisioning Tracker for a Google Apps domain is straightforward, but there are some potential gotchas, especially if you have multiple logins or accounts in Tracker, or have been signing into Tracker via OpenID, using Google Accounts. This post covers the provisioning process for existing Tracker accounts in step-by-step detail, and explains how to recover from problems.

If this is the first time you’re reading about the Tracker integration with Google Apps, adding Tracker as a marketplace app to your domain will enable single sign-on, universal navigation, integrated user management, and the ability to attach Google Docs to your Tracker stories. See my previous post for more details.

Before You Start

The Google Apps integration in Tracker works at the level of the Tracker account – this is different from a user login, and typically represents an organization.

In order to add Tracker to your Google Apps domain, and enable integration features for all projects in an existing Tracker account, you will need be an administrator in your Google Apps domain, or a user with the Domain Settings privilege enabled. You also need to be an owner or admin of the Tracker account that you wish to link to your Google Apps domain (typically the account that holds all of your company’s projects).

Note: If you’ve tried to integrate Tracker with Google Apps before and ran into problems, remove Tracker from your Google Apps domain and unlink any linked accounts in Tracker prior to proceeding. See the Troubleshooting section below for details on how to do that.

Provisioning Instructions

Below are step-by-step instructions on how to provision Tracker for your Google Apps domain and link to your company’s Tracker account/projects to it. If you’d like to skip some of the details, you can watch this short video instead:

Step 1: Sign In to Tracker with Google Apps

Use the Google Apps link on the Tracker Signin page to sign in with the correct OpenID “identity” – it’s the one on the right. Do not use the Google Account link for Google Apps, unfortunately Google treats that as a different OpenID identity, and the Google Apps provisioning or integration features will not work with it.

If this is the first time you’re signing in to Tracker via Google, you’ll be shown the page below, with two different forms. As an an existing user, link your Google Apps identity to your Tracker login by entering your existing Tracker username (or email address) and existing password in the form on the left.

Note: If you see any errors at this point, it may be because you already have a Tracker login and/or you’ve used a different Google OpenID identity before. See the Troubleshooting section below.

Step 2: Verify that you have admin access to your company’s Tracker account

After you sign in to Tracker via Google Apps, click the ACCOUNT or ACCOUNTS link in the top of the page. You should see the account that your company’s projects are in, and be able to access that account’s Settings page. If you can’t see it, then you’re not an Owner or Admin of the account, and you will need to be added (by the owner or an existing account admin) before proceeding.

Step 3: Add Tracker to your Google Apps domain

Go to the Pivotal Tracker listing in the marketplace and click Add it now. You’ll be asked to accept the Google Apps terms of service, and confirm that you’d like to allow Tracker to access Docs and User Provisioning data in your domain. The last step will prompt you to “configure the application” – click the configure button.

Step 4: Choose or create Tracker account to link to your domain

You should see the account from step 2 here. Click the link button next to it to associate it with your Google Apps domain. You’ll be taken back to Google, and at this point you’re done with the actual provisioning and linking.

Step 5: Verify that account is linked to domain

Tracker should now be provisioned for your Google Apps domain, and the account you chose in the previous step should be linked to the domain. To verify, make sure that the account details page (click on ACCOUNT(S) at the top of the page in Tracker) shows a Google icon next to it’s name. If you hover over it, you should see your Google Apps domain name.

At this point, all users in your domain should see Pivotal Tracker in the Google “More” menu. On the Tracker side, you should be able to bulk-add users from your domain to this Tracker account and/or all projects in the account, as well as attach Google Docs to stories in those projects (see previous post for more details about these features).

If you don’t see the Google link next to the account name, the provisioning process did not complete properly – see below for some suggestions. Feel free to give us a shout (by email, to tracker@pivotallabs.com), and we’ll help you get everything working.

Troubleshooting and Common Questions

We’ve added Tracker to our domain but don’t see any of the integration features

This could be either because your projects are not in the Tracker account that you’ve linked to Google Apps, or the account linking part of the provisioning process (Step 4 above) did not complete. Remove Tracker from your Google Apps domain (see below), and follow ALL of the steps above again.

I provisioned Tracker and see all the Google Apps features when I log in, but my coworkers don’t

It’s possible that they are working in a project that’s in a different account than what you’ve linked to Google Apps – go to project settings in those projects to see what account they are in. The other reason they don’t see the features might be that they have not yet (correctly) associated their own Google Apps domain identity with their Pivotal Tracker login. Each person has to do this for themselves, as they’re the only ones who have the login credentials for both systems. If they are using a Google Account identity (instead of Google Apps), they will need to un-associate that from their Tracker login, and associate their Google Apps identities – see this FAQ entry for how to do that.

How do I remove Tracker from my domain (so I can try to add it again)?

Go to the Google Apps Dashboard for your domain – if you can’t find it via Google’s navigation menus, the URL is usually this format:

https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/yourdomain.com/Dashboard

All installed apps are in the Google Apps Marketplace section, near the bottom of the page. Find the Pivotal Tracker entry, and click the Delete Pivotal Tracker link on the details page. This does not delete data in Tracker, it only removes it from Google’s navigation and revokes data access permissions.

You will also need to “unlink” the integration from the Tracker side. Go to the Settings page of the account that was linked to Google Apps (by clicking on the ACCOUNT or ACCOUNTS link at the top of the page in Tracker, then the SETTINGS tab), and look for “Unlink from Google Apps domain”. Again, unlinking the account does not delete any data, and you can link the account to Google Apps again at any time by following the steps above.

I’m trying to sign in via Google but get duplicate email or email taken errors

If you see an error message about duplicate OpenID emails, it means that you’ve been to Tracker before, but signed in with a different Google “identity” (Google Accounts vs Google Apps or vice versa). If this happens, please follow the steps here.

If you see a message about your email being in use, it means that Tracker already has a login for you. If you don’t remember your Tracker password, you can use the “forgot password” link on the normal Tracker signin page. If you’ve really never used Tracker before, then you have probably been “invited” to a Tracker account or project already by a co-worker. If so, you should have received an invitation email that contains an activation link. You must activate your login by following the link in the invitation email. You can then associate your login with your Google Apps domain identity during the activation process.

Adding Pivotal Tracker to your Google Apps domain – New Video

Dan Podsedly

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Here’s a brief video that walks through the process of provisioning Pivotal Tracker for your Google Apps domain.

For more info on the Google Apps integration, see my previous blog post.

SF.TUG Meetup in SF on Sep 28 – Epics and more!

Dan Podsedly

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The next San Francisco Tracker User Group (SF.TUG) meetup will be on Wednesday, September 28, at 6:30pm, in the Pivotal Labs office in San Francisco.

If you’re new to Tracker, or could use a refresher, this is your chance to get an introduction. It’s also a great to chance for more advanced users to give direct feedback, or ask all those difficult questions (e.g. just how do I organize that rapidly growing engineering team?)

There’s also a secret agenda for this meetup. We’d like to get your feedback and discuss a big feature that’s under development – Epics, designed to address a range of needs and scenarios from coarse-grained user interface design, to easy-to-digest team visibility of large features. Come and get a sneak preview!

Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Pivotal Tracker and Google Apps, Together At Last

Dan Podsedly

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

We’re big Google Apps for Business users (and fans) at Pivotal Labs, and use the services daily – along side with Pivotal Tracker, of course. We’re excited to announce that Tracker now integrates with Google Apps, and is available for your domain in the Google Apps Marketplace.

Please read on to learn how to get started, and remember, if you like it, let the rest of the world know with a review in the Marketplace!

Provisioning Tracker for your Apps Domain

The first step is provisioning Pivotal Tracker for your Google Apps domain. You’ll need to be a domain administrator to do this, or a user with the Domain Settings privilege enabled (more on that here). Click the button above, or go to the Pivotal Tracker listing in the Marketplace, click the Add it Now button, and follow all the steps.

Once provisioned, you should see Pivotal Tracker on your Google Apps Dashboard. This is where you can make any provisioning changes, or remove apps from your domain.

Integration between Tracker and a Google Apps domain is at the level of the Tracker account (more on those here). Only one account can be associated with a Google Apps domain, so normally this should be the account that holds all of your company’s projects.

Universal Navigation and Single-Sign-On

It may take a few hours after provisioning, but all users in your Google Apps domain should see a Pivotal Tracker link in the more menu (in the various Google services like Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar, etc.). Clicking that link will sign you into Tracker via OpenID, using your Google Apps identity.

If you access Tracker by going to the Tracker sign in page directly, click on the Google Apps link (the one at bottom right), and type the name of your Google Apps domain (for example “pivotallabs.com”).

Note: If you run into problems with multiple Google OpenID identities (for example because you used to sign in via Google Accounts), please read this.

Inviting Google Users to Account and Projects

We’ve made it easy to invite co-workers from your domain to your linked Tracker account and/or projects within it.

To invite people to your Tracker account, for example to delegate administrative or project creation rights, go to the Account Members page for the account, click the Add Member button, then the Add Members from List link at the bottom.

You’ll see a list of everyone in your Google Apps domain. Choose the people you’d like to invite to the account, as well as their desired roles.

To invite users from your domain directly to your Tracker project, go to the Project Members page, and click the Add Members from List button. Again, you’ll see a list of all users in your Google domain, and can select multiple users along with their desired project roles. The drop-down menu at the top allows you to toggle between showing Google domain users only (who are not yet on the project), Tracker users only, or both.

Sharing Google Docs via Tracker Stories

Google Docs are indispensable for sharing and collaboration around anything that requires more info than a concise user story. Copying and pasting document links into Tracker stories, and worrying about whether the docs are shared with the right people isn’t fun, though – so we’ve made it easy to attach relevant Google Docs directly to stories.

Google documents that are attached to stories are shared automatically with project members, in view mode, as people open them (by clicking on the document thumbnails/links in Tracker). Note – it sometimes takes a few seconds for Google permission changes to be processed, so you might get a permission denied error the first time you open a Google document in Tracker. If this happens, just close that browser tab and try again.

Feedback and Comments

We’re eager to hear what you think about the Google Apps integration so far, and what you’d like to see in the future. If you think we’re on the right track, leave us a review on the Google Apps Marketplace and star us up!

And, as always, we welcome any kind of feedback. If you have a comment or question, send an email to tracker@pivotallabs.com, reply in the comments here, or mention @pivotaltracker on Twitter!