Sonjaya Tandon

HOW-TO: Update your daily status in VersionOne

June 19th, 2006

To get the most out of VersionOne, during an iteration each team member should update their status at the end of each day. Fortunately that process is one that only takes 1-5 minutes. So, team members, keep in mind, for the cost of 1-5 minutes a day you no longer have to write those pesky status reports . When you update your status, you are typically communicating one or more of the following:

1. You completed a planned task
2. You worked on a planned task, but did not complete it
3. You worked on an unplanned task
4. You fixed a defect
5. You worked on a defect, but did not complete it
6. You worked on an undiscovered defect

This how to will guide you through the procedure for each activitity. As tasks should be 0.25 to 2 days in length (with the bulk above 0.5), you should only have to update 1 or 2 tasks each day.

You completed a planned task

1. Login to VersionOne

2. Select MyHome–>Task

3. Edit the task by clicking on the “edit” link. For example, I finished up “Implement support for Add/Edit category properties”. So I clicked on the “edit” link in that task row.

4. Set the status to completed

Press OK to close the dialog (OK button not shown in screen shot).

5. Enter the amount of time you spent on the task in the effort column and 0 in the To Do column

Click on Apply.

6. Select the “Close Task” link in the task row.

6. Click on “Close Task”

NOTE: In the process of doing tasks, you may realize that other tasks will take less/more time. Make sure to update those tasks “To Do” columns with your latest estimate. For example, in the process of working on “Implement support for Add/Edit category properties” I realized the “Implement model changes” were only going to take 0.5 days versus the 1.0 day it was originally estimated at. So, I updated that task’s To Do since I now felt there was only 0.5 days worth of work to do:

You worked on a planned tasks, but did not complete it

1. Login to VersionOne

2. Select MyHome–>Task

3. Edit the task by clicking on the “edit” link.

4. Set the status to “In Progress” and click on the “OK” button

5. Enter the amount of time you spent on the task in the effort column amd enter the amount of time you thing you have left in the To Do column

Make sure the click on the “Apply” button to apply your changes

You worked on an unplanned task

In this case, the task you worked on was never planned. That means, it hasn’t been entered into VersionOne yet. So, you need to add the task to the appropriate story and then update it accordingly. If there is no story that makes sense for the task, then you will need to add a story. Make sure to set the source of the tasks you enter to “Unplanned”.

You fixed a defect

The procedure here is identical to “You completed a planned task” except you go to the MyHome–>Defects page instead.

You worked on a defect, but did not complete it

The procedure here is identical to “You worked on a planned task, but did not complete it ” except you go to the MyHome–>Defects page instead.

You worked on an undiscovered defect

As in the case of unplanned tasks, you will have to add the defect first, and then update it.

Entry Filed under: Software Development, VersionOne How-to, Project Management