PROJECT LIST PAGE

Quick Select Custom Project List and other changes made to the project list page make it easy to find the information you need on your projects, company projects, your daily task list or custom personal task templates.

Quick Project Health Indicators
Quickly scan the project list to identify project, schedule and budget health.  See projects at risk in an instant. Overall project health, schedule health, and budget health indicators are better labeled and grouped in a single column.

Cleaner organization of project information
Project details are displayed in columns with less clutter and more labels which provide a cleaner, easier list to review and scan.

Search by Portfolio
In the advanced project search. Makes finding your projects or customizing the project list even easier.

PROJECTS

Task Scratch Pad.

Personal, online spreadsheets that can be turned into new tasks or a new project schedule. Enter as little information as you’d like. Drag and drop tasks, quick add rows. Makes it easy to create schedule and task templates. Adding tasks and building schedules has never been easier or more fun!

• Quick Task Add. Using the task scratch pad.

• Fully Resizable. Make the scratch pad as big or as small as you need to get your work done the way you like, just by dragging it around.

• Template Library. Add templates directly through the Scratch Pad.  Create templates directly from other templates by renaming and “save as.”

Task Request Button
Allows team members to request new tasks. Uses the powerful Change Request System first launched in Vertabase 4.5.

Daily To-Do Email
A complete task list in your email every day. Shows you what’s on your plate, late and upcoming. Includes tasks and issues that are due, with quick links to drill down for more information. Perfect for getting information on your mobile device.

Find People More Easily
An improved user search and selection interface for searching for team members, seeing their resource availability and adding them to a project team. Search and add people by a variety of criteria like skill set, project, department and availability. Our new Smart Dates feature is implemented on the calendar when searching for date ranges of resource availability.

Enhanced Notes field added to Schedule, Documents, and Change Requests
This allows you to add clickable links directly in your notes.

Quick Shift of Subtask Dates
Enhanced ability to select a parent task to shift all subtasks when using the schedule shift.

Enhanced Date Picker
New look to the date picker pop-up with the addition of Smart Dates.

Smart Dates
The calendar pop-up  defaults to the last date entered, as opposed to today’s date. You’ll get started in the same range where you left off.

DOCUMENTS

The document section has been completely redesigned and rebuilt.

• Search is directly on the document home page.
• Quick search or pop-out the advanced search window.  with quick search or more advanced sear.
• Easier visual scanning and sorting of documents
• Folders are reorganized, easier to get-to and add and have enhanced information.
• Enhanced Notes on documents
• More Document status options (Pending, Approved, Denied) along with check-in/check-out and version history.

Document Approval
A complete approval workflow for documents. Submit documents for approval. The manager can make comments, change who the approver should be and modify the approval status. Integrated with email notification of approval submissions, comments and status changes. The system tracks the entire flow of communication. Uses the powerful Vertabase Change Request System first launched in Vertabase 4.5.

Drag and Drop Uploader from your desktop
You don’t even have to have a web-browser open. Features auto select/quick search for projects and the ability to add notes to all documents or custom notes to each document. This feature is geared specifically for making it easy to upload first versions of new documents.

Multiple Document Uploading
Upload as many documents as you’d like, all in one go, using the drag and drop widget on your desktop.

BUDGETS

You asked for it, and we added it: the ability to create a budget from the bottom-up using estimated hours and estimated expenses—and still be able to track total budget and budget remaining. Project budgets can be even more accurate with the new Budget fields. Track budget estimates against actuals, and compare them for all budget remaining, as well as all the great existing line-items.

Total Budget field
Added to bottom-up budgeting.

Budget Remaining
Added to bottom-up budgeting.

CHANGE REQUESTS

Change Request Report
A change request report is available directly from the Change request system

Change Request Search page
Filter the change request list using search criteria such as project, status, and date the change request was added.

View the Status of Documents in the Approval Process
The change request list now displays the status of documents at various stages in the approval process.

View the Status of New Task Requests
The change request list now displays the status and lifecycle of new tasks requested. This is in addition to showing the lifecycle and status of a change request on a task

View Project Link
In the main change request page, project details can be accessed directly by clicking project names.

ISSUES

Issues Management is even more powerful with the ability to see all issues due in your inbox and to reply to issues directly via email—without having to login to Vertabase on the web. Perfect to keep conversations and discussions fluid for busy professionals—from your desk, smartphone or tablet.

Reply to Issues Via Email
Reply directly to an issue directly via email. Join the discussion, put in your feedback or update the issue right from your email—without having to login to the web interface.

Issues Due in your email everyday
As part of the Daily Task List in your email every day. It shows you what issues are due today, along with tasks on your plate, late or upcoming.

Redesigned Issues Notification email
The issue notification email has been redesigned to make it easier to find the information you need.

Sort Issues by Due Date
See what issues are coming up, late or due today, in a snap.

TIMESHEETS

Timesheets are a one-stop shop for people to enter time and complete tasks from one single interface. This update merges what people love about the Daily Task List with the format of the standard timesheets for great flexibility and increased productivity. Remember, the timesheet can be set as a start page for people so they can login, enter time and complete tasks all in one place.

Complete Tasks on the Timesheets
For both assigned projects and company projects (it’s flexible enough to accommodate your permission settings). Once a task is selected, you can check-off that it’s complete.

“Manage Timesheets”  Templates
These timesheet management templates are now listed in the Reports section under the My Reports home page.

REPORTS

Do more from the Reports tab with custom sort order for My Reports, enhanced search criteria, more fields added to reports across projects and tasks, and more templates that can be managed directly from the My Reports tab.

Custom Sort Order for My Reports
List your reports in the exact order that you want to see them. You can now position your most-used and most important reports at the top of the list. Drag and drop to re-order the reports.

Bigger Client and Project Name Search Fields (as default)
Client and project names are now easier to read with increased space provided to view them. Find long Client and Project names more easily with expanded field widths for these search criteria on the reports.

PDF Export -more Formatting Options
Pick from more formatting options for the PDF exports of your reports, including landscape vs. portrait and sizing options.

Template Name on Report
The custom name of the template is now on the report output itself, on the web view, PDF and Excel exports as well.

Global Task Report -Added Search Criteria
More project search criteria on the Global Task Report.  Search and filter your task reports using new project criteria such as the project start date, delivery date, and priority

Global Project Report -Team Members Display
See project members on Global Project Reports.

Global Project Report -More Budget Search Criteria
Search for projects based on these new project budget fields: budget, estimated remaining, actual remaining.

Global Budget Report-New Field and More Budget Search Criteria
Use budget, estimated remaining, and actual remaining amount fields to search for project budget information. The new field actual labor cost as a percentage of estimated labor cost can help you keep a close eye on your labor budget.

Time Usage Report -search by Project Name
Get reports for specific projects or projects with a particular naming convention. Use the new Project Name search field to search for exact phrases used in project names.

My Reports -Manage Timesheets Report Templates
Timesheet management templates are now listed in the  My Reports section. Further enhancing My Reports as a one stop shop for management needs and reports.

Smart Dates when doing date range searches
Our new Smart Dates is implemented on the calendar when searching for date ranges on the reports. The end date of the range will pick up from the start date.

INTERFACE CHANGES

In our drive to continually improve the user experience with Vertabase, we have implemented many of the latest and most successful trends in user interface design and client side technology. These make it easy for your users to use, adopt and love Vertabase.  Vertabase 5.0 uses research from the University of Michigan School of Information graduate study on Vertabase to deliver a uniquely easy to use project management software experience.

Navigational Highlighter
• Row Highlights
• Navigation Highlighter
• Selection Highlighter

Standardization
• Buttons (labels such as submit, upload, and save changes have been standardized and re-labeled as “save.”)
• Terms e.g. add/view/edit versus set, icons, etc.

Standardized buttons—a subtle but powerful change that enhances use and adoption based on the tested UI principles.

Remove Distractions
Our user test groups brought up some visual distractions in the interface that impacted the speed of their workflow on specific pages. We removed them.

Technologies used in Vertabase 5.0 include JQUERY, AJAX and Adobe AIR on the client side; Adobe ColdFusion and Microsoft SQL on the server side. Vertabase 5.0 project management software works on Windows and MAC, as well as multiple mobile platforms. It can be hosted on customers’ servers or used as Software as a Service (online project management).

Read the rest of this post »

Here are the Release Notes for Vertabase 5.0

The Press Release for Vertabase 5.0

Blog Posts & Videos about a Few of the New Features
Task Scratch Pad

Enhanced Project List Page

Drag and Drop Documents

Vertabase and our team were recently recognized as Project Management Visionaries by the popular PaperCut Edge project management blog.

The article explains our vision  on project management and project management software.

Big thanks to Geoff for the recognition and kind words.

The Task Scratch Pad is a personal, simplified, online spreadsheet that allows you to easily create task lists, brainstorm on project plans or create project schedules. It is another new feature in the latest release of our project management software.

Here is a video about the Vertabase Task Scratch Pad.

You can drag and drop tasks, quickly add new ones and save task lists for re-use.

Import task lists into project schedules with the click of a button.

It is simple to use and extremely versatile. You can use it to create schedules from scratch or add new tasks to existing projects.

Keep as many scratch pads going as you’d like.

Google launched a new tool in labs called Google Correlate.  It allows you to track how well a time series of data correlates with specific search terms in Google.

For example, a marketer could run a time series of when their advertisement showed on TV , then see if it impacted the search volume for terms associated with their product. They could then correlate that against actual sales volume to see how much of the advertising was spent educating people vs driving sales.

It can also be used to create all sorts of nonsense.

For example, I ran a time series of the daily close of the S&P 500 stock index. The most tightly correlated search term was “Microsoft clip art.”   Correlation is definitely not causation.  I then ran it with a lag, groping for a theory on the relation between putting together PowerPoint presentations and bullish sentiment.  Alas, also nonsense (plus the minimum lag is one week, which is too large for daily closes).

To use the tool properly, you need a Theory of Search as it relates to whatever subject matter you’re studying.  The theory is what ties together the data.

Knowing that one side of the data set is always going to be search terms, as a general principle you could say that Google Correlate is best used for tracking the spread of ideas among people who use Google.

The data can be powerful or it can be more noise in an otherwise clear analysis.  It all depends on the theory, the framework, the context in which the data lives.

Bringing this around to daily work life, we create and receive a lot of information every day about the work we do and project’s in which we’re involved.  To be helpful, that information needs to live in a theory, in a framework, about work.

Without a theory, without a framework, all the data generated (in meetings, reports and project management tools) can fast become noise. The good news is that there is a theory of work -it is easily accessible and doesn’t require a Ph.D. to understand.

Project management is a Theory of Work.

Project management is a framework of how people work together on projects and expend resources to achieve a particular goal.  It explains what data to monitor and how to use that information to improve processes.

Use project management as a skeleton on which to hang your information and as a guide to determine what information you need. You can accelerate your understanding of how to get things done more efficiently (and maybe even cut out some unnecessary meetings).

“Never has a simple list been so informative…”

The Enhanced Project List page in Vertabase 5.0 shows you all your projects along with overview data on the projects and their status.

Here is a video of the Enhanced Project List page.

You can search, filter and sort your projects by a variety of criteria. For example, you can create a quick portfolio view and sort by project priority.  Or, search for all projects being done for a particular client and sort by percent complete.

On the list, you can see overall project health, schedule health and budget health, as well as other meta information on the project like budget amounts and the departments involved.

You can launch a calendar view of the project, its tasks and who is responsible for those tasks.  Or, you can drill down deeper into the project’s schedule, documents, budget or issue and discussions.

It is an easy to use way of getting information on your projects.

We announced Vertabase 5.0 to our customers yesterday.

One of the new features in Vertabase 5.0 is a desktop widget for uploading documents into Vertabase projects without having to open a browser.

You can upload documents simply by Dragging and Dropping them onto the widget!

Here is a video of the Vertabase Document Uploader

You can upload multiple files and different file types like doc, psd, pdf, jpg and xlsx.

Vertabase 5.0 is the 10th major release of our project management software in 12 years, and the most significant release in the last 5 years.  We’ll be blogging about it more as the public release comes closer.

The Vertabase Document Uploader was written in Adobe AIR and works on MAC & Windows.

Vertabase released a case study today that documents the tremendous success Webbed Marketing, an online marketing firm, has had managing their workload during a phase of rapid growth using Vertabase project management software.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from it:

The time we spent on tracking our own tasks and manually generating reporting can now be spent on direct, revenue generating work for our clients.

and

Everyone from the CEO to an intern can use Vertabase with very little training or explanation.

You can read other great quotes in the case study online or the PDF.

There comes a point in any growing organization where you have to shift from calendars as a primary project management tool to metrics.

That point comes when the volume of work, number of resources working and granularity of tasks exceeds any person’s ability to “just eye-ball” project status and resource availability on a calendar or, even on a chart.

Your skill-set then needs to evolve from juggling tasks and keeping things moving to developing project metrics that adequately capture the relevant information on a project so you can a) still keep things moving but also b) have enough information to make plans for the future. These plans include resource allocation decisions, job scheduling, budgeting and taking on new initiatives.

Most organizations generate this kind of information but lack a framework to help collect or use it efficiently (without making a whole other job out of it).  This is were project management as a discipline can help, as well as project management software that provides a framework for information.

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.