A big thank you to the Toronto ColdFusion’s User Group for having me at their meeting on Wednesday -and for the “after party”

It was a pleasure meeting everyone. 

Great presentations from Ryan Favro, Byron Bignell and Laurence Middleton on CF8. And very enjoyable conversations.   Thank you to Clayton Partridge for putting it all together.

Looking forward to next time.

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 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.

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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.

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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.

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