Decision Making… What’s The Big Deal?

One of the most important tasks a project manager faces on a daily basis is decision making. Project managers are to make all kinds of decisions ranging in importance and priority levels. So as an efficient and professional project manager, how are you supposed to make the best decision that could ultimately impact a coworker, a customer, or a product? Here are some ways that project managers can make the best decisions by using accurate data.

As a project manager you probably already use tools such as spreadsheets, project programs, or even online web based tools to keep track of projects currently in the pipeline, budgets, tasks, etc. It is also most likely that on a weekly or maybe even daily basis, you run reports, check figures, and follow up on tasks and assignments as necessary. This is a great way to keep tabs on projects at their various stages and to see the overall project process moving.

By keeping records and notes, whether manually or digitally, it is safe to analyze this data and make informed decisions based on this. For example, speaking from a product development perspective, if a team member phones or emails you and expresses concern for a particular customer who may want to change the specifications of his or her product halfway through the project cycle, what are some of the implications that go along with this? How will this impact the schedule? How will this impact the budget? These are things that need to be addressed before getting back to the customer with a firm proposal.

This is your chance to sit down, maybe even discuss the details with the particular team member, and analyze where the project currently is in the life cycle, how much room in the schedule is needed to make the changes, if it will impact delivery and manufacturing time, and how much extra costs will need to be configured into the big picture. By analyzing these reports you are able to make a good decision based on the data provided.

Another way to use accurate data in making decisions is on the front end of the projects. How many projects are in the pipeline? When are they expected to come in? When are they expected to turnover? Are there enough resources to accommodate this? By running reports and keeping records of phone calls or emails from sales representatives or direct customers establishing leads, it is easy to recognize how many projects are expected to hit the office at a certain time. By analyzing this, you can see if you have enough resources to manage the work load. If you’ve established that the amount of resources is going to be an issue, then by analyzing reports and data, you’ve just made the decision that you may need to hire resources or initiate schedule changes among staff and team members in order to accommodate larger work loads.

These are just a few examples of what a project manager faces on a daily basis. Again, decisions can range from different priority and importance levels depending on the project or maybe even the customer. All in all, making decisions is always crucial. One particular decision, which may seem unimportant, could very well endanger the quality of a customer’s product, which could jeopardize your relationship with that customer. However, by using and practicing an organized and effective track system, it is easier to analyze project data and make effective decisions based upon this data.

“The Critical Path is Not Critical”

The complexity of today’s projects often requires robust project management software and technology in order to effectively track all the moving parts of your business. With so many differing stakeholders there is often a disconnect between who is beholden to the critical path and how it works.

The shortest description is that the critical path is all about timing, it’s about finding the most bottle-necked areas of your project and exploiting them for the most efficient project completion. It’s almost always about the timing of your project.

There will be detractors who, without understanding this principle, may well attempt to derail a project, many times unknowingly. They may feel the critical path is not the “technical” path, the most difficult path or the path that is critical to their particular function as a stakeholder in the project. While each of these could be an individual’s concern going into the project, there must be wholehearted understanding that the critical path is all about the timing. Ignoring it is simply another way of expanding your expenses via costly time-consuming projects where project managers go rouge at the expense of the organization. Believe me, this is not a good place to be.

Project Equals Strategy

Many organizations forget that projects are all about implementation of an idea. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but it’s the execution of the strategy and the ideas which separate the dreamers from all else. Too often corporations, whether they are implementing an IT project or not, completely ignore the need for proper project planning prior to implementation of their idea.

For many projects, successful strategy is measured by timing and timing is never executed without a proper project plan. Unfortunately, many organizations fail to meet project deadlines regularly, doing so outside the realm of today’s project software opportunities. For those who understand the overall corporate strategy, and whose projects are necessarily aligned, missing deadlines should be treated as a disastrous failure. In some cases, project managers are too focused on minimizing the negative, instead of looking to maximize the strategy and plan for the positive. It some ways, it’s a bit like the glass is half empty/half full scenario.

Here are some key reasons why proper project timing is essential for executing on strategy:

• Competition kills. If your competitors are faster than you and on par, then you are toast. If they are faster and better, it’s project suicide.
• First-mover advantage. While many strategists argue there is often little value in being the first mover (in some cases it can work to your detriment), it is still helpful to execute quickly and then shift strategy, then to fail to execute over and over again. Think of what a difference a year could make on a patent being released. It could mean the difference in huge coin.
• Shorter schedules reduce cost and increase turnover. Why do players like Wal-Mart and Amazon win? They focus on providing low costs to the customer with rapid inventory turnover. The longer you wait to turnover your project, regardless of the project’s type, you are wasting time. Time is money.

So the next time you look at the “critical path” on some Gantt chart within your organization, remember that timing is just about everything when it comes to project planning and implementation. And timing is almost always about strategy and execution.

Stakeholder Management Processes and Pointers

When it comes to projects, there will always be those who’re more invested, excited and prepared than others. Regardless of your situation, some of the greatest assets and liabilities which will be evident throughout your project will be the other stakeholders involved. Management of these personnel will either make or break the project with which you will be involved.

Stakeholder management involves several key components many of which often come naturally in any business or project decision. However, the mapping of processes–like what occurs in nearly any project–will help to clarify the who, what when, where, why and how of the project so as to ensure more rapid success.

Identify and Connect

Finding the stakeholders is very difficult, but you’ll almost never be able to find that for which you are unaware. Mapping out your stakeholders includes time for identifying those who’ll be most desperately needed for your project. Sometimes those involves will seem to have little involvement at the outset, but their decisions will have lasting effects down the road.

Once you have identified key management and input personnel, it is essential that such individuals are not only contacted but brought in for initial discussions and preparation for the project. During this project planning process, you may find some individuals will become frustrated or even annoyed, but understanding who each stakeholder is and what they bring to the table along with where they fit in the value chain will be of utmost importance. In many cases, it helps to identify who the emergency contact is during critical moments through the project timeline. If nothing else, this gives you a pulse on who to call when something goes wrong, for things certainly will.

Mapping

Project mapping can often be treated lightly, but once you have key stakeholders in place, a lack of mapping can take key individuals off track from the original goal. Creating and informing key individuals of your project’s map will be extremely helpful for ensuring the project goes off without a hitch.

Monitoring and Review

When progress is measured, it improves. When progress is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement increases.

Feedback for each stakeholder not only allows for improvement, but also gives a way for you as the manager to see where holes may occur in your current processes. While monitoring and project review can often seem mundane and sometimes progress is slow, not doing so ensures that almost nothing will be done to improve or change over the course of time.

Your projects may prove difficult, but ignoring the stakeholders could be the most detrimental toward the success of your endeavor. Get them involved early and often and keep them in the loop for key milestones. You’ll be glad you did.

5pm Project Management

5pm Review

Pros	Cons
iPhone App	Loading screens generally take longer than most alternatives
Incredible user interface
Very easy to learn and use
Provides an API for developers

5pm is highly user friendly online project management and collaboration system. Unlike many alternative systems, 5pm has constructed and designed their system in such a way that project managers can teach themselves how to use the system without having to constantly refer back to the help section in order to discover how certain functions or processes work. That being said, even seasoned project managers (both with project management in general and also the system) find the system incredibly functional and agree that 5pm is straight to the point. It does not contain any unnecessary clutter that would slow project managers and users down, and has knuckled down and fine-tuned the functions it supports in such a way that they are incredibly intuitive and useful for managing.

(Above) 5pm Main Screen

User Interface

5pm sports a very impressive user interface. The design is fantastic and makes it extremely intuitive to use due to the clever placing of the elements on the screen. As a result of this, each section and function of the system is clearly defined and no time is wasted searching for the right area. We have decided on 5 stars for the 5pm user interface due to the fact that there are no design flaws – the interface supports the system perfectly. Color coding and highlighting, record highlighting, and many more user interface features come together to prove that 5pm has one of the best and most functional user interfaces that exist.

Features 

 

(Above) Viewing files within a project

(Above) Viewing the activity log for a project

Activity Log

Like many online project management systems, 5pm features an activity log which displays collaboration and file sharing between users. The aesthetically pleasing user interface makes this a very positive experience. As seen in the screenshot below, it is very simple to add something to the activity log. Additionally, you can attach files, hide the message from clients, and notify (via email) both team members and external sources that the message was posted. The system also allows adding files, progress notes, files from Google Docs, and maps from SpiderScribe.

(Above) Adding a message to the activity log

Interactive Timeline

The timeline is fully interactive and allows users to drag and drop in order to reschedule. Additionally, it provides filtering support to display by project, by user type, and by group. Furthermore, like all good timelines, the timeline supports the following views:

-          Daily View Wide

-          Daily View

-          Weekly View

-          Monthly View

This aids project managers to both be able to see the intricacies of day to day tasks, and also gain a solid and meaningful understanding of the current state of the project over an entire week or month. 5pm’s timeline also allows users to “unfold” projects on the timeline, displaying each task within the project.

(Above) Timeline

5pm API

The fact that 5pm has provided an API for developers is extremely beneficial and is considered a strong selling point due to the fact that companies using the system are able to use the API to integrate 5pm into their own systems, thus increasing the overall effectiveness of the system. Particular companies may have special requirements and processes that they must follow when managing projects and the API can assist with that. Developers can use the API to fine tune and customize how they actually manage projects. See the below screenshot for a list of web services that 5pm provides.

(Above) Functions within the 5pm API

Performance

The performance of 5pm is of slight concern. Many transitions and functions within the system have a loading bar which from our testing could take up for 4 seconds to load. While this may seem insignificant, when it is compared to other online project management and collaboration tools, the wait time is quite high (as some others have as low as less than 1 second). However, this performance issue is largely to do with the fact that the user interface is extremely robust, more so than most online project management systems and we found that all the other positive aspects of 5pm far outweigh the fact that it can be slow at times.

(Above) 5pm can take a few moments to load at times

Ease of Use

In regards to ease of use, 5pm has definitely got it right. From the first moment you log in, it is clear to see where all the functions are, and provides a meaningful overlook of each project in the system. For example, to see the activity log for a project, detailing all the latest information, simply click on the project and the activity log will be displayed in the right hand pane. Similarly, to see a complete list of files within a project, simply select the project and then click the [Files] tab. These little things promote the idea that 5pm is indeed an easy system to use.

Summary

Overall, 5pm is highly recommended. Not only does it provide a memorable user interface, the functions it presents are well written and thought out and can aid a project manager to effectively manage. The system is near flawless, but it would be beneficial for the system to work on the performance and page loads. Additionally, more options and fine tuning for reporting and people management would be constructive, as currently while the functions work, there is nothing in particular that stands out against competitors. As for the scheduling and time management of projects, 5pm definitely knows what they are doing and we found the interactive Gantt chart to be highly useful and functional.

Basecamp Project Management

Basecamp Review

Pros	Cons
Easy to use	Calendar slightly sluggish at times
Plethora of functions and features	Nothing groundbreaking in regards to planning the project for the future. While the calendar is useful, it leaves room for something more.
Excellent for seeing projects as a whole and also the details of each item within
Simple navigation

Basecamp is a simple to use yet highly functional project management system. While it does not have as many features as some alternatives, the features that it does provide are simple to use, whilst being versatile. Basecamp allows project managers and users to create projects, assign users, create calendars, to do lists, and allows for users to catch up on previous project history that they may have missed out on while away.

User Interface

The user interface is extremely friendly and easy on the eyes. Due to the fact that project management can be quite complex due to the vast array of tools and sections in most project management software, Basecamp provides an interface that is not only simple to use, but very responsive too (in most parts of the system). It is made clear to the user what the software is currently doing, and also keeps the user aware of their place within the structure of the system. Adding, editing, and deleting new notes, to do lists, projects, and users is so simple that project managers will be able to do this with ease.

Features

Calendar

Basecamp is proud to say that they have one of the easiest to use calendars around. They are not wrong – this calendar provides substantial functionality, allowing the user to add to do’s, reschedule, and even provides support for multiple calendars. The only downside to the calendar is due to the fact unlike the rest of the system; the response rate of the user interface can be a little sluggish at times.

Paper System

One of the most prominent features of Basecamp is built right into the interface. As seen in the screenshot, you can actually flick between various aspects of a project like a physical folder or set of papers. This is not only aesthetically pleasing, but provides substantial navigational power for all users.

Inviting people and/or entire departments

Basecamp makes it extremely easy to invite and remove people or entire departments from a project. It offers an interface with the means to add people using either their name or their e-mail address. To add a person by name, they must already be in the system and/or must be assigned to a different project already. It even goes a step further and offers the ability to auto-complete names so that the person inviting others does not have to type the full name.

People Pages

All project managers should know exactly what each person’s tasks are and their current progress within each task. While having this ability is effective for tracking each person’s work, it is also important to be able to identify which people have room for additional tasks to be assigned to them. This will allow project managers to effectively manage resources by assigning tasks to the appropriate resources with the aim of delegating work packages and tasks to the right people. Basecamps answer to this is “People Pages” and they detail exactly what each person has been doing in regards to the project, and also it provides the ability to display all current and past “To-Do” listings.

Catch Up

Have you ever been away from the office or without internet access for hours, days, or weeks? Basecamp’s Catch Up feature allows users to view history on projects, day by day. It displays all the to-dos that were done on that day, discussions that were made on the project, and even shows which people contributed to a project on any given day. Given Basecamp’s extremely easy to use interface, this is an invaluable feature to catch up on the project if you have been absent.

Performance

For a comprehensive web based system, Basecamp is surprisingly responsive and fast. Almost all aspects of the site load almost instantly, including the search function. The system loads and performs transitions as if it were a desktop program for the most part, however, as previously mentioned, the calendar can be slightly sluggish at times, but this does not really detract from the overall experience.

Ease of Use

For a system with a healthy amount of features, Basecamp is extremely intuitive and easy to use. It is a stress-free environment and facilitates the user in whatever they are trying to do. No longer will you have to refer to the manual for every scenario – at least not with Basecamp. The system presents itself in such a way that even a novice user is able to navigate and utilize the interface and the features it contains.

Summary

Ultimately, Basecamp is a complete solution and is extremely easy to use and has robust functionality. While some alternatives offer even more features, Basecamp certainly gets the job done professionally, without cluttering the user interface with too many features. While there are no serious flaws to this software, a team or a project manager still must determine if Basecamp is an appropriate system for their actual needs for the project. While the software seems near perfect on paper, it is important to also review alternatives in order to decide which project management software is best for your project(s).

Celoxis Project Management

Celoxis Review

Pros	Cons
Pleasing interface	None
More functions than most alternatives
Quick to become proficient at using the system
Amazing reporting capabilities

Celoxis is a smart choice for project managers who want to really get in depth with their projects. The system provides more features than almost every other alternative, and these features are implemented fantastically. From task creation, to expense tracking, to workflow creation, to reporting, Celoxis has it all.

 

User Interface

The user interface is near perfect in terms of its organization and also the fact that it displays all needed tools, and sections in a single place. The clever use of drop down menus aids project managers and users to be able to navigate with ease, and the color scheme helps break up the layout to make it more understanding. After loading Celoxis, the dashboard is shown, providing a meaningful overlook to the project and current tasks.

Features

Schedule Status

Schedule Status consists of a small graph that is present on the Dashboard and provides a quick overview of the status of tasks within the project. It is a useful project management feature in regards to ensuring that tasks that are at risk of becoming overdue, or that are already overdue, are attended to with priority, whether it means assigning additional hours/resources to the task, or by refining its requirements and seeing if the task can be further broken down so that sub sections of this task can be completed as soon as possible in the event that there are sub-sections within the task that are currently unable to be completed that are preventing the task as a whole to be marked as complete.

Workflows

All well structured projects should have workflows for many of the processes to ensure that things are done in a standardized and controlled manner. Celoxis promotes this by offering a tool to create and edit workflows. It does not require any sort of graphical knowledge, and a user or project manager can create these workflows by using the user interface to select and specify each level of the workflow.

Expense Tracking

Every successful project must keep track of expenses to ensure that the project is staying on budget and there will be sufficient financial resources to complete the project. Without expense tracking, projects can be delayed, or even worse, fail completely.

Celoxis provides expense tracking and allows users and project managers to associate costs with tasks within projects. This is also simple to do:

-          Click [Expenses] -> [Add Expense]

-          Select the Project and Task

-          Enter the summary for the expense

-          Click [Add Line Item]. This will allow you to specify the expense in greater detail with the ability to enter a category, description, amount, date, and more.

As you can see from the above instructions, expense tracking is incredibly easy in Celoxis and adds to the ever increasing stack of reasons to consider Celoxis.

Reports

Celoxis has an extremely functional reporting system and allows for maximum customization, including the ability to create custom reports and specify who will be able to view them. In addition to this, reports can be downloaded as HTML and CSV, and also added to the Dashboard.

Creating custom reports is simple and intuitive process. Reports can be created on a variety of project elements, including tasks, process, time entry, expense, task update, assignment, document, activity log, discussion, and the entire project. When creating a report, filters can be added to these reports to further refine and specify exactly which data you wish to report on, and also supports the ability to display charts and graphs, which can be handy when users, project managers and executives require quick overviews of the current state of the project or particular elements of it.

Performance

The speed of Celoxis is another prominent strong point. Transitions between sections and page loads are quite quick and leave nothing to be desired. It was tested on multiple computers and internet connections in order to gain more of an idea as to its performance, and it performed well on all tests. Even on the slowest computer and internet connection, pages and sections load almost instantaneously.

Ease of Use

This system is quite easy to use. Once getting over the initial hump of learning where everything is and understanding the vast array of options and specifications, it was found that using Celoxis is actually quite easy. First time users may be overwhelmed by the abundance of options, due to the fact that there is so much detail within almost every tool and feature in the system. However, the learning curve is not very steep, and first time users will soon become experienced as the system is designed in such a way that it is very easy to learn. Ensure to take a look at the help section, as it provides detailed instructions for all the system’s functions, and also has many accompanying videos to explain even further.

Overall

In a nutshell, Celoxis is absolutely fantastic. It provides everything a project manager needs, and the reporting system is phenomenal. For project managers and executives who love reports, Celoxis is going to be one of the best choices as an online project management and collaboration tool, due to the plethora of options and customization that the system supports. There are no significant faults with this system, and as a result of extensive testing, it is evident that it is smart choice.