I’m a big fan of project management methodology. However, applying formal project management to marketing companies can be difficult. One of the challenges marketing firms have in adopting project management methodologies as described in the PMBOK Guide (The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 4th Edition) is that they aren’t often described in terms of the types of projects marketing companies or art departments do every day. Nor is the order of events generally the way marketing companies work.
One example of this is the classic approach to time and schedule development. In the PMBOK Guide, a project’s schedule is determined by the number of resources applied to the project and the types of resources applied to a project. This seems to be a hold-over from manufacturing or engineering (or other projects where the degree of uncertainty is much higher). But it doesn’t apply to a marketing department. For most marketing companies, a project’s schedule is determined by the client. The client has a specific due date where things have to be ready by to coincide with a holiday season or product launch, event, sales presentation or trade show.
The due date is the same, regardless of the number of resources applied to the project or task. It needs to be done by the due date.
This gap often drives creative groups to look at Agile project management processes since it sounds faster and looser. The problem with Agile for marketing companies is that the work doesn’t easily fit into the length of a sprint. The deadlines for a marketing company need to remain determined by a client’s needs or a strategic decision on timing.
For most marketing departments or agencies, neither process nor resourcing decisions drive deadlines. Clients drive deadlines.
That being said, not even the PMI would argue that every step of every project management knowledge area needs to be used on every project. The PMBOK Guide is a collection of different best practices held together by one model, one conceptual set of guidelines, rope on how they can all fit together. But there are many ways of applying the techniques and ideas to different practice areas. And specific practice areas, like marketing, should piece together what works best for them, balancing the benefits of proven and tested processes with the need to meet clients’ needs and to operate as efficiently as possible.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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