https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog39762a72-d95a-4524-9f06-63b89745de81https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/09/08/Take-Control-Over-Your-Support-EffortOver the product lifetime not only the functionality and the used technologies play an important role, but also the support of existing customers. Sometimes this customer support can reach a very high level. In this blog article we list some tips how to reduce customer support using the ticket system Zendesk in combination with time cockpit.2017-09-08T06:54:00Zba362f96-9dcc-4a2b-8b1d-0fbc33004416https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/08/10/Automation-CultureThe calm summer months are the perfect time to work on some long intended, internal projects. This month, we finally found the time to fully automate our web deployment using VSTS Release Management. In this blog post we share our release process and its technical implementation using VSTS and Azure.2017-08-10T08:39:00Zbc60151c-400a-4752-8512-44b2214e8dd0https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/07/10/Colocation-and-EfficiencyRecently, I spoke with one of our partners about their view on remote working vs. colocation. My discussion partner was convinced that his software development team is more productive because more or less all members work in the same location. That conversation gave me a lot of food for thought. Do efficiency gains from colocation outweigh losing talents who are not able or not willing to regularly commute into the office? Is there a happy medium? In this blog post I share my thoughts on this topic.2017-07-10T11:21:00Z3a804904-da21-4474-aa1e-b51d3b948550https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/06/12/Brand-New-Time-Cockpit-Documentation-PortalThis month we launch our brand new time cockpit documentation portal. The existing one has served us well for many years but it was time for a change. The technology behind time cockpit's documentation portal has been revamped from scratch. The new system is convenient to use. Additionally, it greatly simplifies our process of writing documentation which will lead to more up-to-date information. In this blog post we highlight the most important features of our new portal.2017-06-12T06:10:00Z8b730aca-6cd0-4c4a-b04c-373e268186a9https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/06/08/Aligning-Business-and-Technology-When-Starting-SaaS-ProjectsWhenever we start new SaaS projects, we try not to start with a too technical focus. We believe that the technical implementation has to reflect the business goals. Just focusing on technological aspects raises the danger of a project failure because of over-engineering or over-simplification. In this blog post we share important business-related questions that we use to prepare software architecture workshops for SaaS projects.2017-06-08T07:41:00Z1f03cd50-4c98-4816-941e-ae9e90861e3ehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/05/09/Change-to-Our-Release-CycleOur monthly release cycle has been in place for years. With more and more customers switching from time cockpit's full client to HTML5, we think its time for a change. Read more about our future update strategy and the different time cockpit environments you can choose from.2017-05-09T08:34:00Z24130334-b7f3-4cdd-87c0-31277af28b3fhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/05/09/Whats-New-in-Version-May-2017This month we have added a feature which allows you to hide the signal details area in the calendar. Additionally, there are improvements for exceptions in actions.2017-05-09T06:04:00Z5c67cb2a-98bf-43e0-93fb-5a6be38efb01https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/05/09/We-Fell-in-Love-With-MarkdownAlthough we love to write code, we often have to write text content, too. I am thinking of blog posts, documentation, meeting minutes, presentations, etc. Lately, we started to use Markdown for more and more of these purposes. Our latest project in that direction is moving our product documentation from Sandcastle (MAML = XML) to DocFX (=Markdown).2017-05-09T05:18:00Z24a23c43-e874-45f1-af84-30312de0a65bhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/03/31/Whats-New-in-Version-April-2017This month you will find various improvements and bug fixes in the HTML5 Client and in the Full Client. In the Full Client one major improvement is the editor for triggers. In the HTML5 Client we have added support for BooleanRadioButtonCells.2017-03-31T08:37:00Z0c64c407-eb8a-40e0-814f-c4c300d0a992https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/03/30/The-Business-Value-of-Time-TrackingTime tracking has a bad reputation. Nobody likes to account for how exactly she is spending her working time. Developers want to code instead of struggling with administrative tasks like filling out their time sheet. In my opinion, this attitude is wrong. Granted, we build software for time tracking so the topic is naturally near to my heart. Independently, I really believe that a good time tracking practice can solve a big problem for many developers: It can help getting rid of hated technical debts.2017-03-30T16:11:00Zec2c414f-ac74-4095-ae0a-af5f76b05de8https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/03/30/Professional-Time-Cockpit-Scripting-with-PTVSExtensibility is an important feature of time cockpit. In contrast to many of our competitors, we enable you to tailor time cockpit exactly to your needs. In this blog post, I want to focus on how you can add advanced custom logic using Python scripting. Python scripts are just text, so you can theoretically develop them in any text editor. However, when logic gets more complex, you need a more advanced development environment supporting syntax coloring, IntelliSense, debugging, unit testing, etc. Microsoft offers such an environment: Python Tools for Visual Studio (PTVS). It is free and it works with Microsoft’s free Visual Studio Community Edition. So, let us see how you can use PTVS to professionalize you Python scripting in time cockpit.2017-03-30T14:22:00Z40365583-96d2-4e95-a14f-d3a9b00b6161https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/03/01/Make-Travelling-Time-Quality-TimeI travel a lot in my job. Last year I had over 70 flight segments, made dozens of long-distance train trips and slept on average once per week in a hotel. In this blog post, I want to share my tips for making good use of travel time. Sometimes I use it for working, sometimes I just relax, but I always try to not waste the time.2017-03-01T06:58:00Z8099b855-bd45-48ee-9f91-9409cef54622https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/02/28/Workflows-with-Azure-Logic-Apps-and-Time-CockpitMore and more of our customers use multiple SaaS solutions to do their business. Many business processes span multiple applications. Therefore, they need a glue that combines the different systems. One possibility is writing serverless functions. However, sometimes graphical workflows are a better match. Azure Logic Apps implement such an approach. In this blog post we demonstrate how you can embed time cockpit in such workflows.2017-02-28T18:29:00Z9cdc6b84-14b1-4c2d-b70f-c88ea4a7dfd5https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/02/28/Whats-New-in-Version-March-2017This month we have focused on improving the performance of validating and saving data as well as loading combo box values. Additionally, we have changed the way data can be selected in grids.2017-02-28T07:30:00Z5231f043-2f91-496a-b4f3-4496422b23d0https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/02/01/Whats-New-in-Version-February-2017This month our main goal was to make your signal data you have collected with the Full Client available in the HTML5 Client. Additionally, we have made improvements and bug fixes for the HTML5 Client as well as for the Full Client.2017-02-01T08:10:00Z2be4165a-fd85-4889-9a07-e33e9d3e256dhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2017/01/30/Signal-Data-in-the-Time-Cockpit-Web-ClientIt is sometimes hard to keep track of your work during a busy week, isn't it? In such situations, our users love time cockpit's signal trackers. They make notes about your work in the background. When it comes to completing your time sheet records, the data they collected makes sure you do not forget billable hours. This month, we added signal tracker data to time cockpit's HTML5 client. In this blog post your get all the information you need to benefit from your signals when accessing time cockpit through a browser.2017-01-30T20:08:00Z5212a6cd-f547-4216-8753-5feafab7e1adhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/12/30/How-to-Evaluate-PaaS-ServicesBesides working on our flagship product time cockpit, we help customers to build their own cloud-based SaaS solutions. Looking back on the work I have been doing for the last few years, it strikes me how much my work as a developer has changed since we made the move to cloud and PaaS. One question has become determining: Is there a PaaS service for my problem? In this blog post I share how we evaluate PaaS services used in our projects.2016-12-30T08:37:00Z450f2dc7-2bb5-4e0a-a5fe-877c6fb1a099https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/12/29/Using-Time-Cockpit-RESTful-Web-API-in-RMachine learning is a hot topic nowadays. Therefore, the R programming language has gained a lot of popularity lately. Microsoft is also pushing in that direction by adding R support in many of its products including Visual Studio. I assume that some customers want to analyze data from time cockpit in R, too. So I wrote this blog post to demonstrate how you can use time cockpit's RESTful Web API and TCQL to get data into R for further analysis. 2016-12-29T15:41:00Zf9004c17-7f36-4572-88a0-ac3a1100a996https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/12/29/Whats-New-in-Version-January-2017This month we have focused on improving the performance of some common scenarios like modifying time sheet entries in the calendar and scrolling in lists. For that, we have made lots of improvements and bug fixes to provide a good performance in all modern browsers.2016-12-29T09:36:00Za21c4dda-a80e-4659-9973-331f734b3de6https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/11/30/Whats-New-in-Version-December-2016This month we have worked closely with some of our customers who plan to switch to the HTML5 client to make sure that all their time cockpit customizations also work in the HTML5 client. For that, we have made lots of improvements and bug fixes. Additionally, we now allow to authenticate with time cockpit by using the hybrid flow of OpenID Connect.2016-11-30T06:38:00Z777c60d2-4bca-4419-9815-ea7bf73524behttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/11/28/Time-Cockpit-OpenID-Connect-Hybrid-FlowTime cockpit has been using OpenID Connect based on IdentityServer for quite a while. Until recently, all our own clients and clients that our customers wrote used the implicit flow. A few weeks ago, a customer approached us who wanted to use hybrid flow. This month, we made the necessary changes to time cockpit to support this authentication scenario.2016-11-28T12:46:00Zeab0d7a7-c21f-4b90-bd17-82e424a30c69https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/11/27/Choose-Your-Side-Projects-WiselyA few months ago, I wrote a blog post about how to keep up with ever-changing technology. One of my tips was starting side projects to dive deeper into new technologies. I have been doing side projects myself for a long time. They can be informative and fun. However, they can turn into nightmares for you and your team if chosen poorly. In this blog post I would like to summarize tips for getting the most out of your side projects.2016-11-27T08:21:00Z0a7adf74-923a-4299-9166-4a1ef9866646https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/10/31/Impersonation---Great-Tool-for-Testing-CustomizationsWe have built time cockpit so that you can tailor it to your specific needs. The full client has had an Impersonation-feature since the early days of time cockpit. This month, we added support for impersonation to the HTML5 client, too. Read more about testing with impersonation in this article2016-10-31T10:14:00Zfaafd881-f7d5-4bca-92a9-1b40f9d0c479https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/10/31/Whats-New-in-Version-November-2016We had a busy month because we added some quite large features to time cockpit. Active/passive travel time is now in production, we added a German UI to the HTML5 client, we reworked the reporting engine and much more. We hope you like the progress we made with time cockpit. In this article you can read more about all of this month's enhancements.2016-10-31T06:26:00Z393069c2-0dec-4c1a-9210-d607a3cb34efhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/10/30/Stop-Arguing-Over-InvoicesI have been doing consulting and software development work for more than twenty years. Additionally, I speak about financial aspects of project management with lots of teams through the work we do with our flagship product time cockpit. Based on that experience I want to share some tips that can helped me to reduce discussions over invoices and billable hours.2016-10-30T09:59:00Zcf4d2717-41f6-470e-b097-8ba547e6db4chttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/09/30/Whats-New-in-Version-October-2016In September, we primarily worked on extending time cockpit's working time violation check functions. In the past, it was already possible to use a global setting to specify whether travel time is counted as working time. This setting will be replaced with a new, more powerful functionality that allows you to distinguish active and passive travel time when evaluating working time violations. In the HTML5 client we added a possibility to reset your password without having to go to time cockpit's website.2016-09-30T11:08:00Zc0713082-6fd7-4ed9-8b69-3a3dbf347ab4https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/09/30/Active-and-Passive-Travel-Time-for-Working-Time-LimitsThis month we worked on the existing functions of working time violations. Up to now, time cockpit was not able to distinguish between active and passive travel times when verifying the maximum working hours per day or week. Due to changes in labor laws in 2016, these functions were now added. This Article contains a preview of changes that become available for first beta customers in October. We plan to roll them out to all customers one month later.2016-09-30T09:52:00Zf3db87cf-1ee8-494f-a71b-378a5cf35b41https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/09/30/How-to-Select-Software-Development-TechnologiesPublic speaking, technology and cloud consulting, training, software architecture workshops, etc. are an important part of my business beside working on our products, foremost time cockpit. When doing such projects, I see many teams struggle with platform selection. Should we build a web app or a native app? Is .NET the right platform for developing our backend or should we move to Node.js? Should we integrate/buy a standard product for dashboards or build our own component? Dicisions for questions like these can have massive consequences. They can make difference between long-term success and failure of projects. In this blog article I like to share our current thinking in this regards concerning our own products.2016-09-30T06:45:00Z2df96779-60c0-45a0-8f97-7d65890de135https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/08/31/Whats-New-in-Version-September-2016This month we have focused on combo boxes in the HTML5 client. There were still three features missing from the full client: lookup lists, configuration of the number of items and adding and editing items. In the new version we have added the first two of them: lookup lists and configurable number of items.2016-08-31T05:35:00Zd37c042b-aac7-4978-b51d-2ebe58427ffehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/08/30/The-Tale-of-a-ReportTime cockpit already offers extensive reporting functionality using SQL Server Reporting Services. With Reporting Services you can create your own nicely formatted reports that can be filled with your time cockpit data. However, there are rather advanced scenarios where the built-in reporting capabilities alone do not go far enough. Recently, we refactored a crucial report for one of our long-term customer. In this article we share the main challenges and how we solved them. 2016-08-30T13:37:00Z4efa0bb8-e799-46dc-a29d-16fee52f79fdhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/08/29/Sacred-Cows---Dont-Stop-QuestioningEver heard about "pronation" or "supination"? If you have, you are probably a runner like myself. Over years, running shoe manufacturers have been emphasizing how important it is to analyze pronation of your foot and choose a proper shoe based on it - until studies showed that your shoe's pronation control is not connected to injury rates at all. "Pronation" was the running shoe industry's sacred cow. Do you have such "sacred cows" in your business, too? My advice: Never stop questioning them!2016-08-29T13:09:00Zc795ba89-ae0f-42ff-8e82-973d0a4d2c30https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/07/29/Budgetary-Control-on-Project-and-Task-LevelIn time cockpit version August 2016 we extended the existing project management functionalities. Up to now, time cockpit provided a list for budgetary control of projects. This list helps you to check whether the actual effort is within the project budget. In larger projects you will need more control over the status of you project, so we added a new list "Budgetary Control of Tasks", that allows you to monitor the progress of your projects on task level.2016-07-29T10:35:00Z0d82060b-f863-47a5-a6e7-c679a7c475fehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/07/29/Whats-New-in-Version-August-2016This month we have focused on improving the project controlling features of time cockpit. We have created a new list for monitoring project status on task level. It shows you the booked hours, remaining hours and hours to bill for each task. To make life easier when creating new time sheet entries, we have introduced a closed flag for tasks to reduce the number of items in the tasks combo box. With BackReferenceCells in forms a relatively new feature from the full client made it into the web client. And finally, we could fix performance problems with reports in the HTML5 client this month.2016-07-29T06:43:00Z9748807a-4cfe-48c6-9482-555e3b33e296https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/06/30/Case-Study-Time-Cockpit-and-Power-BI-at-AITMicrosoft Power BI is getting more and more attention in the market. We get questions about integrating time cockpit with Power BI frequently. AIT, one of our long-term time cockpit customers, shared some of their time cockpit-related Power BI dashboards with us. Read what they have built and how they use the dashboards to manage their team.2016-06-30T10:51:00Za7dda04e-eafb-447a-a715-537906867e11https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/06/29/Whats-New-in-Version-July-2016More and more users are using the new HTML5 client of time cockpit. We love that :-) To smoothen the transition, we did a lot of polishing in the HTML5 user interface this month. Examples are better keyboard handling, better performance of the forms engine and auto-sizing of grid columns. In this blog article we describe all enhancements that we rolled out this month.2016-06-29T10:37:00Z453beb56-be59-40e6-82df-c453f6e793d9https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/06/23/How-To-Introduce-Time-CockpitIt has been 6 and a half years now since we have gone live with time cockpit back in 2010. In these years, we have served various company types. In this article we want to share our experience when introducing time cockpit.2016-06-23T11:02:00Z9da6858f-4214-404a-8f76-db858c946d22https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/05/31/Monolithic-Monsters-Platforms-and-MicroservicesIn the last decade, requirements for business software have changed drastically. First, monolithic industry solutions had to become platforms to enable tailoring to customer-specific needs. Next, architectural changes were necessary to fully use the advantages of cloud computing. Today, software products have to become Microservices that can be combined by customers into larger systems. This article summarized this evolution of business software and describes how our strategy for time cockpit fits in.2016-05-31T12:19:00Z4cf9a944-ddb1-4bcc-9e8a-c4f9e4955b1bhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/05/31/Whats-New-in-Version-June-2016This month we have put our focus on these two topcis: handling time-off in the time tracking calendar and better usibility of lists. You do not need to leave the time tracking calendar anymore to manage time off like vacation or sick leave. In lists you now have much better grouping functionality, especially when dates are affected.2016-05-31T05:05:00Za046c411-02dd-48ee-bf04-182ea1f9d98ahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/05/27/Playing-in-the-SandboxDo you have customized time cockpit or plan to customize it? If yes, you should continue reading, because in this article we show you how you can get your own, private time cockpit test system where you can play around with things without influencing your time cockpit production environment.2016-05-27T05:29:00Zc7d6c2f5-9cbd-4672-b11e-b09946d7581dhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/05/01/Whats-New-in-Version-May-2016This month we have mainly focused on two topics: date / time input and extensibility of the HTML5 client. The improvements for date and time input are ready to use in the new version. There are lots of shortcuts now to enter date and time values. Making time cockpit ready for your extensions will take us another month until we are ready to ship this feature - then you will be able to add your own HTML5 apps to the time cockpit menu.2016-05-01T08:29:00Z845aecd2-14a1-4f70-80a3-edde79802557https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/05/01/Azure-Functions---Seamlessly-Connecting-Time-CockpitIn nearly every time cockpit implementation project, we have to integrate time cockpit with upstream and downstream systems like CRM, accounting, billing, etc. Additionally, customers want to automate workflows like handling working time violations or vacation requests. In the past, we typically used Azure WebJobs for that. Recently, Microsoft announced an improved successor: Azure Functions. In this blog article we introduce Azure Functions and show how they can be used with time cockpit.2016-05-01T04:34:00Z62dc4332-7596-4041-ae7d-ec3e6742d575https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/03/31/Whats-New-in-Version-April-2016Piece by piece we bring time cockpit's full client features to our HTML5 web client. This month we added support for field-level permissions. This step has been requested by multiple customers as the missing support blocked them from using the new web client. In addition to field-level permissions, we plugged in a brand new Office 365 module into the time cockpit calendar: Office 365 Planner Tasks.2016-03-31T18:16:00Zf198df6c-56e4-480b-9943-cfb39c664a0ehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/03/31/Black-Swans-Do-ExistIn our time cockpit implementation projects, we get in touch with very different company cultures. However, we have to deal with two critical topics in most customer projects we do in Western Europe countries like Germany and Austria: Data security and working time regulations. Typically, a large fraction of the customizing effort is invested in these two aspects of time cockpit. Does it have to be like that? Are there successful examples of completely different approaches?2016-03-31T06:30:00Z50fdc6b7-4e78-4bc9-8fea-06fee2f3e2cdhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/03/17/Health-Check-Tracking-Time-and-Costs-in-Agile-ProjectsIn business life, managers usually want to know upfront how long a project will take and how much it will cost. Essentially, they ask us to predict the future. However, life is what happens to you while you’re busy making plans. Nevertheless, agile must not mean chaos and blind flight, though. At time cockpit, we have developed best practices for keeping track of time and costs in agile projects. . In this blog article I summarize the most important aspects.2016-03-17T13:22:00Zb39cb0dd-a4ca-4774-9b4d-bf6cd9366028https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/02/29/Whats-New-in-Version-March-2016In the new version we have focused on two topics. First, we have improved the working time report by adding overtime and remaining vacation entitlement. Second, we have extended the Office 365 integration with the HTML5 time sheet calendar by sent emails.2016-02-29T09:45:00Zfebeb212-0909-406b-997a-f2ea8600719bhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/02/29/Time-Report-With-Overtime-and-Vacation-EntitlementIn time cockpit version March 2016 we have enhanced the default time report. Among other improvements we added the remaining vacation entitlement and actual overtime to the report. In this article we will explain the updates and extensions in detail.2016-02-29T08:10:00Z5c94b0da-059c-407b-b00e-0b3bb50cb48ahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/01/31/Whats-New-in-Version-February-2016Office 365 is a very successful cloud service from Microsoft. Millions of people all over the globe use it for emails, document management, communication, etc. This month, we added an out-of-the-box integration with Office 365 to time cockpit's HTML5 timesheet calendar. See all your Outlook appointments in time cockpit and turn them into timesheet records with a simple double-click.2016-01-31T09:25:00Z0a058066-64d2-4dbd-bc7e-3e40b3320658https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/01/31/Hello-Database-PoolsIn January, we finally migrated all our production databases in Microsoft Azure from the old web/business-edition-model to new v12 database servers. Additionally, we now manage all our database clusters in Azure Database Pools. Although this change will not influence you as a time cockpit user directly, you indirectly have some important benefits.2016-01-31T09:01:00Z8b1393b1-8a46-492b-996a-b82fc7a24498https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2016/01/29/Protect-Against-Frankenstein-With-Design-to-CostAlthough software is intangible, it ages. As a consequence, every software company will at some point need to make significant investments to redesign and modernize existing applications. In such projects, costs and available resources are important for design decisions. Without a design-to-cost approach, redesign projects often are stopped before they are finished. Frankenstein software is the result. Read more about how to use the design-to-cost approach to protect against Frankenstein.2016-01-29T12:31:00Z4ffb8027-8abf-480f-8966-a87225792bbbhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/12/30/Whats-New-in-Version-January-2016This month our main focus was adding responsive design to our HTML5 client. Our goal is to make time cockpit's web client usable on phone, tablets and in desktop browsers. We have not reached our final goal yet but we have made significant progress this month. Try it and tell us what you think.2015-12-30T12:05:00Zac1d0eea-bfb0-4a5e-83cc-afb009e358a2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/12/30/No-Time-to-Keep-up-With-Ever-Changing-TechnologyThe software business has been changing at a daunting speed in the last years. Technologies, programming languages, frameworks, project management approaches, etc. we use today have changed so much compared to e.g. five years ago. This is especially true if you are developing on Microsoft's technology stack (e.g. C#, .NET, Visual Studio, TypeScript, Azure) like we do. During workshops and trainings, I often get asked how I find the time to learn all these new technologies. In this blog article I would like to share some thoughts about this topic with you.2015-12-30T07:02:00Z881d01a5-81e0-4561-bf19-c3263e91e19chttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/12/29/How-TypeScripts-asyncawait-Makes-Your-Life-EasierMany of our customers use Node.js to extend time cockpit. They automate routine tasks, implement interfaces to other systems, or even write powerful web apps on top of time cockpit's OData web api. We have good news for you: TypeScript's new async/await feature makes your life much easier.2015-12-29T14:22:00Z1f9cb97c-fea1-45d5-bc18-f8a5efc45853https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/11/30/Integrating-Time-Cockpit-with-Power-BITime cockpit is a great platform for managing time- and project-related data. Microsoft’s Power BI shines when it comes to data visualization and interactive dashboards. Wouldn’t it be nice to integrate both systems to get the best of both worlds? For this month’s newsletter, we have created a sample showing how simple it is to connect both systems’ web APIs. Watch the video in the blog article to find out how the integration sample works. Additionally, the blog article contains links to the sample code. Feel free to use it as a starting point for exporting your time cockpit data to Power BI.2015-11-30T12:20:00Za0b9731a-1a10-4e62-8aa5-7ed1e333d1bdhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/11/30/Whats-New-in-Version-December-2015This month we have focused on improving the behavior of lists in the HTML5 client. We added full-text search and significantly improved the grouping behavior. In the full client, we fixed some issues regarding data synchronization and Outlook integration.2015-11-30T09:33:00Z04442595-b997-4dce-9a8a-9f9ef445c2c2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/10/31/Office-365-Calendar-Add-In-with-Time-CockpitOffice 365 makes it quite easy to create add-ins using HTML and JavaScript. Time cockpit also offers an easy-to-use API for these web technologies. In this blog article I walk you through a short sample that demonstrates how to create an Outlook calendar add-in accessing time cockpit's project database.2015-10-31T18:53:00Z521ba196-121c-4bd7-9b23-2513e4bc8114https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/10/30/How-to-Use-the-Excel-Import-in-the-HTML-5-Web-ClientTime cockpit contains a powerful importer for Excel and CSV files. You might have already used it in time cockpit's full client. This month we added the Excel importer to the new HTML5 client. In this article we describe how it works.2015-10-30T11:38:00Z5f013be8-5891-420e-9bbb-77f85d3d3d7chttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/10/30/Why-an-Excel-Import-Is-Still-SexyIt is true, there are lots of ways to get data in and out of time cockpit, the most advanced one being the OData Web API. Still, there are scenarios where an Excel import plays strong. First, you do not need to have any programming skills to import data. Time cockpit can generate an empty sample file. You just need to fill the file with your data and let time cockpit do the rest. And let’s be honest, Excel is ubiquitous and nearly everyone knows how to work with it. In this blog article I describe scenarios in which many time cockpit customers use our Excel importing feature.2015-10-30T10:45:00Zb4c4414e-e461-442c-8c04-e974d1ac1a39https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/10/30/Whats-New-in-Version-November-2015This month we focused on bringing time cockpit's Excel importer to the HTML 5 web client. It is true, there are other ways to load data into time cockpit which are fancier (see OData Web API). But if you need a pragmatic but powerful way that most users can relate to, you might consider the time cockpit Excel importer for import tasks.2015-10-30T10:26:00Z453f0e4a-02eb-4826-8ad6-31e005eb6c91https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/09/30/Is-the-Cloud-Still-a-Safe-HarborData protection is an important topic when it comes to cloud computing. This is true especially for customers in Europe. Recently, discussions about whether cloud services can be considered as safe for European customers got fueled by a critical statement of the advisor to Europe's top court about the Safe Harbor agreement. In this article I want to describe the current situation in Azure concerning EU data protection laws.2015-09-30T15:56:00Z06befb8a-fadb-45fb-9741-e0a3e6c6bb09https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/09/30/Staff-Vacation-Calendar-with-Time-Cockpit-and-Office-365In this article, we will show how you can connect time cockpit with Office 365 to view all the vacations of your employees in one single Sharepoint/Outlook calendar. This approach has two big benefits: First, you do not need to manage vacations in multiple systems and second, you can take advantage of the strength of both, time cockpit and Office 365.2015-09-30T07:33:00Z917aa693-98b0-4300-b851-c19b39d18ac5https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/09/30/Whats-New-in-Version-October-2015This month we continued our work on time cockpit's HTML5 client. We added back reference tabs in forms and made navigation in the main menu easier. In addition to that advances in the web client, we fixed issues related to reporting in time cockpit' full client. In this blog article we describe this month's improvements in more details.2015-09-30T05:36:00Z56cbf859-56eb-4f9c-98fd-de0d03b907d2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/08/31/Whats-New-in-Version-September-2015This month, the graphical time sheet calendar of our HTML5 client preview made a huge step forward. We worked hard to add many of the features you love from time cockpit's full client. Additionally, the HTML5 client received a complete makeover. In this blog article we summarize what has changed since last month. We hope you like our work and encourage you to give the new HTML5 client a try. 2015-08-31T07:51:00Z43bcc7e4-6dd0-4667-b3b1-fe75163f3dcchttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/08/31/10-Great-Sources-for-Innovation-Ideas-in-Agile-ProjectsWe deliver our software time cockpit as a service (SaaS model). By sending monthly invoices, we regularly remind our customers of the money they pay for our service. Therefore, it is crucial that we continuously show progress and innovation so that customers know what they are paying for. In this blog article I want to talk about 10 great sources we use to get ideas for new features and technologies.2015-08-31T07:19:00Z64029b59-5da9-4c11-8879-5653bcc26c85https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/07/31/Working-Time-Violations-and-Maximum-Working-TimeIn the latest version of time cockpit, we added built-in functions for monitoring wage & hour violations. This topic is important for many of our customers as violations can be costly. Time cockpit contains typical rule sets for Austria and Germany out-of-the-box. Customers in different countries or with specific working time rules can configure custom rule sets. Read more about how time cockpit can help you to stay compliant to legal obligations and policies concerning working times.2015-07-31T08:56:00Z622223f7-38ac-429c-ac37-5ef083dafadbhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/07/31/Whats-New-in-Version-August-2015We have lots of new features and improvements in time cockpit this month: A new feature for monitoring working time violations, lots of enhancements in the HTML5 preview including full support for reports, and a bunch of performance optimizations for Full and HTML5 client.2015-07-31T05:56:00Z4a725a0e-6581-42eb-a109-c4bbb9a0eff5https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/06/30/Dont-Let-Agile-Ruin-Your-Softwares-Architectural-DesignArchitects call the central idea or concept of a building "parti". You can think of parti as the big idea behind an architectural design. Without a parti, agile and iterative development can quickly ruin your software's architectural design. Read more about the concept of the parti and how it translates to software.2015-06-30T13:02:00Zb449e113-7a2c-4ae9-a003-df3a47e4b7dehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/06/30/Whats-New-in-Version-July-2015This month we have added a much requested feature to the HTML5 time tracking calendar: creating new time sheet entries with drag & drop.2015-06-30T05:42:00Zfab85514-068b-4b70-8d0d-097ece49b230https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/06/29/How-to-Automate-Time-Cockpit%E2%80%99s-ImporterIf you want to import a single Excel or CSV file, time cockpit's Importer Module probably offers exactly what you need. However, you might need to regularly import multiple files depending on each other (e.g. projects and customers where each project row contains a reference to a customer row). Wouldn't it be nice to have this import automated so you can trigger it with a single click? This is possible using time cockpit's scripting language.2015-06-29T11:25:00Ze6f95f1e-ab85-4f8c-badd-69a83bff0a89https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/05/31/Differentiate-with-TransparencyGranted, time tracking is not one of our customers' favorite tasks. However, it has to be done for accounting, because of legal obligations, etc. But does it have to be like this? Is it possible to differentiate from ones competition with an outstanding time tracking organization and software? Our partner softaware believes in that and has built a "Software Diary". It uses time cockpit behind the scenes.2015-05-31T07:56:00Z0a5ec385-b3bc-41de-9afc-56c4ab9bdcf8https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/05/29/Whats-New-in-Version-June-2015May has been the second month in a row where we focused our development efforts predominantly on the new HTML5 time tracking calendar. We think the calendar has reached a state where it provides real value even for productive time booking. Give it a try, we would love to hear your feedback.2015-05-29T10:46:00Z62af5aaf-5bbe-440a-9fac-af1201af68fbhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/05/18/Integrating-On-Premise-Resources-Into-Time-Cockpit-In last month’s blog article I described how to import data from Visual Studio Online into time cockpit. In contrast to the usual pull approach, I showed how to import data into time cockpit with Webhooks using a push approach. In this article I want to talk about how to integrate on premise systems like Microsoft Dynamics Navision or CRM with time cockpit using Hybrid Connections.2015-05-18T10:38:00Z2790c5a6-f136-4bcd-bf85-49a6fdc057c0https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/04/30/New-in-Version-May-2015-A-Glimpse-at-the-HTML5-CalendarThis month we have focused mainly on the new HTML5 time tracking calendar and we are happy that we can provide a first version that allows you to view time sheet entries colored by formatting profile and to add, edit and delete time sheet entries.2015-04-30T16:00:00Z981b1bbb-7186-4ecd-90da-af9eb77fbac6https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/04/30/Keep-Your-Inbox-Empty-With-TodoistLike most people, I have often been struggling with my email inbox. From time to time I tried to catch up with inbox but within days I reached the same mess as before. Finally, the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen was the trigger to change my habits. There was one advice that changed my way of working: Free your mind and collect everything externally.2015-04-30T14:00:00Z0c11f6b1-5429-44d0-a0e5-27bf7ceefe87https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/04/30/Using-Silverlight-in-Chrome-and-FirefoxWhile Microsoft will support Silverlight until 2021, Google will remove support already this year. If you want to use Silverlight in the new release of Google Chrome (v42), you have to enable it. In this blog article we describe how this can be done.2015-04-30T13:45:00Z9cc9befd-5345-4276-a670-7bfaceaa5b93https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/04/30/Shearing-Layers---Time-Cockpit-Case-StudyA few months ago I wrote a blog article about the concept of "Shearing Layers" in architecture and software development. I submitted a longer, German version of the article for OBJEKTspektrum, a well-known German magazine about IT management and software engineering. It was accepted and is included in this month's issue. For a limited amount of time it is also available online.2015-04-30T12:56:00Z6ba29440-2302-48f1-a8e5-6858ce945509https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/03/31/Whats-New-in-Version-April-2015In the HTML5 Client we have added support for a large number of advanced configuration options for lists, forms and cells. The list of not fully supported features is still long but lists and forms are becoming more and more usable even for more complex customer scenarios.2015-03-31T06:38:00Z82e46522-46df-4f36-81a2-8cfb0ec28c65https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/03/30/Importing-Data-from-Visual-Studio-Online-Using-Web-HooksWe at software architects adapt time cockpit to the needs of our customers every day. Most of our customers have well established processes or tools in place which drive their business. Time cockpit offers multiple options for integrating with upstream systems like Visual Studio Online (VSO), Jira, or Dynamics NAV. Today we want to describe how you can connect time cockpit to VSO using web hooks.2015-03-30T11:43:00Z8964fad1-5229-4a3e-b3ad-6f12879fb627https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/03/29/Eight-Anti-Patterns-for-Optimization-ProjectsTechnical optimization projects are part of our daily business in software development. Additionally, with time cockpit, we are often involved in projects for optimizing team performance and productivity. In this blog article I would like to summarize my learnings about what differentiates successful optimization projects from failures.2015-03-29T07:29:00Zb4926c0e-cf22-4ecc-afed-839895e2155fhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/02/27/Whats-New-in-Version-March-2015The new time cockpit version contains lots of usability improvements for the HTML5 preview. The most important one are keyboard shortcuts that make using the web client much more efficient. Of course we added a bunch of improvements to the full and Silverlight clients, too.2015-02-27T10:45:00Z6e875bbf-4747-4614-93ab-4dcc1f566940https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/02/27/Deep-Dive-Performance-Improvements-Through-Permission-RefactoringRecently, a customer with a heavily customized data model reported performance issues when loading lists of projects. The customer has around 80 users in his account and handles two separate organizations with time cockpit. Each year the users track about 40,000 time sheet entries. On that basis, the customer has custom reports for project controlling and HR.2015-02-27T07:07:00Z1ef244d5-4bba-4497-8950-5c5d7f881e73https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/02/27/Dont-Let-Agile-and-Open-Source-Stress-You-OutIn the last few months, I have recognized a rising problem in software development teams on the Microsoft platform. They are panting as they try to keep up with new release of the components and tools they use. Every day new announcements arrive. A constant fear from getting out-of-date forces them to follow the respective team blogs, twitter accounts, news sites, etc. This is not only consuming more and more time. It also places mental stress on development teams.2015-02-27T06:25:00Z9ea82666-01b9-4edc-9a06-8f1725438301https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/02/13/Time-Cockpit-at-Road-to-the-Cloud-EventYesterday, I was speaker at Microsoft's Road to the Cloud event in Vienna. Microsoft invited me to speak about our learnings from five years time cockpit in the cloud. It was great to see how interested people were about discussing business aspects of cloud computing. 2015-02-13T06:20:00Zb4902dc3-244e-44dd-a96d-5791d73a9427https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/01/30/%E2%80%9CHigher-Mathematics%E2%80%9D-of-Paid-Time-OffMany countries have regulations concerning paid time off (time cockpit uses the term vacation for that). In our home country Austria for instance, employees typically have five weeks of paid vacation. On first sight, calculating the remaining paid vacation should not be too hard. However, if you dig into the details and edge cases, it gets interesting.2015-01-30T14:45:00Z7b5e8ddf-757f-4f47-a1e6-d5cb7f72ade7https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/01/30/Budgeting-in-Agile-Environments---Eight-Tips-to-Plan-the-UnpredictableIn many companies, each year starts with planning. Planning the financial aspects of your business is one part of that process. In this blog article I would like to share our thoughts about creating and continuously controlling our budget. Of course, time cockpit plays an important role in our budgeting process.2015-01-30T11:35:00Z92f8af90-56c9-44f5-860a-af1d10d798f7https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/01/30/Whats-New-in-Version-February-2015This month we have put our focus on better error diagnostics and minor improvements in the time sheet calendar. It has become much easier to send us your log files, performance for booking with time sheet templates has been improved, signal lanes are highlighted, etc.2015-01-30T06:13:00Z8d2f32e3-f8a8-435f-ba23-c65a21ef1854https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/01/27/We-are-Growing2014 has been a successful year for our company. We could raise our revenue to a new all-time record, enlarge our team, and formalize our long-lasting partnership with our friends at softaware.2015-01-27T07:46:00Z05f430a7-5cc3-4d22-9390-5924c800b3behttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/01/22/Successful-Microsoft-Certification-of-Time-CockpitOur company has been a Microsoft partner for many years. Each January, we have to renew our certifications. This year we managed to get two competencies.2015-01-22T11:53:00Zaf9eeb58-9e3b-4e75-8930-7174e8537af5https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2015/01/08/Bug-in-Signal-LanesUnfortunately, we found a very unpleasant bug in time cockpit this week: in January 2015, the signal lanes are not shown. The signal details on the right side are displayed correctly but the lanes next to the time sheet entries are missing. We have already created a fix that is available for download.2015-01-08T12:44:00Z42100bdb-59dd-4335-a4c6-ef442c7ea2eahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/12/31/Why-We-Don%E2%80%99t-Do-Scrum-for-Time-CockpitWe did Scrum years ago for the initial development of time cockpit. Granted, there were times where we managed to do Scrum nearly by the book but sometimes we got a bit lazy. Nevertheless, it worked perfectly fine for us. Today, we don’t do Scrum anymore. In this blog article I want to describe why we turned away from it and how we manage our development process today.2014-12-31T09:14:00Zf34afe31-4ef1-4217-8757-c34ae6e38bddhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/12/30/How-We-Build-and-Run-Time-Cockpit-Web-PreviewLast month we proudly launched the first public preview of the upcoming HTML5 client for time cockpit. When we started developing the new platform many months ago, we also decided that we had to rethink our entire build and operation processes. In this blog article I invite you to take a look behind the scenes of time cockpit web development. Additionally, I want to summarize our lessons learned.2014-12-30T10:31:00Zafec19da-8008-4a89-a65d-ecfd4218ac24https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/12/15/Opening-HTML5-Client-for-Public-PreviewToday is an exciting day for the entire time cockpit team. We are opening up a first public preview of our brand new HTML5 client for time cockpit. Try it, play with it, and tell us what you think. Please be aware that it is an early preview and not production-ready. There will be errors, you will miss important features, we continue to work hard on it. However, we hope that the preview will already provide value to some of you and that you will share your thoughts with us.2014-12-15T08:00:00Z87a00300-487e-43b7-8e37-6fa5e31d4425https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/11/30/Whats-New-in-Version-December-2014Time cockpit got a new log file format which makes troubleshooting much easier. Additionally, we extended our implementation of script source lists to get enable optimizations in time cockpit's web client.2014-11-30T11:33:00Zb8a5dc70-4192-43ea-878a-47d8b227475dhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/11/30/How-Fixed-Price-Contracts-and-Agile-Can-Go-TogetherHaven't we all learned in project management courses that fixed-price contracts are not necessarily an advantage for the buyer-side? Weren't these problems the very reason why agile project management principles have been invented? However, it is a matter of fact that many customers still insist on fixed project prices. In this blog article I want to share our approach of making fixed-price and agile go together.2014-11-30T07:56:00Z3b182004-1d97-485f-82f7-df33584b64ddhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/11/27/Why-You-Need-to-Sign-Your-Custom-CodeThose of you who use time cockpit’s browser version might have run into the following problem: You open a list, try to execute an action or simply try to save a time sheet entry and time cockpit shows the following message: "Hash could not be verified". Read about the reason for this problem and how to resolve it.2014-11-27T18:19:00Z80629652-7539-4e9d-81a8-3b502ce18507https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/11/05/Testing-Time-Cockpits-OData-Web-API-with-PostmanIf you want to play with a web api like the one from time cockpit, you need a tool to build and run web requests. You could use rather low-level tools like curl or Fiddler. Postman is an alternative with a much nicer UI and the possibility to store requests for later use.2014-11-05T22:53:00Ze6f3c977-5dfb-43e5-8e7b-e51f6d559533https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/11/04/Time-Cockpit-and-Gartner-Top-10-Strategic-Technology-TrendsEach year, Gartner publishes their view on top technology trends for the upcoming year. Recently, the trends for 2015 have been published. It turned out that time cockpit is positioned really well. In this blog article we want to describe how our strategy for time cockpit relates to certain trends that Gartner recognized for 2015.2014-11-04T19:34:00Z15eed742-9967-4491-bacb-d78abdc720a4https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/10/31/Whats-New-in-Version-November-2014This month we are announcing the next important step in our movement towards HTML and JavaScript: We present the first public preview of time cockpit's OpenID Connect endpoint for authentication and authorization. Additionally we have improved validation consistency and disabled SSL 3.0 support to prevent POODLE attacks.2014-10-31T13:47:00Zf5d0d68a-34ee-4cd6-807e-3981672ccf87https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/10/31/Welcome-OAuth2-and-OpenID-ConnectWhen we did our yearly strategy meeting at the beginning of 2014, we decided to dedicate this year primarily to moving time cockpit to HTML and JavaScript. This decision had huge consequences on important cornerstones of time cockpit's internal structure. The proprietary communication protocols we used in Silverlight are not appropriate for a purely browser-based solution. So we decided to move to platform- and vendor-neutral standards communication standards. Today, we present the next step down that road: Time Cockpit's brand new OpenID Connect endpoint for authentication.2014-10-31T13:08:00Zfc28de5b-1fa1-43a6-ba62-7bbf67f20106https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/10/27/Slow-Movers-and-Agile-Speed-Junkies---You-Need-Both-to-SucceedWe believe that modern commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions like time cockpit have to develop at different speeds at the same time. There are layers where change has to be very carefully planned and executed slowly. On the other hand there are layers that are constantly moving and change has to happen literally overnight. Architects call this the sheering layers concept. In this article I would like you to introduce you to this idea, provide some tips how you can benefit from it, and finally describe how time cockpit follows this principle.2014-10-27T15:33:00Zd6b90bf1-9f8f-49be-8ec0-2a0c58f47a8dhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/10/19/Dependent-Comboboxes-in-Time-Cockpit-Forms-and-ListsComboboxes that depend on each other are a common requirement in time cockpit. Example: Once a customer is selected, the project combobox should only contain the selected customer's projects. Configuring dependent comboboxes isn't complex. This blog article describes how you can do it in custom forms and lists.2014-10-19T08:22:00Z6add16e7-5049-49e0-80bf-1616d81085f4https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/09/30/Whats-New-in-Version-October-2014As announced last month, we have made more performance improvements this month. This time we have focused on the client database. If it takes some time to open the time sheet form in the calendar in your environment, the new version may improve the loading time significantly.2014-09-30T11:40:00Z0d23977c-c74f-4921-8a25-0e8970c60cfahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/09/30/Redesigned-Time-Sheet-TemplatesTime cockpit has had support for time sheet templates for years. For this version we have completely redesigned this concept and added support for scripts. That enables fascinating new possibilities for integrating time cockpit with external systems.2014-09-30T10:58:00Z94a2f324-616e-488f-9e65-83cc72bae694https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/09/30/How-Transparency-Leads-to-InnovationLast week I was speaker at a large conference in Germany. Although I mainly covered technical topics concerning software development, the most asked questions weren’t around programming. Instead, people complained that their bosses prevent innovation by not allowing them to invest time and money in promising new technologies or methods. Stop complaining, start making the problem transparent and measurable instead.2014-09-30T07:55:00Z12795150-90a2-4242-941c-f192776cf0c4https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/09/26/Accessing-Time-Cockpits-OData-Web-API-With-Visual-StudioRecently we got a question from a customer who wanted to access time cockpit's OData web API using Visual Studio 2013 and C#. We thought it would be a good idea to create a short video demonstrating how this is done because it might be interesting for other people, too.2014-09-26T08:18:00Z5b19bf24-40a9-4f72-a473-c72c2de5a608https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/09/03/German-Funktionen-zum-Schutz-der-Privatsph%C3%A4reDas Risiko für Konflikte bei erstmaliger Einführung einer Projektzeiterfassung ist nicht zu unterschätzen. Information der Mitarbeiter ist ein Schlüssel zum Erfolg. Ein wichtiges Thema dabei ist die Wahrung der Privatsphäre. In diesem Blogartikel geben wir einen Überblick, welche Funktionen time cockpit diesbezüglich enthält.2014-09-03T06:40:00Z0c3fb8a2-f432-42a7-bef4-233bf3a347e8https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/08/29/Compound-Keys-in-Excel-ImportIn the September version of time cockpit we have improved the importer for Excel and CSV files. It now supports compound keys. See a video demonstrating the new functionality.2014-08-29T09:11:00Z77c2fafa-a05f-45fb-8ffd-16234748eb27https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/08/29/Whats-New-in-Version-September-2014This month we have focused heavily on performance. The first batch of improvements that affects the performance when working directly on the Server is already integrated in the September version.2014-08-29T08:40:00Z1ab2782b-2b24-43ca-879f-d228945450efhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/08/28/Learn-From-Best-in-Class-Confirmation-and-Approval-ProcessesOn the first sight, time tracking is a seemingly trival process. Start time, end time, describe what you did - that's it, isn't it? As teams grow, accompanying processes for confirmation and approval become more and more important. Read about what the best in class companies are doing.2014-08-28T12:46:00Zab16e183-45d6-40d6-86c1-33d1f43056ffhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/08/28/Enhancements-in-Time-Cockpits-Database-PerformanceWe find it important to continuously improve time cockpit's performance. This has to go side by side with new features. In August, we focused on possible improvements in our database access layer. You will see first results in the September release and even more in the next one scheduled for October. Read more about what we changed.2014-08-28T06:39:00Za14674bb-18f2-4cc9-8089-2a5b34f024c4https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/07/30/We-Have-Moved-to-a-New-Office-LocationIt feels like yesterday when we moved into our first single-room office in the Techcenter Linz a few years ago. Meanwhile our team has grown rapidly. Therefore, some month ago we decided it was time to change. No sooner said than done: We decided to look for a new home for the time cockpit team.2014-07-30T12:30:00Ze42f8c5a-b933-4c68-97bf-683123351153https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/07/30/Whats-New-in-Version-August-2014This month we deliver performance improvements in several parts of time cockpit. Additionally, we included a workaround for a bug in Microsoft's garbage collector that some time cockpit customers had to struggle with.2014-07-30T11:13:00Zd3524414-efa5-47ba-878e-b74cbec0acbchttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/07/30/Why-Should-Agile-Stop-at-Software-DevelopmentAgile principles have become quite popular in software development. The approach has proven to be successful many times. Frameworks for agile development like Scrum are not at all limited to software development. Still, the agile approach can rarely be found outside of this domain. We think, that’s a pity.2014-07-30T04:55:00Z7ca91fa1-c199-45d4-b1d4-457b0c8ad174https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/07/14/Setting-Up-Team-Leader--Member-Permissions-in-Time-CockpitA common scenario in time cockpit is assigning different permissions to team leaders and team members. Team leaders should see all time sheet records of all members whereas team members should only see their own records. In this blog post you learn how you can set up this logic in time cockpit within a few minutes.2014-07-14T08:44:00Ze24f6fc9-536b-4d61-b1a2-f663af1ce4edhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/06/30/Time-Tracking-Fitness-TestDid you ever ask yourself how you are doing in terms of time tracking compared to other people? This test unveils your time tracking fitness level. Try it. It's fun and you might get ideas how you could enhance your existing time tracking practice.2014-06-30T19:29:00Ze79698bb-26bf-4053-8c97-9d2ca2c59278https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/06/29/Whats-New-in-Version-July-2014This month we have added various productivity functions to time cockpit. Among others you can now book vacations, sick leaves and compensatory time directly in the time tracking calendar.2014-06-29T06:15:00Z3694f388-72c0-451a-9b4d-db16b40ad107https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/06/03/Power-of-Standards-Why-OData-Shines-in-Time-CockpitFor time cockpit we have decided to bet the farm on OData instead of a custom web api. PragmatiQa's XOData shows what you get for free because of time cockpit supporting OData.2014-06-03T07:44:00Z82e78868-c8d2-4c5d-998d-105780b6c8c2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/05/30/Warning-Emails-in-Case-of-Budget-OverrunRegularly, customers ask us how to send emails when certain things happen in time cockpit (e.g. project runs out of budget, user creates time sheet record for a month that has already been billed, etc.). In this blog post we show how this can be done with a few lines of script code and our OData Web API.2014-05-30T11:10:00Z788738ee-8f50-4aea-83c5-8b2346f4d776https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/05/30/Whats-New-in-Version-June-2014This month we improved sync handling in time cockpit's full client and added support for booking compensatory time. The June 2014 version is fully compatible down to version March 2013 (1.10) so team members need not to upgrade all at the same time.2014-05-30T07:55:00Zdbe2bfe3-0d2c-4bfd-a147-1f60a6c9d43chttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/05/30/New-Compensatory-Time-Off-FeatureTime cockpit has been able to handle overtime agreements for quite a long time. However, many customers have told us that they would like a function to explicitly book compensatory time so that their time sheet calendar would not be empty on such a day. We added this function to time cockpit in the latest release.2014-05-30T07:24:00Z6969df53-ad1c-4574-b04e-f38763fe74fdhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/05/18/Agile-and-Scrum-in-Mission-Critical-ProjectsLast week I learned a lesson about the agile approach in such critical projects the hard way. I had an accident with my mountain bike. I fell directly on my shoulder and I immediately knew that it wasn’t just a bruise. X-ray and CAT scanner showed that it was a complex fracture. Now what has that to do with agile development? It turned out that the shoulder surgery I needed would be agile.2014-05-18T10:58:00Z54ae68ef-4815-4f9a-b51f-02563c028fd2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/05/01/Muscle-Memory-for-Your-OrganizationIn this article we address 5 topics you should consider before and during a project for automating administrative business processes. Additionally, we point out some functions in time cockpit that can help you in such projects.2014-05-01T07:17:00Z6f1bbf86-92aa-424f-82b7-801025272b9ehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/04/30/Whats-New-in-Version-May-2014Years ago when we defined the cornerstones of time cockpit, we decided that extensibility should be a major unique selling proposition of our time tracking software. This month, we are very proud that we can publish the first public preview of a major keystone of our technological strategy: Say hello to time cockpit's new OData Web API.2014-04-30T09:24:00Zaecea236-0b43-4ad7-9f0f-d403c0318229https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/04/29/Your-Data-in-a-Geographical-ContextAgreed, data is what drives most businesses. However, having a lot of data at your disposal often does not give you much insight. Data gains value with its presentation. In this article, we explain how to set your data in a geographical context. We use Microsoft Excel, PowerPivot and PowerViewer to create an interactive map that lets you browse your data.2014-04-29T14:58:00Z1c93b605-0514-43ce-a64f-8f4863d83359https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/04/27/Adding-Web-to-our-APIThis month, we are very proud that we can publish the first public preview of a major keystone of our next generation web strategy: Say hello to time cockpit's new OData Web API.2014-04-27T13:29:00Zd56702a2-7afc-42c8-9d80-3414a44ac2e9https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/03/31/Custom-Reporting-in-Time-Cockpit-is-FinalLast month we added the custom report feature as a preview to time cockpit. In this month's release it has become final. Additionally we added support for custom reports in the browser client.2014-03-31T11:30:00Zcefa6ab6-7eee-4b21-95d8-9b9dce255108https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/03/31/Whats-New-in-Version-April-2014For this version we have put the finishing touches to our new reporting feature. We have reached two goals: First, you are now able to add custom reports to every list in time cockpit. The reports are automatically synchronized to all other users in your account, so everybody can open the reports directly in the embedded viewer or as PDF, Excel or Word. Second, we prepared three reports that will help you analyzing time sheet records and invoicing data.2014-03-31T10:11:00Z0ffbde34-d85f-47e6-8aa6-bd341f6aa2b0https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/03/28/Behind-the-Scenes-Time-Cockpit-Support-MetricsSupport is an important aspect when offering software as a service. We use Zendesk for managing our support work. Want to know how we are doing?2014-03-28T13:25:00Z006e7b5f-8770-45f0-a9e1-5fd0a44763fahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/02/28/Whats-New-in-Version-March-2014In the last quarter of 2013 we started to add first reporting features to time cockpit. This month we are glad to announce that you are now able to build your own reports with Microsoft Reporting Services and view them in time cockpit.2014-02-28T06:38:00Z4390b885-1102-4d28-9fa9-154af3652319https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/02/27/Building-Custom-Reports-in-Time-CockpitThe latest version of time cockpit adds the ability to create custom reports with Microsoft's Reporting Services tools. Watch a short video about this new feature and read about the details.2014-02-27T15:30:00Z120dced3-4f77-4906-a016-ad66ce605872https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/02/16/Staging-Concept-for-Time-Cockpit-CustomizationsOne of the unique possibilities of time cockpit is its extensibility. You can adapt the data model, lists, forms, export and import formats, reports, etc. to your needs. A question that we often get is how to test customizations before putting them into production. In this blog post I would like to show you some options you have.2014-02-16T13:00:00Zf02b5164-56ea-4de4-aeba-ff32d1ab9cbchttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/01/31/What-Scrum-Teams-Can-Learn-from-Honey-BeesOne of my hobbies in my private live is beekeeping. A colony of honey bees is a fascinating superorganism. Bees have perfected the principle of self-organization for millions of years. So what can we learn from these masters?2014-01-31T13:20:00Z2e5f082d-becc-493f-81c1-dc0eb832335dhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/01/29/Whats-New-in-Version-February-2014In this release of time cockpit we focused on sync and Excel importer. Time cockpit now provides better information about synchronization conflicts and allows you to easily resolve them. We also redesigned the sync dialog making it cleaner and easier to understand. Finally, we improved the Excel importer to support not only importing new records, but also updating existing ones.2014-01-29T14:26:00Z58aec2fd-8669-4239-b11c-9107e0cb4fe7https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2014/01/28/Importer-ImprovementsOut of the box time cockpit ships with a powerful importer that can import both CSV and Microsoft Excel files. In previous versions the importer could only be used to import new records. In the new version February 2014 we have improved the importer to also support updating existing records.2014-01-28T14:08:00Zcaf7f665-60eb-41ca-b454-9bf6db04f5d3https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/12/30/Stop-Mistaking-Being-Busy-for-Being-ProductiveAt the current time of the year, many people are thinking about their New Year’s resolutions. Beside classics like “eat more vegetables” or “go to the gym more often”, you could add one for your job: Stop thinking you are productive if you are just busy.2013-12-30T12:03:00Z48807701-5da1-4da4-9d0c-2c56b41aab6bhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/12/30/Whats-New-in-Version-January-2014December 2013 has primarily been a planning month for us. We defined the topics in which we want to invest in 2014. Nevertheless, in version January 2014 we deliver improvements in the areas reporting and programmable actions. In this article you can read about the enhancements and the results of our planning for 2014.2013-12-30T09:36:00Zc1330ed5-5a8f-476e-95eb-b330d4cfe5c7https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/11/29/Time-Cockpit-and-Cloud-SecurityNowadays people are on the alert for data security and privacy when it comes to cloud computing. Time cockpit is a SaaS offering in the cloud. In this article we want to describe in detail how we designed, developed, and how we operate time cockpit in order to be secure.2013-11-29T09:02:00Zfc75b07a-7371-4ffc-b413-23cdf08c5862https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/11/29/Whats-New-In-Version-December-2013In this release of time cockpit we have improved the new reporting features.2013-11-29T08:20:00Z0c59b29c-5983-48c1-8627-8cfe8379df47https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/11/27/Reporting-Preview-ImprovementsIn the December version of time cockpit we have improved the new reporting feature of time cockpit. Read about the new functions and about our plans for the following months.2013-11-27T07:33:00Z4406e17d-6810-41e7-95c3-04cddbbb46abhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/10/31/Whats-New-In-Version-November-2013In this release of time cockpit, we focused on two things. First, we started to tackle one of our most requested features, reporting. Second, we further progressed improving the combo box in time cockpit. We enhanced the usability of how you manage data in time cockpit. 2013-10-31T10:16:00Zfddb8cfc-7d61-4358-8001-0590ce846fddhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/10/29/Reporting-PreviewIn the November version of time cockpit we have released a first preview of the upcoming reporting feature. Read what's already in the box and what will come in the following months.2013-10-29T08:09:00Zc2422ba8-317a-4851-9899-372e6137ab2dhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/10/22/Getting-Real-Work-DoneIt is a well-known fact that constant interruptions can have quite negative consequences on your productivity. Instead of being able to concentrate on the important tasks you planned for a certain day, you are kept busy by phone calls, ad-hoc meetings, incoming emails, social media notifications, etc. As a knowledge worker, I struggle with this problem, too. As an entrepreneur building a project time tracking software, I am constantly looking for ways to cope with it. In this blog article I want to share some of my current thoughts on the topic of productivity and interruptions.2013-10-22T11:42:00Z2c96b265-e7e6-45f9-9e04-db2e251492b2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/10/16/Excel-Exporter-and-Formatting-ProfilesIn the current version of time cockpit, there is a bug in the excel exporter when using conditional formatting in an excel template file. Precisely, when using a conditional format that spans a full row or column instead of a sub-region of a worksheet. The root cause of this is in the way that the [usually more than awesome] ClosedXML (http://closedxml.codeplex.com/) library handles ranges with covering all rows or all columns. In some of those cases, ClosedXML tries to apply something to every cell in that (semi-infinite) range.2013-10-16T07:30:00Z1c445b09-7e41-45f0-9c3e-98dd1db20730https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/10/15/NRWConf-2013---How-to-Sell-and-Estimate-Agile-ProjectsLast week I travelled to Wuppertal to participate in the community conference NRWConf 2013. With time cockpit we have been sponsors and speakers for this event for years. In this blog article I publish some photos from NRWConf as well as the slide deck for my talk about effort estimation in agile projects.2013-10-15T05:36:00Z16417ce1-e25e-43b4-b156-f2b2abcdd648https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/09/30/How-Healthy-is-Your-Business-Part-2What time tracking-related KPIs can tell you about your business’ healthy - Many companies use KPIs to manage their performance. The first part was an introduction into KPIs including tips and trick about successful performance management projects. In this second part we will show examples of KPIs related to time tracking.2013-09-30T12:24:00Z03334cdf-f06f-47e4-9791-a776df2fece5https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/09/30/How-Healthy-is-Your-Business-Part-1What time tracking-related KPIs can tell you about your business’ healthy - Many companies use KPIs to manage their performance. This first article introduces KPIs. It points out our top 10 tips about how to successfully build a KPI system in your company. In the second part we will show examples of KPIs related to time tracking.2013-09-30T11:42:00Z3ed22c72-9d10-4305-9237-13306c24e5e2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/09/30/Whats-New-In-Version-October-2013At time cockpit we are in close contact with our customers and we value their feedback. In one of our meetings with customers, we identified potential for performance improvements when it comes to drop-down lists (combo boxes). So we concentrated on optimizing the combo box experience in time cockpit. This is the first step to a more feature-rich combo box. There is more to come.2013-09-30T07:48:00Z78ce7540-215e-4cc2-b1cd-f5e8e3a94540https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/09/09/Performance-Problems-in-the-Online-Client-of-Time-CockpitYou may have recognized that the performance of the time cockpit online client is very bad today. Every database request takes multiple seconds, because the cached time cockpit DataContext, that is used to connect to the database, is rebuilt each time instead or reusing the cached version.2013-09-09T09:06:00Ze13b3966-7cc9-46bb-9883-49352b7c8f6ahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/08/30/Estimation-Quiz---ResultsLast month we published a quiz in which you can demonstrate your estimation skills. Our article proposed that most of us typically overestimate our knowledge. A lot of people took the test. Do you want to know the results? Here they are.2013-08-30T13:02:00Z4b63aa08-e60d-45fe-b5a9-a6e9e04db0a2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/08/30/Project-Reporting-in-Agile-ProjectsAt software architects we live and breathe agile development. Agile principles have been our constant companion for many years now. Over the years we have developed a solid practice for reporting in agile projects. 2013-08-30T12:25:00Zdbaca284-a968-41c0-93b3-e3253cbbfe88https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/08/29/Whats-New-In-Version-September-2013This month we continue the spate of performance and productivity improvements for time cockpit. We have focused on lists and the customization module. Time cockpit now provides shortcuts for opening forms not only as dialogs but also as tabs. This makes it much easier to deal with large forms as they can use nearly the entire screen. Additionally you can open a list and a form side by side so you still see the overview in the list while editing a data row. Such scenarios are very helpful especially for typical back office work like preparing timesheet data for invoicing, effort analysis in project management, etc.2013-08-29T14:25:00Zf45cba29-ce22-44b7-a4f3-f209632ec305https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/07/31/Whats-New-in-Version-August-2013This month we have focused on the performance of the time sheet calendar, especially the performance when editing time sheet entries. Until now time cockpit always reloaded all time sheet entries for the selected month after editing, adding or deleting a time sheet entry. Additionally, time cockpit reloaded all time sheet templates, because every change could cause changes in the templates. This was even true when only moving or resizing a time sheet entry in the calendar.2013-07-31T11:33:00Z66b9c56c-8a42-486d-9160-65bbb170b79ahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/07/19/How-Good-Are-Your-Estimation-SkillsEstimation is hard, especially in agile projects. At the beginning of a project you do not exactly know what you have to build. Nevertheless, CFOs, project managers, customers, teams that you have to work with, and many other stakeholders want and need estimations. They ask for expected costs, roadmaps, timelines, necessary resources, and so on. The bad news is that people are typically very weak estimators. The good news is that you can improve your estimation skills with training.2013-07-19T11:10:00Z65c64ff9-12d8-4a95-b86d-c17e3744099ehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/07/18/Google-Latitude-will-be-Retiring-on-August-9thGoogle has decided that they will be retiring Google Latitude on August 9th. Unfortunately, this will break the location history feature we have introduced in time cockpit version June 2013.2013-07-18T09:36:00Z17f462ab-d2b2-4091-82fe-7e35b454b2cfhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/06/30/Location-based-Time-Tracking-with-Time-Cockpit---a-Practical-ExampleOf course we are using our own software for internal time tracking, too. In this short video I show how location-based time tracking in time cockpit helps me keeping my time sheet up to date while travelling to customers all across Europe.2013-06-30T09:48:00Z0da7f982-c415-4568-bb3b-cd5ef897a076https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/06/28/Whats-New-in-Version-July-2013This month we improved the performance of initial synchronization. Especially when you already have collected lots of signals on multiple devices, the initial sync on a new device may take more than an hour. In the July version we managed to increase sync performance for our own time cockpit users (yes, we are eating our own dog food) from nearly one hour to approximately 15 minutes.2013-06-28T10:24:00Zfcb5f455-b2b2-45af-b667-45993c734227https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/06/25/Six-Reasons-for-Time-Tracking-in-Agile-ProjectsTime tracking in agile projects is a controversially discussed topic in many project teams. Some people – typically the developers – argue that time tracking is at least unnecessary if not unwanted when following agile principles. They refer to documents like the Scrum Guide which says that “Scrum does not consider the time spent working on Sprint Backlog Items. The work remaining and date are the only variables of interest”. On the opposite side of the spectrum there are people – typically managers – who insist on detailed time tracking. They work according to the famous saying “you can’t manage what you can’t measure”. Agile is fresh, it is new. Therefore asking for time tracking might seem old-fashioned and somehow related to the often criticized waterfall model. However, there are a lot of valid reasons why you might still need time tracking even if you decide to work the agile way. Let’s take a look at six of the most important reasons.2013-06-25T07:59:00Z921c8a4e-eb85-4f24-9eb0-b9a12f4c6b69https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/06/25/Faster-Synchronization-in-Time-Cockpit-July-2013Time cockpit can work online or offline. All changes are synchronized to a local database for offline use. For the next version (July 2013, 1.14) we have dramatically improved the performance when syncing large amounts of signal data, greatly reducing initial synchronization times for new users or devices.2013-06-25T00:00:00Z6cf6ae78-5dc3-40a6-8bb1-5bab52189175https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/06/21/Creating-User-Note-Signals-at-Arbitrary-Points-in-TimeTime cockpit allows you to take notes during your daily work. Such a note often acts as a reminder for a certain action, task switch or event that is not automatically tracked but important for your time booking. Notes are typically created for the current point in time. This article shows how you can configure time cockpit to allow arbitrary timestamps in user notes.2013-06-21T00:00:00Zebc061bf-8ff3-4959-8ccf-728445f81bc5https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/06/04/Solving-the-Time-Cockpit-Silverlight-Client-not-Loading-IssueToday one of our customers reported an issue that time cockpit's Silverlight client would not load on his computer. The fabulous thing about this: The customer solved the problem himself AND gave us the root of the cause. We definitely have the best customers in the world.2013-06-04T14:05:00Z8b94dc9c-1343-41d9-88b0-f70cbe439413https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/05/31/Location-Data-in-Time-Cockpit---A-Wish-Comes-TrueFrom the very first day of our time cockpit project we wanted to support knowledge workers who travel a lot. Finally this vision has become reality. The latest time cockpit version makes booking your time sheet records for business travels a piece of cake.2013-05-31T13:14:00Zf109c943-5997-4002-a7e3-6d4d09693bfchttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/05/31/TFS-Work-Items-as-Time-Cockpit-TasksIf you are using Team Foundation Server for your daily development and planning work time cockpit can provide you with some information from TFS via the signal trackers (e.g. checked in code). Using python scripting and the TFS client SDK you can also query the work items for your projects and store them as time cockpit tasks. This will allow you keep track of your working time based on TFS projects and work items.2013-05-31T11:49:00Z0911ae73-ac56-42c5-90ff-21de7ba46916https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/05/31/Whats-New-in-Version-June-2013In the newest version of time cockpit we introduce a new signal type for locations. For that we use data collected by the Google Latitude location service.2013-05-31T08:49:00Zcba6d775-e92c-4668-a7dd-81d566038cc2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/04/30/Importing-JIRA-Issues-as-Time-Cockpit-TasksTime cockpit allows you to assign time bookings to tasks and projects. If you are using JIRA for planning and bug tracking, this article shows you how to import issues from JIRA into time cockpit in order to use them for time booking. This can be achieved by using the REST API provided by JIRA and a small python script in time cockpit.2013-04-30T08:23:00Z083c285d-8d9b-4163-8a72-8068f78475c2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/04/29/Whats-New-in-Version-May-2013In this version of time cockpit we made the usage of actions more convenient. All actions that can be executed on a time sheet are now available from the ribbon menu in the time sheet calendar.2013-04-29T14:58:00Z3e0f9f2d-6bf1-4ba4-8c1d-7dfc9368083bhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/03/28/SQL-Server-Compact-Timed-Out-Waiting-for-a-LockFirst of all, a big thank you to our customers! Since we have added the feature to send error reports via email, we have received lots of information from you. Please keep on sending us your problems with time cockpit, so we can learn what we should improve. We really appreciate your feedback. We definitely had one frontrunner in your error reports: SQL Server Compact timed out waiting for a lock.2013-03-28T13:49:00Z44a4c26c-7339-44e6-9e5b-92b6694d136fhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/03/20/Whats-New-in-Version-April-2013In version April 2013 we have focused on the formatting profiles in the time sheet calendar. Until now we only showed a color legend in the navigation bar on the left side, but there is much more information we can display so we decided to change the color legend to a bar chart.2013-03-20T13:19:00Zbe6b577a-2608-4d21-8f2d-7f8f31d93b5fhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/03/13/Improved-Performance-for-Lists-in-Version-March-2013In version 1.10 we have modified most lists in time cockpit for better performance. If you have built Microsoft Excel export templates you may have to update them to fit together with the new lists.2013-03-13T10:11:00Z0b276297-95ff-42c2-a201-d849339e883ahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/02/28/Whats-New-in-Version-March-2013We are pleased to announce the new version March 2013 of time cockpit. In this version we have focused primarily on the following three goals: make it easy to import data from other data sources, allow to maintain the data model in multiple languages, make lists more expressive by adding charts to visualize information2013-02-28T10:09:00Z680a4f0c-e0fa-4d91-8c23-1d59e407d08fhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/01/22/Synchronized-Android-Call-Log-ImportTime cockpit can assist you in keeping track of your phone calls. By using two simple and free apps you can set up automatic synchronization from your Android phone, to cloud storage, to your desktop and into time cockpit.2013-01-22T09:22:00Zf55b8530-f505-477f-99c0-6618c1fd7254https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2013/01/16/Compensatory-Time-Off-in-Time-CockpitRecently, a customer asked us how to book compensatory time off in the time sheet calendar of time cockpit without affecting a users actual hours of work. Here is what we came up with...2013-01-16T14:19:00Z641e4cb6-8c19-4790-8308-23cf66effa6fhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/12/27/Time-Cockpit-in-Action-at-Software-ArchitectsMonth by month we portray customers who successfully use time cockpit for managing their services business. For our initial newsletter in 2013 we decided to write about how we use time cockpit for our own consulting business.2012-12-27T13:55:00Z278a42af-c42d-4027-a2c5-2130cb8c12ebhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/12/27/Raise-Productivity-by-Enhancing-Your-Billing-ProcessIf you introduce time tracking in your company you usually want to accomplish certain goals. You might want get more insight into how you spend your time to increase productivity, or maybe you want to monitor the progress of your projects. If you work in a service company, you know that time tracking is important because it is a fundamental part of your billing and calculation processes. Working without time tracking would be like flying blind without instruments. Integrating your time tracking tool with a dedicated invoicing service reduces the number of mistakes and frees you from unnecessary administrative work. In this article you will learn what time cockpit offers for invoicing out of the box and how you can easily integrate it with the online billing system billomat.2012-12-27T12:20:00Zad434a7d-1c21-4e5d-a241-4ac99616fc90https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/12/17/Debugging-and-Interactive-Development-of-Time-Cockpit-Python-ScriptsIt is easy to create small scripts to automate tasks or extend time cockpit's functionality. When the requirements and scripts grow more complex step-debugging and a REPL are desirable features we do not (yet) provide within time cockpit. This post shows how these features can be set up using Visual Studio or other development environments.2012-12-17T15:18:00Zc58630f8-e2f9-4a2c-a36c-cb208b553f2bhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/11/29/Data-Bars-in-ListsIn our next version we will add a new column types for bars to lists. We will support three different types of bars: DataBar, StackedDataBar and BulletGraph.2012-11-29T13:22:00Ze1cb89a9-ed6c-4b13-9d8e-3123156f8ef3https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/11/23/Get-Notified-When-a-Project-is-Exceeding-Its-BudgetIn this blog post we show you how to customize time cockpit so that project managers are notified via e-mail if a threshold of hours spent on a project is exceeded.2012-11-23T11:58:00Z3ef72fb2-156c-408f-82f1-b3d08fdeaf7dhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/11/22/Hiding-Menu-Items-Depending-on-the-UserOne of the key benefits of time cockpit is the customizability. A thing that is often requested but unfortunately still a bit difficult is hiding menu items depending on the current user.2012-11-22T15:16:00Za7111212-9c4f-4ab4-9269-6e526022ca1dhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/11/22/Minimize-Maximize-and-Close-Button-is-MissingWhen running time cockpit in Windows 8 the minimize, maximize, and close button is missing.2012-11-22T14:05:00Z760d8b6b-db37-438b-9c74-6fff33575868https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/11/21/Display-of-Overlapping-Time-Sheet-EntriesIn the new version of time cockpit for winter 2012/2013 we will fix the display of overlapping time sheet entries. See screenshots of the new version.2012-11-21T10:53:00Z6437ed75-da84-4137-9382-4e318543d0fbhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/10/31/Importing-Data-from-SharePoint-Lists-via-IronPythonUsing just around 100 lines of code, basic customer master data can be imported from SharePoint to time cockpit. This can be achieved by using IronPython, the .net BCL and the SharePoint 2010 REST interface.2012-10-31T00:00:00Zc2251991-01c3-400e-bb3f-e4f8ac86a7cahttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/10/30/Import-Customers-From-Microsoft-Dynamics-CRM-OnlineThis sample shows how to import customers from Microsoft CRM into time cockpit using .NET (C#).2012-10-30T08:58:00Z3faee139-a960-4985-9d28-6a8dc115a9d8https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/10/01/Customizing-Lists-and-Forms-in-Time-CockpitExtensibility is an important aspect of time cockpit and its underlying framework CoFX. In this article I share a training slide deck that I use in CoFX trainings to describe how to customize and extend lists and forms in time cockpit.2012-10-01T07:18:00Z465bedec-1a11-4074-9bad-88079794a5echttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/09/30/Reporting-with-time-cockpit-and-Microsoft-Office-ExcelTime cockpit contains some powerful functions to export data to Microsoft Office Excel. Learn how you use this feature for reporting purposes.2012-09-30T07:06:00Zff83cbd2-ae14-483b-b173-a390c0e75b1bhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/08/21/Version-Autumn-2012-is-Available-With the new autumn release you can install time cockpit on your pc or access it online via your browser from any pc you like. It is your choice! No matter which version you prefer, time cockpit is always available for you.2012-08-21T13:42:00Z0cd579d8-6e35-4b10-849b-018243ce896chttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/05/25/Time-Cockpit-Awarded-Best-Startup-by-EuroCloudAustriaWe are happy to announce that time cockpit won the first place in the EuroCloud.Austria "startup" category. time cockpit will therefore compete in the European Awards.2012-05-25T16:03:00Zae00415c-7a5e-4fbb-84a3-c83b6eac51cdhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2012/01/22/Python-in-Time-Cockpit-17With the release of time cockpit 1.7 we are happy to ship IronPython 2.7.1 as our scripting environment. This release significantly simplifies the use of LINQ by fixing an issue we identified and reported about ten months ago. It is now possible to import, transparently use and chain together calls to extension methods which LINQ heavily relies on.2012-01-22T15:58:00Za87b8d7e-d0cd-4f00-afb6-875e5d703f8ehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2011/03/17/Time-Cockpit-Customization-A-slightly-advanced-List-The other day, a friend of mine asked me for a list containing the time he began work, when he went home, the hours he spent working and the seconds he was on break. At first I thought about implementing a python script to do it, but it turns out that our custom query language, TCQL, has enough power built-in to do it. We can therefore solve this by creating a list definition.2011-03-17T10:30:00Zb662f770-ccb0-4d6f-b45d-7494f6dc8767https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/11/25/2nd-Place-for-Time-Cockpit-This year the Softwarepark Hagenberg Award was presented the 4th time to promote innovative software developments of exceptional quality. We are proud to announce that time cockpit has reached the 2nd place.2010-11-25T13:47:00Za3e74603-fcca-4f1c-b523-b1889de13fadhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/11/25/Version-15-is-Available-This new version of time cockpit is available for a few days now. The main focus of this version was to improve the new features of version 1.4 and fix some bugs.2010-11-25T13:46:00Z27b08d91-17cc-48bd-a17c-a633c49fd7e8https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/11/09/Version-14-is-Available-Our new version of time cockpit 1.4 is available since 8 November 2010.2010-11-09T13:50:00Z1f664127-9e19-4ce2-a8dc-df92a7c57f95https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/09/21/Hotfix-for-Tablet-PCsOn tablet pc's and on pc's which have the service 'Tablet PC Input Service' activated the following exception may occur when viewing a list.2010-09-21T13:51:00Z51c8c717-8169-4fa2-b83c-61e867c531edhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/09/09/New-Screencast-German-Shows-New-Styling-of-Time-Cockpit-V14-In October 2010 we will release version 1.4 of the time tracking tool time cockpit. The big new featur in V1.4 is security. You will be able to exactly control access to data and functions. Beside security the release 1.4 will also bring some visual improvements: Clearer color scheme for signal data, enhanced editor with syntax coloring for scripts and TCQL queries and much more. In the screencast below (German) you can get a glimpse of time cockpit V1.4.2010-09-09T13:53:00Z95ed0c8f-55a2-4b9a-8838-f50efbd7b9e3https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/09/07/Reparing-a-Corrupted-Time-Cockpit-DatabaseLately we had a customer with a corrupted local database. Various source on the internet revealed that his is mostly related to power outs and blue screens. For time cockpit it becomes apparent when neither the signal tracker nor the time cockpit UI is able to start.2010-09-07T12:48:00Z96f6a384-332d-4c8d-a579-2c26b9004a00https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/08/30/Time-Cockpit-in-Remote-Desktop-and-Workstation-Sharing-Scenarios-Upon popular request I would like to explain the current possibilities and limitations of time cockpit in advanced multi-user scenarios like using Remote Desktop Services or sharing workstations (using user switching).2010-08-30T12:50:00Z8d80aab3-018d-44c6-9ed3-6fe083fe862ehttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/08/19/Version-13-is-AvailableVersion 1.3 contains mainly improvements in display and editing of lists. Please note that all users in a tenant have to switch to the new version as soon as the first user in the tenant installs this version, because users with older versions will not be able to sync their data with the server anymore. If you do not want to force other users to upgrade you may install version 1.2. It does not contain all improvements of version 1.3 but it is compatible with versions 1.0 and 1.1.2010-08-19T13:54:00Z0d64ffe3-fe0b-4f70-baf3-1ba881b1637chttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/07/29/Proof-of-Concept-Itemized-Call-List-ImportIn our very successfull webinar this morning we were asked by an attendee if it is possible to import phone calls from a mobile network provider's itemized call list. We really liked the idea (thanks grasgruen.it) and decided to create a prototype/proof of concept implementation of such an import using IronPython, our own SDK and third party APIs.2010-07-29T12:55:00Z821b3880-f6c7-4edf-a484-e4c6636508b0https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/07/28/How-to-Create-a-Custom-Form-for-an-Action-ParameterIn our last blogpost (see here), we covered how to create actions with parameters. We described how to create an action, how to define exececution conditions and of course, how to create action parameters. As we mentioned in our last blogpost, time cockpit auto-generates a form for each parameter entity that is used with an action. However, it is also possible to define custom forms for action parameters. For creating a customely defined form, the following steps are necessary.2010-07-28T12:58:00Z7ffe9ffa-a27d-4da4-bab8-e5809ef27024https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/07/26/How-to-Create-an-Action-That-Takes-Parameters-Last week, a user brought to our attention that there was no example in our help that demonstrated how to implement an action that takes parameters. Therefore, I want to give a quick example of how to achieve the latter behavior. First let me say that the following example is rather trivial, but it should suffice to show you the basic principles of actions. 2010-07-26T13:07:00Z3bdbda07-3362-4b14-bb79-f2a402193dc1https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/07/22/Time-Cockpit-2010-SP1Today we will release SP1 for time cockpit 2010. In this blog we would like to summarize the changes in this program version. Note that the setup for time cockpit 2010 SP1 can be used to install a new, fresh copy of time cockpit and to update an existing installation of time cockpit 2010.2010-07-22T13:16:00Z70a627f9-264e-483f-b365-060ec9c7b5fbhttps://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/07/07/Understanding-Time-Cockpits-Excel-ExportToday we had a potential customer having difficulites with the excel export. I agree that there are some rough edges and therefore some more explanation of how the excel export works: Basically there are two variants of exports: Templated and direct. Internally this corresponds to time cockpit reading an exisiting template or creating a default template from the entity type that is to be exported. Therefore I will only explain the templated version, because the non-templated version works the same, just that time cockpit generates a template for you instead of you specifying the template.2010-07-07T13:25:00Zb1672f2d-8f4b-412b-ab0f-066f92e88481https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/07/01/Time-Cockpit-Version-10-Now-AvailableAfter two years of planning and developping we are proud to announce time cockpit version 1.0. Try time cockpit and see what it can do for you. You can download the final version and use it 30 days for free. If you have installed one of the beta versions please note that you have to remove the old version before installing the final version.2010-07-01T13:56:00Z870ba35a-5055-42e3-94fc-96ab5d8b4799https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/05/07/Time-Cockpit-is-Built-for-Knowledge-WorkersThe importance of time cockpit’s primary target market, the tertiary sector of economy, has been constantly growing since the 70s. There is no indication that this trend will be slowing down in the near future. Within the European Union for example 74% of all non-financial companies are in the service sector. 2010-05-07T13:30:00Z013f4a53-0678-4f72-988a-ad8c9fd85b47https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/04/26/Why-The-World-Needs-Time-Cockpit--Naturally most services companies do not primarily provide physical goods. They supply skills, ingenuity and experience with the help of their service suppliers – people! Employees and especially their time is the most valuable asset in service companies. People working in this industry make their living from selling their work time. They have the crucial need to track what and for how long they work on specific tasks because this, at the end of the day, determines their costs to a great deal and in many cases even directly influences their sales revenue. 2010-04-26T13:34:00Zd8440c18-7ce8-4231-b1f1-4155daf182f8https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/04/20/Time-Cockpit-and-the-Windows-Azure-Platform-For the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference we have created a video that shows how time cockpit uses the Windows Azure Platform.2010-04-20T13:38:00Z72092540-2394-43fb-996a-2c4488aad647https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/03/31/Using-LINQ-in-IronPython-26Up until (and including) our beta 2 release time cockpit used IronPython 2.4 for executing scripts. When creating complex scripts we often had to iterate over collections and check for certain conditions or concatenate collections of strings. Whenever possible we try to solve such tasks using TCQL when selecting the source data from the data layer to pass most of the work on to the database.2010-03-31T18:32:00Z398052c4-a630-4c0d-94a3-d0998569ced2https://timecockpit-www.azurewebsites.net/blog/2010/03/31/Error-When-Viewing-Projects-or-Timesheets-in-Administration-View-Some time cockpit beta users reported problems when viewing projects or timesheets in the administration module. The following exception occured when they tried to open a list of projects or timesheets.2010-03-31T13:39:00Z