***UPDATED 15th Sept***
We’re underway with the next version update for Copper, and we’re working on something that we really want some feedback on, for the first time in about seven years we’re going to overhaul the permissions model. We think its really going to simplify things, and allow us to bring you a host of new resource management tools that will blow your socks off.
Why are we doing this? To make things simpler for everyone, easier to learn, easier to support. One of the consistent pieces of feedback we get is that the Copper permissions model is too confusing, and I agree with this entirely. So, we’re going to take the lead from operating system permissions models.
In essence, a good project management software tool should allow you to manage two hemispheres:
1. A bunch of stuff that needs to get done
2. A bunch of people that can get it done.
It should be simple enough to create and maintain a series of projects/tasks, review the progress of same, and it should also be simple enough to create and maintain a series of people/organizations, and review the workload of same. In this way you know where a PROJECT is at, but also where a PERSON is at.
The current access model in Copper allows you to give a user or a group read/write/deny access to a Module (i.e. what a user sees), a Client (with this they see all projects), a Project (with this they see all tasks), and also allows you to allocate users to a Task (they see this task in To Do). If a user is in a group they adopt the groups permissions. For the most part this works, but then there are Client/Project/Task owners, an Admin user (who has access to everything). Also, there are a whole bunch of ‘People’ or ‘Group’ objects in Copper that further complicate matters, including User, Contact, Group, Client, Account manager, Project Owner, Project Participant, Task Owner, and Task Allocatee. Woah! There should just be: People and Organizations.
With that in mind, here is how we simplify this. In essence this is how Copper v5.0 will work:
We’re going to remove the Clients module, the Contacts module, remove Users and Groups from Admin, remove Project and Task owner fields and replace them with a ‘People’ module. Then, we’re going to simplify how permissions work.
New People Module
The ‘People’ module will contain People and Organizations. A Person is anyone you come into contact with when you undertake a project. A copper user will just be a person who is given log in Access). An Organization is any grouping of People, for instance a client, an internal department, a vendor or subcontractor, or a special project team.
New Permissions
In the new permissions model, you simply add People to Organizations, Projects, and Tasks
When a person is on an Organization, you can set them to have access to All Projects. Or you can add them to specific projects if you want to limit their access.
When a person is on a Project, they see all tasks in that project, and can se the Organization details, but not edit them.
When a person is on a Task, they see it in their To Do and can add commentary to it.
We’ll also allow you to set a flagbearer person in Organizations, Projects, and Tasks. This just means they are the current go to person on this thing, and they can pass the flag as needed.
Anyone can create an Organization or a Project, and you can add anyone that is in an Organization you’re already in.
Anyone can create a Person, but only Admin can give that Person log in access.
More to come, but this is simplifying…. Getting there…
Ben.
Hi Ben,
simplifying is always good. Since I am not sure to understand the complete scope of your work, her is a comment of what we currently need:
beside user, and groups, we would need categories like Client, Contractor, Employee
The reason why these categories would be a plus is to allocate work or projects to outside users
Thanks
Pierre
Hi Pierre,
I’m actually going to edit this post above, firstly changing ‘groups’ to ‘organization’, and also introducing the merging of Clients/Groups into ‘Organization’. I’ll explain why above, but effectively we’re going to simplify even further.
The categories you refer to above will simply be a Person/Organization ‘Type’. So an Organization can be ‘MyCompany’ or it can be ‘ACME client’ or it can be ‘Marketing Department’ or it can be ‘Special Project Team A’. Similarly a Person can be a contact, or if you select to allow them to log in, then you can set their access permissions and they become a user. So you can have unlimited ‘People’ in copper, and your license limit is on the number of People-who-can-log-in (e.g. Standard would allow 5 People to log in.)
All projects relate to one Organization, All people belong to one or many Organizations. Access is managed at the Organization and Person level (and we have a separate area for switching on/off modules).
We’re excited about the change, while it will take a little getting used to, it provides a FAR simpler and usable product. I’ll post back with some screenshots and we should have a beta in a few weeks.
I just started testing Copper (currently using basecamp, looking fwd to change). I like what I see and these changes make sense to me. When and where can we test this new version?
Great work Ben!
Thanks,
Carlos
Sounds like some good changes. One thing that would help us a lot is to be able to assign a Supervisor for a person. We have many projects where the project owner is not necessarily the resource’s Supervisor. Because the Supervisor needs to ensure his people are fully utilized he needs to see the tasks his people have assigned to them. Also that supervisor would want to run reports to see what projects his people worked on during the last week or month. It’s a whole lot easier if he can select his group of people rather than do it individually or by project.
It’s OK to make it simpler, but PLEASE don’t take away the CLIENTS module – it’s a really nice overview of the project portfolio. You could possibly make the PROJECTS view more advanced (add filtering and maybe the ability to choose wich data columns to show (like “project owner”, “activity”, …)), but untill then I would really like to keep the CLEINTS module.
The statement “Anyone can create an Organization or a Project…” concerns me greatly, and I hope I have misunderstood what you are saying.
Having been an implementation consultant for 14 years for one of the most flexible and powerful ERP systems ever created, I know only too well the dangers of giving users the unconstrained ability to create and amend static data records (e.g. project codes, item codes, transaction types, people) without the need for authorisation.
Most of troubleshooting I have had to do was not down to lack of functionality, it was because people created such records oblivious to the fact that they are at odds with crucial systems process or business logic, or contra to a predetermined coding structure.
They then happily start posting transactions or performing process tasks linked to this rogue data until someone notices a problem – usually when their reports start going ga ga, or users get access to data that they shouldn’t do.
In short, the majority of users should have (and only want) just enough permissions and options on the system to enable them to perform their role-specific tasks. For example, purchasing departments should be able to set up supplier records, but not customer records; project managers can set up projects, but not chart of accounts records; lawyers should… uhm… well just chuck themselves under a bus
I certainly couldn’t allow clients onto a system where they are free to start creating their own projects etc. And I’m pretty certain they would regard with suspicion, the security of any system that seemingly allows anybody to set up any record they like.
As I say, I hope I misunderstood; because what I need are systems where one or two “super users” are in charge of the creation and maintenance of reference data, and everyone else (clients, outsourced workers, trainees, part-timers, untrained users, etc.) can just get on with completing the tasks assigned to them.
Thanks Simon, rest assured the data integrity isn’t compromised, we’ve been cooking up a really powerful structure over here, I think its going to allow the flexibility and control that most if not all of our customers want.
HI Boris,
Clients module is gone for v5, but in its place will be a functionality that allows you to overview projects per organization anyway.. We really really really need to simplify this area and as scary as the change may seem to you now, know that our biggest fear is removing stuff that is going to make Copper LESS popular
Still early days yet, but the theory we’re sharing now is designed to generate discussion, and as we move closer to being able to show customers the proposed changes, we’ll be able to lock down exactly what the changes will be.
Its big, fat, hairy, audacious, but so was the iphone. Thats the kind of market-leading efficiency we want to finally bring with v5. Months away I’d say too, so plenty of time to get it right.