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3 days ago
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Version 16.0 of the open-source project management software OpenProject has been released. The update provides the tool with a backlog for meetings, which should make it easier for moderators and participants to prepare for conferences. Work packages can now also be provided with internal comments. The developers are thus targeting functions from Jira Service Management. They have also revised the interface for time recording and announced changes to the Enterprise tariffs.
Users can postpone topics to future meetings
In the meeting backlog, agenda items can be collected, prioritized and moved to the agenda of a conference as soon as there is time or need to discuss the topic. Conversely, users can also move individual topics from an agenda to the backlog. There is a separate backlog for one-off meetings, which contains topics for future meetings but are not yet assigned to a date. Recurring meetings each have a shared backlog for all associated meeting dates, between which the topics can be moved.
In the activities tab of a work package, users can now create internal comments that are only visible to team members who have the corresponding rights. This should make it possible to hold discussions on internal topics within a work package without passing on internal information to unauthorized groups. To be able to use the function, an administrator must first activate it and assign the necessary rights to the various roles. You can then tick the box under the comment field to indicate whether it should be an internal comment.
OpenProject generates automatic titles for work packages
OpenProject 16 can also generate automatic titles for work packages from predefined text blocks and variables. For example, user roles or data can be defined as variables that the tool automatically adopts for the title. However, it is not possible to manually rename the work packages afterwards. The function is intended to be suitable for structured processes, such as travel requests, support tickets or maintenance reports, where a standardized naming of the processes can simplify structuring.
With the update to version 16.0, OpenProject receives its module with a calendar view. There, users can view their booked start and end times, create new time periods and switch between a daily, weekly and monthly display, which also totals the respective total times. An administrator must activate this feature. In addition, time reports now include start and end times to comply with legal requirements. Furthermore, overviews exported as PDFs contain the daily booked time periods of a user in the form of a table.
Free version does not get all new functions
Alongside the release of version 16, OpenProject is changing the structure of its four Enterprise plans. Although the previous prices, support packages and existing functions remain the same, the company is making some new functions available only to paying customers. For example, the internal comments and automatically generated titles for work packages are so-called Enterprise Add-ons, which can currently only be used with the Enterprise Premium plan. The meeting backlog and the time tracking module are already included in the free Community Edition.
Conversely, OpenProject releases the diagrams for the project overviews for all editions. They can be used to visualize project information for all team members. The developers have also removed the classic meetings and replaced them with one-off conferences, which appeared together with the recurring meetings in OpenProject 15.3. In total, version 16.0 brings around 75 feature updates and 46 bug fixes, the details of which are listed in the release notes. All new features are also planned for the openDesk office suite, which is also used by the German Armed Forces.
(sfe)
