What is a Development Request:
A development request is a request to make a change in software, this can be due to the software not behaving as expected, a minor improvement to workflow or a large feature request to design completely new functionality.
How are Development Requests handled:
There is one version of TimeTrak applied to all customers, this means that development requests need to be carefully thought through and selected as a small change can have a large impact on many other customers.
Development requests are discussed internally, those that align with the TimeTrak roadmap, would provide value to numerous customers or we believe contribute to the product as a whole are assigned to the request backlog with a unique Id.
Client tags (customers who made the request) are assigned to these request backlog items.
Items with the most client tags are reviewed when planning the next major release and prioritized higher in order to ensure that common development requests are being actioned.
Why isn’t my request completed yet?
The TimeTrak team is lucky enough to have a huge range of customers in many different business industries such as: Healthcare, Trade Services, Professional Services and Manufacturing.
All of our clients in these industries and even businesses within the same industries use TimeTrak in very different ways and have different priorities with what is important to them in the development of TimeTrak within their business.
This means that our request backlog is forever growing and high priority items and those with a lot of client tags get actioned first.
When logging a request the consultant will advise if it has been logged as a backlog request and can provide you with the unique Id in order for you to follow up on the status of the item at a later date.
It is important to note that even if a request is logged it does not mean the work will be completed, it may be removed as other functionality replaces the request or it no longer aligns with the software roadmap.
I need my Development Request escalated and prioritized:
If your request is of an urgent nature this should be escalated through the TimeTrak support team:
via phone NZ: 0800 12 00 99 AU:1800 60 80 77 or via Email: support@timetrak.benandhayley.nz.
This will be discussed internally to see if a solution can be provided sooner rather than later.
In some instances development requests can be completed by paying for the development time of the feature this would need discussion with the TimeTrak team.
Website Customisation:
Although there is one version of TimeTrak deployed to all clients, within the TimeTrak Professional and TimeTrak Mobile websites there is limited ability to “customize” the websites in some instances to rename a field, button or add a button for example for clients on a one-off basis.
An estimate of time to complete this will be provided, applied to your test environment for you to review and once this is approved applied to your live environment.
The customization will be noted and included in upgrade checklists in order for this to be tested prior to approving a live upgrade.
When customizations are applied to websites, they are not guaranteed to work with all later releases of TimeTrak.
In some cases these may need updated in later releases due to the website changing.
Paid Development:
In some instances to provide business improvements clients require a feature request to be completed.
In these instances occasionally there is an option for paid development or to contribute to the development of a feature that offers the opportunity for the item to be escalated in the request backlog and provide a timeline of when the request will be available.
This is dependent on:
- Size of the feature request.
- Development teams capacity
- If the request aligns with the software roadmap
- Will the request benefit the product as a whole
Features added to the product as a whole are available to all TimeTrak clients, unlike website customizations these go through rigorous testing and documentation processes to ensure these are supported moving forward.
It is important to note that paid development estimates are for development time on the feature only and do not include any of the additional time spent scoping or planning the feature, testing the feature throughout the product and documentation to support the feature.