The Status Reporting Tool

Personal Edition Now Available

14 Apr 2008 02:08:42 GMT

We are pleased and proud to introduce a “Personal Edition” of the Status Reporting Tool. Using the “Get Started Now!” link from our home page or signing up here will allow you to manage your status reports online for free.

The Personal Edition allows you to establish one end-user account who may have an unlimited number of templates, schedules and reports. It is provided with “no warranty” meaning that because it uses a shared MySQL database on our LunarPages host, we cannot provide backups of your data. You may print out or copy off your reports as insurance against any issues the host may have.

v1.3.1 Released

Bill Hamilton — 30 Dec 2007 02:03:23 GMT

Scability is a large concern for the Status Reporting Tool. With it's ability to matrix employees and group templates into a common reporting structure, the Status Reporting Tool makes it possible for large corporations to implement the proper process throughout their organization. Version 1.3.1 introduces a tree structure for manipulating both users and schedules. These lists can quickly grow to very large numbers in a big organization. The tree structure helps manage that information.

v1.3 Released

Bill Hamilton — 22 Dec 2007 02:04:02 GMT

Added Manager's Report

Until this release, reporting has been done based on "groups". If you belonged to a group, even as a "read-only" member, you were entitled to see the reports of all individuals in the group. This poses a small problem for managers who do not belong to the same group as their employees. For example, if a member of a Quality Assurance group is assigned to participate on one project while another member works a different project, the manager would be required to belong to both groups in order to see the activities of the employees they were responsible for assessing annually. This update addresses that situation.

The "Manager's Report" allows a user that does not belong to a group, but does have employees reporting to them, to view the current report of each employee. The layout is slightly different than the report based on groups as shown in the enclosure.

Other updates included in this version:

Changed the "default" skin to "Island"
Changed the installation process from multiple pages to a wizard
Added the ability to specify and load several different lists at the time of installation
Updated the login and home pages to reflect the name Status Reporting Tool
Reorganized the underlying classes and packages to properly reflect the name change to Status Reporting Tool
Added a Logoff capability
Added Password Strength rules
Added Password Strength graphical feedback to the Options and Users pages

v1.21 Released

Bill Hamilton — 16 May 2007 02:04:50 GMT

Added Ability To Matrix Reports

In the world of consulting, including entire organizations who work government contracts, working multiple contracts is a way of life. During the course of a week, it's not uncommon to work two or three different contracts, billing the time appropriately to each. While splitting the time and recording it appropriately is beyond the functionality of the Status Reporting Tool, reporting the activities performed while working on each contract is the responsibility of the Status Reporting Tool. This update introduces the capability to matrix a person without requiring them to leave the report entry page. Each project's unique template is presented in one browser page, separated by appropriate headers. At the end of the reporting period, the activities can be reported out uniquely according to which project it was completed (and billed) for.

v1.2 Released

Bill Hamilton — 22 Apr 2007 02:06:00 GMT

Added Ability To Edit A Closed Report

Previously, a Status Report was considered "closed" at the time the closing date passed. Thereafter, no changes were allowed to the report. After considering this position, it was decided that a user could change the report if the changes were logged to an Exceptions table. This update provides the capability to edit an existing report while logging the changes to an exceptions table.

v1.1 Released

Bill Hamilton — 15 Apr 2007 02:06:30 GMT

New Skins Added

Two new skins, Island and Ocean, have been added to the Status Reporting Tool. The reports available in the application have also been broken out into individual menu options.

v1.0 Released

Bill Hamilton — 2 Jan 2007 02:07:00 GMT

After more than 10 years of internal use, I am happy to announce the public release of The Status Reporting Tool.

The Status Reporting Tool has been a personal productivity tool I built for myself way back in the mid '90s. It's been converted through several languages, evolved from a fat client to a browser-based application and the feature set has grown. The tool has been used on many different projects with many different organizations during my years of consulting. In my "copious free time", I've brought the tool along to meet my current needs. Now, after seeing the organizations I've worked with struggle while I breezed through reporting expectations, I've turned my attention to providing the capability I've enjoyed to others. In doing so, I've found that I have to overcome the many misconceptions others have about status reporting. You can find some of my thoughts in this area at my blog. I hope you enjoy the Status Reporting Tool and look forward to learning more from you! - Bill Hamilton