ServiceDesk Plus Blogs

Hi. I am Shan and I am Development Manager for ServiceDesk Plus. Most of the time I am the guy who is blamed for the delays in shipping even if there are a lot of scope creeps. I found that the main problem was that you (as users) are unaware of what is going on with the development team and what we do.

Here is my journal as we progress

Performance, Performance and Performance:

Our main focus for 7.5 is performance, quality and stability and it is not a overnite job. Creating such an environment and reproducing problem scenarios are getting to be a challenge. Our QA team is working in parallel to make sure we don’t repeat the mistakes we did in some of our servicepacks. Now-a-days QA team is reluctant to compromise on anything, siting that “for any problem, customers are not blaming development, but blaming only us”..

You, our customers are important

In the earlier 7.0 release we could not give the upgrade pack to the existing customers on the same day the release was made and we learnt a good lesson from it. We could understand your frustration and do not want to make that mistake again. We are working on the upgrade pack in parallel and this time will make sure we release both on the same day.

The site based implementation is back breaking

Initially we thought 7.5 should be an easier one with focussed team working on Asset features. The other key features include site based segmentation, request form customization, solutions enhancements, technician availability calendar. With Purchase module enhancements brought in a hotfix itself, we expected a smoother release as planned.

Not surprisingly we underestimated the time for some of the features which is now causing the delay. The multi site support is the main culprit for the time delay. When we took up the functionality, we thought that it could be completed in around 2 months. Myself and the developer were optimistic over the completion of the feature within the time !! We were proved wrong as it had a lot complications during the implementation phase which need to be addressed.

Phew, AssetExplorer is in…finally

The another key thing which kept us waiting is the completion of Asset Explorer 5.0 release which has support for remote desktop, multi site support for Assets and other enhancements. These have to be integrated into SDP 7.5. Now we are almost finished with the release of AE 5.0 and started on integrating with SDP. It could take us a couple of weeks to integrate it into SDP 7.5.

Integrating ServicePack’s

We are also currently integrating all issue fixes from service packs 7001 to 7019 to the 7.5 release. With a hotfix getting released every month, the amount of merge and testing gets higher. Release delay costs us here too !!!

Now we are into integration phase.

We are determined to give a good quality, reliable and a stable 7.5 release.

Further moving ahead, unlike 7.5, we look to go for shorter release cycles (3 - 4 months). Will plan that delay of one feature should not affect the release cycle and the worst case should be, that feature moved out of the release. This release model requires features to be build separately and integrated once completed. This could involve more integration effort, but lesser impact on release. This model was recommended by my higher ups for long time, but… may be time to look into that model.

I will look to update whenever a task (say Asset explorer integration, issues integration,..) on 7.5 got completed.

Have you tried reading an ITIL book, it’s perfect cure of insomnia. Yes, most ITIL books have all the information but [with all due respect] they are boring!.  I sat through a couple of boring classes and delivered even boring presentations. Then it occurred to me, why not try to make it interesting.  I tried writing an ITIL Handbook with a few cartoons.  A few readers got back to me saying it is interesting.Try it , you will like it!

Bem-vindo para India. WEG - one of the Brazil’s largest companies is coming to India.

WEG Announces New Plant In India

[Thanks Jaime for sharing the news]

WEG’s runs ServiceDesk Plus, with 1000 technicians working on it. I have to thank them for helping us perfect ServiceDesk Plus with robust performance and scalability. The biggest challenge in the getting the meeting right was the language. Everyone knew only Brazilian Portuguese and we knew only English. Luckily we had one friend who knew both. [Thanks Claudio, for saving the meeting]

WEG is in Jaragua Do Sul, Brazil - well actually Jaragua Do Sul is in WEG. The company has such a big plant that a town is built around it. I am sure we’ll win WEG over again, in our home ground.

Interesting Point: WEG had an interesting way to solve the speeding problems and accidents in its campus. Almost 90% of mini-vans and cars plying within the campus had women drivers. To be specific, it was moms who had their kids photos in the dashboard and they were never speeding… anytime!

ServiceDesk Plus website just got a complete makeover and we tested it out on random visitors. The logs & stats shows that they like it, but we need more than that… your views.

Drop your views here
Hope you are finding it easy to navigate and find the information you want. I was not really involved in this operation as I was gearing up for the Pink Elephant Conference , the men behind the show are Dev from Opmanager and Ashish from SDP team.

Integration Tab: This new tab is for all those who thought ManageEngine is a helpdesk software company. ManageEngine offers complete Enterprise IT Management Solution. http://manageengine.com/

Check out how other ManageEngine products integrate with SDP

SDP Integrates with OPManager - Network Monitoring Software

SDP Integrates with AppManager - Applications Management Software

so… what do you think