Oh, right.  We’re also experimenting with Twitter.  And Facebook.

Right now, you should be able to see an announcement for this post @emanagr.  If that works out, we’ll investigate using Tweets as an interface to eManagr like many of us are using e-mail right now.

I assume that you can also see us on Facebook.  This isn’t my field at all, so I’m curious what this does. Stand back:

Anyway, it turns out we were in the Dark Ages with our version, so much so that we’re wondering how nothing has blown up in our faces, but we’re now at 2.8.1, just in time for the 3.0 announcements, I guess.

Upshot:  If anything looks broken, scream.  I think everything’s back where it’s supposed to be, but may have missed some things.

In the “credit where credit is due” department, we’ve added WP Greet Box.  Presumably, most of you won’t see it, but if a major content provider directs you here, the blog acknowledges it.  I find that sort of interaction helpful and hopefully you will, too.  Also, the aforementioned Twitter interface is handled via Twitter Tools.  Unless it doesn’t do what we expect, in which case we’ll be replacing it very soon with something else.

Always remember, eManagr isn’t Facebook.

Keeping in mind that communities aren’t competitions, if you wanted to think of community websites as a competition, then generally, you “win” when you have collected more connections (friends, followers, or similar) than other people you know.  That goes for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and dozens of social media websites.

For eManagr, it doesn’t matter who claims to be a friend.  We don’t record your communications and don’t prominently announce how many members are on your teams.  Most people wouldn’t even notice if half their so-called friends vanished into thin air.

We also don’t give you a “reputation,” like eBay and many bulletin boards have.  Measurements like that are artificial, because you don’t know how the person earned their five stars, seven thousand karma points, recommendations, or other representations of brown-nosing.  It may have been reciprosity or just good nature.

So, eManagr ignores those things.  Instead, we focus on what makes you unique and a potential candidate for a project.

We ask you who you are.  This is typical and unavoidable.  A solid overview of your experience tells a potential employer what kind of job might interest you.  It also gives you the opportunity to display basic communications skills and brag a little about your abilities.

Note the self-rated skills.  Our experience has been that interviewers want to ask for such self-assessment.  Lacking the means to test your abilities and honesty, this is on the honor system.  However, since we track your estimates (see below), it will be quite obvious if you’re good or bad at your job.

Second, we (not you) keep track of and talk about what you’ve done.  As an impartial third party, we can show an employer exactly what kinds of projects you have been involved with during your time using eManagr, and your role in the project.

Third, we provide up to the minute information on the number of tasks you currently have in the air.  This number might be misleading in fringe cases, but it will generally indicate your engagement; a small number of open tasks suggests that you are near the end of the project, while a larger number suggests that you will be busy for the forseeable future.

Finally, we show the accuracy of your estimates to date, using an average weighted more to the present.  History shows where you have been and number of tasks shows where you are, but your accuracy tells people how well you’re likely to perform.

As mentioned, this serves as a statement of how good you are at your job, based on how well you hit your scheduled deadlines.  Mediocre and bad workers rarely hit their marks.  Excellent workers already know where the project will end up.

That’s the basic tour of what you see on the profile pages.  To a great extent, our goal was to have a “living résumé.”  It’s not quite finished yet, but it seems to get the job done.

Feel free to point people to your profile as a résumé, in fact.  Anybody with an eManagr account can visit:

http://www.emanagr.com/users/yourloginname

to visit your profile.

We’re currently planning on adding to the profile.  Please contact us and tell us what works for you and what does not.  At the top of our list is an optional public profile for Professional users, but we’re understandably curious as to what our users think.

What’s the big deal?

Teams fluctuate. Organizational charts change frequently. Workload is shouldered through various outsourcing firms. People come and go. In other words, your team is very likely fluid, and if we can help you form and organize your team faster and better, then that’s one distraction we’re happy won’t worry you.

The Hollywood model is about precisely this. Rather than attack a problem in terms of “resources” to be used, eManagr thinks in terms of tasks to complete and the people qualified to complete the task.

When a producer creates a movie, she starts with a writer’s script. Often, she has directors with whom she enjoys working, and brings one in who has the time. The roles in the script may also suggest actors these managers have already worked with, and so the cast and crew is built from relationships. Where there isn’t a relationship, the producer wants people with the best reputations.

And that’s all there is to our model. Relationships come first and foremost–you already know how to get in contact with your associates on eManagr. If your circumstances don’t permit any further recruitment, that’s it. If they do, though, you can search for someone with the skill you need and get the people who have the best objective records for getting their projects done reliably.

But that’s a story for the next post.

Meanwhile, today is Memorial Day in the United States. Whatever your politics or belief in any particular war, remember that those who give their lives for their respective countries do so with honorable intentions. Take the opportunity to remember their sacrifices and, as importantly, take time to comfort those who have lost loved ones to wars.

We knew when we launched that many people wouldn’t be willing to use eManagr because there was no easy way to get the project’s status “at a glance.” So, as mentioned a few weeks ago, this was a top feature to add.

At the top of every project page, we have added a link to view the schedule. There, you can see the tasks assigned to each member of the team in priority order, either as a list or as a chart.

The chart should be completely intuitive. Each task is a box with a color that contrasts strongly against its neighbors. It’s width indicates how long the task is likely to take, and a blue horizontal line indicates how close the task is to completion. You can hover over the task for more information, and click through to the task’s detail page.

For example, this is what my own workload will look like for eManagr itself over the next few months:

John's work for eManagr

As I said at the top, it’s not a Gantt chart (though it can be, after we add some related features), but it’s something that a non-technical manager can look at to see how well the team is doing. Give it a try, and tell us what you think.

First, the main system is programmed using Ruby on Rails. Ruby is nicely flexible and the Rails framework does a relatively nice job of hiding web-specific programming. The code is mostly custom, however, other than a few non-standard plugins such as Restful Authentication, WillPaginate (link is sometimes flaky), and auto_complete. The interface relies rather heavily on AJAX, by way of the Scriptaculous libraries.

Artwork, to the extent that we can call it that, happens in either Paint.NET or the GNU Image Manipulation Program, depending on the specific need. We still haven’t uploaded them at this writing, but the movies to be added to the system walkthrough are recorded using Wink; we discussed how to display them (or any Flash video) automatically at the correct size last week, which probably tipped off a few people that Ruby on Rails is involved.

One module not written in Ruby is the code that helps you invite your associates from social networking platforms and e-mail address books. This is handled with Open Inviter, with only slight modifications to match the site layout.

As most people will quickly identify, this blog runs on the WordPress engine, with the following plugins:

• Akismet filters out comment spam.
• The All-in-One SEO Pack is more important for cleaning up the interface than search engine results, but that aspect is also appreciated.
• Author Highlight makes it easier for a casual reader to find official responses to comments.
• Broken Link Checker decreases the likelihood that a link-heavy post like this will become useless to a future reader.
• Google XML Sitemaps help with the aforementioned search engine results, but also help to keep articles straight internally.
• I Love Social Bookmarking helps you, our readers, get the word out, should we happen to say anything useful.
• WordPress Mobile Edition is terrific for making this blog accessible on tiny devices. It’s a shame that the entire web can’t degrade this way automatically.
• WordPress Thread Comment lets you respond to someone’s comment directly, rather than trying to refer to the comment in absentia.
• WP-PageNavi definitely goes a long way to cleaning up the standard WordPress interface.
• Finally, WP Super Cache makes me feel like an idiot when I tweak a setting and it doesn’t show up, but the return in the form of speed makes it worthwhile; there’s nothing worse than a text-only page that loads slowly.

Finally, the community and support forum is the very nice Vanilla package. It’s not perfect, and we’re still (clearly) settling in, but it’s easy to use without sacrificing any significant features.

Oh, and for planning and managing development, we use some web-based system called eManagr. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.

Would anybody else running a software project like to talk about their setup? How is it working out for you?

• Full Scheduling: At present, eManagr only suggests the next task of interest. It does not plan out your entire project schedule from cradle to grave. The code is there, we just want to find the best way to present it.
• Charts: Data is always easier to work with when given a visual representation. Also, to be honest, if you can’t show your boss a Gantt Chart, in many organizations, you don’t have a valid schedule. Look for several charts and reports soon, to go with the schedules.
• Deadline-Driven Scheduling: In many cases, we don’t finish a project when work is done. Instead, we have a strict deadline, and therefore need to make the most of what time we have. Much like the “full scheduling” above, eManagr also understands this, and will recommend the best candidate tasks to skip, when time is tight.
• Expanded Voting: At this time, only members of your team can vote on the importance of features. However, in some cases, a team will have stake-holders who are not on the team. We are looking into the creation of temporary accounts that you can create for your customers, for the purposes of soliciting their input when you want it.
• Auto-Nag: Currently, our e-mail interface is only reactive. You make a request, and eManagr responds to that request. However, we plan to soon add an occasional status request, especially when a task seems in danger of overrunning its estimated completion time.
• Calendars: At this time, you need to tell eManagr whenever you start or stop working on something. That’s doable, but not desirable. Soon, you will be able to attach a schedule to each of your teams. Then, if you start work just before you quit for the day, the clock will silently stop until the next work day.
• Enhanced Statistics: You already know that eManagr follows you as you work, and maintains a picture of your on-the-job performance. Over time, expect this picture to become more complete. We want you to be able to use your profile as documented proof of how well you understand your job.

And probably more, as we work with eManagr more extensively. Like a real manager, it’s sort of a living thing that needs to grow, and I hope you’re as excited about watching it come together as I have been.

Does anybody have any preference regarding these upcoming features? Are there other features eManagr should support? Feel free to enter the discussion below.