Zoho Projects can be used for just about any kind of project you need to manage. With the inclusion of issue management, you can even use it to keep track of problems found in your software development efforts.
For anyone managing projects, issue tracking is a crucial component of keeping things moving toward that looming deadline. As long as issues are remaining in a project, it should not ship. If your company cannot afford such delays, you owe it to yourself and your teams to work issue tracking into the mix.
SEE: Hiring kit: Project manager (TechRepublic Premium)
Zoho Projects has you covered, but the issue tracking found in the platform is a bit quirky, and I want to help you through that quirk. It’s not challenging; it’s just a slight curveball thrown into your workflow. Let me help you make sense of that.
What you’ll need to submit and manage issues in Zoho Projects
The only thing you’ll need for this is a valid Zoho Projects account. You can work with either the free or paid accounts, because issue management is in both plans. Let’s create some issues.
How to submit an issue in Zoho Projects
The first thing to do is log in to your Zoho Projects account. Once logged in, under Work Overflow, click Issues in the left navigation (Figure A).
Figure A
In the resulting window, click Submit Issue in the top right corner (Figure B).
Figure B
In the resulting pop-up (Figure C), fill out the necessary information for the issue at hand.
Figure C
After filling out the information, click Add to create a new issue. Yet another pop-up window will appear (Figure D), displaying all of the information in your issue, at which point you can add comments and other details.
Figure D
Close the pop-up window and your issue is ready.
Zoho Projects: That odd little quirk
Here’s the quirk I mentioned earlier: When you create issues, you cannot define which column they appear in. Instead, all issues are created in the Open column. That may be fine for some, but when that open column gets full, it can be a bit daunting.
All you have to do is drag the issue into another column. Sadly, I cannot find a way to create a custom column. That would be a nice feature, as you could create a Submitted Issue column, but you cannot do that, so you’ll have to make do with the predefined options.
If you find the Open column isn’t enough, I would suggest using Opened as the column to collect issues and then immediately moving accepted issues to In Progress. Don’t let your issues linger in the Open column — otherwise, they’ll pile up, and you’ll struggle to keep the project moving forward.
Simple, effective issue management
Zoho Projects issue management isn’t perfect, but it’s quite good. Hopefully, in future iterations, Zoho will make it possible to create custom columns in the issues feature, so you can make it better fit your workflow. Until then, add the issues component into your daily routine and see if it doesn’t help improve your project management efforts.
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