Many organizations use numerous tools to receive IT alerts that are relevant to IT management teams. In Redmine itself, however, you can only receive notifications when changes are made to existing entities (e.g. issues), which do not necessarily always require action by the project manager. However, they can unnecessarily burden the project manager due to the abundance of notifications.
If you want to receive notifications about changes in Redmine, then they should not only be targeted and offer added value to the recipient. But they should also only be made when it is important to the recipient. For example, in case of time or budget overruns, issues with high priority, SLA violations etc.
With the Automation Plugin, it will be possible to send alerts in a more targeted manner in the future. Namely to individual recipients or a specific user role.
Alerts in general
Typically, operations management tools generate alerts when certain situations occur that require action by a responsible party. Such an alert message contains all available information that could be relevant for the recipient and provides the necessary context.
Automation plugin notifications
With the help of the Automation Plugin it is possible to have alerts sent to certain actions within Redmine with the help of automation rules. Either directly via e-mail to individual recipients, via e-mail to a user role and thus several recipients within a project, or as a comment to an issue, as well as a webhook.
In order for such alerts to be helpful for the recipient, the following should be taken into account:
Does the warning message contain all the necessary information?
Warning messages with the Automation Plugin can be composed individually. Using the available variables, you can implement all the necessary information (even from custom fields).
Is the trigger manually (by a user) or time-controlled?
It is possible to trigger warnings both action-related (by a memory event) or time-controlled. Depending on which rule you have created for this.
Is only one action triggered or several?
Depending on what is specified in the rule, only a single action (e.g. sending an e-mail) or several actions can be performed simultaneously.
Are other project members informed about the warning?
It is possible to inform other project members about a sent warning message. For this purpose, not everyone necessarily has to receive an e-mail.
Often, it is sufficient to add a suitable comment to the corresponding issue. For example, that a warning message was triggered due to a certain ticket action and that a corresponding action chain was started. This way, all project participants know what the current situation is. This is because the note can be read both in the issue and in the activity log.
Why Redmine Automation Plugin?
Successful companies have been using automation tools for a long time, even in project management. They know that competitive advantages are fleeting, because the competition never rests. Focusing on organizational aspects in terms of time savings also helps improve value flow. No matter how big / small the team behind it is. If you can save time that you can then better invest in other areas, you have definitely already gained an advantage by doing so.
The main benefits of the Automation Plugin are:
- Reduce time wasted on manual, repetitive tasks.
- Minimize risks and act faster in case of emergency.
- Reduce overall run time and standardize processes.
Conclusion: Redmine Automation allows sending specific alerts
The Automation plugin allows you to send alerts about different Redmine entities (e.g. issues, projects, spent time entries, etc.) and customize them to your needs.
Try it out. In our online demo you can test the function described here. The Redmine Automation Plugin is a function extension for current Redmine versions. It is available in a bundle with the reporting plugin (is required as a base).
All information about our extensions for Redmine is available on the product page. The functionality can be tested in our online demo. An overview of all features is available here.