Category: How to Guide

Automate work item creation with Auto Pilot. This unique feature of Almo completely eliminates manual inputs required to create new work items or update the existing ones. 

Using the Auto Pilot function, you can set up a series of rules that Almo will evaluate against incoming emails. When an incoming email matches one of the rules, then depending on the setup of the rules, Almo will either:

• Create a new work item based on Almo Template
• Link the email to an existing work item

Almo’s Auto Pilot Quick Start

When you create a new work item, you will see a section with the heading ‘Auto Pilot’ on Almo’s work item creation window.  Click the checkbox under it, instructing Almo to create an Auto Pilot rule for this work item and then press ‘Save.’ Every reply to this email will automatically be linked to the work item you have just created.

Setting Auto Pilot Rules in Almo

Instruct Almo to automate work item creation by setting rules for its Auto Pilot engine. First, choose ‘Auto Pilot’ from the Almo toolbar to access the dropdown menu. Select the ‘Manage Rules’ option to launch the Auto Pilot Rule editor.

To set up a new rule:

Section 1: General Rule properties, Rule Action

1.1. Press <New Rule> under ‘Rules’

1.2. Enter the Name of this rule

1.3. Go to the ‘On Match’ section to access the dropdown menu. You can instruct Auto Pilot to take either of the two actions:

• Select the ‘Create New’ option to create a new work item using an existing Almo Template
• Select the ‘Link to’ option to link the incoming email to an existing work item. You can also click the ‘Find Existing Workitem’ option to search for existing work items within Azure DevOps.

Section 2: Specify email properties and their values to match

Use this section to define the conditions that an email must meet for this rule.

2.1. Use the ‘Fields’ section to select the element of the email that the Auto Pilot engine should evaluate. Currently, the supported elements are:

From – Sender’s email address

Subject – Subject of the email

To – Recipient(s) email(s),  separated by ‘;’

CC – Email address(es) in the CC section of the email, separated by ‘;’

BCC – Email address(es) in the BCC section of the email,  separated by ‘;’

2.2. After selecting one of the email elements in 2.1., use the ‘Operator’ section to select the operator that Auto Pilot should use. Currently, the supported operators are:

And –

Or –

Not –

Equals – For a case insensitive exact match of the email element chosen in 2.1 along with the value mentioned in 2.3. The rule evaluates to True when the values are equal.

Not Equals To – For a case insensitive exact match of the email element chosen in 2.1 along with the value mentioned in 2.3. The rule evaluates to True when the values are NOT equal.

Contains – For a case insensitive lookup to determine if the value specified in 2.3 is present in the email property selected in 2.1. For e.g. this will return true in the cases like – “new issue found in the login screen” Contains “issue.”

Not Contains – 

2.3. In the ‘Value’ column, add the value that you want the Auto Pilot engine to look for. This is the value which will be matched using the operator specified in 2.2. with the email element specified in 2.1.

2.4. Use the AND/Or column (left of the ‘Fields’ column) to add another clause or exceptions to the rule.

Section 3: Look in folders

Use this section to monitor folders for incoming emails. It is important to be diligent here because if an email is not in one of the specified folders when it arrives, Auto Pilot will not scan it. 

3.1 Auto Pilot will look in the default inbox folder. If you have an Outlook rule that moves messages to a different folder(s), you should add it to this list.

3.2 To apply the Auto Pilot rules to outgoing emails as well, check ‘Also also apply this rule to emails I send.’

To save the Auto Pilot rule, click ‘Save.’ You can also Delete or Exit the screen by selecting the buttons associated with them.

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This is a crucial part of the Auto Pilot rule’s setup. Incorrect configuration of your folders will affect Auto Pilot causing it to potentially miss emails.

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Automatically Created Rules

As explained in Almo’s Auto Pilot Quick Overview, Almo automatically creates a rule for the Auto Pilot engine when you check the Auto Pilot check box while creating a new work item. This rule is also visible in the Rule Editor and will have the suffix [Auto Created] in its name.

Rules created automatically by Almo are immutable. Behind the scenes, Almo uses the “ConversationID” property of the email to track incoming replies. Since ConversationIDs are not really human-readable, Almo displays the rule condition in a read-only text box. 

This rule can be manually deleted or disabled. 

When does Auto Pilot Run?

When you start Outlook for the first time, the Auto Pilot engine looks for all emails that were received since the last time Outlook was shut down. It does this only in the folders that have been configured in a user’s Auto Pilot rules.

Simultaneously it starts processing “All” new incoming emails in your inbox. This means all such emails whose received timestamp is greater than the time of Outlook launch.

Automate work item creation with Almo’s Auto Pilot engine and eliminate manual labour. Read about Templates and Finding Existing Work Items to leverage all the capabilities of Almo.

Almo is a powerful Microsoft Outlook plugin that automates duplicative tasks and saves up to 70 minutes daily. Professionals like software engineers, project managers, QAs, team leads and more use this work item management solution to automate manual work and focus on their core KPIs. 

This post explains the basics of the main window in Almo that enables you to create and update work items from Outlook.

Work with Almo effortlessly by mastering its following key functions:

1. Save: Save your work item or link to your current work item in Microsoft Outlook.

2. Refresh: Pull the latest updates of the work item from the server and show its current state here. 

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*Note: Please save the changes before clicking “Refresh” as you may lose them.

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3. Clear/Restore/Erase: Use these interchangeable icons to clear, restore or erase the work item description.

4. Save Template: Templates are a great way to remove manual population of work item fields. To know more about Templates, read our blog here. You can choose to create a new Template using the current values in the work item form by clicking this button.

5. Pop-out/Pop-in: For convenience, you can pop out the work item form out of Outlook in a new maximised window. You can then send it back within Outlook should you so desire. Try this. it is pretty cool 🙂

6. Email: This opens a new email window which is pre-populated with the details of the work item that you can share via email.

7. Copy Title and Link: Almo will copy the title and/or link to the clipboard.

Along with these Work Item details, there are two checkboxes that you can use to:

8. Attach outlook item with work item: Almo will add any attachments that are present in the Outlook email to the work item when it is created or updated.

9. Copy Outlook attachments to work item:  Almo will automatically attach a copy of your Outlook email with the work item.

Whether you want to create new work items, find existing work items or link them to Outlook emails, you can do a lot with Almo. 

Recommended Next Reading

We recommend you to check out these quick blogs that will really help you make the most out of Almo, your powerful Microsoft Outlook plugin:

1. Almo Settings – You can use these settings to control the start up behaviour and more.
2. Templates in Almo – You can set up Templates, instructing Almo to “automatically populate work item fields.” This removes more manual work! Almo can also extract information from Outlook objects like emails and automatically add it to work item fields.
3. Auto Pilot in Almo  – You can set up the Auto Pilot engine, telling Almo to automatically create work items when certain conditions are met. That means completely automatic, zero-click work item creation!

Almo is a simple and affordable Azure DevOps Service addin for effective collaboration and faster work. As a work item management tool, it helps software teams to save time by eliminating duplicate and repetitive tasks. 

Almo comes with a pre-defined set of rules and configurations to simplify work item management. Further, you can use the Setting Screen to customise configuration options.

How to Open Setting Screen in Almo

Go to the Almo menu and click ‘Almo Settings.’ This will open the settings window that you can use to set your Almo preferences. You will see two options in the main bar — General and Azure DevOps Server and Projects. Both are explained below.

General

1. General 

Use the ‘Display Language’ dropdown menu to select a convenient language. Currently, Almo is available in English, Russian, French and Deutsche.

Next, you will see two checkboxes that you can use to guide Almo’s behaviour towards emails with work items. 

• Auto hide Almo when no work item exists with an email – if you check this checkbox and move to an email with no associated work item, the main Almo window will automatically hide.
• Automatically show Almo if a work item exists with an Outlook item – use this checkbox to automatically display Almo when a work item is attached to an Outlook item. 

2. Auto Pilot 

Auto Pilot is a powerful Almo capability that follows your set of pre-defined rules to automatically create new work items or link the email to an existing work item. In this section of the Setting Screen, you can enable the Auto Pilot engine to start automatically: 

• Run Auto Pilot on Outlook start – Almo will run automatically when you start Outlook and process new emails that it missed since the last time Outlook was shut down.

3. Creating Work Items

Use this section to set preferences for work item management. There are three checkboxes in this section along with a number input box.

• Always attach Outlook items to work items – Almo will automatically attach Outlook items to work items.
• Automatically add an Almo tag to each work item created using Almo – All the work items that Almo creates will automatically include a special Almo tag for easy identification.
• Copy all attachments to work items – all attachments included in your Outlook email will be copied to the work item.
• Number of work items to remember – control the number of work items you see as suggestions in the Suggested Work Items menu in the main Almo menu.

4. Supported WI Types

In this section, add any work item type that is unique to your Azure DevOps project or remove the one that you wouldn’t work with. Adding/Removing entries from here controls what you will see when you click the New or Find menu in Almo’s toolbar in Outlook’s ribbon.

Azure DevOps Servers and Projects

This section enables Almo to connect to Azure DevOps Servers. Check the ‘Connect to Azure DevOps on Outlook Start’ checkbox to run this feature. 

When it loads, it lets Almo automatically connect to your existing collections and team projects. To remove any project, select the project name and then click the ‘Remove’ button. Click the ‘Connect to Azure DevOps Service’ button to add a new project.

As a Microsoft Outlook plugin, Almo does more than create new work items. It simplifies your work by making it easier to find existing work items in Azure DevOps Service. You can use these existing work items with Outlook emails, calendar appointments or tasks.

Find Work Item Using Id or Title

Begin by selecting the email you want to work with and then go to the ALMO toolbar. Select the ‘New or Find’ from Almo’s menu and click ‘Find work item.’

A dialogue box will open where you can enter the work item Id or a part of its title in the space opposite ‘Search By Id or Title.’ Click ‘Enter’ or the ‘Find’ button to find the required work item. Almo will show you a list of all the work items with the same Id or title. You can select the work item you want to work with and click ‘Ok.’ Almo will automatically open the details of that work item in Microsoft Outlook.

Now, to link the work item to your email without modifying it, click on ‘Save’ under ‘WORK ITEM DETAILS.’

Once the work item is linked, the ‘View and Unlink’ option in the Almo toolbar will become active. Click it and a dropdown menu with the recently saved work item will appear. You can follow the same steps to load it again.

Find Work Items Linked to Conversations

Select the ‘New or Find’ from the Almo toolbar. Next, choose ‘Suggested Work Items’ to see the work items that you have either recently created or worked with using Almo and Microsoft Outlook. This list can also contain work items linked to the emails in your selected conversation (list of threaded emails). In addition, if other work items are linked to any of those emails, Almo will find them and add them under ‘Suggested Work Items.’

Connect to More Work Items

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Pro Tip: You can also connect to more projects by clicking on ‘Connect to New Projects.’

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A dialogue box will open where you can add your server. Click ‘Add’ and Almo will show you a list of projects. Select the one you want to work with by clicking on the check box and then click ‘Add’ at the bottom of the dialogue box.

Finding work items can be a strenuous task when done manually. Scouring through emails is a time-consuming process. With Almo, you can find all the related work items in just a few clicks. Try it today and save precious hours every day.

Almo is a single Microsoft Outlook addin that connects with Azure DevOps and helps in easy work item creation and management. It automates repetitive tasks and enables you to reduce manual labour by 15%.

Ready for a more efficient way of working? Download Almo and start using it in just three steps:

Add Work Item Types to Almo Settings

To create a work item, go to the Almo toolbar and select ‘Open Settings.’ A dialogue box will open with a list of work item types you can work with. You can also add new work item types by clicking ‘Add’ and/or delete the existing ones by selecting the ‘Remove’ option. 

Connect to an Azure DevOps Server

Click “Connect to DevOps” button in the Almo menu. 

 

In the next screen, click “Add Server”, enter the server URL and press ‘Add.’ Once the authentication is complete, Almo will display a list of alphabetically-sorted projects. Check the project(s) you want to work with and click ‘Ok.’

Create and Save a Work Item

Click on the email that you want to associate with a work item and then select the ‘New or Find’ option from the Almo toolbar. This will open a dropdown menu containing the work item type. You can also select existing work items.

Select the work item type and Almo will pick up important information from the email and pre-populate fields in the work item type.

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Pro tip: you can modify this behaviour by using Templates.

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Finally, click ‘Save’ and Almo will create the work item. 

Almo will automatically attach a copy of the email and other related attachments to the work item it creates. You can load the work item again in Microsoft Outlook and track all the updates.

Templates take away the manual entry of work item fields when you create them. Consider them as the blueprints that automatically populate fields in work items from a group of default values you set when you create a Template. 

With Templates, Almo can also automatically extract the correct information from Outlook objects, add that to the work item fields automatically and thus save hours of manual work. You do this by using Expressions in Templates which then instruct Almo to extract data from Outlook objects (email, calendar meetings or tasks) and use those values to fill the work item fields.

Video Walk Through

Here is a video walk through of creating and using Templates:

Creating Template Using Template Manager

Go to the Almo menu and open the ‘Template Manager’ at the top-left corner of your screen. Before creating a Template, Almo will prompt you to connect to a server if you have not done that yet. 

In the Template Manager dialogue box, select ‘Add New Template’ to access the dropdown menu and then select a project and a work item type for which you are creating this Template. This will open the Template editor that you can use to set your Template rules. 

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Pro Tip: You can create multiple Templates for each work item type.

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Adding details to the Template editor

The screenshot below shows how the blank template editor might appear. Since the Template Editor uses your Azure DevOps Service’s setup to render the work item form, your view of tempalte editor might appear different than the view shown here. However the basic sections in “Template Details” will be the same.

1. Template Details

Begin by adding Template details like name and description. You will also see a few checkboxes with different functions in the editor. Select one or more per your preference. Here is what they do:

Checkbox 1: Set As Default — Almo will automatically use these Template details whenever you create the specified work item type.

Checkbox 2: Copy Outlook attachments to work item — Almo will take any attachments that are present in the Outlook email and attach them to the work item when it is created

Checkbox 3: Attach Outlook item with work item — Almo will automatically attach a copy of your Outlook email with the work item when it is created.

2. Expressions

Use Expressions to take various properties of an Outlook object like email, calendar or task to populate multiple fields in the work items. These properties could be email subjects, time stamps, receivers’ addresses and more. 

Expressions	Description
[TOEMAIL]	Almo will replace this with recipient’s email address in the Outlook email.
[TONAME]	Almo will replace this with recipient’s name in the Outlook email.
[BODY]	Almo will replace this with the body or text of the Outlook email.
[FROMEMAIL]	Almo will replace this with sender’s email address in the Outlook email.
[FROMNAME]	Almo will replace this with sender’s name in the Outlook email.
[SUBJECT]	Almo will replace this with the subject of the Outlook email.
[SENTDATE]	Almo will replace this with the sent date of the Outlook email.
[NOW]	Almo will replace this with the current date as per your computer’s calendar.
[RECEIVEDDATE]	Almo will replace this with the received date of the Outlook email.

 

Select an Expression from the list and assign one or more fields in the Template (further explained in the next step). 

3. Template Fields

The fields in the template are rendered as they would appear in the work item on Azure DevOps Service. Almo will paint this section as per the setup of your work item type and thus it might look different than the generic screenshot below.

Use this section to add further details to the Template you want to create. For example, use the ‘Subject’ box for the title of the work item. You can also select an Expression to populate the fields, such as the [Subject] of the email. For this, double-click the Expression and paste it into one of the Template fields.

Once you have set all the rules for the work item type, scroll down and click ‘Save.’

Creating Template While Creating Work Items

One of the easiest and quickest ways of creating a Template is while creating a new work item. First, follow the usual steps for creating a new work item:

Click the ‘New or Find’ option in the Almo toolbar > select the work item type

To save Template rules, instead of clicking ‘Save,’ click ‘Save As Template.’ This will open the Template editor where you can fill in additional details and save this Template. 

More on Almo Templates

Setting a Template as Default

For convenience, you can set a Template as default. This will instruct Almo to automatically use the default Template to pre-fill the values every time you create a new work item of that type. 

Filter Templates

If you have more than one Template for a work item type, use the ‘Select Template’ option to filter the Templates. 

Managing Templates

Use the Template Manager to manage your Templates, including adding new Templates, setting an existing Template as the Default Template and deleting Templates.

You can access the Template Manager from the Almo toolbar.

Every product is a work-in-progress and Almo is no exception. We aim to make Almo the most efficient work item management solution that saves your precious working hours daily. We welcome all product feedback at [email protected].

If you come across a bug or want to give your input while using Almo, click the Feedback button built into the product.

We actively read and consider every feedback though we might not be able to respond to each piece of feedback individually. We look forward to making Almo your go-to Azure DevOps Service work item management tool!