We’ve mentioned before that we can integrate Q-Suite with Redmine. We use it quite extensively in our support department. That works really well in making sure issues don’t fall between the cracks. In fact, it works so well, I began to wonder how I could make use of it on the development side.
Once you exclude some of the management requirements, the workflow for developers is actually very similar to our support department. Issues come in from multiple sources, get triaged and then assigned to the individual to be processed.
Why stop there? Why not add marketing tasks too? These are mostly writing blog posts and press releases, but the process is almost identical to how development is done here.
The main benefit is that there is less mental overhead. The system takes care of remembering tasks that you need to do. If the task isn’t urgent, it can be deferred for up to three months. Once deferred, you don’t have to worry about forgetting it as it will just pop up on its own.
One thing that keeps me on my toes is that you can see how many times you’ve deferred something, such as writing this blog post:
It was deferred, but not forgotten about. Using the two products for development and marketing requires only an extra 3-5 minutes per day to manage. Since doing this, my commute home has been less stressful as I’ve stopped having that nagging feeling that I’ve forgotten something.