Cocktail Napkin Project Management

By Ellen O'brien

Before there was project management software, desk-bound power bar lunches (and dinners), and every kind of cessation support group, there was lunch at a restaurant on payday, cocktail napkins (on which to rest the occasional cocktail), and shared fun - all in the middle of the reasonable work day.

What was so wonderful about these lunch time get-togethers was that they took place in someplace other than the workplace, and not always the same place. Looking back, I realize that those lunches usually involved:

- Teamwork (at least two of us in attendance)

- Decision making AND diversity (Italian, Chinese, or burgers - not to mention dessert, anyone?)

- Finance (Ann had the extra cheese, so her bill is $1.00 more)

- Dependencies (I'll have what she's having)

- Leadership (waitstaff instinctively knew the leader; s/he got the check)

- Reasonable risk (OK, I'll have one glass of wine with lunch)

- Empowerment (I know what I want, I'll order first while you make up your mind)

- Compromise (let's share one entrée)

- Congeniality (we laughed - out loud - and enjoyed ourselves and each other)

- Measures of success (that was delicious, let's do that again).

Sure, at least half of the lunchtime conversation centered on workplace gossip and life-outside-the workplace. Just as often, though, the topic turned to the one thing we all had in common: our work. Problems, now referred to as "challenges" or "opportunities," were as common then as they are today, and sometimes dominated the hour (yep, a whole hour and maybe even an extra 15 minutes!).

And where one of us invariably saw roadblocks, rockslides, and stop signs, another of us saw side roads, detours, roads less traveled, and new roads to be built. Almost everyone had a freely-offered option or what-to-do-to-fix-it opinion.

The opinions and options were often good, and sometimes were written down so they could be remembered, brought back to the office, and implemented. Not every one carried paper and pen (after all, this was a pre-blackberry world, my friends), so we'd grab the nearest thing at hand - the mostly clean cocktail napkin and a BIC pen.

The cocktail napkin, that little 5 x 5 square that started out lunch somewhere between a tablesmock and a hard place (underneath the cocktail glass). Who knew it could become a vehicle for successful project completion!

With a few precious words or phrases and an occasional drawing scribbled on the napkin, lunch was happily and productively concluded. If it was a really big initiative or a particularly complex problem, it grew to a two-napkin project plan.

The idea-filled napkin went from tabletop to desktop, from thought to action. No planning meetings, committees or subcommittees, no vying for credit, and no trees killed. Oh, yes, and we went from work to home at a reasonable hour most of the time.

In today's sterile (in my opinion, anyway) work environment, there's little time for lunch, and even less time for fun. It's all about power and speed. Funny thing is, there is no power in power bars, PowerPoint or show of power days. And, speed kills.

We're asked to embrace teamwork, but there's no team in the room at performance appraisal time. We're told to think outside the box, but we're more often rewarded for getting it "right," than getting it different. In office, out loud laughter is a rarity (and an "LOL" text ain't no substitute!!)

After all the leadership training, many of us are still more comfortable taking direction than making direction. We avoid accountability at the same time we claim credit. And we make no moves without a mostly pointless 50+ page PowerPoint presentation at the ready. Speak softly and carry a big "deck." Sigh...

Project planning has moved far from the cocktail napkin to intricate, time-consuming, bell-and-whistle laden multi-megabit software. Project Managers are now certified, and add "PMP" on their résumé. All it takes is about 20 training days, and a few homework assignments; no real projects with which to get hands on experience. To paraphrase Three Six Mafia's Oscar-winning song, it's hard out there for a PMP!

More time is spent now managing the project software, monitoring tasks, and endlessly updating the plan than on the actual project work itself. There are pre-planning meetings, planning meetings, after (little) action review meetings, operations review meetings and get-our-story-straight alignment meetings. After which we submit our "accomplishments" lest someone else get credit. All the while we're starving and cranky because we've not had any lunch or any fun, and the prospect of leaving work "early," grows dimmer, along with the daylight.

It's never been truer, in today's work-mad world, that home is where the heart is. Why? Because there is precious little heart in the office or the boardroom, and the rest of our anatomy spends most of its time at work. Heart is left home alone, along with those whose hearts we profess matter most.

Here's an idea: next time you have a planning meeting, bring a few clean cocktail napkins and throwback BIC pens (no PDAs, no anyberrys, no wireless laptops. You might even have the meeting in the corporate café, or nearby eatery. That way, you can have lunch, too. Keep the time to about an hour, 90 minutes at most. Spend the first 15 minutes talking about any and everything but work. Recall the sound of shared laughter. Then, kick around relevant ideas (the reason for the meeting in the first place), scribble them on the cocktail napkins, pay the check and return to the office.

Even better, get a box of cocktail napkins...then you can really think outside the box!

What's the worst that can happen? You leave work at a reasonable hour feeling good about what you accomplished - and that you accomplished something workwhile? The trees will love you for it, too!

Can I offer anyone a cocktail.... napkin!?

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ellen_O'brien

Microsoft Project Management a Glossary of Useful Terminology

By John Caulfield

The purpose of this article is to go through the main components and terms used in Microsoft Project and make them easier to understand. Project planners speak in a short hand that often excludes even computer literate individuals.

Project software and project management is very jargon laden this article will attempt to simply key project jargon for a new user. I for one have seen a dozen people sitting around a project plan discussing whether the new WBS might help the variance between the baseline plan and the project actual only the project planner who was talking really knew what was going on.

What is a Project?

A project is any discrete set of interconnecting task with a defined start and end date. For example moving an office from location A to B would have a defined start date and a finish date culminating in a final launch party.

What are Tasks?

A task is any piece of work requiring effort. For example moving offices might require 4 hours of work effort.

Durations

Work and duration is not always the same thing. Monday to Friday I may have a five day task in duration writing a report but my intention is too only spend 50% of my time (work effort) on it.

Milestones

Some tasks have no duration. Mile stone tasks have zero duration. Let's say that during a project moving an office from A to B a decision needs to be made between two similar sites. This meeting to decide the location would be described as a stage or milestone. Milestone tasks are displayed by default in MS Project with a diamond shape.

Linking Tasks

Everyone understands the concept that one task finishes; let's say distributing boxes and the next one begins packing files. This is a linear of the world. The reverse is also true one task cannot finish until another has begun. For example the canary down the coal mine cannot retire until the new air monitoring system is up and running. It is also possible that two tasks could start at the same time. In the new offices one tradesman could be laying carpet tiles in the same room at the same time as a painter tackling the ceiling. Similarly two tasks could have a finish to finish relationship packing the furniture and computer might have a finish to finish relationship with each other in readiness for the next task of moving everything to the new office. A final possibility might be that two tasks have no logical relationship with each other but just need to be independently completed before the project is completed.

Format Time-scale

If a hospital was creating a template for the perfect heart bypass operation they would be working in hours and minutes but if London Underground were replacing an escalator they would be working in day, weeks and months.

Network Diagram

It is possible to view your project plan in many ways one is a network diagram which is a flow diagram to show how the tasks relate to each other

Gantt chart

This few shows the task names on the left hand side of the screen and displays the tasks as bars on the right hand side underneath a time scale. Gantt charts were initially named after a planner called Henry Laurence Gantt who worked as a mechanical engineer famous for his highly visual scheduling and monitoring diagram. Gantt Charts are drawn to display planned and actual project progress. A commonly accepted project management instrument these days, it was an innovation of world-wide significance in created while ship building during World War 1. Gantt charts were subsequently used to monitor large construction projects like the Hoover Dam started in 1931 and Terminal 5 at Heathrow in London.

Critical Path

The shortest route through a series of interrelated tasks. Should a task on the critical path slip then the end date of the project would be jeopardized.

Critical Path

Most projects contain a large number of tasks. The critical path is the order of tasks that must be finished for the project to be considered complete. This path dictates the final finish date of your project plan.

The critical path is not primarily a list of vital tasks. It is a specific sequence of tasks, each task depending on the last.

As the project progresses, different sequences might be named as critical. Consider a project with two vital task sequences which we'll call selecting the new office site and Moving in to new offices. At the onset, the first task is projected to take 9 months and the second is projected to take 6 months. Since the first task will take longer and is deemed as being on the critical path.

After three months work, should the first task perform ahead of schedule with a new estimate of 5 additional months more while the second has been delayed by three moths the latter task would now be on the critical path?

What is a Critical Task

The definition of a critical task is any task that with a change of duration may positively or negatively affect the end date of the project if delayed

Tracking the Critical Path

The Gantt chart and network diagram two classic views in MS Project will display critical tasks and links in red automatically to make these tasks easier to observe and report.

Slack Time

Total slack is the amount of time that lies off the critical path. In other words changes to the duration of these tasks may or may not affect the critical path.

Slack is the amount of time a task can be delayed and still be on schedule. A 5 day task with a 10 day deadline has 5 days of slack. A task with no slack is automatically critical. Imagine two tasks due to finish at the same time. Packing computer equipment with one day of duration and packing files with four days duration. If they both started at the same time the pack equipment tasks would have three days of slack.

Project Calendar

At its simplest this means remember to put in the bank holidays. Otherwise at a meeting when someone notices a task that may be should have happened on a Monday slips to the

Task Constraints

There are two main types of constraint in project called soft constraints and hard constraints. An example of a cost constraint would be when moving an office from A to B disconnect the computers as late as possible so people can still send and receive emails. No specific date in mind. As an example of a hard constraint imagine that when the office has moved the computers need setting up and you need to book in a network engineer. This would be an example of a hard constraint the work must be executed on that booked day.

Splitting Large Tasks

Some times a task name might be too general to manage. You might have a task called Selecting the site (duration 20 days). However, this could by split down into smaller tasks known as subtasks i.e. within the larger task Plan the move there might be smaller task to talk to a solicitor, draw up site layouts for prospective sites, check transport links etc. When linked din this way the major task is referred to as a summary bar.

Project Resources

These are the people, rooms, equipment, Materials that will be used or consumed by the project. These resources can be prioritized so that if for example a solicitor was over allocated work and expected to complete to reports each taking ( 8 hours) on the.

It would be possible to use different techniques to level out their workloads
Resources also have calendars which can be used to enter their holidays and also any delays in their schedule caused by sickness for example.

Lags leads and Delays

When moving an office from A to B half way through the task of distributing boxes presumably some one has a box therefore packing could begin. Or you could say 1 hour into the task distributing boxes the task of packing could begin.

An alternative could be the new office is being painted so a lap or gap of 2 days might be left for the paint to dry before the new carpets are laid.

A delay is different to a lag. Imagine the painter were due to start painting on the Monday but didn't arrive on site to scheduling error until Tuesday this would be an unforeseen delay

Resource Driven v Fixed Duration

If it takes 1 day for a driver to get from London to Glasgow how long would it take two driver? Of course the answer is the same maybe longer if they chat. However, if two people are packing files instead of one you would expect the task to be complete quickly, the first example is fixed duration and the other is resource driven

Tracking & Baseline Plans

If you imagine your project plan is a boat race between Oxford and Cambridge. Your Boat is Oxford (the schedule what you have told your colleagues will happen) tracking allows you to create a second boat Cambridge which is what actually happened. Every task in your schedule is a boat with an alter ego boat to track what actually happened. You can see which tasks started and finished earlier or later than expected. This is called tracking the variance between the base line plan (the schedule you have set or announced and the actual outcome

Project Costings

It is also possible add cost information to both tasks and resources. It could be that distributing boxes as a task has a fixed cost of £1000 but the

WBS

Work breakdown structure is just a notation eg 1.1, 1.2 a number sequence next to the tasks to make it easier to understand

These are just a few samples of the jargon surrounding Ms Project. Possibly you might want to consider training to improve your productivity and join growing MS Project community.

John Caulfield
Mouse IT Trainer
httP://www.mousetraining.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Caulfield

Software Outsourcing India - Work Load Can Be Easily Managed

By Allies Harbor

Since the concept of outsourcing came into being, more and more companies and business houses have been bending towards this. Who does not like to save money and get the work done within the budget or at reasonable cost? Well, everyone who is in any business looks to save money and invest it to other developing aspects of the business. This idea has developed to such an extent that now companies abroad have started software outsourcing to India. Software outsourcing India is basically concerned with the development of software that can manage your daily work. After all, no one likes to be entangled in manual work, when software is there to manage the entire process.

India has always been considered to be optimum and on top of the priority list of countries for outsourcing. Information technology is developing with a faster pace and newer software is being developed. Moreover, the field of software is attaining great heights. This has made it essential for business firms to outsource some part of the entire project to software outsourcing companies in India. Those who are new to this idea might think that outsourcing firms in India charge higher amounts than their own in-house staff in managing the task. But, software outsourcing India is much cheaper than any of your in-house staff. You do not have to pay house rent allowances, bonuses, incentives or any other kind of add-on to outsourcing firms in India.

Development of software has helped the companies to manage their task without any hassles. All they have to do is put in the data in related software and they tend to get the work done within no time. Another thing to be noticed is that the data entered in the related software can be managed with the help of a single click only. Every other thing that is developed, accompanies errors and faults and so does software too. This is the crucial time where you would require a technically sound professional who has the knack of amending those errors.

Generally, it happens that professionals working with companies in abroad do not have the knack of amending immediate problems that crop up. So, it is always better to go for software outsourcing India for the better results. It is obviously understood that the professionals who develop software, will also have the ability to amend the errors in it. Like this, you will not have any problem and your precious time will also not be wasted. Moreover, such professionals would pay more attention towards correcting the errors rather than any other work.

If you go about outsourcing software work to India, you tend to find several professionals who all are qualified and skilled in managing the task and fixing the error as soon as it is spotted. The companies that are providing software outsourcing India charge quite a less amount. The biggest advantage of outsourcing software development to professionals in India is that you tend to get the work done in much less amount. And this amount can be used for developing other aspects of your business that may bring more and more profits along with business opportunities.

Allies Harbor is a writer for http://www.ifrstaffing.com- IFR Staffing offers services for Software outsourcing india, India outsourcing accounting, Data entry services, Business Process Outsourcing. You can have benefits of SEO outsourcing India, Outsourcing SEO Services.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allies_Harbor

Selecting Project Management Software

By Igor Zhadanov

Project management software exists in many different levels of sofistication and variety of prices. This article aims to help project managers realize what kind of project management software tools they need and find out how computers can help them in everyday routine.

Before choosing some particular tool you should have a look at the different kinds of projects to manage and corresponding PM skills. It is very important to pick a project management software tool appropriate for you and your organization. The following types of projects and project management software should cover the field broadly, though any categorization is very relative.

Project management software for small projects, usually in single functional area

At this level project managers usually plan and schedule only durations of project subtasks rather than resource capacity or work estimates. They do not need to track a project budget and their project status reports contain only completion date tracking.

Project management software in this situation helps project managers to automate such basic routines like

• planning project flow
• occasional status reports preparing
• producing Gantt charts

If your project management tasks are not intended to grow and such functionality is enough, you should not spend a lot of money nor waste your time on long learning curve about features you’ll never use.

Project management software for managing larger projects

Project budget is very important now, therefore we need a project management tool to give us the capability to estimate resources and money at every stage of the project. As more people are getting involved in the project, software should provide the ability to create numerous status reports - from simple total project cost to more sophisticated ones.

As the size of the project grows, the number of project management techniques increases. Requirements for project management software change accordingly. At this level project management software must be able to work not only with the static representation of start and finish dates for each project subroutines, but it needs to be powerful enough to simulate the project and reschedule it every time something changes in project flow.

Project management software for huge multi-project environment

At this high-end level we need project management software that meets a lot of additional requirements. Now we need to roll-up multiple projects and require consistent information for decision-makers. Among the features they need are:

• material resources allocating (including finances)
• scheduling and tracking a pool of human resources
• sharing resources between multiple projects
• sophisticated risk assessment tools
• detailed project performance tracking
• creating a detailed project budget. This brings project management software closer to the company’s accounting system

If you need a lot, you have to spend a lot. Project management software for this purpose costs from $400 up to $3000 and even more. Such packages usually have network versions and team communication capabilities.

Categorization above was rather comprehensive over the last years. But modern project management reality changes constantly, therefore we can talk about one more project management software category.

Project management software for managing multiple projects in small and mid-size businesses

It often happens that project managers face the need to manage multiple projects simultaneously, using resources that can be shared between them. But they do not need a huge and extremely expensive project management software tool with thousands of not really needed features. What should they choose? ConceptDraw Project can be the answer. It is a cross-platform (Mac OS X and Windows) project management software tool that allows the project manager to automate project routines - from planning and assigning resources to powerful report generating capabilities.

You can obtain additional information about project management software here.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Igor_Zhadanov

Software Project Architect - Must For Success of IT Project

By Krishnadas Pisharam

Overview

Success of a masterpiece depends up on how it is architected. Any artifact and event need to be architected to take care of its fundamental and advanced need. Information Technology is more familiar with the word product architecture that project architecture. In some cases project architecture is used in case of product architecture considering that both is same.

We all know that Software product needs an architect but can we architect a Software project? Architecting a software product involves designing the product to be scalable, reliable and maintainable product. Who is responsible for cost effectively executing the project? Who will control the changes coming in the project? Who is responsible for overall execution?. Who will ensure that the client got the right product? How will we give value added idea to run the business of the client? Who will control the scope of the project?

This article defines a role for architecting a project that is the answer for all the above concerns.

Role of a project architect

One of the major reasons for the failure of a million dollar project is the lack of execution maturity. There are lots of maturity models/patterns available in the industry. CMM, CMMI, PCMM, RUP and Six Sigma are some of the industrially accepted standards. All of this standards defines the processes followed in the project, but does not hold with the dynamics of the projects, means the strategy of execution. Execution is different in different projects but it involves a common doctrine.

Every project except software project has defined a role called project architect. In software it is categorized separately as technical architect and that person will be only responsible for giving technical direction. Project manager will be overwhelmed by other responsibilities like Scheduling, Man management, Status Reporting and that role may not have bandwidth to think about execution.

Appropriate execution defines a need for defining a new role in the project called project architect. Project architect is the architect of project execution Project architect over sees the project in a detailed manner and understands nitty-gritty of the project and decided the course of action of the project. Project architect keeps a different perspective of project activities than a project manager. When project manager works on giving a workable environment for the team and track the schedule to identify any slippage, project architect work on taking the right decision or action in the project by closely analyzing the cost incurred in the project.

Project Architect should help project manager to understand what type of resources for what functionality is required. What is the grey area in the project? Which all areas we need commitment from customer. What is the root cause for an issue? Usually these areas are always handled by project manager along with other responsibilities and in turn giving a very secondary importance to the critical aspects of the project. By introducing project architect for this role, we are isolating and handling the most important and critical aspect of a project called project execution.

Responsibilities of a Project Architect

Project architect is responsible for the execution of the project. Project Architect should know each and every detail in the project. Below are the defined responsibilities of a project architect

- How to define which is cost effective path of execution?. It involved analyzing each and every activities and functionalities and identifies which is required path of execution.

- Project architect should have detailed business knowledge on all the modules so that responsible for identifying any dependency in the project.

- Conveys what is the technical problem in the project to technical team. Project Architect may not be the solution provider.

- Identify what is a change request and what is a requirement in the project.

- Identify business gaps in the project. Requirements can be captured to finest details but there can be still gaps in the understanding between the IT and the users. This gap has to be resolved during design phase. It is the responsibility of project architect to have the no gaps in the project after design phase.

- Analyze the cost/profit incurred in the project. Cost effective Execution also depends on the Cost /Profit Analysis of the project. For e.g. below graph provides idea of what is cost incurred in each week or phase.

Project manager can track cost and report the management when te cost is going above the expected limits. If a person has to architect the project in a cost effective manner for, he or she should know each and ever details of the project. If the project manager is spending time on that then the project will get executed in an uncontrolled manner. Considering project manager on this role is devastating.

Responsibilities of other roles in the Project

Account Manager:
Account Manager is responsible for stabilizing the account through effective client interaction Account Manager spends more time on the critical project with the project manager. He or She works above the hierarchy reporting the issues to the senior management.

Project Manager:
Project Manager is the owner of the project. Project Manager works with the support group for giving the environment for people to work and motivating the people. Project Manager is responsible for schedule tracking, procurement management, quality management, risk management, resource management etc.

Project Leader:
Responsible for making sure the project follows the right model. Responsible for deliverables of the project. Project Leader leads the team down the hierarchy working more with the team. Focus more on the critical path of the project. Project Leader is responsible for maintaining the quality of the product.

Technical Leader/Technical Architect:
Responsible for the design of the individual modules and owns the code devolved in the project. Technical Architect is responsible for taking the technical decision, creating a development habit among team members like good coding habits, enforcing the use of appropriate technology etc.

Architecting a Software Project.

Project Architect should know the requirements in detail, technical challenges, and dependencies with other departments before identifying the path of execution. With the mentioned details, project architect should be capable of judging the scope creep, critical path, most profitable path and resource utilization with in the project.

Project Architect need to be very diligent in watching the scope creep in the project. Scope Creep usually comes in the form of requirement changes. Change can come in any of the following ways.

1) Request not captured properly which creates a dilemma on whether it is change request or not.

2) Identifying the gaps in the project and removing it in the course of time. This is the toughest part of the project. Project architect can proactively take steps to reduce the gaps but removing it completely may not be possible.

3) Introducing new requirement to the project with out following proper Change Control Mechanism. Change requests are one of the profitable sources in a project. It need to be managed properly

Issue tracking through execution

We can only control the bugs/issues by proper execution but we cannot stop it completely. The important thing is to have a tracking mechanism. When an issue occur, the project manager increases the number of resources thinking that there is no efficient way to solve the problem other than increasing the hours. At that time there is no right person to identify the root cause of the problem. Project architect should own these issues in the project. Execution is not giving pat in the back of the people. Execution is not building a process and blindly following that. Execution is identifying the right process by properly analyzing the project and following it in a proper manner.

Reactive and Proactive approach for the project.

Project architect is a doer not a talker. Project architect is not only a problem solver but a person who avoids problem. By defining a role as project architect, we are introducing a person to be responsible for all the proactive and reactive aspects of the project. Project architect will own the executive decision of the project and identify way to tackle in the right way. Usually we define project leader as person to do things right and project manager to do right things. In a bigger perspective person who can do things right can only do right things. So defining a role called project architect, we are introducing a role just to do things right and right things in a project.

Krishnadas Pisharam

Over 9 years of IT development and management experience. Managed many mission critical projects successfully. Working as an architect/manager in one of the leading outsourcing company in Southern California. Founder -> http://www.Srishtis.com
http://www.Srishtiprojects.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Krishnadas_Pisharam

Software Project Management in Today's Business World

By Martin Floyd

As a practicing project manager I felt that I could provide some good tools, useful information and cool links related to this field. This page is for project managers and the purpose is to share information on software development project management topics. My scope on this page is to provide general, as well as, specific project information and software to assist anyone who is working to establish consistent software project leadership.

Moreover, I hope to provide some assistance in building professionalism. The current literature still says even with all the training going on and attention to managing projects there is still a rather large error or failure rate in software projects. If your career path is in project management you have a legacy problem and even more reason to read and apply the things that work. My favorite book on this stuff is by Harold Kerzner and is Project Management A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. I had the good fortune to attend PMI certification training with Dr Kerzner as the instructor.

This article is on project management body of knowledge (PMBOK).

Before anything else remember that responsibility without sponsorship makes you an immediate target for project time, scope and resource adjustment problems. Responsibility without authority is pretty much like having great vanity. It means almost nothing when tough choices are required. It is quite a lot like Solomon's thinking on vanity being "like striving after the wind".

First of all my focus is on the principles developed by Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and shared by project managers world-wide within the context of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM).

As a starting point it is important to discuss what is called the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK). The PMBOK was developed to provide c
onsistent definition to the phases of a project and to delineate what should be considered as important within the context of each part of project management guidance.

The knowledge areas and project management processes are contained in nine main focus areas.

Project Integration Management - development of project plan, project plan execution and change control. Project Scope Management - initiation, scope planning, scope definition, scope verification and scope change control. Project Time Management - activity definition, activity sequencing, activity duration estimation, schedule development and schedule control. Project Cost Management - resource planning, cost estimating, cost budgeting and cost control. Project Quality Management - quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control. Project Human Resource Management - organizational planning, staff acquisition and team development. Project Communications Management - communications planning, information distribution, performance reporting and administrative closure. Project Risk Management - risk identification, risk qualification, risk response development and risk response control. Project Procurement Management - procurement planning, solicitation planning, solicitation, source selection, contract administration and contract close-out.

As you can see from these focus areas there is a strong emphasis on the use and meaning of the word "control". A LOT of activity and paperwork can be developed in these management areas, but the main point is that there must be corrective action as required. The authority and responsibility resides with the project manager.

There are many skills and attributes that a project manager needs to draw upon to be effective. The project manager has to be:

Leader - as a manager the primary concern is consistently provide key results that are expected by the "stakeholders". Leading is also required and involves establishing the vision, strategies needed to "realize" the vision, and, in fact, establishing the direction. The leader must motivate, inspire and communicate among the various people overcoming the political, bureaucratic and people barriers. It is important to remember that leadership must be demonstrated at all levels within the project such as by individuals responsible for technical issues and by team members.

Communicating - exchanging information is the key. Make sure that clear, concise and complete information is given to the receiver. Make sure that the receiver has obtained the information in its entirety and that it is clearly understood. Communications is a broad subject area but suffice to say that, whether oral or written, communications is critical to the project. It does not matter whether the communications are formal, whether the communications are going up, down or vertical. What does matter is that the effort will be far exceeded by the results. One area to remember is that if you tell everyone at once you have a better chance of getting your concerns or information disseminated correctly rather than reliance on word of mouth by members of the team telling others. Every time a different person relays information the slant, intent, body language, inflection all have a chance to infer something different.

Negotiating - conferring with people to come to consensus or agreement. Negotiating infers that there may be a need for a mediator, arbitrator or facilitator. It depends on the circumstance, the importance, the level, and, more likely, the issues. Issues like cost, scope, objectives, contract terms and conditions, resources can all require negotiating skills.
Problem solving - defining (problem definition) and deciding (decision making based on analysis, solution viability or dictates from stakeholders).

Influencing the organization - the ability to use power and politics to get things done. This requires the ability to understand the mechanics or the organization regarding how to constructively use political ability.

Project management processes can be organized into five groupings of one or more processes each as follows:

Initiating processes - this includes recognizing that a project or phase should begin and making a commitment to do it.
Planning processes - this means developing and maintaining a "workable" plan to accomplish what the project was undertaken to accomplish.

Executing processes - coordinating people and any other resources to "execute" or carry out the plan.

Controlling processes - making sure that the project objectives are met by measuring and monitoring progress. Furthermore, it means taking appropriate corrective actions when necessary.

Closing processes - bringing the project to an orderly conclusion with formal acceptance of the phase or the project.
Everyone connected with managing projects has had the additional core challenge of developing metrics that are "added value" in performance capability and delivery of completed projects that meet the expectations of stakeholders. Collecting metrics does not mean just tabulating figures. It means developing information that helps now and then helps even more in future efforts.

There are many, many methods. The charge is to determine what works best for your organization. There are volumes of information on what to collect and how to use the measures effectively. The main point is to not just collect data. Collect information!

My next article will discuss the project triangle and the level of technical solution - time, resources and technology solutions. Following that I will be sharing information on Six Sigma as developed by Motorola that can drastically change the quality of your products and/or services by instilling a business process culture that does affect the organization and provide positive returns. In fact the principles are based on statistical analysis that revolves around the concept of standard deviation.

I would now like to offer some suggestions, by way of experience, and then offer some links to places I have found of great value to me.

Cost Expert is a fairly inexpensive software package that provides for what-if, reporting, combining types of estimates such as function points, top down, bottom up, GUI. Moreover, you can use it with Microsoft Project. I have enjoyed the functionality and reporting capabilities. The software will help generate good plans, resource requirements and risk factors. Cost Expert is particularly good for project managers working without a formalized project-central organizational approach.

I have also been a big fan of Microsoft Project software ever since Project 4. The new version still provides a database schema and the VBA capability to expand the functionality continues to make the product a good choice for those not interested in spending much more money for project software.

There is a fairly simple wizard that is good to start with in counting function points. It is called the SEER Function Point Wizard and it is fpwiz.

There is a PDF file on DoD initiatives regarding software measurement that is Software Measures for DOD Systems.

MMB&T makes available version 1.1 of the SoftEST which was developed by MCR Federal Inc. on behalf of the Air Force Cost Analysis Agency.

SoftEST Cost Model (V1.1) (1 MB - Zipped file)

DEVELOP YOUR MICROSOFT PROJECT AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILLS
Getting the most out of Microsoft Project requires using the product features correctly and using the right features to meet your project management needs.

Microsoft describes resources you will find helpful in developing your skills with Microsoft Project and applying them to the broader field of project management.

Read about it at: Microsoft Project Assistance

Microsoft® Project Courseware Trainer Pack

These are but a few resources available. The good news is that the function is now recognized as something that merits full attention from executive management and sponsorship to avoid the previously very high failure rate on projects.

This article is copywrited by Martin Floyd of MMB&T. All rights reserved.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Floyd

Where Can I Download Linux?

By Bob Rankin

I hear people saying that Microsoft is evil, and I should switch to Linux. What is Linux, who should use it, and where can I download Linux for free?

Linux is a complete version of the Unix operating system (software that controls the basic functions of the personal computer) and it runs on ordinary personal computers. The added fact that it's freely available and "open source" makes it all the more attractive.

Linux is perfect for people who want to operate their own low-cost Internet servers, and it's robust enough to satisfy the needs of many Internet service providers. Linux is a multiuser and multitasking environment, and it can access huge amounts of memory (gigabytes) and huge amounts of disk storage space (terabytes). Linux offers virtually everything that Windows has been promising for years and may not deliver in a truly stable form for some time to come.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that Linux is some kind of watered-down or underpowered Unix for the masses. Linux is Unix. POSIX certification (compliance with the industry standards for Unix) makes it official that Linux can do everything that a Unix system is supposed to do.

Linux is also being taken very seriously by the computer industry, with new Linux-compatible versions of popular software packages being announced every month. The Apache Web server software running on Linux platforms powers about half of all Web sites today. Even more telling, Microsoft considers Linux a major threat to its Windows empire.

What Is Linux?

In the early 90s, a geek named Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in Finland thought it would be fun to write a Unix kernel from scratch. He called it Linux, and it was cool but pretty much useless without all the utility programs needed to make it a complete operating system. At the same time, Richard Stallman and his pals at the Free Software Foundation were writing a bunch of freeware Unix utilities collectively known as the GNU Project. It was cool but pretty much useless without a kernel to make it a complete operating system. Fortunately, the two parties decided to collaborate.

News of Linux spread quickly over the Internet, and many other Unix programmers joined the effort to enhance it. What we now know as Linux is a combination of Torvald's Linux kernel, the GNU Project software, and some other nifty software bit and pieces developed by programmers from all around the world.

Today Linux is a complete and reliable implementation of the Unix operating system, with the following notable features:

* 32-bit operation (it uses all the speed and power of your CPU, unlike 16-bit DOS systems)

* Virtual memory (it can use all of your system's RAM; there's no 640K memory limit)

* Full support for X Windows (Unix's standard graphical user interface)

* TCP/IP networking support (allowing connection to the Internet)

* GNU software support (including a huge amount of free Unix software from the GNU Project)

Note: GNU is one of those recursive acronyms that computer scientists love; it stands for GNU's Not Unix. The GNU Project is an effort sponsored by the Free Software Foundation to provide freely available Unix software. See http://www.gnu.org for related information.

Linux was written totally from scratch without using any of the original AT&T UNIX code. (Throughout this site, UNIX refers to the original trademarked UNIX project invented by AT&T. The term Unix is used here as a generic term for other variants of the operating system.)

Because of that (and because the author is a nice guy), Linux is free. You can obtain the source code, modify, sell or give away the software so long as you provide full source code and don't impose any restrictions on what others do with it. Here's a site with good information about where to buy or download Linux: http://www.linux.org/dist/download_info.html

BOB RANKIN... is a tech writer and computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several computer books, and creator of the http://LowfatLinux.com website. Visit Bob Rankin's website for more helpful articles and free tech support.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bob_Rankin

Implementing CRM - What's the Price?

By Peter Elgar

As Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems move from being "nice to haves" to essential tools in keeping businesses competitive, their implementation is growing at a rate to match. And of course, price and cost play a vital role. However, the price of a CRM system is more than just the cost of the software and IT.

When budgeting for a project, assessing quotes from a solutions provider, or just trying to get a realistic idea of how much you'll need to spend, here's a guide to some of the key factors you need to consider.

1) Software Costs:

These usually consist of:

• the price of software licences
• the price of software maintenance.

2) Professional Service Costs:

Professional services refer to what you need to get done to get your CRM system up and running. They can include the costs of everything from scoping the project to software configuration, hardware and training. They include internal costs (such as the time of your own staff) as well as the price charged by your solutions provider.

3) Support Costs

Support costs generally refer to the price of assistance to keep the system going. They will usually include the costs of technical support, administrator support and user support, such as access to a help desk. Sometimes support costs include CRM software maintenance costs: it depends on wording and the vendor.

Building a system from scratch?

If you decide to build or implement a system yourself, you'll need to include several other factors in the price. Probably the most significant costs will be developing or acquiring the wide mix of business, administration, management and technical skills. Do not underestimate how important these skills are to a successful CRM project. And if you go down this route, you're well, quite literally, on your own.

So, assuming you intend to employ the help of a solutions provider, here's a look at each of the three main areas of project costs in more detail:

The Price of CRM Software

Working out the price of software licences is usually straightforward. There will be a price for a single user licence, number of users or multiple user licences. Remember to allow for expansion with the number of software licences you buy: the number of users can quickly grow as the benefits of using it become apparent. It can also be useful to have extra licences on hand ready for new staff.

When buying CRM software there's sometimes the choice between named or concurrent licences: most businesses prefer concurrent. Note some vendors only supply software licences in batch quantities, so you may have to buy 5, 10 or 15 etc.

Maintenance costs are to cover when the software manufacturers update, alter or modify the product to correct faults, improve its performance or adapt it to work under new conditions. This is usually charged as a separate line item per software licence, as a set annual fee (a bit like insurance). Some resellers make maintenance charges compulsory - meaning you can't buy licences without maintenance. If it's not a separate item check it is included in the licence or support price. Don't buy CRM software without maintenance.

The Price of Professional Services:

Here's where working out the cost of a CRM project starts getting more involved. Unlike software licences, which have a clearly identifiable unit price, professional service costs are not directly user-based. What's more, professional services costs can be the largest expense - mainly because they encompass such a wide variety of different tasks. They also vary due to installation type, degree of customisation, business, solutions provider, level of integration with other office systems and so on.

A good starting point to estimating the price of professional services is by producing a project-scoping document. Once you've identified your business requirements, a project scoping document will help show what needs to be done to realise these requirements. It's recommended that you use an experienced project manager or consultant to produce this, which may of course incur a charge in itself. However, you may be able to negotiate on this if you choose to work with the CRM solutions provider who produces the scoping document.

Depending on the nature and complexity of your CRM project, the project-scoping document may include:

• Business process analysis
• CRM project specification
• Sales, marketing, and customer service systems design
• Internal resources required (you'll need high levels of input, and hence staff time, from several key areas within your company)
• Project Management
• CRM system design
• System build and configuration
• Data import
• Data cleansing
• System installation
• Various levels of training
• Internal procedure rewrite, updates
• Hardware installation and upgrades
• Additional software requirements
• Depth of system integration to other office systems

There are identifiable issues that affect each of these elements, the complexity of a CRM project and hence the level of professional services you require.

For example, the price of your project will be affected by how much 'out of the box' software functionality you intend to use and the level of system configuration required. The sophistication of your reporting requirement will influence system design, while the number of staff, their existing skills and the system complexity will affect the levels of training. Existing IT infrastructure will dictate whether you need to buy additional hardware and software, and degree of change to your current customer facing procedures will also influence overall costs.

Data is also an important consideration when determining the price of professional services. Depending on what you do with it, it can take up significant internal resources. Usually your own staff are the best people to work on your data because they work with it day in and day out. You need to think hard about the value of existing data: how much of it will you use, what format is it in, how much reformatting is required and how much cleansing is needed. Data that's taken years to build up may be heartbreaking to part with, but similarly it can also be over-valued, particularly if it's going to take up skilled staff time to assess, cleanse and reformat. Do you really need to keep details of contacts from web-enquiries four years ago? Or even six months? It depends on your business. If you're going to clean your data, a new CRM project is the ideal time, but don't underestimate the work involved.

Once you've identified the professional services you'll need, you can cost each factor - usually by working through the scoping document with your CRM solutions provider.

Costs of System Support

The price of CRM system and software support will depend on what's offered by your solutions provider and the level you choose to take.

CRM solutions providers vary in terms of what they offer and how much they charge. However, most will be able to offer some level of support. If they don't, or you prefer not to pay for a support contract, then if a support issue arises it will probably be priced as a professional service.

A typical support structure may include:

• User assistance and support - ideally via a dedicated support line. Make sure it uses trained support staff who can answer questions from all levels of user: from 'How do I...?' to technical details.
• Administrator assistance and support - again this should be via a dedicated support line to address issues connected with the running of the system.
• Supply of software corrections and revisions (may be included as maintenance).
• "Bug" reporting and control.
• Remote intervention and remote diagnostics - web dial-in, with controlled access.
• Self Service - some of the better CRM solutions providers offer 24/7 access to an online support centre. These will typically allows you to find out how your issue is progressing and provide access to a knowledge base.

  
  

Other CRM support costs to consider are system administration, additional user training, on-site visits, system developments and additional licence installs.

So How Much does a CRM System Cost?

It depends on your business requirements, what you want to do and how you're going to do it.

Make sure you involve key staff from marketing, sales, customer service, IT and finance. The factors which need to be taken into consideration when pricing a project can be quite subtle, particularly because of the different requirements between businesses. This is where the input from experienced CRM specialists can be invaluable.

As well as costs, an independent CRM specialist can advise the best software to suit your business needs - what you want to achieve from it, your sector, your customer requirements, how it will fit into your existing systems and processes, how it will integrate with other business software, and of course your budget.

Concentrix is a leading UK Independent CRM Specialist. Formed in 1999, Concentrix provides a full range of CRM Software and related services, working closely with key providers including Microsoft, Sage and FrontRange.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Elgar

Risk Management - Managing Milestones

By Michael Russell

Part of planning for risk involves allocating each identified risk to a project milestone. Very often a milestone is attached to a payment, so a risk can also have an accurate value attached to it. By its nature, each risk will impact, if at all, at a certain time. For example, Milestone 1 is "Delivery of Software X, Issue A to the Customer".

If this risk impacts, we will not receive the Milestone 1 payment from the Customer. This payment has been planned to cover costs of staffing, materials, sub-contractor payments and a variety of other project expenses including finance charges up to this point. The cost of this risk, or any other associated with this Milestone, impacting is basically the cost of borrowing that amount of money, from the time it should have been received up until the time when it is actually received.

In order to manage this risk, regular project meetings will be held, a part of which will cover the progress of identified risks. The risk owner will report on each risk with their assessment of the likelihood its occurring. If the likelihood of any risk impacting increases, steps will be taken to implement the mitigation measures already identified.

In the case of this example, the mitigation measures might be "Introduce interim acceptance testing to identify problems early".

Let us assume that the introduction of this mitigation measure has become necessary and the interim acceptance testing has shown that the software is far from ready for delivery. This will mean that fall-back or contingency plans must be implemented.

This is a very undesirable state of affairs but such plans might be: "Introduce additional software engineering effort to identify and resolve bugs" or, assuming we don't have the personnel available to throw extra resources at the problem "Put project software engineers on overtime in order to identify and resolve bugs".

In themselves, these contingencies will, of course, have a cost but this must be weighed up against the possibility of delaying the milestone payment and worse, failing to meet the milestone timescale. Once one milestone is late, it's very hard to catch up and much rescheduling is needed in order to still meet the end delivery date. Failing to meet milestones is usually very unpopular with the Customer and not at all likely to do the company’s reputation any good.

On the up side, if a risk does NOT impact and the milestone with which it is associated is met, that risk can be deleted and forgotten, leaving time and space to concentrate on the next one.

Next in this series, we'll look at managing the risks associated with suppliers or sub-contractors.

------------------------------------------------------- Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Risk Management ------------------------------------------------------- Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Russell

Advertising Agency Software: What You Need to Know

By Laura Schweiker

There are many different types of software that an advertising agency needs to conduct business efficiently. Here are some examples of tasks that can be supported by software that is currently available to agencies:

Create estimates and quotes, invoices and schedules for client approval

Prepare drafts of a new brochure, print ad, or annual report for review

Manage client feedback on direct mail materials

Track key project milestone dates

Prepare and review media plans

Prepare a storyboard presentation for a client

Prepare market research

Schedule project tasks

Review rough cuts

Create project timelines

Manage external client and prospect requests

Schedule media

Time tracking

Track expenses against estimates

Plan and analyze resources usage

Accounting and bookkeeping

To meet these needs, an advertising agency should consider the following advertising agency software:

Graphic Design Software – The agency will need a creative design Application Suite like Macromedia Design Suite or Adobe Creative Suite to do the basic graphic design, storyboarding and other more creative aspects of producing advertising material.

Audio and Video Editing Software – If they do the mockups of their radio and television commercials in-house they will need to be able to edit them for client review before they turn everything over to the actual production company that produces the final versions.

Office Applications - Most companies use Microsoft Office for word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software since it has become the standard for businesses.

Contact Manager – The agency needs a good contact manager to keep track of all of their client information. Larger agencies may want to opt for a sophisticated customer relations management (CRM) system instead.

Email Client – An agency needs a good email client. Although there are a lot of good email clients available, Outlook is the business standard and has scheduling capabilities for meetings, distribution lists, public folders, the ability to flag all correspondence from specific individual clients and basic content management capabilities.

Project management, Time & Expense Tracking Software – because they work on individual projects, an agency needs software that can track all of the costs associated with each project. The software should be able to track employee time with the ability to use split rates and multiple rates, raw materials, outsourced invoices, etc.

Accounting Software – They need standard accounting software that provides invoicing, accounts receivable, accounts payable and general ledger functions. Larger agencies may need the software to handle multiple currencies and tax codes.

New Possibilities

With the advent of extranets, special software suites have been developed specifically for advertising agencies. They include programs that can provide contact management, time & expense tracking, project management, scheduling and email management. Some of the applications can even interface directly with the firm’s accounting software.

Another innovation is the client service extranet. They have replaced email as the favored forum for sharing and organizing the vast number of documents that are part of all client/agency relationships.

Using an extranet allows all employees, vendors, suppliers, clients and others on the project team to have real time access to all of the pertinent project details from anywhere in the world. Best of all, an extranet makes it possible to share the design documents, audio and video clips with the project online in real time. No more waiting for courier delivery or a face-to-face meeting providing better customer service than ever before possible.

Laura Schweiker writes extensively on the use of ad agency software and is an evangelist for extranet solutions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Schweiker

Microsoft Project Manager - The Value of Organization

By Alice Lane

As one looks around during the day we are all confronted with varied degrees of organization. We wake up in the morning and choose from a selection of cloths that may be organized by clothing type like pants, shirts etc. After we finish getting dressed in the morning we may get something to eat from the pantry that is organized by canned foods, cereals or snacks. We open the refrigerator and choose from foods that are grouped by drinks, vegetables, meats, dairy and fruit.

After breakfast is finished the next phase of the day starts with going to work. At work we start a series of activities that are designed to complete some type of task, build something, manage a process or orchestrate some type of business flow. A business tool that can help us organize any number of issue and processes at the office is the Hosted MS Project. This software allows its user to succinctly manage, organize and plan a business project from start to finish.

Many project managers quickly realize that there can be numerous documents and contacts to track and archive. Without the proper organization system, important material can be lost, financial documents can be misplaced and team assignment information could disappear. This could all lead to misappropriation of funds, delays in project completion and loss of production tracking for a projects sub tasks. There is a solution that assists with the organization and tracking of these types of things. It is called SharePoint MPP. This application helps track your business documentation, staffing and centralizes your internet and intranet links.

A final tool that can complete your business organizational needs is the MS CRM hosting system or the Microsoft Customer Relationship Management software. This tool allows your business to fully track their clients profiles, leverage real time client data and create dash boards that pull together all of your critical data into central points to use as needed during critical business making opportunities.

To learn more about useful ways to organize your business life contact Phase 2 International and reference Hosted MS Project, SharePoint MPP and MS CRM hosting to unlock the tools to organize your business needs quicker, faster and affordably. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alice_Lane

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Content Management Software

By Paul Abbey

Content management software, also known as CMS software is very important. This software will help you to organize your website. So what does that exactly mean? When you use content management software you are actually enhancing the way that you do business, and the quality of your website. You want your site to be easily navigated by your visitor, correct?

Of course you do, and the only way to be sure that they can do this is by organizing your site and making it very user friendly, and this is where having a cms software comes in handy. Especially if you are selling many different products on one site. A content management software will help to layout all of the images, descriptions and pricing very easily. Some of them will even offer suggested products in specific categories, and other nifty little things that will increase sales in one shot. And this is all very important.

You can download free cms software from many different websites, but this is not always the best idea. This is your business you are dealing with. I highly suggest that you purchase your software directly from a company, and the reason for this is because you will be able to get help from them if something goes wrong. When you are using a open source cms software you may be able to get help, but it can take a long while before someone gets back to you, if they ever do.

There are many different aspects to good cms software. Let’s take a look at just a few of them.

Before you go out and purchase just and cms software, or download of the open source cms you should know some things first. You need to make sure that the software is going to be compatible with your operating system, well the operating system on your hosting that is. And you will also need to know how much space it is going to take up on your server. You want to be sure that you have the necessary space to handle it. CMS software does take up a lot of space.

It’s also a good idea to read some reviews about the different cms software’s that are currently available. You can find them nearly everywhere on the internet. This is a great way to get help when you are trying to select the right company to purchase this very valuable piece of software.

CMS software will honestly help to make your job much easier.

P Abbey owns and operates http://www.cmssoftwareguide.com/commercialcmssoftware.html Cms Software

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Staying on Budget With Project Management

By Louis Rosas-Guyon

Your enterprise's financial plans must align with your business strategies. Choosing the appropriate project management software will help you stay on budget while implementing important initiatives that will grow your business.

Project Management Cost Control

Project management software allows you to control costs. Unmanaged project costs can balloon, especially in long running projects. According to 2005 Standish Group research, the average IT project is expected to run over budget by 43%! A simple SaaS solution can help you track issues that add costs to your project. This software also makes project managers accountable. "Most companies do a good job of tracking their biggest and most important IT projects," said Mike Metcalf, VP of Marketing at Artemis International Solutions Corp. But it's the many smaller projects that are "crudely defined and poorly managed. Those are the ones that kill you."

Online Database Software Centralizes Information

There are numerous online solutions for project management. Task software can help keep project team members on track with their responsibilities, making them less likely to miss deadlines and push up costs. A web-based solution should be easy to use and should allow users throughout an organization to contribute information and to make changes to budgets. Ideally, the software should offer a dashboard to quickly report project information that is relevant. A SaaS solution also permits project managers to track changes, as well as revert back to the original plan as needed. Spend some time researching the available options until you find the perfect fit for your organization.

Keeping projects on schedule and within budget will help your profitability. Project management software should allow your project team to complete tasks, manage their direct responsibilities, and keep costs under control.

FREE e-Course that will teach you how to virtually eliminate your computer costs at NearlyFreeIT.com

Business technology coach Louis Rosas-Guyon teaches you how to eliminate 90% of your computer costs without sacrificing quality or performance. Louis is a business technology coach with a 10 year track record of helping his customers save money.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Louis_Rosas-Guyon

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A Hosted Software Application Can Help With Ever Changing Business Environments

By Alice Lane

In this fast paced world of global economies and virtual internet business and social clusters it's harder and harder to keep up with the needs of a changing business model. It used to be that project managers would collaborate with other project managers to lay out a project using a tool such as a Gantt or PERT chart.

This would then be discussed in a meeting with or without all of the key members present depending on the size of the project and the economics of the day. If it was a global project and people could fly in then they had their input. Without stating the obvious, this scenario will play out to be time consuming and costly. In today's global business world, companies don't have the luxury to waste either the time or the money to get a project up and running. Companies need to use technology to overcome this antiquated business model. One improvement may be to consider using hosted MS Project.

This type of application allows global access to a project so the project manager can get global input without costly travel and do so in real time. There is no need for snail mail and telephone calls in the middle of the night. With SharePoint MPP the project manager can allocate access to the different aspects of the project so participants and customers can see and manage their perspective component.

The benefits of a hosted software application allow companies to interact within the organization in a timely manner as well as report to the customer in the same timely manner. When things change it can change globally in an instant. Everyone can get on project management tool in real time and see what the changes are and implement them globally.

To get access to the most cost effective hosted MS Project software and see how SharePoint MPP can benefit your company go to PHASE 2 International. Their hosted software application is the cheapest and best service on the internet.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alice_Lane

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Software Project Architect - Must For Success of IT Project

By Krishnadas Pisharam

Overview

Success of a masterpiece depends up on how it is architected. Any artifact and event need to be architected to take care of its fundamental and advanced need. Information Technology is more familiar with the word product architecture that project architecture. In some cases project architecture is used in case of product architecture considering that both is same.

We all know that Software product needs an architect but can we architect a Software project? Architecting a software product involves designing the product to be scalable, reliable and maintainable product. Who is responsible for cost effectively executing the project? Who will control the changes coming in the project? Who is responsible for overall execution?. Who will ensure that the client got the right product? How will we give value added idea to run the business of the client? Who will control the scope of the project?

This article defines a role for architecting a project that is the answer for all the above concerns.

Role of a project architect

One of the major reasons for the failure of a million dollar project is the lack of execution maturity. There are lots of maturity models/patterns available in the industry. CMM, CMMI, PCMM, RUP and Six Sigma are some of the industrially accepted standards. All of this standards defines the processes followed in the project, but does not hold with the dynamics of the projects, means the strategy of execution. Execution is different in different projects but it involves a common doctrine.

Every project except software project has defined a role called project architect. In software it is categorized separately as technical architect and that person will be only responsible for giving technical direction. Project manager will be overwhelmed by other responsibilities like Scheduling, Man management, Status Reporting and that role may not have bandwidth to think about execution.

Appropriate execution defines a need for defining a new role in the project called project architect. Project architect is the architect of project execution Project architect over sees the project in a detailed manner and understands nitty-gritty of the project and decided the course of action of the project. Project architect keeps a different perspective of project activities than a project manager. When project manager works on giving a workable environment for the team and track the schedule to identify any slippage, project architect work on taking the right decision or action in the project by closely analyzing the cost incurred in the project.

Project Architect should help project manager to understand what type of resources for what functionality is required. What is the grey area in the project? Which all areas we need commitment from customer. What is the root cause for an issue? Usually these areas are always handled by project manager along with other responsibilities and in turn giving a very secondary importance to the critical aspects of the project. By introducing project architect for this role, we are isolating and handling the most important and critical aspect of a project called project execution.

Responsibilities of a Project Architect

Project architect is responsible for the execution of the project. Project Architect should know each and every detail in the project. Below are the defined responsibilities of a project architect

- How to define which is cost effective path of execution?. It involved analyzing each and every activities and functionalities and identifies which is required path of execution.

- Project architect should have detailed business knowledge on all the modules so that responsible for identifying any dependency in the project.

- Conveys what is the technical problem in the project to technical team. Project Architect may not be the solution provider.

- Identify what is a change request and what is a requirement in the project.

- Identify business gaps in the project. Requirements can be captured to finest details but there can be still gaps in the understanding between the IT and the users. This gap has to be resolved during design phase. It is the responsibility of project architect to have the no gaps in the project after design phase.

- Analyze the cost/profit incurred in the project. Cost effective Execution also depends on the Cost /Profit Analysis of the project. For e.g. below graph provides idea of what is cost incurred in each week or phase.

Project manager can track cost and report the management when te cost is going above the expected limits. If a person has to architect the project in a cost effective manner for, he or she should know each and ever details of the project. If the project manager is spending time on that then the project will get executed in an uncontrolled manner. Considering project manager on this role is devastating.

Responsibilities of other roles in the Project

Account Manager:
Account Manager is responsible for stabilizing the account through effective client interaction Account Manager spends more time on the critical project with the project manager. He or She works above the hierarchy reporting the issues to the senior management.

Project Manager:
Project Manager is the owner of the project. Project Manager works with the support group for giving the environment for people to work and motivating the people. Project Manager is responsible for schedule tracking, procurement management, quality management, risk management, resource management etc.

Project Leader:
Responsible for making sure the project follows the right model. Responsible for deliverables of the project. Project Leader leads the team down the hierarchy working more with the team. Focus more on the critical path of the project. Project Leader is responsible for maintaining the quality of the product.

Technical Leader/Technical Architect:
Responsible for the design of the individual modules and owns the code devolved in the project. Technical Architect is responsible for taking the technical decision, creating a development habit among team members like good coding habits, enforcing the use of appropriate technology etc.

Architecting a Software Project.

Project Architect should know the requirements in detail, technical challenges, and dependencies with other departments before identifying the path of execution. With the mentioned details, project architect should be capable of judging the scope creep, critical path, most profitable path and resource utilization with in the project.

Project Architect need to be very diligent in watching the scope creep in the project. Scope Creep usually comes in the form of requirement changes. Change can come in any of the following ways.

1) Request not captured properly which creates a dilemma on whether it is change request or not.

2) Identifying the gaps in the project and removing it in the course of time. This is the toughest part of the project. Project architect can proactively take steps to reduce the gaps but removing it completely may not be possible.

3) Introducing new requirement to the project with out following proper Change Control Mechanism. Change requests are one of the profitable sources in a project. It need to be managed properly

Issue tracking through execution

We can only control the bugs/issues by proper execution but we cannot stop it completely. The important thing is to have a tracking mechanism. When an issue occur, the project manager increases the number of resources thinking that there is no efficient way to solve the problem other than increasing the hours. At that time there is no right person to identify the root cause of the problem. Project architect should own these issues in the project. Execution is not giving pat in the back of the people. Execution is not building a process and blindly following that. Execution is identifying the right process by properly analyzing the project and following it in a proper manner.

Reactive and Proactive approach for the project.

Project architect is a doer not a talker. Project architect is not only a problem solver but a person who avoids problem. By defining a role as project architect, we are introducing a person to be responsible for all the proactive and reactive aspects of the project. Project architect will own the executive decision of the project and identify way to tackle in the right way. Usually we define project leader as person to do things right and project manager to do right things. In a bigger perspective person who can do things right can only do right things. So defining a role called project architect, we are introducing a role just to do things right and right things in a project.

Krishnadas Pisharam

Over 9 years of IT development and management experience. Managed many mission critical projects successfully. Working as an architect/manager in one of the leading outsourcing company in Southern California. Founder -> http://www.Srishtis.com
http://www.Srishtiprojects.com

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Work Breakdown Structure Time Phased Budget

By Guy McCord

All Star Cable Project Plan Map

Background:

With the deregulation of the cable industry, All-Star Cable emerged as a small time player in the cable television industry. The small cable company, which consistently provided inexpensive cable television service in South Texas, utilized the transmission lines and equipment of the larger cable providers, allowing All-Star to offer great, simple service at a better price than the larger cable companies. Unfortunately, in the mid-1980’s the companies growth stopped and the company was faced with bankruptcy, and All-Star quickly realized the this downturn was due to:

Its customer base doing better economically and therefore wanting more options than All-Star could offer.

All-Star began to be perceived as a “cheap” company.

Its competitors began to gear their sales efforts at All-Stars established customer base.
The changes in the cable television market, forced All-Star Cable to reexamine their strategy, and in an effort to survive, All-Star’s newly hired marketing manager and information technology manager remapped the company’s strategy, which helped All-Star survive. All-Star’s first move was to focus on increasing volume business, by contracting its premium channel companies to offer premium channels that their customer’s were seeking. All-Star’s second move was to reduce its operating expenses, by implementing an automated billing system. Finally, All-Star’s third move as to invest in new equipment, upgrade its current equipment, and expand its Information Technology department, so that it could support the addition of a Pay-for-View service. With each strategic change, All-Star quickly expanded its market and eventually became the largest cable television provider in South Texas.
Project Definition

The new direction for the company is to introduce a Movie-on-Demand service, which allows customers to select and view movies when ever they want, as oppose to the pay-for-view option, which broadcasted movies globally at set intervals. The movie-on-demand project required All-Star the create an information technology solution which need to go live in six months, and provided: The ability to store digital movies, A menu system which provides customers, the ability to scroll and select movies based on title, actor/actress, or genre using their controller box, the ability to select and purchase movies using their controller box, a billing system, which included the addition of a $6.00 per movie charge for the movie-on-demand service, and additionally, there will be no discounts for large volume purchases.

The first stage of the definition stage is to perform a thorough feasibility study. This is required to make an unbiased decision on how to proceed or not as the case maybe, and typically defines the high-level needs of a project, the mid term expectancy of a project and the smaller details (Evalica, 2004). The feasibility should be broken into four sections:
Technical: can the system be developed

Operational: can the organization absorb the change

Economical: can the expense be justified

Schedule: can the system be implemented in the prescribed time (Alvarez, 2004).

The project is further defined by creating a work breakdown structure, which is a tree-like list of sections and modules of the system with general functionality and interaction descriptions. This helps defines the projects functionality specifications and detailed descriptions of system features and integration, which will be used to develop the project scope, schedules and cost (Evalica, 2004).

Execution

Once the project’s feasibility is determined, the Execution phase can begin. In this phase, the majority of the Movies-On-Demand (MOD) project will materialize.
Prior to hardware/software procurement, a System Requirement Specification (SRS) is complete to verify alignment of project requirements with that of the software developers (Cygnet, 2004). After thorough investigation of recently hired IT staff in the prior project phase, it is deemed highly likely that the in-house staff can create a working system to implement the project.

They will begin by modifying the billing system and refining the viewer menu options. Presently, the system allows the viewer to access their billing information, select Pay-for-view movies, as well as access the internet. New menus must be created to offer the new MOD service and bill appropriately. Since the present controller box will continue to be used for the new offering, the end-user hardware cost does not change. Thus, this basic software development (menu & billing system) will have a test by day 30 of the execution phase.

Procurement ($9,100) of the three (3) servers ($1,250 ea.), the back-up software for each server ($1,500 ea.), and the software/digital movies ($450,000) is complete within the first month (M1) at a total cost of $467,350.

Installation proceeds as Month 2 of the project begins. This phase is scheduled to last through month 4. The working system and software will be tested throughout each phase of the project. Software development and the system integration will bear the majority of labor. Once the rights to offer and purchase the movies, installation, and software configuration phases are complete, another thorough test will be administered to insure the software is functioning properly.

The control measures are set to identify project progression.
Initially, the programmers will create a new menu system. Then they will integrate the old system with the new offering. This allows the viewer to scroll, select and purchase movies for $6.00 each.
Communication between the IT manager and the Project manager continues on a daily basis. As the project surpasses expected milestones, the Project Manager updates the Marketing Director to ensure alignment of the timelines. This will insure there is no wasted time from project completion to the advertising campaign.

Delivery

The new software is installed on the servers. Full system’s testing is conducted. Proper testing to verify the ability to handle the potential magnitude of use must be followed. A simple system’s test with low volumes will not suffice as a “green light” to proceed. Once the system effectively handles the high volume testing, a final analysis and report are created and delivered to the President and Marketing director.

References

Cygnet-infotech pvt. Ltd. Copyright 2000– 2004 @ Cygnet Infotech Pvt. Ltd, India
Retrieved January 18, 2005 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.cygnet-infotech.com/pdf/projectmanagement. PDF
Alvarez, P.M., 2004. Feasibility analysis for a software project. Retrieved January 19, 2005 from http://delta.cs.cinvestav.mx/~pmejia/softeng/1
Boehm, B., 1981. Project management. Retrieved January 19, 2005 from www.bit.umkc.edu/burris/ pl/project-management/
Evalica, 2004. Retrieved January 19, 2005 from http://www.evalica.com/cm/about/methodology/feasibility_phase

Guy McCord, MBA, CBC an experienced small business turnaround specialist working with clients in HR, Staffing, Payrolling, Payroll, Temp to Hire, Temp-Hire, group benefits and property and casualty insurance needs, consumer driven health plans, annuities, investments, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio.

http://www.ameristarsi.com

http://www.landstartexas.com

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