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.

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.

Thank you to the kind people at Handshaw. They put on a successful conference on e-learning, learning management systems and general instructional design.  I was fortunate enough to attend and meet some of the impressive people behind their Lumenix product and the creative people who use it.

For those not familiar with e-learning, its more than moving content and tests onto a computer. It encompasses an understanding of how adults learn, a mastery of technical tools, project management to get e-learning projects produced and organizational politics to secure budgets and manage expectations. 

An oft discussed topic was how instructional designers and e-learning technologists work with subject matter experts. There is a delicate balance between keeping the SME involved in a project while the ID or e-learning technologist maintain their role as the trained professional in e-learning. 

Interestingly, its something I hear all the time from designers and developers with respect to clients.  It seems that in both worlds, there is a management art to building a process where everyone recognizes and respects the value each person brings to a project.

Thank you, as well to an informative presentation from Bryan Chapman on Rapid Content Development for e-learning.

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 is the most useful methodology for managing projects? Is the PMBOK the best approach on all projects?

Answer:  Success is the basic metric against which to compare the value of any particular project management methodology. If the project is a success then the methodology used to manage that project must have been successful. Since every organization deals with different variables, different people, different circumstances and different goals, every organization needs to find the methodology that works best for it. 

The strict application of any particular methodology will likely do more harm than good. Its like asking the world to fit a text book, rather than using the knowledge in the textbook to accomplish something in the real world.

The Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) contains a wealth of information on techniques and tools, theory and experience on managing projects. However, projects managed with the PMBOK don’t seem to automatically have a higher success ratio than other projects.  Success in a project depends on the application of knowledge, a clear understanding of current circumstances and visibility into a project as it progresses. In the end, success depends on the skills of the manager more than any methodology, degree or project management training.

Success in a project can be defined in many, many ways. There are empirical measures such as the delivery of stated goals, adherence to a schedule or operating within a budget. Then there less object measures such as team morale, individual job satisfaction and corporate reputation -was the project done the way the company wanted it to get done -did the process reflect the company’s culture.  Each organization values each measure or success criteria differently.

It is important for a project manager to work towards the same goals as the overall organization when aiming for a successful project. Otherwise, conflict will inevitabley arise between upper management, project managers and team members, even when deliverables are being delivered on-time and on-budget. And the project, though completed on-schedule and on-budget, may not be rated a success.  Process can reflect corporate culture as much as a logo or website.

Vertabase Pro is built to be flexible so that each organization and manager can use the methodology that works best for them.

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.

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.

Few things can create more tension in a project than pushing back a deadline. 

It can create instant anger between a project sponsor and the project manager. It can even filter down to the people working on a project. Resources end-up choosing a bad-guy: the project sponsor (”she doesn’t get it”) or the project manager (”doesn’t know what he’s doing”) -while all the while risking being cast as lazy or incompetent because the deadline is being blown.

Often, the source of the anger can be traced to differing expectations on how the project should unfold over time. 

Both the sponsor and the project manager likely realize that nothing ever goes as planned, that hiccups happen.  The frustration comes in different expectations on the effect of hiccups.  That is, there are different answers to the question of ”what does this problem mean to my project?”

One side (often the sponsor) expects that a hiccup means that the project will be delivered on-time, but on a reduced scale (less functionality, less features, smaller scope).

To the other side (a classically trained project manager, say) a hiccup means that the project will be delivered as planned, just later.

This dichotomy in expectations mirrors a central difference between two major schools of project management methodology. The two schools are Agile project management and the classic Waterfall approach to managing projects.

Understanding this difference can help pin-point the source of frustration on projects when a deadline is missed. 

By using the language of Agile versus Waterfall people can more clearly explain where they’re coming from at the start of a project -and hopefully reduce the anger and frustration that can arise in the middle of a project, when the project takes longer than planned.

Agile and Waterfall have different views on the lifecycle of a project. 

• Agile tends to look at a project as fluidly ongoing, evolving through a series of iterations. 
• Waterfall looks at projects as having a defined end-point, the delivery of a pre-specified set of requirements.  

AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT MINDSET 

Agile aims to deliver something that can go live, in a relatively short period of time, collect data or feedback, go back to the drawing board, deliver again and relaunch. It keeps iterating until a further iteration is no longer necessary or useful. But throughout the process, at every step of the way, something ”live” is being produced and delivered.

Coming from an Agile mindset, if a hiccup happens, the next iteration gets pushed off. But at least there’s something live that can be worked with.

WATERFALL PROJECT MANAGEMENT MINDSET 

The Waterfall approach starts by spec’ing out everything the final deliverable should be. It begins with the assumption that the research has been done and the data analyzed. The final project deliverable represents the best-guess of what should work to fulfill the goals of the project sponsor. In a Waterfall, the project moves sequentially through its lifecycle, cascading downward from specification, to design, to development/production, to testing and going live. The deliverables don’t exist, even in a rudimentary form, until the production phase is reached.

Coming from a Waterfall mindset, if a hiccup happens, the launchable deliverables get delayed, the whole project gets delayed, until the hiccup is resolved.

REDUCING FRUSTRATION

Both Agile and Waterfall have their place in getting projects done.  

But for the purposes of reducing frustration and anger on a project, they are only useful tools to raise awarness of differences in people’s expectations -differences that are the source of tremendous tension.

This awareness can facilicate healthy communication, and reduce the source of frustration before any problems arise. When a problem does arise, the project sponsor, project manager (and even the team) can be on the same page as to what to expect.

Everyone can have the same answer to the question “What does this problem mean to the project?”

By the way, it doesn’t matter if  people know the difference between Agile, Waterfall or the Bay Bridge -if it complicates things, or requires more explanation that its worth, leave the fancy terminology out. 

The important thing is to talk about the differences in expectations on project lifecycles that can and often do exist.

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.

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.

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.

A due-date separates a project from a goal.

A goal is something you’d like to accomplish. Once you put a due-date on it, it becomes a proejct. Once you put a due-date on it, you can begin to plan the steps necessary to accomplish that goal.

3 KEYS TO SETTING A DUE DATE
There are three keys to set a realistic due-date:

1) A well-defined process;
2) Clearly understood task durations and;
3) The availability of resources.

A Well-Defined Process
To set a due-date, the process for doing, delivering or accomplishing X needs to be clearly defined and well understood. This process is the framework or map, on which all the other project planning variables hang.

Task Durations
To set a realistic due-date in a planning project or planning process the duration, or length of time it takes to accomplish a particular task needs to be clearly defined and well understood.

Resource Availability
A third key variable in planning a project is that the resources, people power, skills and time will be available to perform the specific tasks needed on the particular days when they are needed.

HOW TO SET A DUE-DATE
These three key assumptions, a well-defined process, clearly understood durations and resource availability/performance, are the underpinnings of a project planning process.

(Not surprisingly, they are also the three key variables that change during a project and which can put a project at risk.)

Project managers, planners or task schedulers can work backward from a due-date. They can say if the project has to be done by X day, that means that these 5 (for example) particular tasks have to be done in a certain order and by such and such a time. Therefore, step 1 has to be done by this date, step 2 by that date, etc..

Alternatively, project managers, planners or schedulers can calculate a due-date by holding some of these variables constant and letting the due-date fall out from there.

For example, if you know you have a specific number of people and therefore a particular task will take X days to complete, you can use duration as your input, lay it out over defined process (which is your task list) and shazaam, out comes your estimated due date.

BENCHMARKS FOR SETTING DUE DATES
It can take a lot of background information and/or experience to know the right parameters to enter for each of these project performance variables. This is where a good project manager shines through. More generally, a large part of core management, planning and overall strategic or business management is about dealing with changes in these three performance variables.

There is a whole body of literature, project management theory and research which discuss these project performance variables, the three keys. This body of project management knowledge covers knowing how to monitor, control and deal with changes in these project performance factors.

There is also extensive research in certain fields and industries on project performance benchmarks for those industries. Unfortunately, though, this project management research is relatively small compared to the different kinds of businesses out there. And even if this body of project management research were larger, its value might be limited since companies and departments often do projects in different ways.

(One of the most researched and benchmarked areas in project management is IT and software development. For example, there are excellent comparisons of the performance of different project management methodologies, project planning approaches, programming languages, etc. on the overall effectiveness, quality and budget costs of software development projects. The U.S. Department of Defense’s Data and Analysis Center for Software (DACS) is a good source of this kind of information and other hard-core software project performance data.)

THE REALITY OF DUE-DATES
Project management theory and research is valuable and in the hand of a skilled practitioner can make a difference in the performance of projects.

But sometimes, even the most educated project management professional can get flustered by the challenges of delivering a project in the real world, particularly in a profit driven, resource constrained, business environment.

The practical art of project management, and management in general, shines through when there are constraints or limits on project performance variables -because you can’t always throw more people on a task (nor is it always a good idea) or you can’t always predict how long a task will take to get done.

Good project management and management in general, is knowing how to handle the curves in the road with finesse, how to manage changes in these key performance variables and still deliver the project (which is not always pretty).

Due-dates are often driven by larger, business goals and customer demands.

But due-dates can also be a helpful tool in project planning and on-going management. They can help project managers understand risks that may jeopardize the success or on-time delivery of their project.

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.

So many things have to go right for projects to be delivered, its amazing that projects get done at all. Not to even speak of the near miracle status of an on-time or on-budget delivery.

No less a Hero than Hiro Nakamura from Yamagato Industries has to travel through time and space to make sure things go right on his project.

Most project managers don’t have this ability. Instead, a project manager has to rely on a unique combination of people skills, experience, communication and patience.

Even with perfect knowledge of what’s going to happen, Hiro Nakamura still needs to exercise hands-on control of critical project variables. He understands risks and manages them while the project is live and ongoing, during the control phase of project management.

This is a poorly publicized secret in project management.

Risks Can’t Be Planned Away
Risk assessment and risk management are often lumped into the planning phase of a project. The idea being that once identified, the risks can be planned away.

The secret is, though, that risks can never be planned away.

Identifying risks during project planning should give a manager an edge is seeing risks before they become too big or expensive to do anything about. But the success of managing those risks takes place while the project is live.

And that means that real-time information is risk management’s best friend.

Information is Control
A project manager’s control on a project depends on what they know and how they affect the variables on a project. This means that information, visibility and control are fundamental to managing projects of all kinds, including marketing projects and IT projects.

There are a lot of project management solutions people use to manage projects. These range from specific project management applications like MS Project to Microsoft Office solutions like MS Excel spreadsheets or CRM solutions like Goldmine, Salesforce.com or ACT!, rigged-up to do some project management functionality. (Some people also try to turn their accounting software, like QuickBooks, into project management software.) These software tools might be good for project planning and for a project manager or PMO (project management office) to track how different reality is from their pre-conceived project plan.

They may also help managers think through projects or schedules.

But they aren’t very good for helping manage risks while a project is live since they don’t provide real-time project information. They give very little to no visibility or control of a project’s critical variables.

Projects Need to be Controlled
And without visibility and control, a project manager is flying blind, their projects easy prey to the smallest of risks.

A dangerous situation -just ask Hiro, he’ll tell you the risks we all face…

Hiro Nakamura from NBC’s show Heroes has done the truly remarkable. The man from Yamagato Industries has broken all rules in project management and set new boundaries. Sure he can move time with his mind, bend the space time continuum and teleport. But yesterday he did something even more remarkable.

He executed a project using a comic book as the project plan.

Most project managers plan projects using some form of project management software or a Microsoft Project like tool. Even those that don’t use any project management software will, at least, use a spreadsheet like MS Excel to list all their tasks and keep note of their status. (These can get pretty complicated -as complicated as some project management software, with a variety of Excel Macros and built-in MS Excel functions set to automatically track and calculate the overall health of their projects.)

But Hiro used a comic book.

Some will say that he was able to execute so flawlessly because the comic book was an exact and perfect picture of the future. It told him what was going to happen. True, he does have the advantage of moving through time to take a peak.

But a good project plan, while not a perfect picture of the future, should be an accurate representation of the tasks and steps involved in getting from a to b, in getting a project completed and delivered. That means that project planning should be more than guesswork. Planning a project should be an exercise in applying past experience to a new goal, seeing what’s different, defining which variables could change on the project and planning for those changes.

The exact format in which the plan is written and recorded is less important than the process of planning the project and the act itself of going through project planning. Unfortunately, this how step of project planning is often overlooked.

For some people, the right format is some form of project management software or MS Project like tool. For others, it could be an MS Excel like spreadsheet they use for project management or tracking tasks. Or, it could even be a long list in an MS Word doc. or a physical folder with sticky tabs all over it (not the most elegant or efficient way -but hey, everyone’s got to start somewhere).

For Hiro, the right format and planning tool was a comic book. But that’s probably what makes him so super.

Here is a rough translation of an internal memo to Hiro Nakamura (from NBC’s new television show Heroes). It is from the project management office of Yamagoto Industries.

While the PMO has been enthusiastically trying to recruit Hiro for a project management job, the memo points out two areas where Hiro needs to improve his project management skills.

These are lessons all project managers face.

The memo begins

Hiro, you have done it again. I urge you to consider a position as a project manager. Your unique abilities make you very well qualified for a project management job.

In the spirit of constructive criticism to improve your potential performance while in service to our company, let me point out two issues you need to overcome in your project management skills. These are common problems in project management, experienced by many project managers, both novices and experts. I am sure you can surmount these challenges in no time (for you, literally) with the proper project management training and coaching,

Communication Problems in Projects
Like many project managers, upon reaching a milestone, the joy was yours alone. Moreover, your joy quickly turned to frustration when your accomplishment simply landed you in hot-water with the people around you.

You soon found yourself in a situation where you were in trouble and unable to communicate with those around you. It was like you were speaking a different language.

You couldn’t answer anyone’s questions. You weren’t able to help anyone around you, including yourself. And nobody seemed to care about the successful completion of your milestone. In fact, it was your success that got you into trouble.

I am, of course, referring to your teleporting to New York City and soon winding up in a police station suddenly finding yourself held responsible for something you didn’t do and that was only tangentially related to your initial project.

Welcome to the world of project management.

Improving your communication skills should be a top project priority for you upon accepting a position with our project management office.

Wishing Won’t Make It Go Away (Usually)
Like many project managers, you saw a massive disaster approaching, well after it was too late to do anything about. And, like many project managers, you shut your eyes tightly to make it go away.

Unlike most project managers, though, in your case, it worked. Well, I’m actually not sure if it worked, but you certainly seemed to be successful in extricating yourself from the situation before you caught any flack.

This is a most prized skill among the elite of the project management world, and of the corporate world in general.

You have garnered the envy of many in upper management. I urge you to apply your natural abilities to job it seems you were born to do.

Come speak to me soon in the project management office: 34th floor, room 17, Yamagoto Industries.

So ends the internal memo.

If you didn’t see the show, in the second point, the author was referring to the blast of a nuclear bomb exploding outside the window of the police station where Hiro was being questioned. He looked at it. Shut his eyes. And poof (or bamf) was back on a subway in Tokyo, well out of harms way. A great skill indeed.

For those without Hiro’s amazing abilities, tools like project management software can give you the control, reports and visibility you need to see disasters in the making, before they have chance to demolish your project. You may even have a chance to solve the problem before you need to delicately extricate yourself or backpedal to safe your career.

For comic book fans, X-men fans and all around superhero fans in the project management community a hero has been born: Hiro Nakamura, the 24 year old sales salary-man for Yamagoto Industries in Tokyo, Japan.

Hiro is one of the main characters on NBC’s new show, Heroes. He would be a fantastic project manager.

His communication, risk management or people skills haven’t yet been revealed. But in terms of raw assets, this guy would be value-add to any process or project -from six sigma, to ISO to best practices, Agile, whatever. His super powers transcend project management methodology. They are project management black-belt in the rough.

Hiro can move time with his mind. He is the ultimate master of project deadlines and timesheet costs. If a deliverable is coming in late or overbudget on labor costs -bam, now its not.

What’s more, since time and space are a single continuum, he figured out that if he holds the time variable constant, he can actually move himself instantly through space. He can teleport. Now, he’s only teleported himself, so far (from a subway in Tokyo to the middle of Time’s Square NYC -pretty impressive). It can’t be far off that he can teleport other objects. Or, other people.

More than cutting-down shipping costs, I bet there are some project managers who would really value this particular skill for other purposes. Someone getting on your nerves, management doesn’t get it -bam, their gone. And only you know where they went.

Precise and condensed communication is the secret to great project planning.

A project plan starts out inside someone’s head. It is an idea of how to get things done. It then moves from there to a mock schedule, a more fully fleshed out task list of steps that need to be taken. This task list is written out on the planner’s desk or their computer. In larger organizations it may take place within a project management office or project planning department.

The plan may include a whole range of variables like resources attached to tasks, risk margins, acceptable schedule variances.

But these are details.

The important aspect to understand about this part of the planning process is that it is confined within the person who conceived the plan, or the specialized project planning office. There is no communication. Its all in one person’s head or within a department of people who speak the same language.

The next step in planning is the most crucial. This is where planning makes a case for itself as either an integral, value-add to the company or just another wasted expenditure on the latest corporate fad.

From here, the plan has to leave the specialist’s world and be communicated to someone else. It has to be told to a team of people who are going to do the work on the project. Or it may have to be explained to management for their input. Either way, the project planner (either an individual or a planning or project management office) has to make somebody else understand the plan.

This is where it gets tricky.

The original planner understands the intricacies of the project and wants to convey every nuance they’ve put into the plan. Unfortunately, this is often way too much information and rarely helps the receiver of the communication understand the plan.

Or, the project planner may present the plan straight off their desk or computer, in whatever format or program they used to plan the project, and expect the other person or the team to get it off the bat, to speak the same language they do. They expect the other people to understand the same set of symbols, triangles, arrows and circles which the trained project planning expert may use.

This doesn’t work either.

The team the planner is talking to has their own language, their own skills and its foolish to demand they speak the project planner’s language. Its not their job. It’s the project planner’s job.

Its up to the project planner to condense their ideas. Gear your communications so that people can first understand the fundamentals of the plan. People can build off that foundation later once the big blocks are understood.

It is up to the project planner (or project planning or management office) to be well versed in the language of the people they’ll be talking to so that the plan has context and can start to make sense to them. After all, unless the planner is also the company management and the project resource and the customer paying for the results, it doesn’t really matter how well they understand the plan. It only matters that they help other people do their jobs so that everyone can move the company forward.

It takes precise and condensed communication.

Focus on the big blocks of the plan. Don’t get carried away with the details or the higher level tools of the project planning trade. Know your audience and speak to their needs.

Once a plan is communicated properly, and the people get it, you’d be amazed at the kind of creative brainstorming that can result. When people with other skills, the people who are going to do the work on the project understand the plan, mistakes and errors can be planned out. Obvious roadblocks can be avoided and the effectiveness of the deliverables increased markedly.

In the executive suite, if the plan is understood, the project can be better directed toward corporate goals. Also, otherwise hidden implications of meeting those goals can be uncovered and re-evaluated in new light.

And it will all be attributable to great project planning well communicated plans.

Collaboration is a word that is thrown around a lot when it comes to web-based project management. Understanding the types of collaboration out there and knowing what you are looking for, can help you make a better selection when it comes to buying project management software.

Since projects are about people working together to get things done, its natural that web-based project management software facilitates people working together- collaborating. This is one of the most significant innovations of web-based project management software. It is also one of the most casually used buzzwords. Here is a quick guide to help de-code what people are talking about when they say collaboration in project management software.

There are two main categories of collaboration you’ll generally find in project management software:

1) Information Sharing

2) Working on Deliverables

Information Sharing
Information sharing is collaboration on the status of the project. Its information on the project itself. Project management software facilitates this by all the project information consolidated and collected in one central, online information portal. Then, having this portal be accessible by team members, managers or clients (as a client project portal), any time from any where.

Different project management software programs will vary on what information is collected. This can range for simple project information such as a task list and whether people are complete or not, to budget information, estimated costs and resource utilization on a project or task. More advanced project management tools such as budget variance, baselining or earned value may also be calculated and stored in a central project portal.

The project information can be collected and accessed in several different ways.

One place is the area where that part of the project is planned, managed or controlled. For example, you may be able to get schedule status or up-to-the minute task information by looking at the live project schedule. Or, if you want to get resource availability you would look at the project list, what?s on the plate of individual team members.

Some project management software tools give you the ability to see this information in pre-formatted project reports. These reports may be about single items like a single project or a single resource or a single period of time. Or, they may be cross-project or total company views. It depends on the capabilities of the project management software and what kind of project views you are looking for in a project management tool. Higher-end project management software will also allow you to run these same reports across projects and even graphically represent them.

In addition to pre-formatted project reports, some software tools may offer customizable project reports which let you pick what aspects of a project you’d like to see or monitor. For example, you may want to see a project report on the overall schedule and budget health of projects for a specific client which are managed by the Bozeman, Montana office during the last month. Most higher-end project management products will allow you to run these type of reports. Some will also give you the ability to save them as templates, share the reports with others, show the information in Gantt charts, project graphs or pie-charts and even export the data to MS Excel.

A fourth way of receiving this kind of project status information is via email. The status of deliverables, budgets or timeline can be sent out with auto email notification. These are items which you can define in most project management software tools that will trigger an email notification to go out to specific people when a specific event happens (for example when a deliverable is completed) or before or after something happens on the project (for example, prior to reaching a budget milestone or a task being late).

Working on Deliverables
The other aspect of collaboration is working on an actual deliverable or task. Some project management software packages allow for people to work together on documents through a document management system or digital asset management system.

Project management software tools may also allow people to work together on a specific project issue through an issue tracking system. These issues can be help desk type trouble tickets or general issues surround a project which are best resolved through threaded message-board type functionality. In the right environment, this kind of collaboration on project deliverables can increase the productivity and creativity of your process.

Collaborating in this way, using an online or web-based project management tool, has the added benefit of leaving tracks.

A good project management tool keeps a record of the revisions to documents so that a document history or revision history can be pulled up in the document management component of the project management software.

Likewise in an issue tracking system, the status of issues can be searched in the issue section of the project management software. The resolution, outcome and history of the discussion thread will be stored in a knowledge based of the project management software.

Working on deliverables, collaborating, online makes it easy for a company to build up an institutional memory. All the data, the process and the knowledge invovled with that work will be associated with a project or the knowledge base within the tool, making the project management software a well organized, easy to access, easy-to-use repository of company knowledge and past project activities.

According to my industry insider, many companies in today�s project management space originally created a project tracking solution for themselves, based on their internal processes and for their business, and then decided on one fine day that their software could be used by others, and could possibly make them some money to boot. I call these types of software producers �it worked for me, so maybe it will work for them.�

This is perhaps the lowest level of software producer. They have no aspirations, no true philosophy of software design, and when it comes down to it, they are only in it for the cash. This is in contrast to real software artists that are inspired to create for sake of a great purpose, while the money aspect is secondary.

There are of course those that approach project management software for an academic level, designing a product to assist in complex and very large projects. The key here is realizing that most people and most groups find this type of software just too feature and function rich for the average person. The software is too deep and advanced for anyone who is not a PMI expert. If a�project management�software solution takes a minimum of two weeks to just to start to understand it�s basic functions, this is not going to be an effective solution for your average business person. The shameful fact is, a large number of products on the market are just these types of advanced solutions. So when you consider purchasing a product, make sure the feature set is not too deep for your application.

The next level of project management philosophy is what I have subscribed to whole heartedly for ten plus years. The key to successful�project management�software design is a strict adherence to the idea that most people doing project management are not project managers, and these people need the right tool. This tool should be easy to learn, and make sense for anyone doing a basic project work.

The most popular project management tools today, MS Word and Excel, are not really project management tools at all. Yet they are being used everyday for project management because most designers, programmers, marketers, financiers, do not know that there exists an easy-to-use�project management�tool designed specifically for non-project management�experts.� These properly designed PM tools have been known to bring about 35% + increases in efficiency overall, with sometimes 60% + time savings for non-project management�experts. In other words, once we stop using the wrong tools for project management; hardcore solutions, Word, and Excel, then the rewards can be immense.

Ultimately, when you start to look for a new project management solution for your business, examine the philosophies behind these products. Ask the sales people who their product is designed for, and what brought about their decision to build a�project management�tool in the first place. Finally, get a demo account for those software products that look like a good fit and put them through the paces. Second to why they built their product, is the idea of �How� the actually features work. Anyone can put together a feature list that looks good, but do the features work well, and do they work with in harmony with the various components of the tool.

Not all project management tool are the same. There are very large differences from company to company, but by using these guidelines it should make the search a little less confusing. Don�t be afraid to ask the real questions, and listen carefully to see that the answers make sense for you. Until next time.

Benjamin Franklin took on a lot of projects in his life.  Here are five key concepts for effective project management culled from his Autobiography.

1) Deliver: Ideas are great but delivery is what projects are all about.

2) Do People Favors: Favors have a psychological affect on people and can build powerful bonds that go beyond the politics of a project.

3) Ask for Favors: People overestimate the value of things they do for other people and therefore feel superior and kinder towards people they’ve helped.

4) Solve Easy Problems: Great results can happen in changing things that look small and easy.

5) Manage Bureaucracy: Understand and, if possible, change the rules of your environment.  They determine the realm of potential outcomes and even likely outcomes of your tasks and projects – even before you start planning.

Here are those project management concepts spelled out more.

1)  Deliver.  Ideas are great but delivery is what projects are all about. If you don’t execute, complete and deliver, the ideas and effort are misdirected.

There is some academic controversy around the accuracy of the Benjamin Franklin’s portrayal of himself in his autobiography and how “nice” he may have been in his means of accomplishing projects. But no-one can deny the impact he had. He delivered. Again and again.

2)  Do people favors.  It doesn’t have to be out of the goodness of your heart. Favors have a psychological affect on people and can build powerful bonds that go beyond the politics of a project or organization.

Doing other people favors has clear advantages.  Those advantages are magnified if you don’t hold the favor over the other person or overestimate what you did for them.  Remember, results are on the outside. What matters is how the other person perceives the favor.

3)  Ask for favors.  Once someone does you a favor, they will most likely over-estimate its value to you. This creates a dynamic where they see themselves as friendly to you. Depending on the nature of the favor and your reaction to their “kindness” they might even see themselves as your “protector.”

Ben Franklin recounts an incident where he wanted to develop a relationship with a politician on the other side of an issue. He learned that that person had a book in his library which Ben wanted to read.  Being a voracious reader and super-considerate book borrower since he was young, this was a perfect opportunity for Ben.  He sent a message to the gentleman asking if he could borrow the book. It had nothing to do with the issue they were debating. It was “outside of work” as it were, and personal.

The gentleman was touched that Ben Franklin overlooked any issue and asked him for a book.  He lent it to him. Ben read it and  returned it promptly with a note expressing his thoughts and gratitude for the favor.  This gave the guy warm fuzzies and kind feelings towards Ben Franklin. It was a beneficial relationship that lasted well beyond the issue of the moment or politics as a whole.

4)  Solve Easy Problems.  Hone in on the simple part of a problem and concentrate on changing it.  Great results can happen in changing small things. Avoid being distracted by larger “strategic” issues. All things being equal, the more problems you solve overall, whether in a project or the organization, the more your reputation and opportunities will grow.

These issues are often administrative, process type problems, or problems with the flow of information.  They are easily overlooked and decidedly not hip.  But an improvement in any of these areas impacts the whole team and can make a significant difference. These improvements can be either within the confines of delivery in a project. They impact items like workflow, budget, task management, execution or interpersonal relations.  Or these type of process improvements can be projects themselves for companies.

5)  Master Bureaucracy.  Ben Franklin was an innovative and effective administrator. He knew his way around process and bureaucracy. He used it to great advantage.  He saw how administrative rules actually molded the realm of potential outcomes of any project or issue.  He saw that changing the rules one way or the other would even make one potential outcome more likely then the other.

Understand the environment you are operating in. Understand how the rules and constraints on action are made.  Once you do, work towards changes that make positive, constructive outcomes more likely, things like on-time deliverables, being within budget and having inspired team members.

Why Project Management Software is Not a Commodity

The person on the other end of the phone line is a new buyer and he keeps saying to me that buying project management software is a confusing and difficult process because all these project management products look the same. I answer saying that I agree on the surface that it looks that way, and that it is frustrating because everything does seem to do the same thing. I continue to explain that I understand their pain and then my real job comes into play.

That is when I pause for a moment, take in a deep breath, take off my sales hat and with a flare toss on my teachers hat.  My teachers hat looks just like my sales hat, but I assure you, here too, there are significant differences in intent and approach even if they look similar.

I explain on the phone that choosing project management software is just like buying a car. Ok, maybe not exactly like buying a car. On the surface of things, a car typically has four wheels, an engine, and will usually get you from point A to point B. The big however, however, is that the style, manner, and method, of getting from point A to point B can be the difference between a Motel 6 situated upon a lonely highway to a Four Seasons in Midtown Manhattan. Perhaps a better way of putting it would be to say that I can drive a go-cart or I can drive a BMW, and even though they share a lot of the same attributes there is a vast ocean of difference.

At this point in the conversation the customer’s interest in aroused. Listening is my sales mantra, and understanding the essence of why someone wants to buy – this is my key to finding excellent customers for my product. So with my listening skills I have the customer’s ear – I understand what difficult road they are coming from and how to get them on to the right road.

This is when I respond by saying that it all comes down to why someone, or some company decide to build their software system in the first place. After all, what is the essential reason for their act of programmable creation. This is the first step in clearing the obscurity of project management software multiplicity. Once we clear up the philosophy behind their software, we can start to understand how this product is not like the others and what makes it unique.

End of Part 1

Good communication is a key factor in successful project management, particularly when it comes to scheduling.

This applies to project managers, team members and business managers.

Sometimes people can be vague or non-committal when asked about their time or scheduling expectations. There are responses phrased to show flexibility or eagerness like “let me know what works for you.” There are polite, deferential answers like “don’t move things just for me.”

However they are phrased, these answers aren’t helpful. They usually result in someone’s time being squeezed and the schedule being in jeopardy. They also breed frustration and resentment.

For sure, people should take care in what they say, to make sure they aren’t hurtful or negative. But there’s an important difference between giving someone “space” in your communications and not giving accurate information at all.

• A project manager needs to know a person’s availability and time constraints.
• Team members need to know the time table to which the project manager would like them to adhere.
• Business managers need an accurate assessment of a project’s feasibility and status. Business leaders also be specific in their expectations of timing and resource use for a project.

People and projects are best off in an environment of honesty and transparency where reality is prized above delicate phrasing.

Wal-Mart.

Whether you love them or hate them, there’s no denying their scale. The company is just huge. When they make a small change, it can have large-scale implications.

When Wal-Mart Changes A Light Bulb

Hal Macomber has a post up that cites an upcoming Fast Company article that covers Wal-Mart’s anticipated change to using coiled fluorescent bulbs instead of standard incandescent bulbs.

Its estimated that if Wal-Mart can successfully do so, that would be the equivalent of pulling 1.3 million cars off the road in terms of reducing carbon emissions.

Besides the environmental impact, the savings in energy costs to Wal-Mart (and therefore reduced energy demand in the economy) are really big.

Each fluorescent bulb uses less than 1/3 of the energy of a similar 60 watt incandescent bulb. When spread out over the entire network of Wal-Mart’s 3,000 plus stores, we’re talking millions and millions of dollars in cost savings and a huge reduction in wattage demand.

This is a great example of how a small change can have large benefits.

Often, companies try to improve operations or project performance through large, revolutionary sweeps. These are accompanied by the sounds of “new paradigms,” “rethinking everything” or “massive organizational change.” People can spend a long time rethinking their processes, defining requirements and risks for an anticipated change, all the while growing the scope of the project.

Soon, the scope is so big and complicated that it becomes impossible to fund, politically risky to support and near impossible to implement. At the end of the day, nothing gets done and management gets burned-out on the idea of process improvement or improved project management.

Companies can sometimes get more accomplished by taking tiny steps, changing little things that make a big difference.

In every company there are well-defined, discrete areas which can be changed. Champions of these well-defined projects can see them executed and delivered, from start to finish. They can measure the results and build a solid foundation for further improvement.

While the change may not impact energy demand on the planet, it can make a big difference in the performance of your company or process.

You can tell a lot about the target market for a project management software based on what they call planning.

a) If the tool doesn’t having planning, it’s a tool for helping keep things in order.

The target is probably smaller organizations, teams or individuals who may or may not interact with other people as part of the project. The main goal of this type of project management software is to help individuals be more organized or to give some structure to the way people interact.

b) If it has planning and the planning is a dry run of a schedule, the software is built for improving the way you get things done. The target market is departments or companies whose business is a series of projects involving teams.  The projects are often in areas like marketing, IT, web development, software projects or education.

Keep in mind, project management software will vary as to how you can see the impact of dry runs under different scenarios and how the dry runs compare to a baseline. But overall, if the software has a set of tools called planning and they are mostly about white boarding project schedules or potential resource allocations, the software is for improving ongoing operations involving teams.

c) If its has planning and the planning tools are about business goals and/or if the software has an abundance of what-if type tools and functions, then you are looking at a larger scale, cap. ex. type project management tool or project management software.

Planning of this type might include functionality which autogenerates schedule variations based on different constraints or variables.

This type of project management software is suited for large-scale portfolio management and decision management tools or projects involving design and/or building something new and very big (tens of millions of dollars and up) with large numbers of teams, departments or companies working together.

Project planning is often taken for granted by people in charge of projects (in an everyday, business sense) -or by their bosses. They overlook the need develop a deliberate and disciplined approach to spelling out tasks, personnel and resources on a project by project basis.

This may come from a mix-up in the way people talk about planning and project plans.

There are two different ways of looking at project plans and the act of planning.

One is the view of traditionally trained project managers. These are people that likely manage large capital projects like designing airplanes, nuclear reactors and satellites.

These type of projects are about breaking new ground in terms deliverables or design and production methods. Personnel on these projects may have never worked with each other before. There are a lot of unknowns and the project itself is an exercise in uncovering unknowns and solving problems.

Planning, in this cases, is a necessary pre-condition for the project (and certainly for scheduling). It is a matter of defining deliverables, forecasting and preparing for unknowns and identifying risks which can endanger the project. To use a phrase from a recent post on Herding Cats, planning is the creation of the condition for success of the project.

The second way of looking at project planning is developing a plan to get things done. This is probably the way most people think of planning. In this, more common definition, the project’s goals are defined by the business goals of the organization. Its what you want to get done.

Projects, in this case, are about improving ongoing activities, getting things done better (not breaking new ground). Project management, then, is about gaining clarity and control of ongoing tasks using people that have mostly worked together before.

Here, a project plan is a schedule, the plan to things done. To quote Herding Cats, it is the mechanical production of the sequence of work efforts needed to implement the plan.  Planning is the exercise of creating a schedule to get what needs to be done delivered.