Sugar Projects in 3.0

[john]

We are working on a new “Projects” module for Sugar 3.0. Please add your feature wish list.
John

[malcolmh]

We are working on a new “Projects” module for Sugar 3.0. Please add your feature wish list.
John

Hi John,

the word project is a little vague to me, could you give us more specific information about the features you have already planned ?

In a typical project, I would like to see the following features:
- projects with project phases and interdependencies
- managing resources and materials
- logging planned and used time
- creating time sheets,
- managing skills
- managing costs
- Sending automatic Emails when certain phases, time or costs are exceeded , time sheets are not completed on schedule etc.
- Creating comments

This function should show Gannt Charts, should show graphically the availibilty of all resources whether in a project, training, or on vacation etc., should show people with certain skills.

Are my ideas on the right track?

Would the Project functions be used to manage Marketing campaigns, i.e. to log the marketing phases, resources needed and the costs incurred? Other CRM projects usually lack this functionality

Cheers Malcolm

[ruchida]

I like to have functions as below;

- Tight integration of customer requirements (case?) with a new/revised product development project
- Document management
- Gant chart
- Alert on a delayed schedule
- Dependency management (Task "A" should be followed by Task "B" before starting Task "C" ...)
- ROI management (Amount of revenue generated by a specific project)
- Ability to setup a milestone

Best Regards,

[longreach]

You might want to look at http://www.thelongreach.com - to check out Info At Hand. It has Documents and Projects in it today - as well as HR, and an employee Directory. A Sugar 2.5.1 merge is nearing completion, which will bring Info At Hand up from its current 2.0 level.

[wkruchas]

We are working on a new “Projects” module for Sugar 3.0. Please add your feature wish list.
John

John,
I am mostly interested in a Lite version, for our needs it could be similar to the case tab, with the following additions
1) the ability to sequence or order the "Open Activities" (tasks) that make up a case and are viewed when you drill down into a case. (could be as easy as assigning a sequence number and sorting by it when you populate the "Open Activities" grid)
2) show the assigned person in this same grid mentioned above
3) some slight enforcement of dependancies task cannot be started/completed until previous task is started/completed (but this is not core to our needs for a "Project LIte" because reality usually enforces these for us) i.e. can't install OS until Harddrive is insatlled

Thanks in advance
Bill Kruchas

P.S. Some follow up questions
Can we do this through your existing embedded customization capabilities? and
Not to pressure anyone or hold you to it but can you give some timeline or eta on 3.0?

[kjellkahlenberg]

some ideas...different kinds of projects require different approaches, but customer-focused projects may be an appropriate start.
1) File posting & advanced search
2) discussion forum
3) Make projects universal with links to other objects n-n: opportunities,accounts, user groups, campaigns, calendar, activity history etc.
4) Sarbanes Oxley features
5) process templates
6) triggers & alerts
7) active process steps: completing a step triggers an action: Word template, email, schedule, activity completion, file posting, notes, order something, quote something, update database, etc.
8) projects that represent a series of steps in a process that applies to many accounts or contacts can be very useful. Again a complex X-Y view showing "my" accounts on the Y axis and the process steps on the X axis, helps manage the steps and compare progress among accounts. Also this view can help decentralize updates to each account. If I am in charge of a team that is linked to a project that is linked to a group of accounts, I can see the process steps for all accounts in the team; my subordinate can see all of her accounts, etc.
9) time & materials tracking

[john]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. 3.0 is going to be fairly basic – but it should serve as a solid base module for your specific uses. We will improve it based on your feedback in 3.5 mid-summer.
Regards,
John

[tareef]

It would be nice to have a Project Management module like Netoffice (netoffice.sourceforge.net) or PHPCollab (phpcollab.com). Or maybe integrate with these systems.

[JamieinNH]

A Project Management tool we are using, and like a lot is dotProject

I love this tool, one of the weakness, I see in it, is it's forums. Me and my staff discuss a lot in our online forums, and this helps keep a historical record, and also, when new people come onboard, they are get caught up to speed fairly quick. I wish dotProject's forums were a little better, we currently use vBulletin

There was some talk over in the dotProject forums about getting SugarCRM and dotProject to play nice together. Maybe this can be a basis for the project management you are looking to add?

[caseydk]

Good Day all,

I am one of the core dotProject contributors and working on some of the integration modules with other popular packages.

The current agenda consists of the intergration of Mantis Bug Tracker (nearly complete), phpBB forums (to replace the existing forums), SugarCRM, and a groupware package as of yet unchosen.

SugarCRM integration has received a great deal of attention due to the simple fact that a majority of the dotProject users who use any CRM package love it. I happen ot be one of them which is why I am taking the lead. After some initial analysis, one of the weaknesses of the two systems was providing a table prefix within the database. Both systems use a table called "tasks" so they must be installed in different databases and makes sharing of data that much more complicated.

I would greatly encourage this community to determine what the core strengths of SugarCRM is and determine where synergies exist. Calendar management, contact management, and user management are some of the main areas where integration are required and I believe both systems can benefit a great deal from these aspects.

I believe that building task management, gantt charting, and all of the other Project Management functionality that would be required to be implemented in SugarCRM would be a duplication of effort and limit the use of one tool or the other.

Some details can be found on my development blog: http://blogs.CaseySoftware.com/

Thank you,
Keith Casey, CEO CaseySoftware