Getting Silky With the Go2Group JaS Plugin

Does your firm utilize Borland's SilkCentral Test Manager for its test management needs, while your development team is locked into Atlassian's JIRA issue tracking system for development efforts, and you are trying to find a way for the two teams to collaborate in a more cost effective manner? Why not give the Go2Group JaS Plugin a (free) trial?

The Go2Group JaS Plugin allows developers in JIRA to display a list of available SilkCentral test cases in a JIRA window. No need to purchase additional user licenses. No need to force either team to learn a new tool. No need for expensive consulting services to configure one system to capture the same features found in the other.

The result is a cost-effective, transparent, and seamless collaboration solution, built around the products and knowledge already contained in-house.

To review more information on the Go2Group JaS Plugin, click here. For specific questions, contact us today!

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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group CRM Plugin - Collabarate. Now.

We gave a discusson on support and sales teams being integrated with other internal teams within an organization. The basis of this discussion was the Go2Group CRM Plugin, and our experience in working with development and sales teams.

We put the following presentation together for our discussion, and thought it'd be a good idea to post it here as well.

Go2Group CRM Plugin

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: go2group jira)

Have questions, or looking to evaluation the latest Go2Group CRM Plugin? Contact us today!


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Confluence - A Complex & Timely Move Made Easy

Recently, Go2Group was asked to provide some assistance with Confluence, Atlassian's enterprise wiki product. We use Confluence internally for collaboration across different teams in different locations, as well as for our support site to provide product information to our customers.

Needless to say, we are experienced Confluence users and administrators, which makes a client's support request that much more imperative - we're not sure what we'd do if the wiki was down!

This particular client was preparing for a big moving day - from a new server, a new database server, a new version of their databse, and a new version of Confluence. All at the same time. This engagement certainly had the opportunity for many points of failure, but it turned out to be one of our smoothless deployments.

In preparing for this engagement and while providing the required services, we leared a few things:

• When upgrading to a new version of Confluence, take inventory of the currently installed plugins. Some plugins can be updated directly from Confluence's plugin repository, but many will have to be updated manually by uploading the new JAR files.
• Confluence is a very stable product, and one that is very tolerant when moving to a new plaform and/or database.
• The smoothness of this transition was partially due to the way Confluence was configured in this environment - the client was very careful not to install plugins just because they could. This client was very particular about which plugins were to be installed based on their need and frequency of use.

Confluence is a great product for a number of reasons, one of which is it's ablity to be easily customized and extended. However, there is a great temptation to customize it to the point it is no longer recognizable as a wiki while installing different plugins because they are easily available.

We would certainly agree that these options are nice, and sometimes required. At the same time, we'd like to preach the gospel according to prudence: Everything in moderation.


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Go2Group, Inc.
http://www.go2group.com/

Go2Group - More than *just* JIRA Consulting

We here at Go2Group consider ourselves more than just Atlassian JIRA consultants. Not just technically, as we handle a number of other systems and technologies, but even more so from a strategic and theoretical application.

Recently, we worked with a Client to install, configure, and support a JIRA deployment. Once complete, the Client was thrilled with the completed work but there seemed to be something missing. The Client had this inquisitive look as if to be thinking: "Now what?".

Here's where our deep consulting and product development experience in all things software development took over. Since we've provided data integration and analysis for disparate systems and teams, we took a step back with the Client to review the bigger picture.

The goal of any technical work is to provide a better solution to what's currently in place. Once JIRA is set up, configured, and in use, we look at how that data can be funneled into JIRA and other products, then analyze and use that data.

The reporting tools in JIRA are oriented at developers who are trying to get basic metrics on their defects. We've married different Client requirements with these built-in tools, and others built by Go2Group, that provide value to management - showing them trends of which work team is most burdened, the ability to track business practice-specific data types, automatically analyze data, provide reports to specific groups, etc.

This is the value of Go2Group consulting: providing enterprise results within your constraints.


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group Announces New Perforce Training Course

Go2Group is now providing Perforce training in Best Practices for Codeline Management and Scripting.

The two-day training course will provide a schedule for learning how to extend your expertise in the area of managing codelines, and providing techniques for automating typical SCM workflow processes.

For schedules, rates, and additional information on this course or our other services, contact us today!


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group JaM Plugin Now Features Attachment Synchronization

We are excited to announce the availability of the Go2Group JaM Plugin, v4.3! Along with performance enhancements and bug fixes, the big added feature is attachment synchronization between JIRA and Quality Center.

To review the latest documentation, and to download the latest version, visit the Go2Group Support site. Interested in evaluating the JaM Plugin? Contact us today!

Also, the Go2Group JaM Plugin survey remains open for anyone who has yet to complete the questionnaire. All survey responses will remain strictly anonymous. The results will be analyzed by Go2Group so that no individual can be identified. We greatly appreciate your time and effort, and sincerely value your feedback.

In return for completing the survey, Go2Group is offering a 50% discount that can be used towards the purchase of a new Go2Group JaM Plugin license. You will find your discount code at the end of the survey.

Thank you for your continued support!


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Stretching Your IT Budget

We've been hearing from a handful of potential clients that they are looking to make efficient use of their IT budgets. With the current flood of dreary economic news, how do technology teams help their companies maintain growth with a tight budget?

Projects may be getting slashed or put on hold, but that doesn't mean collaboration between different teams has to follow the same path. Shifting the focus internally and creating a tighter communication channel between your sales and technical teams will certainly decrease customer response times while increasing the quality of service every customer receives.

Investing resources in a single platform will certainly push the IT budget to its upper limit while potentially fraying the nerves of teams that have to learn a new system.

Go2Group's CRM Plugin may be a solution for those teams looking to increase communication without breaking the bank. The Go2Group CRM Plugin provides an easy installation and setup process, getting your disbursed team collaborating quickly, all while using the systems they are already familiar with.

Take the Go2Group CRM Plugin out for a free, 30-day test drive today. Need to get a better understanding of how the Go2Group CRM Plugin can work in your environment? Contact us, we'll be happy to talk with you.


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Atlassian User Group, NY - Recap

We were at the Atlassian User Group meeting in New York yesterday. The session was very well attended and the speakers did a great job in discussing how Confluence can be used in different environments.

We were sitting at a round-table following the main session where the topics of enterprise-level support, performance, and stability were the hot topics. Some great discussion spawned from round-table discussions.

The Atlassian User Group team is continuing their road show. Find out when they will be in your home town and schedule some time to attend.







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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group JaM Plugin - Tech Brief

Lots more news surrounding the Go2Group JaM Plugin. We've released a new technology brief for the JaM Plugin, providing an overview of the product, use cases, and technical details, among other items.

The Go2Group JaM Plugin Technology Brief is available on our support site today!

Also, if you have previously evaluated the JaM Plugin, we'd love to hear your feedback. We're even offering a sweet deal following the completion of a quick survey. For more details, log in to the support site and click over to the latest news section.


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Atlassian Developer Conference

Go2Group will be attending AtlasCamp - Atlassian's inaugural Developer Conference in November. In fact, we'll have some of our key architects and developers in the Bay Area before, during, and after the conference.

If you are planning to attend AtlasCamp, or are in the area and want to meet up, drop us a line and let us know. We'd enjoy meeting with you!

What: AtlasCamp
When: November 6-8
Where: Santa Rosa, CA
More: www.atlassian.com/atlascamp

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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

TeamTrack Integration with Perforce SCM

Go2Group is announcing the introduction of the Go2Group TaP Plugin - providing integration between Serena's TeamTrack system and Perforce SCM.

The Go2Group TaP Plugin provides a mechanism to view the information in a Perforce change-list within Serena’s TeamTrack user interface. This is implemented through Perforce's Jobs feature, which is a customer configurable data structure that can be attached to a change-list at check-in time.

The Go2Group TaP Plugin is available today.


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group's Perforce add-on for Atlassian Confluence

We've been playing around with a tool that allows a set of data from Perforce to be displayed within a Confluence wiki page, and now we're introducing the Go2Group PaC Plugin.

The Go2Group PaC Plugin is simple to install and is being supported through Go2Group's online issue tracking system.

To get started, check out the documentation on our support site and request an evaluation license key to being your 30-day free evaluation today.


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group Last Change Field for JIRA - Updated!

Go2Group's Last Change Field plugin for JIRA is now compatible with JIRA 3.13! The plugin displays a custom field with the last change for a JIRA issue.

The Last Change Field plugin is available today, and can be downloaded from the Go2Group Labs site.


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Doug Bass, Go2Group's Latest Certified Perforce Trainer

We received great news to start the week - Doug Bass, Go2Group's SVP of R&D, has been certified as a Perforce Trainer! Along with his current status as a Certified Perforce Consultant, Doug will provide Go2Group customers with an additional resource for Perforce requests.

Congratulations Doug!

For more information on Go2Group's Perforce services, click here.
For more information on the Perforce Training program, click here.


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Atlassian Releases JIRA 3.13

If you haven't already heard, Atlassian has released JIRA 3.13. Lots of great stuff in this release...

• Shareable Dashboard (JRA-2509)
• Single Project Restore (JRA-1604)
• Edit Active Workflow (JRA-7661)
• Better Filter Sharing (JRA-4139)
• JIRA Personal Licenses (JRA-10393)
• So much more!
  

For more info on this latest release, check out the JIRA 3.13 announcement.

For more information on how Go2Group can help with with your JIRA requirements, contact us today!


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Serena Tag Conference - Go2Group Presentation

Go2Group spoke at Serena's Tag Conference, providing additional information and demos for Go2Group Mashups. Doug Bass, Go2Group's SVP of Research & Development, ran the demo, walking the attendees through a basic scenario between users in Serena Business Mashups and Perforce SCM.

We had some great questions, along with some exciting feature requests, that we're already devoting resources to. The response to the mashup demo, and to Go2Group Mashups, continues to surprise us - there are more and more folks that are using disparate systems with a need to collaborate on specific projects. Go2Group Mashups provide a method to bridge this gulf, while allowing teams to continue using their systems of choice.

We'll be posting the actual presentation here shortly.

For more information on the Go2Group Mashups presentation, click here.

For more information, visit our Go2Group Mashups page.

For more information on the Serena Tag Conference, click here.



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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

The Go2Group Website

As you have likely already discovered, the Go2Group website underwent minor cosmetic surgery over the Labor Day weekend. The old home page was lifted and in its place a younger, fresher look.

We wanted to provide a new, streamlined look for our customers, making the content you need much easier to find. We're hoping we're getting closer to this goal.

You'll note that the Go2Group Labs page has been replaced with a public wiki page on our support site. This will make it much easier to provide updates to these very popular products and if you are interested in being notified of new updated, just keep an eye on this site.

Of course, if you are interested in any of our other solutions, let us know and we'll set you up with an account on the support site.

Thanks go out to the web team and more importantly, our customer's feedback. Thanks!!







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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group at Serena Tag Conference

Go2Group will be joining our partners at the Serena Tag Conference in Santa Clara, CA during the week of September 7. Our big focus will be on Mashup Monday, where we will provide a presentation on our Mashups including updates on recent customers, new features, and the future of Go2Group Mashups.

If you will be attending Serena's Tag Conference, we'd enjoy meeting with you. If you are based in the Bay Area, CA and are in town during the week of September 7 but are not going to the conference, let us know and we'd be happy to meet up. Either way, contact us and we'll get you on our calendars.

We're looking forward to seeing you at Tag!



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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Crystal Reports for Atlassian JIRA

What if you were able to provide custom, professional reports from Crystal Reports from the familiar and powerful JIRA issue tracking tool from Atlassian? Well, we're introducing that idea: extending JIRA's reporting capabilities by hooking into Crystal Reports reporting engine.

Right now, the idea has been designed, conceptualized, and prototyped. We're releasing the beta plugin to a few customers this week in hopes of providing a publicly available reporting tool in the very near future. Keep an eye on this blog and on the Go2Group Labs page.

If you are interested in running the beta reporting integration in your test environment, let us know. We'll set up the details.


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Serena Announces TAG Conference Details

Serena Software announced details for their TAG Conference in September:

• When: Monday, September 8 – Wednesday, September 10, 2008
• Where: Silicon Valley, California @ Santa Clara Marriott
• What: Featured focus areas will include Mashups, Agile, Project & Portfolio Management, Application Lifecycle Management, Software Configuration Management and more.
  

Go2Group will be attending and participating in the conference, discussing and demoing our Go2Group Mashups. The big day for mashups is September 8 - Mashup Monday. If you're planning to attend, stop by and say hello!

For more information, check out the Serena TAG Conference website.

For more information on Go2Group Mashups, contact us today!


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Perforce Announces 2009 Conference Details

Perforce today announced its tentative schedule for the 2009 Perforce User Conference:

• Dates: April 29 - May 1
• Location: Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, NV
  

We've attended these conferences in the past and we highly recommend going to anyone that is serious about deploying Perforce in their environment, or is looking for use cases. The folks at Perforce always seem to get a fantastic list of speakers and participants, whether it's in the UK or here in the USA.

Go2Group will certainly be there - in fact, we're hoping to be even more visible at this Perforce conference compared with others.

For more details on the 2009 Perforce User Conference, head on over to the Perforce website.

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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group JIRA add-on for Firefox 3 Now Available!

Ever wanted to take a quick look into a JIRA issue without having to navigate through multiple windows or tabs? Now you can have a list of all the issues you are working on in your Firefox 3 sidebar. The Firefox Add-on for Atlassian JIRA is now available for Firefox 3.

For more information, check out the Go2Group Labs page on our website.

Thanks!


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Go2Group Mashups Featured in March of the Mashups on Serena's MashupTV

As you probably already know, Go2Group has partnered with Serena to bring to market a number of business mashups.  We recently were made aware that our Go2Group Mashups are being featured in an episode of MashupTV.  Pretty cool!

We're planning to post our initial Go2Group Mashups up on the website over the next week, allowing any and all of you to evaluate them in your own Serena Business Mashup environment.  

For the time being, check out the MashupTV episode or the Serena HiveLive site for more information on Go2Group Mashups.

Go2Group CRM Plugin Update

We're releasing the next version of the Go2Group CRM Plugin today. What's new in this release:

• Support for multiple Salesforce issues linking to a single JIRA issue
• Replication prevention of attachment from JIRA to Salesforce
• Salesforce fields are updated when a JIRA issue is created or updated
  

In addition to the updates above, we've included bug fixes for recently logged issues and additional improvements to the CRM Plugin. To download the latest version, visit the Go2Group CRM Plugin page on our website.

Thanks for your continued support!


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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Live From SF, It's the Web 2.0 Expo!

We're blogging today from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. The conference has yet another great turn out of attendees, presenters, and exhibitors. Along with our partners, XBOsoft, we've met some really super people with some really interesting ideas.

We also attended the Enterprise Mashups session presented by Programmable Web's John Musser. John presented very well and the structure of his discussion on a very immature product/industry was well put together.

Of course, we're keen on following the development of enterprise mashups since we're working with Serena on building our own suite of mashups.

Our friends over at XBOsoft put together an outstanding booth - it was crawling with interested folks yesterday when the exhibit hall opened up.

We're looking forward to tomorrow's sessions and walking the floor to see more of these cool companies and their products. If you're walking around the conference floor, stop by the XBOsoft booth or give us a ring to meet up.

Go2Group CRM Plugin v2.2 Now Available

We released an update to the Go2Group CRM Plugin today. The update includes bug fixes and a bunch of new and improved features. To review the full release notes, check out our support site (login required).

We're also beginning to work on the next release. If you have any feature requests, feel free to pass them along!

- Go2Group

What Can the CRM Plugin Do For Me?

We've been working with our clients to implement the Go2Group CRM Plugin in some very interesting environments. We're surprised and excited to learn how folks are using the CRM Plugin differently.

How do you use the CRM Plugin? Or rather, did you know the CRM Plugin can be customized to include drop down fields? Or that custom fields in JIRA can be pushed to your CRM application?

We're looking to put together a demo to show customers and evaluators how the CRM Plugin can be extended beyond its basic operations. Feel free to leave a comment below if there's anything you'd like to see in the demo.



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Go2Group, Inc.
www.go2group.com

Perforce User Conference - London, UK

We're heading over to the Perforce User Conference in London next month. If you're going, or are in the London area, we'd love to meet up while we're there.

For more information on the conference, check out the Perforce website. To schedule some time to chat, contact us.

A Behind-the-Scenes Update to the CRM Plugin

As the CRM Plugin becomes more popular and more widely used in very different environments, we've been working on a way to test the CRM Plugin in these very different environments. The goal is to provide an even more sound experience for you when installing and implementing the CRM Plugin.

Soon, we will be able to customize the CRM Plugin and run it through an automated test system to test the validity of the configuration.

How cool is that?

CRM Plugin v2.13.6 Update

We're releasing an update to the Go2Group CRM Plugin today, with quite a number of new features. While it's not quite v2.14 that we have been talking about (that one's coming!), this update addresses a number of fixes and includes the following new features:

• Now compatible with Salesforce Professional edition!
• Includes a slick new installer, making the installation process a snap!
• Supports the latest Salesforce API!
  

To check out this latest version, visit the Go2Group CRM Plugin page on our website, then contact us for a license key to begin your 30-day evaluation today within your environment. Or you can see the Plugin in action using the Salesforce TestDrive.

Thank you for your continued support!

Go2Group CRM Plugin Update

The Go2Group CRM Plugin has been certified by salesforce.com! We've been working to get the certification in place for some time now, and we're very excited about this outcome.

What does this mean to you?

• The CRM Plugin now works with the Professional Edition of Salesforce, along with the Enterprise and Unlimited Editions.
  
  
• The CRM Plugin is now publicly listed on AppExchange - demoing the plugin is now easier than ever!
  
  
• The next update to the CRM Plugin will be out soon!
  

As always, thank you for your support. We're looking forward to your continued feedback!


- The Go2Group Team

Perforce and Confluence

We released the Go2Group PaC Plugin late last week without much fanfare. Since posting the plugin, we've had a bunch of evaluation requests and a few questions asking where this tool would fit in an organization's development process.

Much like the Go2Group CRM Plugin, the PaC Plugin allows collaboration between two often geographically dispersed teams. By giving an additional channel for discussion between developers and operational teams, internal reviews happen more efficiently with a simple click of the mouse. The Go2Group PaC Plugin fits nicely between Perforce's SCM system and Atlassian Confluence, the enterprise wiki.

For more information, contact us.

- The Go2Group Team

Go2Group JaM Plugin v4.1 Update Now Available!

The 4.1 update to the Go2Group JaM Plugin is now available. New features and changes include:

• Manual Trigger Replication
• Field Conflict Resolution
• Ignore Missing Fields
• Simplified Log Statement
• Comment Replication

For a quick review of these updates, and to download a copy of the latest release, please visit the Go2Group website (the accompanying PDF has full details of the new features and updated changes).

To start your evaluation today, request a free 30-day license key.

Go2Group is Hiring!

With the new year now upon us, we're looking to add developers and engineers to our arsenal. If you have development experience with ClearCase, Perforce, Subversion, SilkTest or HP Quality Center we want to hear from you!

Other needs we are looking to fill include engineers and developers with experience in Requirements Management Tools (RequisitePro, DOORs, or Caliber), Build Tools (ANT, NANT, Maven, Cruise Control, or BAMBOO), and Issue Tracking Systems (TeamTrack, JIRA, or ClearQuest).

For more information, and a full list of needs and requirements, please visit our Career Openings page on the Go2Group website.

Happy New Year!

CRM Plugin v2.14 Sneak Peak

We're updating the Go2Group CRM Plugin with a release scheduled for the first part of 2008. A quick look into a very helpful new feature: a GUI installation screen! The screen (see a snapshot below) allows you to quickly setup the integration and test the settings.


Other updates include:

• Ability to add a reporter tag to the create issue servlet
• Ability to add a comment URL to the create issue servlet
• Ability to store Salesforce attachments in a JIRA issue
  

We're looking forward to releasing this updated version. Any other updates you'd like to include? Just log them into our support site!

Using Revision-Tagged Labels in Perforce

A customer recently asked us why we prefer using labels in Perforce. We recommend revision-tagged labels as they don't have the performance issues associated with classic file-tagged labels at large Perforce sites (they are more than 100x faster to use in common operations).

The following is a discussion with Tom Tyler, Go2Group's resident Perforce expert.

Q: What is the difference between tagging a set of files and labeling a set of files?

A: There really is no difference. Tagging and labeling are different ways of saying the same thing - in fact, tagging a set of files is a good definition for labeling.

Q: What if a user wants an exact revision number except one file is much older?

A: That sort of flexibility is possible with the old, file-tagged labels. With file-tagged labels, you can set the label down on any arbitrary set of files and any arbitrary set of revisions of the selected files.
With revision-tagged labels, you can set the label down on an arbitrary set of files, but the revision specifier for the label applies to all specified files.

Using only revision-tagged labels is preferred. If you get into a case where you want to refer to all new files and just one or an old revision, we would recommend just submitting rolling back those files, submitting a new version of the file that has the same contents as the old version needed. The result is a single changelist that defines all the files wanted – much easier reproducibility. After you fire off your build, you can roll the files forward again if needed.

Q: With is the difference in tagging vs. labeling in these cases?

A: In this case, the tags = labels. The P4V icon for a label is an old grocery-store tag.

Serena Business Mashups

Bill Ives recently penned a post on his Fastforward blog, discussing his interest in Serena's Business Mashup program. We share Bill's excitement, especially as it relates to creating mashups of Go2Group products.

Go2Group is working with Serena to include some of its more popular products, including the CRM and JaM Plugins, in the Mashup Exchange during the first quarter of next year.

Keep an eye on this space, as well as Serena's Mashup page, for updates on the Go2Group's involvement in the mashup program.

As Bill says, mash on.

Go2Group Holiday Support Hours

As the holidays descend upon us, our support hours will be reduced and our response time will likely be extended. Our limited support hours will be effective during the following days:

Monday, December 24
Tuesday, December 25
Wednesday, December 26

Monday, December 31
Tuesday, January 1

If you are looking for assistance during this time, please know that we will respond as quickly as possible.

Happy holidays!

Go2Group's JIRA add-on for Silk Now Available

We're proud to announce an additional tool to help tie your development and testing teams together: the Go2Group JaS Plugin.

The Go2Group JaS Plugin allows developers using Atlassian's JIRA issue management tool to collaborate with test teams using Borland's Silk test solution.

The Go2Group JaS Plugin is available today. For more information, see our JaS Plugin page, or contact us for additional details.

Go2Group Releases JIRA and Mercury Plugin

We're excited to announce that we have publicly released the JaM Plugin, and we wanted you to be one of the first people to know about its availability. As you know, the JaM Plugin is an integration piece between Atlassian JIRA and Mercury TestDirector - creating transparency between developers and testers.

To download the JaM Plugin, visit our website and request a 30-day evaluation key to begin using the plugin today.

Thanks to all our customers and partners for helping to develop and test the JaM Plugin. We're looking forward to your feedback!

Announcing the Go2Group Testing Center

We recently blogged about our testing and training services. In a bit of sneak-peek news, we're announcing the opening of the official Go2Group Testing Center, which will help provide our customers with round-the-clock support for their testing needs.

As noted previously, Go2Group's Test Team has experience with a number of test tools - including Silk, TestCenter, and TeamTrack - and our proven testing approach allows our customers to ensure that the software performs as expected. We even have customized automation solutions for very specific environments.

The location and contact information of the Testing Center is below. We're planning to release additional details shortly, but feel free to contact us now for a consultation on how we can help meet your testing needs.

Go2Group Testing Center
Haidian District Beijing 100088
Zhichun Rd. - Building #6
Unit 3 Office 702
testing@Go2Group.com

Go2Group CRM Plugin v2.12 Now Available!

We released the newest version of our popular CRM Plugin this morning. The plugin is now available with the two most customer-requested features:

• Create JIRA issues directly from your salesforce account! Instead of switching between two different applications to log an issue request, users can now create a JIRA issue after the creation of a salesforce.com case, or use the JIRA Login tab to navigate through your JIRA instance. No more using ALT + TAB to use both applications!
  
  
• Query custom fields in salesforce.com in addition to the standard account fields - Along with the standard account fields, you can now search custom-created fields within salesforce.com. Handy for those folks who have created a truly customized application.
  

To download Go2Group's latest CRM Plugin, visit the CRM Plugin page or contact us today!

Go2Group Testing & Training Services

Did you know that Go2Group provides extensive, quality application testing for your environment?

Go2Group's Test Team has experience with a number of test tools and our proven testing approach allows our customers to ensure that the software performs as expected - we even have customized automation solutions for very specific environments.

Our Training Team provides deep, hands-on training - geared towards both users and administrators, and can be held through an online session or at your premises. Our team focuses on knowledge transfer to ensure that your staff understands and effectively uses the system after integration and implementation.

We put our expertise and experience in your back pocket. For more information on our testing & training services, visit our website or contact us today.

Go2Group and dreamforce '07

salesforce.com's upcoming event, dreamforce '07, is coming to San Francisco in September and Go2Group will be there.

If you're attending, we'd enjoy meeting you and your team. We'll follow up with more details as they become available, but contact us in the mean time if you'd you like to schedule a time to chat.

Tom's Column - SPLA

Welcome to the first entry in a new piece on the Go2Group Blog entitled "Tom's Column". In this first column, I'll introduce the term Software Production Line Automation, a central theme in Go2Group's services and product offerings.

Automation is both a goal and a means to establish a Software Production Line. The mindset can be described as ERP meets the SDLC. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a term used to describe a variety of integrated systems that provide a comprehensive view of a business's overall operations. This term is traditionally applied to inventory management and Supply Change Management (what we in the Software Configuration Management field refer to as, "the other SCM").

When applied to the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) or simply the PLC (Product Life Cycle), one can envision a suite of integrated software development systems that can provide a comprehensive view of the software development process.

In practical terms, a software production line provides quick answers to questions like:

• Was Bug-2343 fixed in Build 409?
• What compiler version, flags, and platform were used in Build 9041?
• Where is the Bill of Materials for Gizmo-3.2.0.1114?
• Were the changes for Feature 324 promoted to Integration Testing?
• Did only CCB-approved changes go into the build?
• What bug or request spawned the change in file foo.c#26?
• What changes occurred between Build 401 and Build 404, what requirements were addressed?
  

SPLA represents the culmination of decades of industry experience, implemented using the best tools and infrastructure on the market today. For more detail on SPLA, visit the Go2Group website and keep an eye on this blog.

In the next column, I'll offer a few integrated software systems that can be used to build a modern production line.

Cheers!

-- Tom

Go2Group Website Now Available to our Asia/Pacific Viewers

We recently updated our website but due to our hosting provider, most of our Asia/Pacific viewers weren't able to see the changes. Well, we've made a few edits and the new site is now available to this very important market.

If you had previously been unable to view our website at www.Go2Group.com, click over to www.Go2Group.net and see the updated site for yourself.

Of course, if you have any problems viewing either site, please contact us.

Go2Group Releases Updated CRM Plugin

Go2Group, the Software Production Line Automation experts, announces a new release of its popular CRM plugin. We are also making available a free version of the plugin available for download today.

The update Go2Group CRM Plugin update contains the following updates:

• Password encryption
• Simpler Account selection through the use of AJAX
• Ability for users to create JIRA issues from within SFDC

The updated plugin is available by download today. For additional details, visit the Go2Group CRM Plugin page on our website.

Also available is a free version of the Go2Group CRM Plugin. The free, basic version of the plugin contains the installation guide and needed files to begin using the plugin today.

For additional details on the free version of Go2group's CRM Plugin, including a feature comparison table, visit the Go2Group Basic CRM Plugin page on our website.

Go2Group's JIRA Add-on for Firefox

Ever wanted to take a quick look into an Attlassian JIRA issue without having to navigate through multiple Firefox windows or tabs? Now, you can have a list of all the issues you are working on in your Firefox sidebar.

Go2Group's JIRA Add-on for Firefox is a Firefox extension, not a JIRA plugin. Its purpose is to serve as a navigator into JIRA, much like your Firefox bookmarks.

The extension will present a list of all projects and search filters available to your JIRA account, and you can get a list of all issues for those projects or filters, or do a regular text search. Double-clicking on one of the results will open up a new tab in Firefox that shows the issue in JIRA.

The JIRA Add-on for Firefox is currently being evaluated by the Mozilla/Firefox team for public distribution. If you found the add-on useful, please let them know.

Try it today!

Introducing the New Go2Group Website!

As we've grown over the last five years, we've added new people, began offering a broad range of innovative solutions, and expanded our world-class SPLA services. Along the way, you told us there were times when you got lost in the old site, missing important links and information. We listened and responded.

Our goals for the new site were to make finding the information you were looking for as easy and as quick as possible. We also wanted to highlight the exceptional work we do with our partners. Finally, we wanted to make it simple for us to keep you updated on what we're up to.

So, without further ado, we are releasing our new site to you. We'd love to hear your thoughts on the new layout and content!

Tom Tyler PerfCon 2007 Presentation Now Available

During last week's Perforce User Conference in Las Vegas, Tom Tyler's presentation focused on Perforce branching: Moving Fast from Theory into Practical Application. Tom's presentation covered branch model basics, directory structure considerations, and classifying release processes. The presentation also includes sample case studies on these topics.

The presentation is now available below - click through the slides to review the entire presentation online. If you have any questions, let us know!

Tom Tyler Presentation, Perforce User Conference

We took a few pictures and video clips yesterday of Tom Tyler's presentation at the Perforce User Conference, which we'll continue posting at the Go2Group website.

The short clip below is of Tom talking about the process of interviewing key stakeholders within the team/organization to ensure the Perforce installation is complete within a development environment. Enjoy!

Go2Group at the Perforce User Conference

We're in Las Vegas this week at the Perforce User Conference. The weather's been great, the sessions have been entertaining, and well, it's Vegas.

Tom Tyler, Go2Group's resident Perforce expert, spoke late afternoon today on Perforce branching and merging. It was a well-attended session and the questions were non-stop - Tom's discussion seemed to hit home for a bunch of participants.

From the presentation, we headed over to the Perforce Partner Event, complete with booths and lots of networking. Meeting folks who have some really interesting deployments of perforce and others with exciting plans to integrate with other solutions was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow's sessions include talks from Nigel Chanter, some benchmarking tests from Electronic Arts, and technical discussions straight from the Perforce team. We'll follow up with some additional notes from tomorrow's sessions.

Available Seats Remain for Go2Group's Two-Day Perforce Boot Camp

Go2Group's two-day Perforce Boot Camp Training Course is taking place on May 1 - 2 in Waltham, MA and there are a few open seats remaining. The two-day course is intended to get users and administrators up to speed on various Perforce topics in a compact amount of time.

The two-day training course will present an overview of Perforce's Configuration Management System and its fundamental operations before turning to topics such as Branching and Integration, Job Tracking, and Visual Studio Integration. Tom Tyler, Go2Group's resident Perforce expert and a recognized leader in the field of Configuration Management, is a certified Perforce Consulting Partner/Trainer and will be leading the two-day course.

To reserve a seat today, please contact Laura Tannourji at (714) 646-3656 or fill out our online form.

Go2Group Releases Plugins for Customizing JIRA Fields

After recently releasing four reporting plugins for Atlassian's JIRA, Go2Group is announcing additional JIRA plugins for field customization and integration with internally deployed solutions.

These plugins have been tested internally and successfully deployed within our customer's environments.

• Issue Hierarchy Display
  This plugin is a combination of a custom field and an issue tab panel. In the customized field you can define an issue's place within an issue hierarchy by entering a parent issue ID. The issue tab panel will then display a graphical view of the issue hierarchy.
  

• Task ID Field
  This field shows the real-time status of a task from a project management system. (The tasks are created by our custom Create Task Servlet.)
  
  
• Customer Priority Field
  This field shows a priority (score) calculated from customer customized information fields.
  
  
• Last Change Field
  This field shows the last entry from the change log. Read more on the Atlassian JIRA Extensions space.
  

These plugins are available today and are fully customized for your environment. For more information, please contact us.

Go2Group Announces Reporting Plugins for Atlassian's JIRA

Go2Group is releasing four reporting plugins for JIRA, Atlassian's immensely popular bug tracking, issue tracking, & project management software. These plugins have been tested internally and have successfully been deployed by a number of our customers.

• Report Engine
  This plugin is an interface to the DataVision report engine. Once this plugin is installed, reports created in DataVision can be easily added to JIRA, allowing for more comprehensive reporting, particularly at the manager level, without the need to create new custom report plugins.
  
  
• Completed Projects Graph Report
  This report displays a histogram of completed issues per project over time, where the definition of 'complete' is given by business logic. The user can specify the histogram interval.
  
  
• Project Status Report
  This report lists several statistics (both inherent and calculated) about certain issues. It focuses on sub-task status.
  
  
• Search Attachments Using GDS
  This report uses Google Desktop Search to search attachment content. This approach has the advantage of doing the attachment indexing in a separate process, avoiding high memory use in JIRA.
  

These plugins are available today - for more information, please contact us.

JIRA/salesforce.com Plugin Defends Against Ajax Vulnerability

We recently saw the news from CBRonline discussing the potential danger of using Ajax in passing data between applications:

By exploiting JavaScript hijacking vulnerabilities, attackers would be able to, for example... gain access to any data that could be sent them via an Ajax app.

The JIRA/salesforce.com plugin, developed by Go2Group, was designed with security features to defend against this exact scenario. Go2Group's servlet ensures that requests ONLY come from the salesforce.com application over an encrypted (SSL) connection.

If you have additional questions, please contact us.

Announcing the Go2Group Newsletter

As our growth continues to expand, we are continually searching for additional ways to stay in close contact with our customers and the industry. Today we are announcing the Go2Group Newsletter, which you can sign up for online.

The Go2Group Newsletter will be available on a monthly basis and will include information on our software development projects, upcoming events, and Go2Group news you may have missed throughout the month.

For more information on current news and events, visit the press release section of our website.

Perforce User Conference, May 9 - 11

Go2Group will be attending the Perforce User Conference, May 9 - 11 in Las Vegas, NV. We will have a booth set up with demos and literature on our services.

Additionally, Tom Tyler, a recognized leader in the field of Configuration Management and a certified Perforce Consulting Partner/Trainer with Go2Group, will be discussing the topic:

Perforce Branching - Moving Fast from Theory into Practical Application

For more information, keep an eye on this blog and our Press Releases as the date gets nearer.

Go2Group Releases JIRA/salesforce.com Plugin Update

This plugin displays customer data from your salesforce.com account in a JIRA ticket and your JIRA issues in a salesforce.com screen, identifying issues for one or many accounts within salesforce.com. This updated release fixes a few known bugs, making the plugin more stable within your environment.

A prominent feature of the Plugin is the secure data exchange that is performed via recommended salesforce.com security checks to prevent any spoofing attempts. Go2Group's servlet ensures that requests ONLY come from the salesforce.com application over an encrypted (SSL) connection. Other features include:

• Issues by account (both in salesforce and JIRA)
• Edit issues directly from list of issues
• Search for issues by account
• Simple install
  

For more information on Go2Group's JIRA / salesforce.com plugin update, contact us.

Thanks for your continued support!

Requirements Management Tool Plug-in for JIRA

We've prototyped another interesting JIRA plug-in. Several clients have asked about integration between JIRA and a requirements management tool, so we decided to test the concept with OSRMT, an open source requirements tool. The plug-in lets you display basic requirement information for an issue in JIRA.

You can get more information at the JIRA plug-in library, or by contacting us.

New JIRA Plug-in Available

Many of our clients find themselves creating custom report plug-ins for JIRA, particularly for broader reports that managers are interested in. As an attempt to find a general solution to that problem, we've created a plug-in for the DataVision report engine. Many companies already use report engines like Crystal Reports, and so are comfortable with that approach to data mining. With this plug-in, we're trying to expose that data mining capability in JIRA.

Specifically, this plug-in allows you to run DataVision reports from inside JIRA. Please feel free to contact us for more information, or if you'd like to try it out.

Software Production Line Automation

Software Production Line Automation is:

• A Common Trend in the World of Information Technology
• A Business Vision
• Practically a Religion for Tom, who loves to evangalize about it!

- Tom

Welcome!

Welcome to the Go2Group company blog! Watch this space for company news about our products, services, and other information.