Specification for managing tasks with an IMAP service

[Updated by Sona Gabrielyan on 2010-12-09]

Reference: ch1-2010-06-02 ch2-2010-06-02

For a task spool and tickets, Switzernet defined an IMAP based spec for creating, sharing, and tracking the tasks. This document presents the specifications and conventions used for the management and tracking of the tasks via an IMAP service. Statistic servers are being designed to monitor the tasks and the timing. Multiple logins to the same shared IMAP resource are used. References will be provided in next editions.

Specification for managing tasks with an IMAP service. 1

Copies and folders. 4

Subscribe. 4

Creating new projects or task-groups. 5

Tasks. 6

Blue color of a pending task. 6

The thread view is obligatory in ALL folders and sub-folders. 7

Accomplishments of tasks. 7

Remarks and comments on the task. 7

Coloring completed tasks. 8

Moving the completed task threads into ok subfolder 8

Hints for fixing imparities. 8

Emails appearing corrupted. 8

Thread disorders after moving. 9

Multiple assignees. 9

The subjects of tasks. 9

General settings. 10

Version of Thunderbird used. 10

Reply above quote. 10

Quote the date and time in replies. 11

Use telecom date and time format 11

Use the comma for list separator and dot for decimals. 11

Example of a stat on projects. 12

References. 13

Hierarchy

The IMAP account contains root level folders corresponding to years (2009 and 2010). Each of these folders contains subfolders corresponding to months 01, 02… 12. The folders of months contain task-group folders.

The task-groups (or projects) are IMAP folders with the following name format [mm'nn name], where:

[mm] is a two letter uniform year/month code.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f g h i j is used for years from 2000 through 2019 (respectively for each 20-year period)

and

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c for months from 1 to 12

For example November 2010 is represented by [ab]

[nn] is the sequential number of the project within the current month. The first project of the month has the number 11.

[name] is a short descriptive and unique name for the project.

Subfolders of a project folder have the format [mm'nn'm name], where:

[name] is optional most of the time

[m] is a number 1, 2, 3, etc, or is ‘ok’

The ‘ok’ subfolder is used for completed tasks. The digits are used for annexes, and emails accompanying the project. Note that ‘ok’ appears in the place of the digit [m] (it is an exception) and is not a [name] field.

Connection

The IMAP server name is projects.switzernet.com. The username is associated to your name: first.last@projects.switzernet.com. The same password is used as for your @smtp.switzernet.com login.

Account settings

The email address on the account must NOT be your user name (as usual). You MUST use your usual email address and you MUST provide your display name in First Last format without spelling errors as your display name is used by the stat servers.

The outgoing server must be obligatorily your account on smtp.switzernet.com:

You must not use the server of projects as an SMTP server as you will not be able to send emails except to projects@.

Identities

Add two additional identities. Copy-paste the same email address (do not type to avoid errors) of your main identity into the two new identities. Copy-paste the same display name of your main identity (do not type to avoid errors) into the two new identities. Then in front of the display name of the 2^nd identity add a prefix Task-By and in front of the 3^rd identity add a prefix Done-By.

Copies and folders

Do not provide any BCC address.

Mark the checkbox for placing replies in the folder of the message being replied to. Make sure that each identity must be configured correctly, as shown below:

For gaining access to IMAP folders, you must subscribe to all folders and subfolders you are interested in. Right click on an IMAP folder and select subscribe from the popup menu. For those who join the first time, subscribe only to the folders and subfolders of the current and previous months to not overload the server uselessly (e.g. with the indexing engine of Thunderbird). To select multiple subfolders at the same time, click on the first one, then push the “Shift” button and click on the last subfolder which you wish to select at the same time. Afterwards, push the “Space” button on your keyboard.

Creating new projects or task-groups

Project and task-groups are the IMAP folders in the folder of the current month (see Hierarchy). We use sometimes a term task-group sometimes project depending on the nature of tasks it contains. If we are speaking about a well defined objective with a clear aim consisting of multitude of tasks to carry out, then it is a project (e.g. connection with reliance). If we speak about separate tasks related for instance to network issues, then it is a task-group.

Projects and task-groups must be created in the folder of the current month. When the month is over, no new folders must be created under the month. However the project already created in past can continue to develop (adding, commenting, or completing the tasks) in a folder of the original month.

As described in the hierarchy section (Hierarchy), the first folder of the month [mm'nn name] must have a sequence number [nn] equal to 11.

All following projects of the month must have subsequently incremented numbers [nn].

The folder pane is often not refreshed automatically and a folder created yesterday risks to be still invisible. If you are about to create a new folder, you must make sure to use the correct [nn] number to not overlap with an already existing folder. Use the subscribe pane for communicating with the server and retrieving the fresh list of folders. If you want to refresh the folder pane of Thunderbird, it is sufficient to uncheck and check any folder in the subscribe pane and close it. However, due to some bugs of Thunderbird, to see the fresh list of folders, you may need to close the Thunderbird and open it again.

Use very short names for the projects. Think twice before the choice of the name is done. In particular avoid that your name can be interpreted by others for something that you do not have an intention to cover. Names must be all lowercase and only alphanumeric symbols and space are allowed.

The ‘ok’ subfolder must be created when there is already an accomplished task.

The annex subfolders 1, 2, 3 must be created to host the emails accompanying the project (if any). You must move the emails in annexes rather than attaching them to your tasks and replies. Emails moved in annexes permit to apply searches using the subject, the ‘from’ and ‘to’ fields of the original email while no such search is possible when the email is attached to another email.

Tasks

Tasks are emails where the ‘To’ fields are used to specify the assignees. The task must be created with the identity Task-By. For creating a task click on the write button (the task cannot be a reply to another email). In the compose window click on the ‘From’ field. Then, with down arrow key chose the Task-By identity. Assign the person to whom the task is addressed in the ‘To’ field. The Subject must contain the short description of the task and the folder name of the place where the email will be stored under the projects@ account. If more information is needed provide that in the body. Save the task. The email will appear in the Draft IMAP folder. Move the email from the Draft folder in the folder where it must be stored.

Blue color of a pending task

When the task is created its color must be set to blue. The blue color indicates on a fact that the task is pending. The “Tags: To Do” will appear in the header of the email.

Green color for a task being processed

You must not work on many tasks at the same time. The number of tasks that can be reserved for processing at the same time should not be more than 3 or 4 tasks. All tasks on which you are currently working must be colored in green. First take off the blue color (by pushing “0” on your keyboard), then color it with green, by pushing “3” on your keyboard (which is the “Personal” tag).

The thread view is obligatory in ALL folders and sub-folders

In menu of the fields to display, activate the thread view, and the field ‘Total’ (that shows the number of emails in the thread) and click on the button of the thread view:

Accomplishments of tasks

When the task is done, the person who completes the task (usually one of persons to whom the task is addressed), selects the task, uses the reply button, and changes his/her identity to Done-By. To change the identity to Done-By, click on the ‘From’ header field in the compose window, and press the down arrow key twice. The reply must contain the proofs of accomplishment, such as screenshots, attachments, printouts, descriptions, and details (whenever it is applicable).

When technically not data can be provided in Done-By, such reply is obligatory anyway to keep trace on timing.

The reply is saved. The saved email must be moved from Drafts to the folder where the task is located. After moving the reply, it will automatically stick to the task (assuming that you are viewing in the thread view).

Remarks and comments on the task

The remarks on the task can be provided by replying to the task with your default identity (without Task-By or Done-By prefix). The remark can be saved in a Draft folder and moved in the project folder (similarly to done-by replies in Accomplishments of tasks). The message will stick to the main thread of the task as soon as it is moved to the folder of the task.

You can also choose to send remarks instead of saving them in Drafts, for instance when it is a reminder about a pending task. As everybody uses its real email address, the reminder will be delivered to the inbox of the concerned person. Moreover, as it is specified that the replies are placed in the folder of the message being replied to (see Copies and folders), the copy of the message will be saved in the current folder and will automatically join the task’s thread.

Remarks and reminders must stay always uncolored (irrespectively of the status of the task).

Coloring completed tasks

When the task is complete it must be colored into orange (numeric key 2). The “Tags: Work” will appear in the header of the email. Before re-coloring to orange, it is obligatory to first un-color the task by pressing on 0, and only then coloring it to orange by pressing on 2. You may risk otherwise having visually the orange color, but having in reality two simultaneous tags ‘To Do’ + ‘Work’. This will confound the statistic servers.

In the task thread, only the heading email Task-By and the accomplishing email Done-By must have the color. The remark emails (which are neither Task-By nor Done-By) must always stay uncolored.

Moving the completed task threads into ok subfolder

Once the done-by is provided and the colors are changed, the ENTIRE thread of the task must be moved to the ok subfolder together with ALL joined messages. If the ok subfolder does not exist create it according to the naming convention (see Hierarchy).

You have no chance to move the email thread when the thread is collapsed. By attempting to do so, you will move erroneously only the first email of the thread. In order to move the entire thread, you must unfold the thread, select ALL emails of the thread and move all of them into the ok subfolder.

Hints for fixing imparities

Emails appearing corrupted

Emails may appear corrupted in the IMAP folder. In such case, right-click on the concerned folder, choose properties in the popup menu, and click on Rebuild-Index:

The content of the folder will be refreshed, but you have to immediately reactivate the thread view (see The thread view is obligatory in ALL folders and sub-folders) because the default setting after rebuilding does not have the thread view.

Thread disorders after moving

Messages have internal order in IMAP folders. If the internal order of messages in the new folder is not the same as the original order of emails, the thread can appear disordered. If you first move the reply into the new folder and only then the original email, then either the emails will stick in a reverse order or they will not stick at all.

When you select emails of the thread and move them in one shot, the emails may land into the destination folder in a different order. The disorder can be corrected by moving a later message back and forth (to the former folder and then again to the ok subfolder) forcing its entry after the earlier message. Thus, the subsequent message will appear in the ‘ok’ subfolder in the right internal order, after the original message, and the thread will be displayed correctly.

If your thread has too many messages, then create temporarily an empty subfolder, move all emails of the thread into this subfolder, sort the emails in that subfolder according to the date in ascending order, move the emails one-by-one into the ok subfolder in the chronologically ascending order, i.e. starting by the earliest date and ending with the latest date.

Multiple assignees

When task has multiple ‘To’ fields it means that the task can be done by any of the assignees. Multiple ‘To’ fields must NOT be interpreted by an assignee as a sign of low priority. The assignee must pay the same attention to the task as for the task exclusively assigned to him/her without other assignees.

A Done-By from any of the assignees (and even by a non-assignee) marks the entire task as done. There is no need that each assignee provides its own done-by.

You must not count on multiple ‘To’ fields if you need the task be repeated by multiple persons (e.g. a training task). In such case you must repeat the task itself and create one individual task per assignee.

The subjects of tasks

Subjects of the tasks must be unique; otherwise two tasks with matching subjects may appear in one thread. Make sure to provide sufficiently descriptive and unique subjects, which are in fact the tasks themselves.

Subject texts are often formulated in imperative or infinitive tense and represent a clear instruction.

When exactly the same task must be executed by multiple different persons (often for training), you must use the same subject, preceded or followed by the name of the person. The snapshot below shows 4 identical tasks assigned to 4 different persons. The names of these persons are added to the text of the subject to make them unique.

General settings

Version of Thunderbird used

Examples are based on version 2.0.0.24 of Thunderbird

Reply above quote

In Composition and Addressing of the account, configure to have your reply at the top of the email being replied (not at the bottom):

Quote the date and time in replies

In [Tools] → [Options] → [Advanced] → [Config Editor] pane, change the value of “mailnews.reply_header_type” to 2 in order to quote, when replying, also the date and time and not only the author name:

Use all numeric telecom date and time format

Use Canada, China, and Japan government all-numeric date standard [1].

In your Windows menu [Start] → [Control Panel] → [Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options] → [Regional and Language options] → [Customize] → [Date] pane, change the date format to "yyyy-mm-dd" and the time format to "HH:mm:ss":

Use the comma for list separator and dot for decimals

In the numbers pane (of Windows), the list separator must be comma, digit grouping symbol must be apostrophe, and decimal symbol must be dot:

Example of a stat on projects

The following alternation between two charts shows the progress of accomplishment of tasks between April 3rd and April 15th. The blue areas represent the pending tasks (with To Do tag) and the orange areas the accomplishments (with Work tag). The passage between the images shows that the blue areas are slightly covered by orange areas meaning some tasks are done in the mean time. Ideally all areas must become orange.