Question: How can government be made more efficient with project management software or by using project management in public administration?

Answer: Project management software provides a clear structure in which all steps of a public works project can be spelled out.

A basic break-down of the steps in a project can provide an effective operational overview of municipal or Federal government projects.  This gives executives or public sector employees a clear way to track progress, identify bottlenecks and learn from past projects -because the tasks involved and people or departments associated with those tasks are clearly identified.  This level of visibility in public administration can breed increased efficiency and transparency in the use of government resources.

Public CIO and Governing.com picked up a recent Vertabase press release highlighting the City of Fort Lauderdale’s IT department as a great example of project management software in the public sector.

“For us, the challenge was to implement a structured and formal approach to project management,” said Tim Edkin, Director of IT Services, City of Fort Lauderdale. “About a year ago, we started investigating our options. We looked at four or five project management solutions, including Microsoft Project. Eventually, we chose Vertabase because it is easy to use, it’s well designed and it’s well supported. In the past, if a project was late there wasn’t much we could learn from it. Now, we’re very analytical. We see what’s happening and manage accordingly. By providing an effective operational overview for City Hall, Vertabase has improved the way we manage our resources.”

As far as the technology involved, the City of Fort Lauderdale is running Vertabase with a flexible group of technologies that play well together, starting with Adobe’s ColdFusion using an MS SQL back-end integrated with SAP/Business Object’s Crystal Reports.

Happy to announce the beta launch of ExportReports.com!
It creates PDF reports of your Basecamp projects.

ExportReports.com is a collaborative effort with ColdFusion guru Terrence Ryan.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

On the technical side, Export Reports.com is written in Adobe ColdFusion 8 ’cause it works so well with PDF’s (-and we’re big fans anyway).

The popular Vertabase Timer now runs on AIR 1.0.

Visit the Timer download site to get this handy widget to track time on clients or on projects. It runs on both MAC and Windows (because its AIR). 

The current version is 0.9 and we’re still collecting feedback via the forum on what you’d like to see in the widget.

Thank you to all the great people in California who welcomed me to their companies this week. It was a real pleasure.  From San Diego to Sacramento I visited Vertabase users across this vast and exciting state. 

We appreciate your business and I look forward to seeing everyone again.

Question: What are alternatives for issue tracking or to track issues on projects?

Answer: Vertabase project management software is a great alternative to commonly used collaboration tools or as an alternative to MS Project and other online project management tools.

The keys to good issue tracking are accountability, communication, and visibility.  Vertabase offers several advantages in these areas for web-based tracking.

• Time and date stamp of every post;
• Records the name of the person who made the poster;
• Automatic email notification of posts and replies and;
• Creates a searchable  knowledgebase of issues or posts.

The knowledgebase is searchable by project, issue status, post date and other criteria. This facilitates visibility and is great for increasing accountability. 

You can easily see the status of all issue posts across projects as well as track down who should be doing what.

Another factor that makes issue tracking practical for organizations with different people working on different projects for multiple clients is the ability very specifically define who can see an issue, who can start and issue and who is able to change the status of an issue. This can help prevent people from “closing” something that hasn’t truly been resolved yet.

You can see a screenshot of the online issue tracking system or sign-up for a free trial of the project software.

Vertabase project management software is now being taught in an MBA course on project management at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Illinois.

The software is used in the course: “Successful Projects: Define, Plan and Manager Your Work.”

Vertabase is discussed when the course goes over setting up Microsoft Project and using Vertabase as a compliment and comparison to MS Project.

It is further covered when the future MBA’s learn about controlling and managing multiple projects -using Vertabase. Since it is rare that an organization, and therefore a manager, will only have one project going on at a time.

Thank you to the course instructor for selecting Vertabase as the online project management software for this class.

It was a pleasure meeting everyone and speaking to the Mid-Michigan ColdFusion Users Group about software development, web design and project management software.

The meeting was held at Michigan State University’s beautiful new facilities.

Thank you for having me and thank you to Rick Mason for putting it together.

Nick Kwiatkowski from the Michigan Flex Users Group was also there. They’ve got a great Flex 3 and AIR program coming up on February 6th. Kevin Hoyt, one of Adobe’s Platform Evanglists will be there as part of the Flex 3 and AIR pre-release tour.

Be sure to check it out.

A project schedule in tools like MS Project or Vertabase is different than in project collaboration tools like Basecamp.

The main idea behind a schedule in project management software like Vertabase is to create a detailed workflow for a project.  The schedule is the roadmap of the project and its successful completion.  It creates visibility and gives people the tools to do their work.

For example, documents and discussions that people need to work on on the project can all be connected directly to project schedules or even to specific tasks. 

Also, project budgets and time estimates can all be connected to the project schedule (though access to this information can be easily controlled).  In fact, actual time can be posted directly to tasks on a schedule.

Here are three benefits of using project schedules.

1. It centralizes project information in one spot in the software -this makes a huge difference when you are working on a large number of projects.
2. Timelines of multiple schedules can be aggregated and seen from a single report.
3. You can see tasks across all projects -no matter how many projects are going on. 

Further, a project schedule captures all the knowledge that goes into getting a project done so you can:

• Re-use schedules as project templates;
• Improve on your processes  so you can do things better and;
• Create more accurate estimates on projects in the future since the history is saved and accessible as a whole.

Their are numerous project management case studies available on the kind of impact using schedules can have on a company or department.

Question: What are the benefits of project management software for a marketing company or for an ad agency to use project management software?

Answer: Managing workflow on marketing projects can lead to greater profitability for a marketing company or ad agency.

Now, this can be difficult when you have many resources working on a large volume of projects.  But by having a clear picture of everyone’s work allocation and easily sharing and communicating tasks on projects you can start to get an accurate handle on the workload. Further, by mapping those tasks across a project schedule, then getting a total company view across all project schedules, you can get a complete picture of your current and future workflow. With this picture, you can make strategic decisions and plan accordingly to use your resources more effectively -and be more profitable.

Think Marketing in British Columbia, Canada implemented Vertabase project management software and was able to really improve the way people use their time.

“This software helps me understand how busy any individual is at any given time. Now, everyone on the team knows they are accountable for how they manage their time! In turn, improved productivity results in superior profitability. It’s that simple,” says Adam Less, Creative Director and Managing Partner.

Vertabase offers project management software that can improve productivity at marketing companies and ad agencies.

The Vertabase Timer is now available for download directly from the Adobe Exchange.

It is a great way to track time on projects or to track time on clients (or really anything).  

This is an alpha build so please sign up for the updates or check the time track message board for known issues. 

Also, development of the Vertabase time tracking tool will be driven by user feedback, particularly early adopters. So fire away.

Microsoft recently gave a peek at its roadmap for MS Project project management software at the Microsoft Office Project conference.

After reading about the proposed direction for MS Project does anybody have any reviews or thoughts? 

I will be speaking this Thursday, October 26 at 6 pm ET at the online ColdFusion User Group run by Charlie Arehart.

http://coldfusion.meetup.com/17/boards/view/viewthread?thread=3722239

You can join in from anywhere - so feel free to stop on by.

A big thank you to the Cleveland Adobe User Group for hosting me last week.  We had a good session on designing software and on using project management software.

Thank you to Mike Cooper for arranging the meeting and to Lodestone Digital for hosting it. 

Congratulations to Brian Meloche on becoming an Adobe Community Expert (an ACE)!  Brian has been  active in the ColdFusion Community for years. Most recently he hosted some of the best sessions at MAX on ColdFusion.  Congratulations on a well-deserved achievement. 

Vertabase 4 project management software was launched last week.

So far, the reception from clients and the press has been very good!

With Vertabase 4, we’ve focused on the eco-system of applications users work with to create and share information. It continues on in our approach of making it easy for people to track, manage and collaborate on projects regardless of their technical background.

Feature highlights include:

• Rapid project set-up
• Import from MS Excel and Google Spreadsheets (along with MS Project and Vertabase templates)
• Export to MS Outlook and Google Calendar
• Generate PDF reports and integration with Adobe Acrobat.

If you have any comments or questions on the new release, let us know.

Its a week past due but thank you to the Charlotte Adobe Users Group.  Had a great time with great people and lots of good conversation (both during and after the meeting). 

We talked about everything from software design, user adoption and project management to where is Adobe and ColdFusion going, and what technologies will stand the test of time.

Thank you to Sutton for putting it all together, to Lodestone Digital to hosting and to everyone who attended.

I’ll have the pleasure of speaking at the Charlotte, North Carolina Adobe Users’ Group (Adobe Charlotte) on Thursday, September 20th.

The topic will be on how design, technology and feature choices affect usability -using examples and feedback from Vertabase project management.

The meeting will take place at 6PM at Lodestone Digital, 5605 Seventy-Seven Center Dr., Suite 285, Charlotte, NC. For more information, please visit http://www.adobecharlotte.com.

I’ll be speaking to software developers and ColdFusion fans at the Toronto ColdFusion Users’ Group (Toronto CFUG) meeting on Wednesday, August 15 at 7 pm ET. This is a special meeting and launch party for ColdFusion 8 (CF8) in the Toronto area. 

Come on by -there will even be a chance to win a copy of CF8!

To attend or for more information visit http://www.cfugtoronto.org/ 

I will be speaking on effective project management, particularly for development projects and IT implementations. I’ll also be giving a walk-through of Vertabase Pro, an enterprise project management application written in Adobe’s ColdFusion.  (Its a great alternative to MS Project.)

Question: How can I reduce shipping costs when sending products, parts or components to customers?

Answer: Knowing what the customer will need ahead of time, accurate forecasting,  is the key to reducing shipping costs.

Now, mind reading is tough. But when shipping is part of the projects and services you are providing customers, you can control your shipping costs by controling the scheduling of those projects or services.  By knowing the schedule, you can know when items will need to be shipped.

Data Systems of Texas implemented Vertabase Pro and was able to better group projects and resources -scheduling them up to six months ahead of time.  As a result, they were able to cut shipping costs by 50%.   

“We used to ship everything overnight express at full costs. Now, our time management is much more efficient and we know who needs what in advance. Consequently, we save a significant amount of money by using standard shipping services,” says Tom Davis, Support Manager.

Vertabase Pro offers scheduling tools for people of all levels of technical experience. 

I’ll be speaking to software developers at the Detroit Area ColdFusion Users’ Group (DETCFUG) meeting on Wednesday, August 8 at 6 pm ET. Come on by.

To attend or for more information visit http://www.detcfug.org/cfug/meetingSingle.cfm?meetingID=23.

The topic will be effective project management, particularly for development projects and IT implementations. I’ll also be giving a walk-through of Vertabase Pro, an enterprise project management application written in Adobe’s ColdFusion.

Question: What are some key features to look for in a project management tool to help Executives made strategic decisions?

Answer:  Data integrity is the building block for strategic decision making. If data on a project or portfolio is not accurate or up to date, the value of the decision will suffer. Executives will be more likely to make the wrong call since the information they’re relying on is wrong. When looking at project management software, its therefore critical to make sure that it gathers and generates accurate and up to date information on projects or portfolios. 

Further, the data collected should be useful for strategic decision making. Executives require a larger scale picture so they can identify and guage the performance of longer term trends in the business. An executive is often matching the success of current operations against a set of longer-term strategic goals.  Having aggregate data on projects, portfolios, budgets and resources makes it possible for them to see if the ship is heading in the right direction, as it were, and how to best direct money and people to keep it on course.

Third, the data should be presented in a relevant and meaningful way.  Different people respond better to data presented in different ways. Some executives can pull usefull information from tables and text.  Others prefer graphs and charts.  However an executive prefers their information, it is important the format provides a clear picture and is not overly cluttered with data for data’s sake. At some point, aggregrate data can lose its relevance or utility by being too multidimensional, include too many items, or try to paint too broad a picture. 

An effective project management tool for executives will strike a careful balance between the breadth of a single report  and the easy accessibility and range of reports that can show other aspects of the business -without cramming too much on a page.

Vertabase Pro is built with these concepts in mind.

Vertabase recently made a software donation to the Michigan Council of Women and Technology to support the good work that they do. 

The MCWT is actively supports the diversification of the Michigan economy and invests in the future of women in Michigan -Vertabase’s home. 

The MCWT provides leadership, mentoring, community outreach, professional development and networking to professional women within the Michigan technology community. MCWT provides a robust web of technology resources and an industry voice for its constituents while fostering the support of an advancement of women and best practices in technology.

The project management software will be used to facilitate the administration and management of the numerous critical projects and events for the MCWT.

Along with corporate sponsors including Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and Sun Microsystems, Vertabase will be recognized for its contribution to the MCWT at the Partnership and Scholarship Event, to be held at the Birmingham Country Club, in Michigan, on May 3rd. 

The event will include a robotics demonstration by some past scholarship awardees and the presentation of laptop’s to current scholarship awardees. 

Project management software can significantly simplify time management in an enterprise.

To get this benefit, make sure to look for a project management tool that centralizes timesheet data by project along with percent complete status of individual projects.  This can provide a seemless picture of effort and labor costs on a project compared against where the project actually is. 

This same feature set facilitates financial forecasting by giving managers up-to-date information to best estimate how many more resource hours will be needed to be complete a deliverable -and therefore, often time, send an invoice to a client.

Message Makers, a multimedia communications firm in Lansing, Michigan recently experienced these benefits with Vertabase Pro. 

“Prior to implementing Vertabase Pro, it was difficult for us to effectively manage resource allocation,” said Chiung Cheng, PhD, Controller and Research Director. “We selected Vertabase Pro because it addressed our most essential need - the merging of project status reporting and timesheet management into a single function. Now, with Vertabase Pro, we are able to evaluate overall status instantly.”

To read more about their experiences, heres a case study on improving resource allocation with project management software.

There’s a differences between project management software and task management software. Understanding the difference can help you search and select the right software for you or your team.

Project management software is centered around a work breakdown structure. That means that each project has a specific set of tasks that need to be completed for the project to be completed. There are also a variety of other components to a project which the software helps manage. These include issues, budgets, documents, notes and resource availability.

The overall goal of the project manager is to plan, manage, track and complete projects as a whole (along with the other components of the project). Project management software helps the project manager do this job. This can be on a single project or, if the software has portfolio views or project portfolio dashboards, for numerous projects across the enterprise.

Task management software is built around to-do lists. The main goal of task management software is help the user keep track of everything they have to do. Or, in the case of a manager, to help them keep track of everything everyone else has to do.

When searching for project management software, understanding this difference, can help you define the terms you’re searching for and make a better selection of what it is you need.

There are three key features most users look for in enterprise project management software:

1) Porftolio Views;
2) Executive Dashboards and;
3) Automatic notification.

Portfolio views allow managers, clients or executives to view projects grouped together into different portfolios, or categories, that are meangingful to that person. For example, a marketing department may have numerous initiatives active for a particular brand. The project status details of each iniatitive may be important for the resources working on them or to their manager. But an executive often wants to see the status of all projects for that brand, grouped specifically by brand, compared against other brands for which that executive may be responsible.

Executive dashboards are templated reports which convey the exact information an executive wants to see. Rather than hunt around for the metrics which are important for enterprise wide decision making, an executive dashboard gives the decision maker instant visibility into the specific status items they’ve designated as important or relevant to their decision making process. Enterprise project management software should make these reports easy to access (often with a single mouse click) and easy to create.

Automatic notification keeps people in the loop on project milestones without requiring them to constantly login to the software. It leverages the data gathering capabilities of enterprise project software while utilizing an email notification engine to distribute overall project information. This is particularly helpful for busy managers or executives who don’t want the added to-do of checking another business intelligence system but to whom the data in that system is exetremely useful.

Vertabase Pro offers these three key features in an easy to use enterprise project management system. A free test drive is available as well as a live, web-demo with an experienced project management software consultant.

Health care costs can be radically reduced by using project management software.

The central mission of a health care organization is to deliver medical or health related services to a patient population. Non-medical projects and administrative processes compete with health care delivery for scare resources in a hospital’s budget. Many of these projects and processes are necessary. Medical records need to be kept. Supplies must be tracked and operating rooms stocked. Medical devices and software must be monitored and maintained.

On the personnel side, medical staff must be managed, meetings scheduled, problems resolved. And the list could continue.

These are projects and processes that can be done more efficiently. One area that gets a lot of media attention is medical records management. Improving records management, for example, frees up money that can be directed to patient care or to lowering the overall cost of providing medical care.

Another area ripe for improvement is the overall management of projects. Applying fundamental project management concepts along with an effective project management software solution can make a huge difference in a hospital’s budget.

For example, Patients’ Hospital in Redding, California recently reported a 50% reduction in the time it takes to deliver projects. They attribute this to the use of the right enterprise project management software (they use Vertabase Pro).

In the words of Demetra Neely, Medical Staff Coordinator, “thanks to Vertabase Pro, projects are being delivered in about half that time. This increase in management efficiency enables us to focus an even higher percentage of available resources to our central mission of providing the best patient care possible.”

Improving project management is a relatively simple and low-cost solution to reducing the cost of health care.

Read more about Patients’ Hospital and the project management case study  or download the pdf of project management software for healthcare.

Came across this post bemoaning the state of collaboration features available in enterprise content management solutions.

Our approach in Vertabase Pro is to offer collaboration and content management within the framework of doing projects (and using project management tools to accomplish and manage the projects).   

What do you think of this approach?

After taking a look at the software, what recommendations or suggestions would you have for the content management component of the software? 

Note: you can check out the software by clicking here. The content management features are in the Document section of Projects.

Here’s a review of MS Project 2007 project management software from one of our Vertabase Pro users. The review focuses on the interface of the software.

To attempt to contain complexity, MS Project 2007 introduced Ribbons — a pane that contains controls (such as buttons and icons) that are organized into a set of tabs, each one containing a grouping of relevant commands.  This type of interface replaces traditional menus and toolbars.

The Ribbon is “all about making the software do what you want to do,” as they state in their literature.  This Ribbon will also be incorporated into Microsoft Office 2007 as a main new feature “Replacing the menus and toolbars that have been the cornerstone of Office since its inception.”

While Ribbons consolidate related functionality in one place and can improve usability, they do not solve the problem of complexity. Microsoft Project will still be very complex and time consuming to learn. 

It comes down to design. They are not working from a clean apriori design. It is not targeted to a manager using a system with a team requiring a robust solution that is scalable to multiple projects and tasks but without the complexity and nuance that a professional project manager would require (and feel comfortable with).

No matter what, how the controls of a jumbo jet get automated or are easy to access it is not the right vehicle to travel from the suburbs to downtown. You will still need advanced project management expertise to create, manage and communicate projects plans in Microsoft project – even with Ribbons.

Project management built for an enterprise is generally more robust than mass market project management software.  Almost by definition, enterprise project management software includes two aspects that separate it from general project management software.

• The first is the robustness of feature set.
• The second is the number of users that touch the system.

Features that you’ll generally find in enterprise project management software include resource allocation, project portfolio view, cross project gantt charts, budgeting and potentially a host of advance project management performance metrics.

In terms of users, this type of project management software is touched by a large number of users who’s data differ and who’s background in using project management software is varied. This can range from the project managers who use the enterprise tool every day to executives or upper management who touch the software only occasionally to get updates on particular projects or specific project porfolios.

Historically, most enterprise solutions have had a hard time reconcilling robust functionality and the needs of a varied user group.  Applications like Primavera, Artemis, Planview and MS Project Enterprise Server have long been the domain of specialists.  Companies that tried integrating this kind of software throughout the organization have encounterd  long and costly training sessions with signficant interuption in people’s workflow. More often than not, the software ends up only being used by a small group of project management specialists and a burden on everyone else.

The next generation of web-based, enterprise project management software avoids this problem and increase the use of effective project management in an organization. If you want to see the differences in approaches to solving this problem compare Vertabase Pro and eProject.

Two avenues Vertabase Pro has used for solving this problem have been:

• Making the robust features easier to use and
• Not forcing people to learn the whole software -if someone doesn’t need to use a specific feature, they don’t even see it.

Overall, this has made software which is far less intimidating to implement and more likely to make a positive impact on a company’s workflow. 

Happy 2007 from Vertabase Pro, project management software.  Thank you for a great 2006! Looking forward to a wonderful 2007.

Here’s Alan Mulally, the new CEO of Ford Motor Company, highlighting the value of visibility and consistent data in managing an enterprise, the quotes are excerpted from The Wall Street Journal of December 22, 2006.

To set the scene: Mr. Mulally recently took over as CEO of Ford and began implementing weekly Thursday meetings for senior management to get everyone focused on the same goals, track progress, reward success and to keep people accountable.

Visibility Brings Consistency

His first Thursday gathering at Ford went badly, underscoring the challenges he would face. After Mr. Mulally asked each business head to present his results and forecasts, he complained that the numbers didn’t make sense. “Why don’t all the pieces add up for the total corporate financials?” he recalls asking.

“We don’t share everything,” he says one manager replied, explaining that Ford executives ran their units without meshing with other divisions, occasionally holding back some information. Mr. Mulally was floored. The next week, executives came back with complete figures.

By putting all the data in one place, Mr. Mulally was quickly able to see the gaps in the processes they were using to try and improve Ford Motor.  What’s more, everyone else in the room could see it as well.  He pinpointed communication and data sharing as a core problem.
 
Data Can Set You Free

“Data can set you free,” Mr. Mulally tells associates. He prodded executives embarrassed of their results to bring them to the table — and post them on the war-room wall. “You can’t manage a secret,” Mr. Mulally says he tells them.

When one manager offered up the poor performance of his unit, some Ford executives were stunned by Mr. Mulally’s reaction. He applauded, saying: “Great visibility.”

Cultural Challenges

Large scale projects often require a cultural change in an organization.  One of the hardest for people to overcome is sharing data, particularly if they are accountable for what the numbers say. 

Other barriers exists as well, like:

• the effort it can take to gather the data;
• the challenge of making the information a true apples-to-apples comparison and;
• distributing the data to everyone who needs to see it. 

With Mr. Mulally, its a lot easier since he’s everyone’s boss. He can break these barriers and try to institute cultural change from the top of the enterprise.

(As an observation, the impetus for improved visibility or better data collaboration often starts with people who can’t compel managers or executives to show up at a meeting. It’s the people doing the actual work who generally see the need for the adoption of these kind of best practices.)

The Value of Project Management Software

Project management software like Vertabase Pro can help organizations rapidly change their culture and seamlessly move to an environment of greater visibility, information sharing and healthy accountability.  (And you don’t even have to make everyone show up in the same room every week –it can be done via email and the web.)

Collaborative, web project management software centralizes and facilitates the gathering and dissemination of data. Whether that data are raw project performance metrics or customized reports on very specific projects, portfolios or performance data points (like scheduled tasks or resource allocation), it is entered and aggregated in one place.  It can be accessed anytime and the project management software can even send an email reminding people that its time to look at it.

Executives, project planners and managers can keep the enterprise better focused on its goals, track progress of different projects and project portfolios, and maintain a healthy, constructive accountability.

Where Does That Leave Ford?

Nobody can say for sure how this latest turnaround effort at Ford Motor Company is going to end up. But it certainly seems like the new CEO, Alan Mulally, is implementing common sense management practices. These practices can make a world of difference in how to best harness the talent within a company to achieve overall corporate goals.

The current space shuttle mission STS-116 is a great window on project management in action.  On NASA TV you can hear the live management of an ongoing process –managing in real-time, on the fly, a complex operation that’s rife with opportunities to deviate from a sophisticated project plan.

While the scale might be different, it parallels, in a lot of ways, the activities that go on in any creative, engineering or scientific project. It provides a view on the types of information, visibility and project communication that make any project a success.

Here are some of the random clips we heard on NASA TV:

“Thanks for the great big picture words.”
“1:51 Central Time power down expected.”
“Good insight into the system.”
“I have the steps here.”
“Trouble shooting task procedures.”
“Blocks of activity.”
“Ready to proceed to step three – it is good to talk to you.”
“OK I’ll stand by, appreciate the help.”

NASA drives this process with enterprise project management software, extensive training and clear channels of communication between team members (astronauts who’s life depends on it), project managers, project planners and the people who approved the project and the budget. 

Back on earth, you can implement the same type of discipline with the right project management software tool and training.

A marketing department or marketing company, for example, can use a program like Vertabase Pro online project management software to get the tools and training  without investing in huge or overly-technical project management solutions (like MS Project). 

This class of  project management software is web-based and can be up and running in no-time.  Project leaders and planning can then precisely define a set of tasks and schedule with input from creative teams and the client stakeholders.

The project management software training engages all team members, project managers, planner and participants, showing them how to get the information and visibility they need quickly through clearly defined communication channels which are available anytime, online and on-demand. The work of the management, creative and account teams and the client can then be choreographed closely.

As the project unfolds ongoing automated project communication is maintained and the project plan is easily adapted. The client sees value for money real-time; the project leaders build their own leadership and strategic thinking skills; and creative workers know what they have to deliver and when.

Finally, capturing a complex project with an adaptive, collaborative, online project management tool allows core business processes to be captured and refined. The next project becomes more efficient and over time the value of the company increases significantly.

It might not be as exciting as building the International Space Station, but to a project manager or creative team, launching a successful project has its own rewards.

The Corporate edition of Copper 2006 (version 3.0) seems to be geared towards improving visibility of to-do lists. It is light on features that can help task management, manage schedules or give deeper visibility of projects.

A good example is the process of adding or editing tasks on a project. This is a fundamental activity not only in task management but also in planning projects, setting up schedules and managing on-going project activity.

Tasks can be added in two ways. One is through a single web page form which means that adding many tasks means going through many individual forms.   The second is via an Adobe Flash based Gantt chart.

Tasks appear in the task list and on the Gantt chart in the order in which they were entered. Tasks may be sorted by the items in the column headings of the task list. But, they cannot be easily resequenced. 

Unlike more feature rich project management software like Vertabase Pro, Copper does not have task numbers nor subtasks. This may seem trivial. However, something as simple as having project numbers and have a hierarchy of tasks and subtask can make a big difference in effective project management and planning projects.

Comparing Project Management Software
In comparison, the benefits of software like Vertabase Pro become apparent when the reality of projects (and managing projects) meets the idealized world of the project plan. Having numbered tasks (a work breakdown structure) means that you can quickly and easily change the sequence of tasks when the reality of the project changes. 

Having sub-tasks means that you can modify or add, on-the-fly, the specific steps it may take to complete the deliverable or meet the desired goal of a single task. Completing a task is often more than doing one single thing. Sub-tasks allows you to map out and track the steps it takes to complete the task. 

Here’s a screen-shot of the edit-schedule screen in Vertabase Pro.

In the Vertabase Pro project management software you can quickly and easily add, modify and edit the order of tasks, sub-tasks and other schedule related tools from a single edit-schedule screen.

Educational institutions, e-learning companies and providers of educational curriculum face specialized challenges in project management.  A coherent project management strategy can increase the efficiency of developing educational product and educational programs. Project management software can be the foundation for this strategy.

Product development groups in these companies can work on upwards of 120 new projects at any given time.  These projects are generally the development of new educational programs that will be offered to hundreds of thousands of students overtime –programs that are crucial in those students’ academic or professional development.   The programs can range from vocational or technical programs to graduate and undergraduate courses.

Project management software enforces a unified project management strategy across the product development groups in education and e-learning companies, and brings several benefits.

1) The ability to make apples-to-apples comparisons of the status of multiple projects and budgets.

2) The ability to make better resource allocation decisions by providing a complete picture of where people are deployed, track time and where their time is already accounted for/allocated for ongoing or future educational projects.

3) Provide a mechanism to generate projects metrics, measure results and optimize product development processes.

4) All of which reinforces greater accountability, operational efficiencies and facilitates better project planning by having business intelligence at management’s fingertips.

While there are many project management software solutions available, web-based or online solutions can serve up this kind of information anytime, giving management complete and transparent access to the status of multiple projects or the entire educational product development portfolio.

Many educational providers have evaluated competing project management solutions, including Microsoft Project Server and chosen Vertabase Pro.  The decision is often based on functionality, ease-of-use, cost-efficiency and the quality of training and post-sales support.

There are two general approaches in project management software to planning and managing tasks and projects. 

1. One is a calendar based approach. 
2. The second is a task based approach. 

As a quick rule-of-thumb, a calendar based approach is best suited to planning and managing small projects with a relatively few number of resources.  Web based calendars and software offer a quick and intuitive way to see tasks over a period of time in a familiar format.  Calendars themselves are so common that people generally have an easy time in using web based calendars to schedule projects, tasks and resources.  Think of programs like Microsoft Outlook or BaseCamp.

Task-based schedules are generally better suited to managing and planning larger projects in departments or companies that compete for resources and whose projects fit into larger corporate project portfolios or goal-based initiatives. Web project management software that offers task-based schedules allow users to attach multiple attributes to the tasks themselves then plan their projects or get reports on projects or portfolios based on those attributes.  Think project management software like MS Project or Vertabase Pro.

These project management attributes can include task duration, resource allocation needs on the task, documents or digital assets that need to be managed or produced to complete the task. They can also include budgets, budgetary plans or constraints for resource allocation that can be measured, controlled and compared in a baseline. 

Besides seeing tasks or projects in a task-list or task-based schedule format, these project attributes can be represented in Gantt charts or other graphic representations, as well as shown on a calendar view. But once a project reaches a certain level of complexity, calendar views can get pretty messy, losing value as a tools to provide visibility on schedules, projects or project plans.

Read a recent post on some of the limits people are reaching with Basecamp.  They seem to apply to the general “software should do less” approach many people associate with Web 2.0. 

The philosophy of software that “does less” can actually create more work and aggravation once users, teams or projects scale up to a certain level of complexity. The approach starts to lose its usefulness.

At a certain level of scope or scale, people can benefit from project management software (and software designers) that “do more” in terms of details and thought out interface and functional architecture/workflow.

This applies to functionality contained in the project management software (like scheduling and project planning) as well as functionality which reaches outside to users or clients (like automatic email notifications and identity management or access level management). It also speaks to the value of more involved customer support and training, where the project management software company takes time to understand the work their customer does.

Web 2.0 is about useful tools.  “Do less” type software can certainly be useful and has its place (just look at the growth of Basecamp’s project collaboration tool). But these types of software are not one size fits all solutions. There are project management software solutions that offer similar benefits as Basecamp and other first generation Web 2.0 tools, but which are built to handle projects of a larger scale.

Are you comparing or evaluating project management software? Are you looking for an alternative to Microsoft Project or software like Microsoft Project?

Are you thinking about waiting for Microsoft Project 2007 to be released before making a decision? 

Based on initial ”sneak-peak” reviews of Microsoft Project 2007 project management software, doesn’t seem like much has changed.

In other words, if you like Microsoft Project project management software in general, and you’re using MS Project 1998 or 2000, this upgrade may be right for you. But if you’re waiting for some radical innovation in project management software or a reincarnation of MS Project in an easier to use, more web 2.0 type format, this misses the mark.

Carroll Consultants, a UK based project management consulting firm says:

“So in summary, there are some cosmetic changes and a couple of nice features but nothing to justify rushing out to buy the upgrade from Project 2003. However if you are still using Project 98 or 2000 it’s probably worth considering the upgrade once it ships.”

The principal at the company, John Carroll, has written numerous books on Microsoft Project like Microsoft Project in Easy Steps. He is currently at work on Microsoft Project 2007 in Easy Steps.  For more details on his thoughts on Microsoft Project project management software (and project management in general), check out his blog (and the link back to his company’s home page).

For those who don’t like Microsoft Project or are looking, perhaps, for web project management software, there are a number of alternatives, including the sponsors of this blog, Vertabase Pro.

Recent talk on the scalability of Ruby on Rails (RoR) to build a web application more advanced than Basecamp (by 37signals, the creators of RoR) e.g.  this from AKuAKu coming back from the Ruby on Rails unconference Rails Camp:

“The performance and scaling session which lasted about 5 minutes when no one could advance the high water mark for rails apps past basecamp.”

Reminds me of some earlier posts by Ben Forta, ColdFusion guru and related CF posts on the advantages of using ColdFusion (and ColdFusion on Wheels) to build larger scale apps.

To see a difference: in the project management software space compare Basecamp to Vertabase Pro (you can request a trial off the site). Vertabase Pro is written in CF.

Project management software generally falls into three categories. This article provides an overview of these categories and a broad review of some of the leading project management software in these categories.

For the PM Specialist
There are a ton of project management software tools designed to assist the theoretician or to adhere to project management theory or to a particular project management body of knowledge or approach.  Project management software solutions in this realm can measure risk factors against difference risk tolerances on a project, they can provide multiple baselines on different factors on a project, they can calculate the impact of deviations or variances, or earned value at different points of a schedule. They offer a ton of hard-core project management metrics and functionality. They are often used for large capital projects (like construction of a bridge, building a space shuttle or power-plant).

These tools vary in the functionality they offer or their complexity (like Primavera, Artemis or PlanView). But they all rely on a fundamental assumption that the project manager needs complicated project management software or a super robust, theory based project management toolbox.  Then the project manager or project management office will disseminate that data to people who need to know. No-one will make a move without consulting the project manager or project management office. They are the people ultimately in charge of process improvement, metric measurement and control of project priority and status.

Project Collaboration (without Specific PM Features)
Then there is a range of project management software solutions that give very little information about changes in key  project variables (the project plan, defined tasks durations and resource allocation). Instead, they focus or connecting people with a basic level of information or ways to organize that information online.  These are tools like Basecamp. In its place, Basecamp and Basecamp like software, offer ease-of-use and easy-adoption, which has made Basecamp one of the most popular project management type software packages out there. Though Basecamp is better classified as a project collaboration tool. The relative thin-ness, as it were, of the application, has also made it a target for small software developers or software companies to copy or replicate.

PM for a Wide Audience
Then there are tools that fall in the middle, like Microsoft Project or MS Project Server.  Software tools like those offer a middle-ground on complexity when it comes to planning and seeing the impact of changes in the project performance variables mentioned above.  But there is a trade-off in “out of the box” type ease-of-use for the addition of these project management features in their software. Most of these software offerings require some level of training and customer support.

The middle range is being augmented and made more accessible by the introduction of online or web project management software solutions.  These project management software tools offer a broad range of functionality (with varying degrees of complexity) and a range of ease of use. There are even tools which seek to mimic MS Project online, exactly, believing that the main problem with Microsoft Project or Microsoft Project Server (or tools like it) is that its not offered on-demand or in a software as a service type model.

Other companies in this category believe that there is room for improvement in a project management software product itself and that the Microsoft Project model is not the end-all/be-all in project management software functionality.

In this camp, you’ll find companies like Vertabase Pro (the company behind this blog).  The idea behind these project management software products is to offer alternatives to Microsoft Project. More recently, these project management solutions are also an alternative to Basecamp and Basecamp like Web 2.0 type project management software or strictly project collaboration products.

In comparing the software in this space, the most obvious difference between MS Project and Vertabase Pro is that the latter are native web-based, offered in a software-as-a-service type model (as well as giving someone the option to install it on their server).  The next difference you’ll see in a comparison of these project management software tools is the range of functionality compared against the level of ease-of-use or ease of adoption they have targeted.  In their flagship project management product eProject seems to have targeted a more complicated, project management theory based type of functionality, which comes at the price of a certain level of ease of use.  Vertabase Pro, on the other hand, has targeted a more practical, real-world level of project management functionality in its project management software, in order to gain usability and ease of adoption. Of course, each company, project management office and user has their own specific needs and should find the project management software tool that offers the right combination for them. But its important to keep in mind that any product in this category will require some degree of training. So make sure to evaluate the training and customer support of any potential project management software provider.

Project planning and project scheduling can be valuable tools in business intelligence (BI) or business performance management (BPM).

On the solutions side, project management software, particularly easier to use online project management software tools can generate powerful business intelligence and process optimization conclusions.

A previous post discussed the three key variables used to set a realistic due-date.

1) A defined process
2) Defined task durations
3) Resource availability/performance

These three keys, along with the due-date itself, are really all variables that can be used to make sophisticated, well-informed business intelligence or project decisions.

You can use any three of these variables to solve for the value of the fourth, like a mathematical equation -project algebra.

Project Plan as Reality Check
In the first case discussed above, we assumed to know the value of all variables, including the due-date, which is the desired outcome. The project plan or schedule in this case was more like a reality check than the solution to a particular problem.

Project Plan to Find a Due-Date
But in other cases, a project manager or team leader may be trying to figure out when a realistic due date is, so they map out the particular tasks or steps that need to be taken, plug in the amount of resources available, plug in the duration each task should take and presto, get a due-date or expected delivery date for the project.

Using a Project Plan for Resource Allocation Decisions
Or, a project manager may be interested in finding out how many people or resources it will take to finish a project by a specific date. In this case, the project manager or planner maps out the steps it takes to complete the project, holds the due-date as fixed, plugs in how long each step or task needs to take to get the project delivered by the defined due-date and therefore figures out how many people they need on each task so that those tasks can be completed in time to meet the due date. Presto -like magic.

Using Planning for Process Improvement
This can even go a step farther, into the realm of process optimization, corporate or process restructuring or overall business performance management and improvement by holding all other performance variables constant and having the process itself be the variable for which the manager is looking to solve.

This is the classic problem faced by competitive business everyday. How can we do what we need to do better?

Sometimes the question is how can we do it with the people/resources available, sometimes the question is how can be do it will less people or different people or faster. But it’s the same equation. The plan, project management, and project management software, can be crucial tools of business intelligence and for improved business decision making and overall business performance management.

Jeff Peters has a nice article in ColdFusion Developer’s Journal giving an overview on some of the basics that can be accomplished when using an organized project management process for development using project management software available from www.GrokFusebox.com.

There are an additional set of project management software tools that can surround the software development process as a whole, providing a framework in which the development work takes place. Functionality in this framework includes tracking tasks, priorities, resource allocation across projects or a department and budgetary tracking and reporting.

These features create a more positive environment for software development or for a software development project.

Essentially, with minimal data input from a developer, management can get all the data they need to monitor the project or portfolio of projects (which they’re going to do anyway), without having to interrupt the developers or waste people’s time in meetings.

Vertabase Pro is a ColdFusion based project management software tool that does just this. You can get a look at it by checking out a screenshot tour or requesting a test drive. (If you don’t want to submit a form, you can email blevy@vertabase.com for a test drive.)

Nothing is going to be easier than just being left alone to do your work. But these kind of project management tools can make a big impact on the overall long-term success of a software development project or IT department within a company or in a client/developer relationship.

Major sporting events can get in the way of even the best managed projects, particularly a best of 7 type event like the World Series of Major League Baseball that can go on for a week.

Take this year’s series between the Cinderella story Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. It can definitely take its toll on the productivity (measured in sleep deprivation) and morale of fans involved in the whole event.

For those inclined, coffee or Diet Coke can make-up for the sleep.

The morale component, though, is harder.

There is no magic pill. It is not something easily assuaged by project managers, project management software or a therapeutic cursing-out and finger point on play by error-filled painful play by the water-cooler or coffee machine.

While the kind of visibility and replay that project management software or reports offer can sometimes be valuable to a project (and certainly to know who to hold accountable -like a young pitcher or two, perhaps) when your team is down -and there’s no reason it should be, it doesn’t seem to help.

Sometimes, it just takes time and the commitment to keep putting one foot in front of the other, moving along the path to get the project or deliverable done.

Communication is one of the biggest challenges in project management.

Its bad enough when a project manager has trouble communicating with the team that will be doing the project. But it can be down-right dangerous for a manager when there is a lack of clear communication with the project sponsor the person who navigated corporate politics to get the project approved.

The problem stems from not understanding what each person is looking for or unrealistically expecting the other party to speak your language. This can be aggravated by the project manager’s insistence on using only the project management tools which suite their needs, regardless of whether the project management solutions generate the kind of information the political sponsors of the project are looking for.

Sometimes is takes an artist to bridge the communication gap. But for those without an artistic flair, good online project management software has the flexibility to act almost like translation software and provide both project managers and sponsors with the data they need(like the Yamagato translation software used by Hiro Nakamura on his blog).

A project manager can use online project management software to get the information they need to have visibility and control of a project. And if they want to continue to use a personal favorite project management application like Microsoft Project, for example, most good online project management applications can import and export MS Project files or make it easy to talk to other project management tools.

But a good online project management application can also generate the kind of information political project sponsors require, bridging the communication gap. This can include cross-project, portfolio or executive dashboard views on budgets, resource utilization and overall project health that the sponsor can use to manage the expectations of their bosses making it easier to maintain political and budgetary support for the project.

Companies can bill faster and more efficiently by using project management software that integrates or interoperates with Quickbooks accounting software. They can also bill more and increase revenue by using project management software to set-up of their projects and track time against specific tasks within those projects.

The interoperability or integration with Quickbooks means that book-keeping or accounting people don’t have to spend time entering in timesheet data from one system to the next. The timesheet information can be exported to Quickbooks accounting software, allowing for an invoice to be generated in a few simple steps.

Setting up specific tasks and projects in a project management software that integrates with accounting software means that its much easier for an account manager or accountant to see every single step that was taken to get a project done. Steps and time that were previously overlooked can be seen and billed.

Companies have experienced 90% gains in efficiency in billing by using project management software that works with Quickbooks, cutting down the amount of time it takes to bill a customer from 16 hours a month to less than two.

Companies have also experienced near 100% increases in revenue and billing by using project management software that integrates or interoperates with accounting software, catching time that was previously overlooked on projects.