Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Tagging
A powerful organizational attribute called
tags
is associated with all entities. A tag is a free-form text input that enables
you to group records by a keyword. This is handy because some record groupings don't fit into the neat and tidy
relational data model. For example, you might want to be able to find all features that contain a shuttle item across
all applications. By adding the tag “shuttle” to these features, you can use the interactive report search field to find all
records that contain the tag of “shuttle.” All dashboard pages contain a region that displays the tag strings defined in
their respective entity. This lets you quickly find and correct typos so the free-form tags can be kept accurate.
GettING paSt the INItIaL DISCOMFOrt
at first, team Development's organization, layout, and navigation might appear a bit strange and non-intuitive.
We certainly struggled with it at first. our initial perception was probably due to our previous experience with
project-management tools that use pages with a work breakdown structure on the left and a Gantt chart on
the right.
our initial discomfort with team Development was similar to our first experiences with apeX. like many
experienced developers, we came from development environments in which screen widgets are listed on the left
and dragged onto a screen, and in which the X-Y coordinates are set together with a widget's height and width,
all at pixel-level precision.
When we first used apeX, most of us took a while to get used to how apeX built pages. after a few tries, we
all learned to love the product. We believe the same will be true for you with team Development. after a bit of
experience, you'll find that the interactive reports are, in fact, a practical alternative to Gantt charts, especially
in an agile software development environment in which the time boxes are short and the lists in the interactive
reports are correspondingly small.
Features
Features describe an application from a high-level perspective. They're used at the beginning of a development
project to define the scope well enough that budgetary estimates can be made of cost, schedule, and resource
requirements. Once the project is approved and work begins, child features are added to describe, control, and track
progress in more detail. Features are the heart of management status reports.
The Features Details page contains a number of tabs. The Dashboard, Calendar, Focus Areas, and Owners tabs
aren't discussed here because they or their equivalents are common to all entities and their characteristics were
mentioned earlier. The Features, History, and Progress Log tabs are highlighted next.
Features Tab
The Features tab (see Figure
15-7
) contains an interactive report that, in turn, links to the Edit page for individual
feature records. Because the data grid is an interactive report, each user can tailor it to their needs. You can choose
your columns from approximately 50 attributes, sort to your taste, and even group related records together. Interactive
reports are discussed in detail in Chapter 6.
