An email-based issue-tracking/ workflow system

Zukhanye KwinanaZukhanye KwinanaDepartment of Computer Science

Rhodes University

Introduction (1)

Tasks often involve multiple agents: some inside and some outside one’s organization

They are often not carried to completion

A system is needed to help keep track of what tasks have been requested or assigned

Introduction (2)

Traditional issue-tracking systems (or ticketing systems) have problems: Exclusion if not registered within the

system Restriction to just one’s organisation

Emails are useful but lack “initiative” of issue tracking systems: Everyone checks emails regularly You are not excluded Have no organisational boundaries

Aim of investigation

Implementing email-based issue-tracking system, take the best of both worlds…

See to what extent the idea is viable

Current issue tracking systems

Are instances of Groupware Keep track of requested tasks

within a group of people Are often web-based systems for

communicating, sharing of files and other resources as well as issue-tracking

Our solution (1)

We tag emails that we want to be tracked with a special tag e.g. Something on the subject line A special marker in a header field In the body An attachment

We intercept tagged emails Either at the mail server, or at the mail

client We create a new issue (with a unique

identifier) in the back-end tracker system

Our solution (2)

We add links to the bottom of the emails so that the recipient can mark the task as done, or add extra detail or remarks to the issue

Reminders, escalation, completion etc. are handled by the tracker system, which can send follow up emails

The user can get status reports of unresolved issues

Sender Mail server Receiver

Issue tracking system

Proposed system

Sender Receiver

Issue tracking system

Mail server

Current architecture

System architecture

Achievements so far (1)

Functioning system catering for single step, single recipient workflows. Installed MailEnable mail server Used Mail Transfer Agent to access

emails before they are delivered to individual mailboxes thus edit the body- if marked to be tracked!

Tagged email gets links added to its body

Achievements so far (2)

Links are mapped to one not easy to guess

Links in the email navigate to a URL based on a unique identifier

Links are somewhat secure because they are almost impossible to guess

Links ensure access to the system and issue even though you are not registered

Achievements so far (3)

Functioning plug-in module for Outlook, migrating this function to the mail client.

A group of Honours students have built a Web Service interface and library to allow us to automate against one specific public-domain Issue-Tracking Engine

Way forward

Complete the current functions we are building

Refine the add-in for Outlook, Outlook Express and Pegasus Mail

Complete link to the back end issue tracker

Start testing user acceptance by deploying a trial system

Longer term: consider multi-step workflows, and multi-party tasks

Conclusion

Email based issue tracking system that can cross organizational boundaries seem promising

More tests and experience will give a clearer picture

An email based issue- tracking/ workflow system

Zukhanye KwinanaZukhanye KwinanaDepartment of Computer Science

Rhodes University