To-Do

[yggdrasil]

I was researching yesterday the idea of having a more organized workflow for internal ideas and bugs for my own projects. I currently have most things for multiple stuff with Onenote and spread over other things. The first thing that comes to my mind was for example using Mantis which seems really nice. Since that is a general tracker of course it can be used not only for bugs but also features requests (bugs overlap them sometimes what is a bug or a feature right  ) and maybe even for example internal tasks, like server maintenance, software upgrades, etc.

But setting and maintain a new server for this at least for my personal use is overkill both in time and features. I only need something simple. Mantis would be more fit for a company with multiple remote workers and bigger projects. So I considered using just Outlook tasks because the options to filter and view items seem nice, its clean and fast. My biggest concern is not having to do a lot of mental workflow or steps while adding data. I want to save an idea or bug as quickly as possible, so something like Outlook seems fine or anything else where you are already logged in. I also wanted something that can be checked from anywhere, like your phone. In case you are not aware, the Microsoft TO-DO app does this. People are not aware, but your To-Do apps from Microsoft sync with your Outlook tasks so they are indeed available everywhere (desktop, phone, tablet, web..). Of course this is very simple and maybe not even great for something big but for a personal project why not? You can share them with people as well.

Then I remembered the first version of Kayako many years ago they had some sort of Outlook sync integration. The reason I post this on WHMCS is because it hit me that I also have the project module from WHMCS while I didn't use yet, the idea to have simple projects integrated with your staff members is something I consider for. So why not also use the To-Do in WHMCS?

WHMCS has a To-Do functionality build in. Its very simple but I was wondering how people are using it. The obvious thing is putting things there to remind you of things that need to be done and automated (which WHMCS already does for some automation things that fail or need to be done manually), but why not use this as an internal bug or idea tracker as well or to accomplish simple tasks? I think this is a great idea since its already integrated with the staff members. Its a database, its inside WHMCS (which you already use), its simple, clean and nice. So why not? Centralizing things is positive, but it lacks a bit when it comes to filtering or classification.

You can assign it to a person, set a due date, its very quick to enter something and has API integration which would allow you to problematically add them from external systems or softwares. One of the things that would be missing is maybe categories or a tag system in order to classify them by idea, bug, project, etc. In the future this could be even expanded by adding a different colors based on the status, set reminders for due dates and maybe even let staff add attachments. In some even more distant feature, even let you add your own status for tasks on different categories...

I don't think this is hard to do and if you think about it, there are all sort of little things hiding inside WHMCS that can serve multiple purposes if you are clever about using them to be more productive. With a bit more love from WHMCS developers they can be even more useful and solve many things like acting as config task list, a bug tracker, ideas, internal tasks for staff and many other things. Why not? Maybe someone can even develop a way to sync them with Outlook in the future? This idea does not even seem that ridiculous because WHMCS also has a calendar. Calendar, To-Do, integrated with Staff Member, has API? Well yes, this could be integrated with external things even Outlook. All that sounds great but we can't do anything because everything is encoded, otherwise I would have used this already as I would be aware I can expand it in some future with code. Today, we rely on WHMCS to give more attention or not to things on WHMCS.

The positive thing about having something like this inside WHMCS is that its more private. You probably don't want to share some things in the cloud with Microsoft or Google, so for some types of business it just makes sense to control your data. Then in some future, if the Android/iPhone app also receives more love, you can even add bugs or ideas on the go.

What do you think? WHMCS To-Do yes, or no?