News

Enhanced App Tracks Software Development

• By Kurt Mackie
• June 12, 2007

6th Sense Analytics Inc. has issued a June version of its project management solution for software development teams. The company offers a software-as-a-service-delivered application that helps provide a standardized basis for assessing projects.

The solution taps into the integrated developer environment (IDE) and automatically pulls information to help provide better estimates of a project's status. The company's Web site FAQ explains that the application does not record developer keystrokes. Instead, it measures what the company calls the "Active Time" and "Flow Time" of software developers.

Active Time is the time spent in the developer toolset for activities such as "designing, coding, editing, debugging and testing software," according to the company's Web site.

Flow Time is a measure of "uninterrupted periods of at least 20 minutes engaged in a focused activity." It represents an area where stakeholders can correct "work conditions that may be inhibiting productivity," the site states.

The June release of 6th Sense's solution includes a number of enhancements:

• Automatic correlation of IDE data with specific tasks, defects, enhancement requests and support issues;
• A more flexible permissions capability, allowing individual developers and team managers to monitor data collection; and
• An administrative dashboard view into a team's data collection setup.

The solution helps managers accurately assess distributed software development projects, according to Todd Olson, 6th Sense' cofounder and CTO.

"This latest release tackles the most challenging aspect of managing software development projects: getting estimates right and accurately understanding the 'actual' progress against plan after tasks and other work items have been assigned," he stated.