GrandView Blog

Experience with Visual Studio 2010

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:04:28 GMT

The GrandView development team switched to using Visual Studio 2010 last spring as part of our effort to provide the best product we can using the latest tools. Now that we have been actively developing in VS 2010 for a few months, we thought it was time that we shared our experiences.

Javascript Intellisense

Javascript intellisense has always been difficult due to its dynamic nature. Visual Studio 2010 is powerful enough to pseudo execute javascript code to be able to provide useful intellisense. This is made even more useful through support for jQuery intellisense as well. These improvements has allowed us provide additional client-side functionality in GrandView while shortening development time.

Multi-Monitor Support

One of my favorite new features in Visual Studio 2010 has been the addition of multi-monitor support. Editor, designer and tool windows are no longer restricted to the main window. This allows the developer to take full advantage of monitor real-estate to minimize context switching and increase productivity.

Improved Debugging and Breakpoints

Visual Studio 2010 has included many improvements to its debugging. Grouping and filtering of breakpoints can now be accomplished through breakpoint labels. This allows management of breakpoints in logical groupings without having to manage each breakpoint individually.

Pinned data tips allow the developer to track a variable's values throughout execution and afterwards. This is especially useful when a developer needs to reference that value while writing code. This saves the developer from having to rerun the debugger if they forget the exact spelling or capitalization of the value while coding.

Peter Forney

GrandView Developer

Handling Multi-Office Challenges, Part 2

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:57:03 GMT

License Source

In the previous part of this series, we discussed how GrandView has helped RoviSys handle multi-office environments by maintaining a lifeline of communication and business culture for our employees. In this part of the series, we'll discuss how we use GrandView collaboration and project management tools to handle the challenges of managing project teams from multiple offices.

Managing projects from a single office can be challenging enough but it is even harder with teams from multiple offices. Just adding a resource from another office to your project isn't necessarily the same as adding someone from your office. Without constant communication, team members feel isolated and sometimes fail to take ownership of their piece of the project. For a project manager who relies heavily on their team to execute the project plan, this can cause major problems. It ends up being more work for a project manager to manage a team split across multiple offices.

To help communicate project status and transmit drawings and documents, RoviSys uses the collaboration tools in GrandView. The Configuration Management features help keep the project documentation organized when working on project teams spread out over multiple offices. Project Managers also take advantage of Schedule and File Management features to distribute information to in-house, remote, or customer teams alike. Project Costs are updated in near real-time by employees on the project team using TimeSheet, Expense Tracking and Purchasing modules. The Order Entry and Invoicing features of GrandView give our project managers a complete financial view of the project in order to make good decisions to ensure the success of projects.

However, be aware that just putting a tool in place will not necessarily solve all your remote project team problems. Although GrandView may work well to aid communication, transferring of information, and managing projects across remote teams, we've also learned that it cannot replace good old-fashioned face-to-face communication. This is especially important at the beginning of the project so that the remote resources can feel like part of the team and take the necessary ownership in their part of the project.

During project execution, sometimes issues must be discussed in person in order to convey the importance and go over the necessary details that cannot be done over the phone, in email, or in a collaborative tool. It is also important at the end of the project to get the project team together to discuss the lessons learned for feedback into the process. Managing project teams across multiple offices requires a good mix of tools and a whole lot of communication to make it happen successfully.

In the next part in this series, we'll discuss how we use GrandView features to handle the international multi-office challenges.

Chris Engelmann
GrandView Business Solutions Manager

Maximizing Bandwidth Efficiency

The Rovisys Company — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Dealing with limited bandwidth or high latency scenarios can be challenging for web developers and frustrating for users. Over the years we've been able to utilize many different techniques and technologies to minimize the effects of a poor internet connection...

DHTMLX Grid Control

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:37:47 GMT

We have been hard at work on an update for Invoicing within GrandView. As part of this effort, we needed to find an effective and versatile grid control capable of meeting all of our specific needs. We choose the grid control made by DHTMLX...

Features of Customer Release 7.1

The Rovisys Company — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:47:18 GMT

GrandView 7.1 is out and it's packed with enhancements and updates. The GrandView application also now supports an employee bio/resume module. This is coupled with a global categories system that can be applied to projects, proposals and employees to make staffing and resource management even easier.

Handling Multi-Office Challenges, Part 1

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:12:00 GMT

GrandView has played a significant role in handling the multi-office challenges for RoviSys especially when it comes to promoting employee communication and maintaining business culture. Features are continuously added that will allow RoviSys to adapt to whatever challenges that may lie ahead in a multi-office environment.

TimeSheet Quick Entry

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:10:00 GMT

Need an alternative way to charge your time, or just a constant reminder to keep your TimeSheet updated? You can now enter your time from your dashboard with the TimeSheet Quick Entry module...

Multi-Add for Transmittals

The Rovisys Company — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:43:00 GMT

Project transmittals containing several items have previously required the manual addition of each document or software item individually. Now, all the items required for a transmittal can be added at once through a single dialog. This will save time and simplify the process of getting the transmittal to the customer.

SQL Server Replication to the Rescue!

The Rovisys Company — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:48:15 GMT

Keeping data consistent across multiple offices is absolutely vital to any business, but it is made much more difficult when your offices are on opposite sides of the world...

Master Pages, Part 2

The Rovisys Company — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:45:00 GMT

Introduced in ASP.NET 2.0, Master Pages provides an object-oriented approach to web page design. However, when using master pages, there are some considerations that need to be made when applying reference paths to images.