Managing Software Deliverables Documentation

I need to send the details of what I have been working on in terms of enhancements and bug fixes to my clients. I tried several ways of doing this where I would manage a text or word document but each was annoying to maintain and it would force me to have an additional app up and running. The other issue is that I use MacOS Spaces heavily and I don’t like COMMAND+TAB’ing to a document file just to capture the tidbits I am working on. I just want to stay in the same space.

The answer? OmniFocus. With OmniFocus I can open the Quick Entry window from any MacOS Space by using the global CTRL+OPTION+SPACE key combo. BTW, for those not familiar with OmniFocus, you can read more about it on my OmniFocus page. Here is my setup:

The projects you see above are the standard fair where I have all my “next actions” listed in “Bug” and “Enhancement” projects so I can tackle them when I’m in my “Work” context. The new project I added was “Deliverables” to capture items that I need to send out using the “Pending” context. As I complete my next actions in the “Bug” and “Enhancement” projects, I bring up a new Quick Entry window and quickly document what I fixed or enhanced. This might sound like duplicate work but not really. The reason is that what I enter as a “Deliverable” gets additional documentation because it needs to be readable by the client. I can enhance the action by using the note capabilities of the action such as adding more text or capturing a screenshot or two. The Quick Entry window is also handy in those cases for capturing tangential fixes or enhancements while in the midst of working on another action.

When it comes time to release a new milestone to the client, I can export all “Pending” actions into a document and I’m done (or export the entire project as HTML). No longer is there extra work at the end of week assembling all the documentation together. Now I am getting things done faster with more time spent coding.

The following screenshot helps illustrate (this is a view of the “Deliverables project for all actions in the “Pending” context, sorry had to blur most of the content out — too many secrets ya know):

(click to view)

Now, if only OmniFocus would allow me to export the contents of my “Deliverables” project as PDF. Maybe it’ll happen in the future.

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