Using oDesk Team
Table of contents:
- What is oDesk Team?
- Do I need to download and use oDesk Team?
- Benefits of oDesk Team
- How to download and install oDesk Team
- How to configure oDesk Team
- Viewing oDesk Team Memo
- Team Room
- How to monitor assignment progress
- How oDesk Team is integrated with the billing system
- oDesk Team for Linux
- Dependencies
What is oDesk Team?
oDesk Team is the complete time-logging and verification system of the Virtual Cubicle. Team consists of three major features:
- Work Diary: Professionals can use the Work Diary feature of oDesk Team to summarize daily work progress by application, assignment or task.
- Time Analyze: Customers can confirm and verify logged hours by using the Time Analyze function, which provides charts and graphs of work activity over any period of time and for any number of team members.
- ScreenSnap: Team members can use the ScreenSnap feature to simplify and automate the process of capturing current screen data images and uploading them for browser-based viewing by other colleagues.
oDesk Team uses a small amount of bandwidth, usually between 75KB and 150KB every 10 minutes. This is roughly equivalent to reloading a personalized page on a web portal (my.yahoo.com for example).
Do I need to download and use oDesk Team?
All oDesk Providers are required to be logged in to the oDesk Team client application whenever they work on an assignment. Team is integrated into oDesk’s accounting and billing system, and is used to generate weekly invoices.
While Providers are required to work in an oDesk Virtual Cubicle, Buyers on the other hand, use a simple web interface that allows viewing details of the professional's work, time spent, associated invoices, etc.
Benefits of oDesk Team
When managing an assignment, especially one that carries deadlines, it is often beneficial to see which particular aspect of the assignment a professional was working on at a specific time – or what application they were using to do so.
oDesk Team allows customers to get real-time access to a contractor's time log and work progress. Customers can even see screenshots and webcam shots while the professional is working on the assignment. This helps customers verify professionals’ work time, monitor assignment progress, and collaborate with the professional.
oDesk Team allows customers to easily spot-check code as it is being created by clicking on the professional’s screen thumbnail. This will display a full-screen view of the professional’s current active window, and the customer will be able to see exactly what he or she is working on.
How to download and install oDesk Team
- Visit the Downloads section of the handbook.
- Click on the oDesk Team download link.
- A window will prompt you to save the install file on your computer.
- Double-click on the downloaded file and follow the directions provided.
How to configure oDesk Team
When the oDesk Team client is running, its icon will be displayed in your system tray. If it isn't there, start it by navigating to the oDesk folder in the Start menu and clicking on oDesk Team.
Login
- Right-click on the icon and select Login on the oDesk Team client menu.
- Enter the company, user name and password information you were provided by your administrator.
- Check the Remember my password box to save your having to retype the password each time, or uncheck it if you prefer to enter the password manually each time you want to start an oDesk connection.
Preferences
- Right-click the oDesk Team client icon again and select the Preferences menu item.
- Your computer name is automatically filled in for you from your network settings. Do not change this field.
- Check the checkbox at top right to have your computer automatically start the oDesk Team client, or uncheck it if you prefer to manually start the oDesk Team client.
- If your PC uses a proxy server to connect to the Internet, ask your IT department for the IP address and port numbers to configure oDesk Team client to use them; otherwise leave these blank.
- If you have a DirectX-compliant video camera hooked up to your PC, you can configure oDesk Team client to send snapshots to your Team Room automatically. Check Send Camera Snapshot to enable this. Select the appropriate camera source and your desired image resolution.
Note: Higher resolution images are larger and require more bandwidth when data is sent to the oDesk server.
- When you have finished with these settings, click ScreenSnap to bring up the ScreenSnap hotkey window to set or change your hotkey preferences for ScreenSnap.
- Click OK to save your preferences.
Camera
If your PC has a compatible video camera connected, the oDesk Team Client menu will let you configure the snapshots it can send to your Team Room.
- Right-click on the oDesk Team icon in the system tray to bring up the oDesk Team client.
- Click on Camera Settings to use your camera’s controls to fine-tune the snapshot settings; exact options and controls depend on the software your camera came with. Experiment with the settings to capture the best quality image.
Note: Snapshots are sent only when the Send Camera Snapshot box is checked in the Preferences dialog box.
Viewing oDesk Team Memo
The Memo is a short note that professionals can write to let the customer know what they’ve been working on at any given time. A screen will pop up once every 15 minutes to two hours on the professional’s screen asking for a work memo. This is displayed in italics above the thumbnail and it will also be displayed on the customer’s weekly timesheets.
Team Room
The team room provides all team members with an online, private virtual meeting room. It also allows you to view the current status of each of
your workers or their historical work activity over time. Once a team room has been created for you, you can access it by either going to the oDesk website and clicking on the secure login link, or by going directly to http://my.odesk.com. There is no need for you to download the oDesk Team software unless you would like to track your own time. When prompted at the login screen, enter the credentials that were included in your
credentials email, and click "Login." This will take you to your team room.
The team room displays a thumbnail for each member of your team. If a worker is offline, their thumbnail will display a gray screen. If a worker is online and active, their thumbnail will display the most recent work activity.
How to monitor assignment progress
Work Diary
The Work Diary feature of oDesk Team is used to monitor the work being completed on assignments on a daily basis. It gives you complete visibility into the day’s work by displaying a “filmstrip” of any professional’s activity.
Any given team member’s Work Diary can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate icon located underneath the team member’s thumbnail. Here, customers can review the daily activity and work memos of this particular team member.
For each hour there is a series of 6 detailed thumbnail shots taken at random intervals throughout the hour. The thumbnails contain all of the data that is included in the team room status thumbnails. Each screenshot in the filmstrip can also be opened up to display a full-screen view.
Work Diary Date Range
The Work Diary Data is recorded on oDesk servers and is available for the entire duration of an assignment. You can click the arrows on either side of the displayed date in the gray control area at the top of the Work Diary page to navigate forward or backward day by day. You may also enter any particular date to jump to any day’s activity.
Activity levels and thumbnails
In the thumbnail view, the Work Diary function incorporates Activity Levels, which are represented by the green bars on the left-hand side of the thumbnail. You will notice that there are six charts of 10 bars each, therefore, each bar represents one minute of activity. A green bar indicates activity – either keyboard strokes or mouse clicks, and a gray bar indicates idle time. (Of course, this is only a simple measure of computer activity; a professional can be in a meeting, talking with a client, reading an involved memo, or hundreds of other business-related activities without hitting a key or clicking a mouse)
Work Diary List View
In order to provide a compressed view of the team member’s activity, Work Diary can be set to display in a list view, which omits the thumbnailed screen shots (and web camera captures). This can be done by selecting List at the right side of the grey control bar at the top of the screen. In the list view you will see the active windows and work memos displayed for each 10 minute segment of work. The work memos are a convenient tool for professionals to let customers know which tasks they were working on at any given time.
Time Analyze
Time Analyze provides a snapshot of the work history for a team member over any given period of time and as compared with other team members. The dates of the activity being analyzed can be customized, and the reports are available in many different visual formats. The reports can also be easily exported, downloaded and saved on your computer.
To utilize the Time Analyze function of oDesk Team, click on the appropriate icon, again located directly underneath the team member’s thumbnail. This is also available from a link at the top right part of the screen. Here you will be able to get a real-time view of the amount of work performed on your assignment.
The data shown in Time Analyze is based on counting the number of 10-minute samples that had at least some keyboard/mouse activity. All billing is performed based on the number of active 10-minute segments, and you’ll be invoiced weekly for the total amount of time worked.
Report overview
In cases where there have been no recent updates on your assignment, and you need to see when the professional was online, Time Analyze offers many options to easily navigate through the worker’s activity by day or time period.
First, select the date – or the beginning date of the range –that you wish to analyze. This is done by using the left and right arrow buttons to navigate day by day or by keying in the date in the white box and pressing the black arrow. You also have the option to use the calendar drop-down box to click on the desired date. As you can see in the gray control bar at the top of the screen, the time period being analyzed can be changed by clicking on the desired time range in blue.
You also have the option to customize the time period that you wish to view by clicking on Custom and then entering the start and end dates of the range you wish to view.
Another tool that the Time Analyze feature incorporates is the “Compare With” function. This function gives you the ability to compare a particular team member’s time analysis with that of other members of your team. There may be times when you have multiple team members, each of whom is working on a separate task of your assignment. The “Compare With” function helps to ensure that all tasks are progressing simultaneously, Using the drop-down box next to the words “Compare With” in the gray control bar, you may select the team member whose time you wish to include in the analysis.
To select additional members, choose the “Select More” option. This function is beneficial when you wish to view the activity of several team members on a single screen. You can also use this view to find appropriate times for team meetings or group chats by finding when there is an hour or two of overlap in working times.
Time Analyze can be viewed in three different graphical formats. The default format, which is displayed on the screen now, is the bar chart. By clicking on the alternate options next to the word “type” in the gray control bar, you may display the same information in line graph or in a chart. This option lets you choose the format that is most visually appealing and comprehensible to you.
Once a customer has customized the time analysis, you may choose to export it as a CSV or Excel file. By doing this, you can download the files to your hard drive, and save it to refer to in the future. This can be beneficial to refer back to while reviewing the weekly timesheets for your team members.
ScreenSnap
If any team member wishes to show other team members a snapshot of their computer screen, ScreenSnap is the best tool to use. With a few clicks, you can capture an image on your computer screen, and place it on a specially created, dedicated web page with a unique URL for your colleagues to review. The URL is put on your Clipboard as the ScreenSnap is captured so you can paste it into an email or an instant message and send it to your colleagues.
Capturing a screen image with ScreenSnap
To capture the screen, you press the default hot-key, Control-Alt-S. Alternately, you can right-click on the oDesk Share icon in your sys-tray and select screensnap. This will capture the screen and bring up the ScreenSnap dialog box (Please note that you need to be logged in to oDesk Team to upload your screensnaps). You will also have the option to enter a Title and/or Description for the ScreenSnap. This can be helpful in identifying images when they are being shared with others.
Reviewing the ScreenSnap image
Click Preview to see the screen image captured by ScreenSnap, which will then be displayed on your monitor in its own window, bordered in green, with a small notation that says “Press ESC or any mouse key to exit preview” at the lower left. The preview window will be displayed until you click your mouse or press the Escape key.
Sharing the ScreenSnap image
To share the ScreenSnap image, along with any title or description information, click the Send button in the ScreenSnap dialog box. oDesk Team Client will then send your image to the oDesk Server, and you will see the “ScreenSnap Upload Complete” window. During the upload process, oDesk Server creates a web page for your ScreenSnap image, and oDesk Team Client places the URL location into your Clipboard. Now all you need to do is share the URL for this web page with your colleagues, and they will be able to view your image via their own browser.
You can distribute the URL from the system clipboard by pasting it into a Yahoo instant message to anyone on your team or you could also paste it into an email to your team. Alternatively, you may choose to click the Show URL button and click the Copy button in the dialog box that appears. Using this URL, your colleagues can browse to see the web page that contains your image and give you the feedback you are looking for. Any screen snaps that you or your team members have captured are kept on secure oDesk servers. You can view the complete history of screen snaps at any time in your team room by clicking on the Resource List icon under each team member’s thumbnail, or by clicking the link in the upper right.
On the resource list page, you will be able to view all screen snaps captured by your whole team or by any individual team member.
How oDesk Team is integrated with the billing system
Please visit the Billing and Payment Help section to get the most updated information on how the oDesk billing system works.