You may or may not have heard about the recent release of Notion Tools for Team System. If so, hopefully you've given it a whirl and seen features that are of value to you and your organization. If not, you really should check it out; especially since it's free until the end of April. Rather than leave it at that, I thought it would be helpful to blog about certain features of the tool that I have found valuable.
I'll start off with the "Add By Date" feature of the Notion Timesheet add-in that integrates into Visual Studio 2008. This features allows me to load the timesheet grid with any work items against which I've recorded time for the currently selected week. It comes in handy when I need to update my hours on a work item that isn't currently loaded in the grid. I usually have Notion Timesheet bound to a custom work item query that returns items from a variety of team projects that are assigned to me that have not been closed. Occasionally, before I've recorded all my time against a work item, it will be assigned to someone else or I'll close it inadvertently. The "Add By Date" feature lets me quickly retrieve the work item and finish entering my time. I also use it to go back and check my daily totals.
My projects move pretty fast so work items are always on the move. The Notion Timesheet "Add By Date" has been a lifesaver on more than one occasion. Look for more information on cool Notion Tools for Team System features soon.
jb
