Date of Cerb v4 final (added latest roadmap -Jeff@WGM)

[netwrkr]

Jeff - what do you see as a rough date when we can expect cerb4 to hit final release status with most, if not all, of the previous existing functionality? I know its a tough question to answer on multiple levels -- what I'm getting at is when do you expect folks to be able to start performing seamless upgrades from v3 to v4 without impacting daily production?

Thanks.

Tom

[jstanden]

Hey Tom!

The biggest thing holding up 4.0 from leaving beta is the new Support Center, which I should be able to release today.

We're not directly mapping over all the previous functionality, part of this process is also seeing what people need the most so we can get rid of a lot of the cruft that's accumulated over the years.

Our list of the major things to implement in 4.0 is (in order):
Support Center: This is just about ready to go. I'll work to get this into Subversion and announced on the forums later today. It's *much* better than the original SC.
Custom Dashboard: Many people have been asking how they'd see work from all their groups on one page with their own criteria. The "Group Workspaces" are meant to be automatic and simple so anybody can use the helpdesk with minimal training. However, we definitely see the need for custom ticket lists for power-users.
Watchers: In 4.0, RSS Notifications are great to let you know when someone replies or new tickets are created. But people still need the ability to reply to copies of messages through an external e-mail application or mobile/PDA.
Custom Fields: Because of the various ways Cerberus is used, we can never anticipate everyone's needs. Custom fields on records like tickets or contacts help bridge this gap. This would also include LayeredTech's requests for a new encrypted custom field type which could temporarily store sensitive information like credit cards, server logins, passwords, etc.
Reports: While I'd prefer that a lot of the complex custom-reporting be done using a specialized tool like Jasper/iReport directly against the database, we definitely agree on the need for a flexible and simple performance report in the GUI.
Translations: We need to finish externalizing our strings so translation work can begin. This has been on hold until now due to rapid development.In migrating from 3.x to 4.x, any particular one of these items may be a show-stopper for some companies. We're dutifully tallying that feedback.

What we've delivered so far is the fully-functional, core purpose of Cerberus Helpdesk -- where we didn't make many assumptions throughout our development, leaving us agile to respond to the feedback of actual users with actual, real-world workloads. Through the process we've been using 4.0 live ourselves, but we completely understand our needs and usage are just one pattern among many.

That said, there are a lot of people making the leap to 4.0 already. Even at our most optimistic we didn't expect so few issues or objections for such a major transition. ;) The bad memory of 2.x to 3.0 really had to do with trying to bolt-on discontinuous improvements while having a fear of fundamentally changing anything. That just led to a mess.

4.0 is about extensibility in the concepts as much as the code. People seem to really be understanding and appreciating that.

Regarding an official release date, we're not following a schedule on our terms, we're taking the project's pulse. As I mentioned above, the Support Center was the main component of that. Stability; the ability of people to perform the installation with the new requirements; the 3.x to 4.x migration process; and the 4.x update/patch process have all been well-tested. The new pricing has been well-received. The official release could be any time now, though it will likely be after the new SC has had a little real-world experience/tuning.

I could set an arbitrary date, but it would be meaningless. What's more interesting is what each user's relative impression of "ready" is.

How about you, what's specifically holding you back on 3.x?

Thanks!

[jstanden]

Progress Update:

* Support Center: Complete!
* Custom Workspaces: Complete!

Both features are available in Subversion:
http://wiki.cerberusdemo.com/index.php/Upgrading_to_Newer_Versions_of_Cerberus_Helpdesk_4 .0