ServiceCycle » Online Project Management

Importance of Web Based IT Project Management Software Tool and Online Task Management Software

john — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:35:29 +0000

Project Management Software is a simple Tool that helps Managers and the Team Members successfully plan, manage and execute the different Tasks involved in each Project. All the Project Management Software is equipped to perform the functions including Statistics and Reports, Manage Client Information, Projects, Tasks, Files, Contacts, Calendars, facilitating Multiple Projects and Multiple Users Management. Manage any project with ease, communicating all necessary details to your staff via the web.

Types of Project Management Software

There are several types of Project Management Software. It can be a desktop application and it can also be a Web-Based Software Solution to allow access from remote locations as needed. It can be a personal setup allowing only a few to access it or it can be a collaborative set up which would allow to access several users simultaneously. These Project Management Software Solutions can work for various types of organizations.

Web-Based Project Management Software is often termed as the latest generation high-level Project Management Software. In order to further assist web technique of Management many companies have come up with Project Management Tools. Project management System can help you to manage your project efficiently if the project requires contributions of multiple individuals or teams using a multi tiered development plan with in a allocated time and existing resources. It organizes not just the parts of project as landmark targets but also organizes the output of the team member in a comprehensive manner. The salient advantages of the web based project management software are:

(a) It Helps the corporate sectors in increasing productivity as the Web-Based Software don’t required to be installed.

(b) It immensely useful in maintaining Multiple User Management, A Well-Organized Task Management Tool, Project Calendar and Email Notification.

(c) It also facilitates in getting the idea of numerous reports and comprehensive statistics, providing the overall big picture on project advancement.

Editor’s Note See ServiceCycle MGMT for example of Web-Based Project Management Software

Selecting Right Project Management Software Project Management Software is designed to allow you to manage all aspects of your project needs effectively. There are various types of this software available but most will allow for complete management from the beginning through completion. Here are some of the benefits that you can expect from a Project Management Software that you choose. They are:

* It should create multiple projects and tasks quickly and intuitively * It should be simple, Easy to Use and user friendly as well * It has the ability of working on some of the most complex of projects

Keeping all these aspects in mind we at Inventa Technologies have designed latest generation Online Project Management Software Tool which increases the effectiveness of your work and the happiness of your clients by making the work flow fully transparent to them. You can purchase the software and host it yourself, or subscribe for a monthly fee and let us take care of everything. Either way, we’ll provide industry leading support if you need it and will continue to add great new Project Management System features like:

1. Easy Project Management

2. Multiple User Management

3. Create Multiple Projects and Tasks

4. Security and Access Rights

5. Files Upload

6. Calendar

7. Contacts

Conclusion: Project Management Software is a Web Based Tool which helps to create Multiple Projects and Multiple Tasks quickly and intuitively. Online Project Management Software is suitable for individuals as well as for businesses who want an uncomplicated and effective IT Project Management Tool.

What to Do Next… If you have any queries regarding the above information or looking for a Project Management Software please contact us at Enquiry@InventaTech.co.uk or visit us on www.inventatech.co.uk

Inventa Technologies provides valuable information on Project Management Software, Web Based IT Project Management & Task Tracking Software System Tool, and designed to help organizations collaborate and Manage Client Information, Multiple Projects and Multiple Tasks, Files, Contacts and Calendars.

http://www.inventatech.co.uk/project-management-software.php

About the Author

InventaTech offers Web Based IT Project Management System & Task Tracking Software Tool London (UK) which increases the effectiveness of your work and the happiness of your clients. with Project Management System you can manage Multiple Projects and Tasks Online.

Redmine Hosting

john — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:22:22 +0000

Hot on the tails of our Radiant CMS hosting announcement, I’m also pleased to announce support and hosting options for the Redmine project management tool. We provide Redmine hosting and customization services.

Please contact us to learn more.

Radiant CMS Hosting

Five Key Features of Project Management Software

john — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:12:14 +0000

Success of your business today depends on a variety of factors, and having very good management project software may well be one of them. That is because competition is fierce, and time and resource management is a very important issue. Companies need to find a very good balance between getting the projects done and getting them done with as small amount of resources as possible.

Editor’s Note: readers are encouraged to learn more about ServiceCycle web based project management software after reading this article

And this is management project software comes into place. It is like financial consultant and a professional bookkeeper all into one single package. It has the ability to keep all important notes into one place and to keep track of all the projects and their status. It is also a good “adviser” for every possible employee, from the general manager to all the workers.

And don’t think that managing projects is easy. It is very difficult and, in fact, it often is what separates the best in their branch from everybody else. Professional management is what makes a business strong, and keeping track of everything from the smallest tasks up to the most complicated issues is an art. And this is, among other things, what management project software should excel at.

So what are the things you need to look for in management project software which will help you make an educated choice when buying one? Besides covering all your project’s needs, simple interface and intuitive printed reports, your new acquisition should meet the following criteria:

Features: In this category you need to look for task and resource management capabilities and the ability to match resources to specific projects; Ease of Use: Although project management software is a potentially complicated piece of soft, it should however be easy to use and intuitive. Beauty lies in simplicity, and combining numerous features with the possibility to use them easily is a very important issue;

Ease of Installation: the software you purchase may also be web-based. However, this doesn’t really matter, because it should definitely be easy to install;

Support: The “manual” should be comprehensive. It should contain and effectively explain all the software’s features. Also, there should also be contact details, like telephone number and e-mail, where you can find the help desk;

Project Management: This is one of the basic features, as this is what the software should really excel at. Organizing and managing project, resources, budgeting, evaluating and prioritizing should all be done with the interest of the organization in mind;

Now this is a basic walkthrough of what you should look for in management software. Of course, you know best what your company needs and it’s priorities are. However, professional management must always be considered an important issue and each company owner should strive to attain a high level of professionalism. And with the help of management project software, you might end up doing just that.

About the Author

Software enhances project management and completion
Project management.
http://www.projectmanagementfree.com
Conserve time and money with an online management system
Online management system

Why MS Project Sucks for Software Development?

john — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:56:51 +0000

- How is the project going?
– Fine.
[translated] We don’t know what we are doing at the moment and are a little confused because our key clients changed the requirements yesterday. But, don’t panic. Last time we got a requirements change we managed to drop off some other requirements so we seemed to be back on track. [...] To summarize, no one has gone crazy yet and we are pretty confident that we’ll all survive … so go away.

Part I. So What’s Wrong With MS Project?

Microsoft Project is a leading software on project management market. And almost all PM’s over the world use MS Project to create plans and track progress. I used MS Project with various successes during three years, but I quit. It is just sucks. Maybe you think I “don’t get it”, but that’s not true. I know how to level resources, create resource pool, analyze Critical Path and track progress over baseline. I even know about Earned Value technique. To be honest, MS Project is quite easy to use and very powerful, but it isn’t designed for software development. More precise, almost all business assumptions that lie under MS Project do not work for software development.

ProblemsWhat reasons did you hear against MS Project? Here are some of them:

“Things change very often and I spent too much time on re-planning everything. I am feeling like wasting my time”
“I use MS Project, but my team doesn’t. So no one but me see the plan. They don’t “feel” project schedule”.
“Did you see Gantt chart for large or medium project? With more than 500 tasks and with tasks as “Bug fixing” – 34d? They are so damned complex!”
“Oh, it seems I never learn all that features. MS Project is a huge thing, I think I should read really heavy book to get it”
“I won’t update real progress manually! It is a crap!”.

All complains could be divided on three problematic areas.

Desktop application
Complexity
Waterfall as a natural methodology

MS Project based on WaterfallWaterfall maybe the main disease in MS Project. MS Project fully focused on Waterfall model in all parts. It teaches newbie project managers how to create complete plans up front. It does not mention other approaches anywhere in tutorial or help. Books about MS Project do not mention anything but Waterfall. In fact they did not mention “Waterfall” term as well, but all the details direct to it. As a result, almost all software project mangers start from Waterfall. In general, it is the same as trying to win a motograndprix on a bicycle.

Reason 1: Wrong process. Waterfall is a bad process for most software projects. MS Projects based on Waterfall approach, so it is bad for software projects as well.

MS Project is Desktop ApplicationWaterfall is not the only reason against MS Project. This tool makes plans almost invisible for team. You likely will not print out the plan on large sheet of paper and put it on the wall. In most cases team doesn’t see the horizon, but only some assigned tasks. But even if you will print the plan, things won’t change, since nobody will understand that big and complex Gantt chart. Plan invisibility impedances people involvement into project.

And you should do your best to integrate MS Project with any kind of time tracking software. Otherwise you will get stuck on actual effort measurement

Reason 2: Wrong platform. It is very hard to track real progress in MS Project on a daily basis. Only PM can work with project plan.

MS Project is not IntegratedWell, this is not an obvious concern. How many tools you as PM have to deal with to get all important information about project state? Project planning tool for sure (MS Project). What’s next? Bug tracking tool to get some metrics about project quality (Bugzilla). Test Case management tool (usually Excel) to know how many tests already passed and what the real problematic areas are. Automated risk management tool is a blue dream for most of us. Often we use MS Word or Excel for risk management, which is not very convenient. Requirements management tool (RequisitePro).

Now it is easier to see the real problem. We have a bunch of separate tools. We spend much time to get real project state. We want something integrated and easy to use. I personally want to get all required stats with several mouse clicks. I am sure such tools will appear in near future. And I don’t see how MS Project may stands on this way.

Reason 3: Isolated tool. It is not integrated with all other software product management tools.

Hummer and Warm WaxLet’s take an average software project with full plan created up-front. It appeast that it is hard to support project plan in actual state using MS Project. It is hard to reflect real progress. But why? MS Project is great software, it should be easy. And it is easy in many cases, but not in software development. MS Project is useful when:

Project is very small (a month or two). But in this case maybe it is not required. Use Excel, make simple features list with estimates and that is it.
Project is very large and requires high-level plan. You may create very good project plan for Bridge building, Airplane or Space Shuttle construction. PERT is great in this case and project plan reflects phases, not tasks.

But most software projects have specifics:

Average project duration is several months
They change a lot and require fine-grained plans (”This feature will be implemented by two people. Joe will create GUI screen within 1d and Matt will program controller within 2d”).
As a result, it is very hard to keep fine-grained plan in actual state for medium and large projects for WHOLE project life-cycle (the keyword is WHOLE of course).

No matter what tool you are trying to use. Most managers and executives improperly think that Waterfall requires such detailed plan somewhere in the beginning. Waterfall is not the best way for software development, but incorrectly understood and implemented it becomes a real pain in the neck.

You may say that MS Project is just a tool and all I wrote above do not directly depend on MS Project, but on methodology and process. I partially agree, but, once again, MS Project was not designed to support anything but Waterfall or its modifications. It is used for Waterfall and not so many people tried to use it for something else. MS Project + Waterfall = Hummer, but software development in most cases is not a nail, it is a warm wax. You can’t make anything but a flat from wax using a hummer.

As you see, there are plenty more reasons to find a better way. Let’s step back and look at another process.

Iterative Development

If we can’t have fine-grained plan for whole medium/large software project, let’s split it on chunks and create fine-grained plan for each chunk when it will be necessary. This idea is not new and called Iterative Development. Whole project splitted on iterations (exact iteration duration depends on many factors, but usually it varies from 1 week to 3 months) and iteration planned just before start.

This may sound astonishing for some executives. “So we don’t know project end date??? We don’t have a plan??? Our customers will not deal with our company! What the hell you are talking me?” How can anyone answer these questions? There are two ways to go.

On the first road there is no exact project end date and this road called Customer Satisfaction. You respect them, trust them and produce software they want. Feature by feature, iteration by iteration. Exact date of final release is not required since customer knows that you’ll implement as many features as possible based on defined priorities. It is real trust and it is quite rare.

On another road there are many signs with a big red “Deadline” in the end. While everyone wants to be on Customer Satisfaction road, most of us are on Deadline road in fact. This is a real world and, while we changing it, we have to drive some projects on this road. Can we apply iterative development? Yes, but with some restrictions, since there is less trust between developer and customer. Customer expects a fancy project plan, so we will create one, but low-grained. MS Project is good for low-grained plans. The plan will contain project phases and major milestones and, of course, it will contain end date. If customer asks why there are no tasks, you answer that you don’t like micro-management and fine-grained plan will be developed later. In fact, customer doesn’t care about exact plan, it does care about delivery dates and you’ve already provided them. Then you may break down each release on iterations and follow first road.

Some off topic. The other trick is to leave project/release scope flexible and this is really hard to achieve. It is harder than make a sculpture from warm wax with a hummer. If customer insists that he should get these features till that date without any deviations – you are in trouble. All you may vary in this case are people and process. And often you can’t vary people as well. So the process becomes a single life-saver for you and your team. While it is powerful life-saver, it may not help. Once again, do your best to leave scope or date flexible and focus on Business Value whenever it possible. If not, use iterative development anyway and try to release something useful as early as possible. Maybe customer will appreciate your effort, trust you and you slowly turn to Customer Satisfaction road.

“OK, we may use MS Project for low-grained plans. But what should we use for fine-grained plans?”

I can’t point Best-of-the-Best solution, but some important things that your tool of choice should do:

Fine-grained plan for iteration should be visible and understandable for all developers without any restrictions
Person who performs a task should track time spent on the task. PM shouldn’t ask everyone how many times he/she spent on this and that.
Plan should be easy-to-change (no dependencies, easy re-allocation)
Iteration status should be visible for all (and preferably tracked automatically)
Iterative planning should be supported by the tool

In short, the tool should be opposite to MS Project, it should be strong in those areas where MS Project becomes frustrating.

Stop! I Can Plan Iterations in MS Project!

Yes, go ahead and try. You’ll quickly discover how it is useful for iterative development and how it is designed for iterative development.

I’ve planed iterations in MS Project for several projects and it somewhat worked, but this method lacks visibility. Developers don’t see plan and don’t see progress. You should update actual effort manually and assign tasks using Outlook.

How many features in MS Project you will use for Iterative Development? Gantt Chart, Resources and Tasks. That’s it. Tasks will be independent, so critical path is useless and Gantt chart is not very helpful. Leveling… OK, sometimes it helps, but in most cases conflicts may be resolved very easily for one iteration. Reports? Useless in most cases, but you may need something for executives. It appears, that MS Project is too complex and don’t bring enough value to justify its usage in iterative planning.

On the other hand, there are many features that you’d better have for iterative planning:

Product/Release backlog. The main issue. If you use MS Project, you will have to store backlog in Excel or somewhere else and copy/paste features when required.
Integrated time tracking. May be resolved programmatically and with help of MS Project Server, but this is an additional effort and MSP Server used not so often.
Work remaining tracking. This practice is very useful to know actual iteration state. Can be resolved the same way as previous item.
Iteration velocity concept. If you create an iteration in MS Project, Effort will be Iteration Velocity in fact. But you don’t have clear velocity progress picture

So you really may plan iterations in MS Project, but it will be not so simple and natural. MS Project just will not help you much.

Editor’s Note: I have not tried the author’s product for agile software project management, but I understand the value proposition. If you are ready to leave MS Project, you might wish to consider ServiceCycle MGMT project management hosting as well.

About the Author

TargetProcess is a tool for agile software project management.
http://www.targetprocess.com