We would describe how we can use a simple spreadsheet to assign and track new task - requirements, change requests, bugs, chores, etc.
We would need some kind of could solution like Google apps or Office 365 where we can share documents between team mates who can edit them.
We have a directory holding our tasks. In this directory there is a spreadsheet file for each task we have. Let’s say our project is called Rap. We would have a directory called RAP and inside it we would have files called Rap1, Rap2, Rap3, … with the number of the tasks.
In the spreadsheet we have a few columns:
Number - which is the same as the filename, so we can decide to omit this column
Description - description of the task. If it is a new functionality it would be a description of what we want that functionality to be. If it is a change request it would be a description of what we want to change and how. If it is a bug it would be a description of the incorrect behaviour and what is the correct behaviour that we want.
Status - it is an indication of the position of the task in our workflow. In the example spreadsheet our workflow is:
-ToDo - the task is in a list of task is sitting and waiting to be picked up.
-In Progress - someone is currently performing work on the task. It can be that someone is defining the task, and filling in the fields of the task - it is being created. It can be that QA is performing work, or that the task is being implemented - developed.
-QA - the task is ready for QA.
-Reopened - the task has been to QA and it has not passed successfully, or that the task has been closed, but it has been reopened again.
-Done - The task has been completed successfully.
-Closed - The task has not been completed, but of some reason we have decided to not complete it (we don’t need that work done anymore), so we just close the task, but still keep it around for accounting purposes.
Assignee - the person that the task is currently assigned to.
We can have a comments section after the end of the description or we can have the comments as a separate sheet in the spreadsheet, it is up to us.
It is popular to use Agile software development process, for example Scrum. When we plan a spring we would have a directory for each sprint and the tasks that go in that sprint will be moved in the sprint directory.
In our example Rap project in the Rap directory we would have a RapSprint1, RapSprint2, … directories. We could also have directories: Backlog for all the task that are not completed, and not in an active sprint; Completed for all the completed tasks. After a sprint is completed we would move the completed tasks in the “Completed” directory and the ones that are not we would move to the “Backlog” directory. In the finished sprint directory we can place a file with statistical data what was done, which tasks, were in the sprint, which ones we completed, which ones we didn’t, hours spend for the sprint and whatever else we want to keep track of.
By using a simple shared spreadsheet we showed that we can manage our tasks and even have some functionality that is not available in some of the dedicated software solutions for task tracking. Here Here are screenshots of an example spreadsheet created with Google Sheets:
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