As we bid farewell to 2024, it’s time to reflect on a transformative year for Orangescrum. This year has been all about growth, innovation, and delivering powerful solutions to enhance the project management experience.
We’ve focused on cutting-edge features, performance improvements, and critical bug fixes to make your work smoother. Here’s a breakdown of the major updates and achievements shaping 2024.
We Launch OConstruction: Revolutionizing Construction Project Management
As we close out 2024, Orangescrum is excited to introduce OConstruction, our latest solution designed specifically for the construction industry.
This new offering marks a significant milestone in our mission to help businesses across industries streamline their operations, enhance collaboration, and manage projects more efficiently.
OConstruction is built with the unique challenges of construction project management in mind.
From complex timelines to intricate budgeting, it provides a comprehensive platform to oversee every stage of the project lifecycle, ensuring your team stays on track, on budget, and aligned with stakeholders at every step.
Key Features of OConstruction
- Project Planning and Scheduling: OConstruction’s intuitive planning tools help project managers break down large construction projects into manageable tasks and milestones. With built-in Gantt charts, teams can easily track progress, adjust timelines, and ensure that all tasks are completed on schedule.
- Budget Management and Cost Tracking: Managing costs is crucial in construction projects. OConstruction allows users to set budgets, track expenses, and monitor financials in real-time. By offering complete visibility into spending, it ensures projects stay within budget and financial risks are minimized.
- Resource Allocation and Collaboration: Effective resource management is key to a successful project. OConstruction helps allocate resources efficiently and provides tools for team collaboration. Whether it’s assigning tasks, tracking equipment usage, or managing subcontractors, teams can work together seamlessly to achieve project goals.
- Regulatory Compliance and Documentation: OConstruction ensures that your projects stay compliant with all local regulations. It offers tools for managing permits, inspections, and safety protocols, ensuring your team adheres to industry standards and regulations at every stage of the project.
- Real-Time Project Insights: With OConstruction’s advanced reporting tools, managers can gain real-time insights into project status, resource utilization, budget adherence, and more. This data-driven approach enables informed decision-making and helps prevent delays or issues before they arise.
- Mobile App: OConstruction’s mobile app allows your team to stay connected and manage tasks from anywhere. Whether in the field or on-site, users can update project details, communicate with team members, and access critical information in real time. Additionally, the app includes a Snag Photos feature, allowing users to capture and upload photos of defects or issues directly from their mobile devices.
- Inspection Management: With OConstruction’s inspection management feature, tracking inspections and maintaining compliance has never been easier. Users can schedule, conduct, and report on inspections efficiently, ensuring every aspect of the project meets the required standards and is documented for future reference.
- BIM Integration (Coming Soon): OConstruction is set to integrate with Building Information Modeling (BIM) to offer a more cohesive and accurate approach to project management. This integration will enable seamless collaboration between project teams, allowing for a unified platform that includes 3D modeling, design validation, and better decision-making based on real-time data.
OConstruction’s Impact
With the launch of OConstruction, we’re setting a new standard in construction project management. Whether you’re managing a single building or an entire construction portfolio, OConstruction delivers a powerful, intuitive solution that transforms how you approach construction projects.
Results from Early Adoption:
- 38% reduction in project delays through better scheduling and task management.
- 23% improvement in budget control due to real-time cost tracking and reporting
- 49% boost in team collaboration with resource management and communication tools.
Enhancements to Streamline Project Management
1. Test Case Management Feature: Streamlining QA Processes
Quality assurance is essential for every project’s success, and Orangescrum’s Test Case Management feature is designed to make this process more efficient than ever. Gone are the days of scattered spreadsheets and manual tracking.
Now, managing test cases and defects is integrated seamlessly with project planning, ensuring teams stay aligned with project goals for more reliable releases and fewer defects.
Results:
- 38% reduction in testing cycle time.
- 22% faster issue resolution.
- 46% boost in project reliability.
Key Features of Test Case Management:
- Test Strategy: Define the approach, objectives, and scope of testing to ensure thorough coverage and alignment with project requirements.
- Test Plan: Create detailed test plans outlining testing activities, timelines, and resources needed, ensuring all bases are covered.
- Test Scenario: Design test scenarios that simulate real-world conditions to evaluate the software’s behavior under various situations.
- Test Suites: Organize related test cases into test suites, making it easier to execute, track, and report testing activities.
- Test Cases: Write, manage, and execute individual test cases, ensuring each requirement is tested thoroughly.
- Test Case Resources: Manage and allocate resources such as personnel, tools, and environments required to execute test cases.
- Test Step: Break down test cases into actionable steps for clear, repeatable execution, improving test consistency and accuracy.
- SLA (Service Level Agreement): Set clear expectations for response times, issue resolution, and testing timelines to ensure alignment with business goals.
- Test Run: Execute tests and track results in real-time, with complete visibility into test performance and progress.
- Test Data: Manage the data used in testing to ensure consistency, security, and relevance, helping to simulate real-world conditions.
2. Assign Tasks to Teams: Empowering Team Collaboration
Task management is no longer about assigning tasks to individuals—it’s about empowering teams.
With the Assign Tasks to Teams feature, project managers can now allocate entire teams to tasks, ensuring the right group of experts handles each milestone.
This fosters collaboration, enhances accountability, and drives more efficient project execution.
Results:
- 49% increase in cross-team collaboration.
- 17% boost in on-time project completion.
- 27% better task distribution and resource utilization.
3. Scaled Agile Program: Better Coordination Across Teams
Scaling Agile across multiple teams can be a complex challenge. With Orangescrum’s Scaled Agile Program feature, managing workflows across large organizations is simplified. This feature ensures that projects remain aligned with overarching goals while fostering seamless collaboration across departments.
The Scaled Agile Program workflow includes:
- Program: Streamline your strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment with business objectives.
- Project: Manage individual projects within the program, keeping teams focused and on track.
- Epic Approval: Define and approve Epics to ensure alignment with business goals before development begins.
- Features: Break down Epics into actionable features, ensuring a structured approach to project delivery.
This feature also enhances resource tracking and dependency management, providing a unified approach to project delivery, and making it easier to manage large-scale initiatives effectively.
Results:
- 32% increase in cross-team collaboration.
- 27% faster project delivery across departments.
- 19% improvement in milestone alignment.
Coming Soon: The Epic Board and Feature Board will further enhance your ability to visualize and manage Epics and Features, ensuring smooth execution and a clear overview of project progress.
4. Enhanced Epic Mapping: Simplifying Project Management
Managing large projects is easier with Orangescrum’s Enhanced Epic Mapping. This feature helps break down large projects into smaller, manageable tasks while offering visual tools to align epics with associated tasks.
This approach provides clarity and ensures teams can track progress toward overarching project goals with greater accuracy.
Results:
- 39% improvement in project tracking efficiency.
- 22% faster task completion due to clearer breakdowns.
- 27% increase in stakeholder alignment.
Scaling and Performance Upgrades
1. Upgraded MySQL 8.0 Integration: Enhanced Speed and Scalability
To keep up with the growing demands of large-scale projects, we upgraded to MySQL 8.0. This new integration dramatically improves speed and scalability, enabling Orangescrum to handle larger datasets and complex queries with ease.
With faster load times and improved query performance, we’re ensuring that even the most data-heavy projects run smoothly.
Results:
- 27% faster load times across the platform.
- 41% improved query performance.
- 15% reduction in system downtime.
2. Premium Unlimited Plan: Scaling Your Projects
The Premium Unlimited Plan is designed for teams that need the flexibility to grow without constraints. It removes user and project limits, offering the resources, support, and features necessary for large-scale operations.
Whether you’re managing an enterprise or a growing startup, this plan ensures your team can scale efficiently.
Results:
- 100+ organizations upgraded to the Premium Unlimited Plan.
- 28% improvement in project management efficiency.
- 39% higher user satisfaction with premium features.
Enhancing Collaboration and Accessibility
1. Job Board: Connecting Professionals with Opportunities
At Orangescrum, we believe in fostering growth—not just for your projects but for your team too. That’s why we introduced the Job Board to connect skilled professionals with exciting career opportunities in the Agile and project management space.
With the Job Board, staying updated on hiring trends and recruitment cycles has never been easier.
Results:
- 150+ job opportunities listed.
- 57% increase in job seeker engagement.
- 31% faster recruitment cycles for organizations.
2. Multilingual Availability: Bridging Global Teams
Orangescrum’s global reach continues to expand. In 2024, we introduced multilingual support to accommodate teams worldwide.
Now available in Danish, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and English, this feature removes language barriers and improves collaboration across regions.
Results:
- 18% increase in global user base.
- 27% boost in user engagement from non-English speaking regions.
- 12% higher project completion rates in multilingual teams.
Critical Bug Fixes for Enhanced Stability
Stability is the cornerstone of any successful platform. Over the course of 2024, we focused on fixing 350 critical bugs, making Orangescrum more reliable and user-friendly than ever. From fixing issues with resource utilization tracking to improving recurring task calculations, every update was aimed at ensuring your experience was smooth and hassle-free.
Split Estimation During Task Edit
Split estimation during task edits is now more accurate than ever. The estimated hours are displayed correctly, giving you a precise overview of tasks for better project management and resource planning.
Results:
- Enhanced accuracy in task estimation.
- Better visibility into project timelines.
Resource Utilization Report
We’ve made significant improvements to time tracking and resource utilization reports. These updates ensure your data is accurate, empowering you to better analyze and manage team resources.
Results:
- Increased reliability in time tracking data.
- Improved resource management insights for optimized planning.
Epic Module Enhancement
Managing Epics is now more streamlined. When you link an Epic to a task (Parent Task or Subtask), the entire task family automatically inherits the Epic link. If the Epic is unlinked, all associated tasks in the tree will also be unlinked.
Results:
- Simplified task-Epic management.
- Improved traceability across task hierarchies.
Info Icon 404 Errors Across Multiple Modules Resolved
User experience is all about seamless navigation and clarity. Several critical info icons across different modules led to 404 errors, disrupting workflows and causing frustration. Fixing these ensures that users have instant access to relevant help or details without encountering dead ends.
The following modules now function correctly, with the info icons leading to the appropriate pages:
- Quick Task
- Create Epic
- Create Subtask
- Add Timelog
- Weekly Timesheet
- Add New User
Results:
- 100% resolution of 404 errors for info icons across affected modules.
- Enhanced user navigation and immediate access to essential information.
- Boosted trust in system reliability for task creation, time tracking, and user management workflows.
Language Translation and UI Enhancements
A global platform like Orangescrum must offer a seamless multilingual experience. Fixing language translation issues and improving the UI of the translation module ensures accurate localization and a polished user interface for international users. This not only enhances usability but also strengthens user satisfaction across regions.
Language Translation Issue Resolved: Translation accuracy was improved for the following languages:
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- Danish
- French
- German
UI Enhancements in the Language Translation Module: The following sections and views now display correctly with proper translations:
- Authentication Pages
- Project Management Views
- Task Management
- Time Management
- Approvals and Resource Management
- User and Role Management
- Bug Tracking
- Settings
- Integrations and Info
- Scrum Features
Results:
- Enhanced accuracy in translations for five major languages.
- Consistent and user-friendly UI for translated modules.
- Improved accessibility for global teams, fostering better collaboration and user experience.
Timelog-Related Issues Resolved
Timelog features are critical for tracking productivity, ensuring resource management accuracy, and maintaining seamless project workflows. The following fixes and enhancements address inconsistencies and improve user experience across all time log-related modules, creating a more intuitive and reliable system.
Fixes Implemented:
- General Usability Improvements:
- Added hover effects to the timesheet approval kebab menu.
- Added hover effects and tooltips for the menu inside the add time log popup.
- Resolved project change popup issues and unexpected openings.
- UI and Alignment Fixes:
- Fixed placeholder overlap with the search icon in the project search field inside the add time log popup.
- Corrected alignment issues in the time log popups.
- Field and Data Adjustments:
- Resolved blank date field issues and fixed automatic adjustments for end time in the add time log popup.
- Corrected behavior of previously added notes in the time log module.
- Filtering and Sorting Enhancements:
- Fixed functionality in task and resource filters.
- Improved sorting in “My Activity” and consistency in sorting icons.
- Export and Approval Section Fixes:
- Restored CSV export functionality.
- Fixed approval section issues, ensuring proper tab activation and kebab menu display.
- Minor Enhancements and Bug Fixes:
- Corrected alignment issues and resolved unexpected popup closings.
- Adjusted icon sizes and fixed issues with incorrect date selection in the timesheet.
Results:
- Enhanced time log UI and functionality, offering a more reliable and intuitive user experience.
- Improved accuracy in task tracking and resource management.
- Boosted user satisfaction by fixing persistent and critical issues across the time log module.
Enhancing Your Timesheet Experience with UI and Functionality Updates
This year, we focused on delivering a more seamless, intuitive, and visually cohesive experience across all timesheet views. Here’s a roundup of the major updates and fixes that refined the List View, Calendar View, Chart View, Weekly Timesheet, Daily Timesheet, Approvals, and General Functionality in 2024.
List View Improvements:
- Introduced a page title for better navigation.
- Updated design for consistency across table headers and overall layout.
- Fixed alignment issues and improved interaction effects.
Calendar View Enhancements:
- Added a “New Time Entry” button and improved calendar functionality.
- Centered calendar alignment and enhanced overall usability.
Chart View Upgrades:
- Added a page title for clarity and better navigation.
- Enhanced UI alignment and improved design consistency.
Weekly Timesheet Refinements:
- Enhanced accessibility with the addition of the “New Time Entry” button.
- Rebranded export functionality to “Export to PDF” with a modern UI design.
- Resolved inconsistencies and enhanced sorting and tracking.
Results:
- Improved user interaction across views.
- Achieved consistency in font sizes and layouts.
- Enhanced clarity and user experience across all timesheet-related functionalities.
These critical bug fixes and UI improvements are part of our commitment to continuously enhancing Orangescrum, ensuring better stability, usability, and project management capabilities for our users.
Conclusion: A Year of Transformation
2024 has been a remarkable year for Orangescrum, full of innovation, growth, and breakthroughs. From game-changing features like Test Case Management and scaled Agile Program support to significant platform upgrades like MySQL 8.0 integration and multilingual availability, we’ve made strides that have redefined how teams collaborate, manage projects, and achieve their goals.
We’re just getting started. With a commitment to constant innovation and user-driven improvements, we’re excited about the future.
Thank you for being part of Orangescrum’s journey in 2024. Stay tuned for more groundbreaking updates as we continue to help you manage your projects like never before!
FAQs
1. Are these updates available on older Orangescrum versions?
Yes, these updates are available on the older version of Orangescrum as well.
2. Are these updates available only on the cloud version or on-premises version as well?
The updates are available on both the cloud and on-premises versions of Orangescrum.
3 . Will existing customers of the on-premises version get the feature updates?
Yes, existing on-premises customers will receive feature updates with the latest releases.
4. Is OConstruction part of Orangescrum or a separate release?
OConstruction is a separate release, designed specifically for construction project management.
5. Will the Epic and Feature Boards be available on both versions?
Yes, both cloud and on-premises versions will have access to the upcoming Epic and Feature Boards.
6 . Is there a limit to the number of teams that can be managed with the Scaled Agile Program?
No, the Scaled Agile Program can support an unlimited number of teams, depending on your plan and resources.
7. How do I access the new test case management features?
You can access the new test case management features through your Orangescrum dashboard, once the update is live.
8. Is user training available for these new features?
Yes, Orangescrum provides training and support materials to help you get started with the new features.
9. Can I customize the test cases to fit my specific project requirements?
Yes, the test case management feature allows full customization to fit your project’s unique needs.
