Feature: Tagging

ProjectPipe allows users to Tag their data with user-defined keywords, much like Flickr, del.icio.us, and GMail. Tagging is moving quickly into the mainstream, and ProjectPipe makes it possible for you to use this very powerful yet simple mechanism to let your team self-organize your project data, and most importantly, change the way you organize and categorize your data as your project progresses.

ProjectPipe makes it easy to mark anything in your project with Tags that make sense to your project team, such as:

Tagging an Item

ProjectPipe makes it easy and intuitive to Tag items. There is a "Tag It" link on both list and detailed views for every type of project data. Clicking that link brings up a modal dialog (shown below) where you can select the Tag that you'd like to apply, as well as an optional description as to why the item is being Tagged.

Once it's Tagged, its Flagged

When you look at your list of Requirements, Issues, etc., ProjectPipe shows you a list of all of the Tags that are present in any of the items, along with the number of items associated with each Tag. By clicking the checkbox next to the Tag name, you can quickly highlight the items that are Tagged as such. This is illustrated in the following screenshot:

You can also add a column to either the Outline or Table views that show all of the Tags associated with an item:

With the Tags column visible, you can also see any Tags that have been applied at-a-glance, as ProjectPipe makes the Tags look like yet another attribute on the item.

Tagging: Siloed Data's Natural Enemy

Tags enable users to easily aggregate items of various types (Requirements, Issues, Tasks, Risks, Documents, etc.) that share some attribute, condition, or conceptual linkage. Since Tags cross-cut specific categories of data (Requirements, Issues, Tasks, etc.), they provide a useful means to identify patterns or trends in project data.

Tags also provide a means of bundling items that are largely unrelated, save for some action required of them. For example, a project manager or QA lead could rip through all project data, Tagging all items that "Require Wordsmithing" (citing the specifics in the Tag description) in advance of a release or important meeting.

ProjectPipe has a screen that is dedicated to showing how Tags are used across your project. That screen displays the list of Tags for the project, and a "hit count" of the number of items Tagged by each keyword. The Tags screen also sets the display size of each Tag based upon the extent of its usage. This means that heavily-used Tags should stand out when glancing at the page.

In the image below, it's easy to see that there are a number of items that have been flagged as "Ambiguous".

Clicking on the Tag name will bring up a list of the items that have been Tagged as "Ambiguous".

Our example of "Ambiguous" items run the gamut from user expectation management to server configuration. Though diverse and seemingly unrelated, responsiblity for addressing these items ultimately weaves its way back to the Project Manager. Once the Project Manager addresses these issues, he or she can remove the "Ambiguous" Tag from each item, and move on.

Flat or Nested? You Decide

You can keep things simple and manage your Tags in a single flat list. However, you can also easily manage them as an Outline.

Undecided? You can always start out with a simple flat list, and re-arrange them later. ProjectPipe's outlining tools make it very easy to re-arrange your data to fit your needs.

Getting Things Done Your Way

Much in the spirit of David Allen's classic Getting things Done, ProjectPipe's Tagging support allows your team keep these "soft categorizations" in the system, as opposed to chewing up mental shelf space trying to retain all ad-hoc classifications of data that are made over the course of a project's lifecycle. With this in mind, Tag-based data organization allows project teams to easily build out ad-hoc analytics and workflow solutions, customized to each project, that substantially improve communications and productivity, especially in distributed team scenarios.