The general features of a project management software include scheduling, costing, budgeting, controlling, management and communication. However an important function of any project management solution is resource management. This covers all types of resources including human, equipment, materials and costs.

Nowadays businesses can work efficiently only by managing resources. With materials and costs things are pretty easy: you buy a stock and it is yours. Human resource management is not the same. You can not just own a human resource, but need to retain one. With the help of a resource management software, project managers can make sure that the right human resources are working on the right tasks and following a real-time project timeline. This is achieved based on several factors like employee’s skills, experience, and availability.

Resource planning software – must have features

In today’s global economy, when projects are spread across multiple regions or even countries it only makes sense that the right resources should make up a project team, regardless of their physical location. Even more project managers need to have powerful project planning tools capable of managing multiple projects with shared resources. At any moment in time they need to view resource availability and utilization even across multiple projects.

Tracking the time and costs using Time Sheets or Resource Sheets is one of the best solution. These tools contain data (total, actual, remaining, standard, overtime) related to the work and cost of the resources and their assignments. The data can be seen as totals or time distributed. As the project evolves the actual data represents the work/cost already consumed for the completed part of the project. The remaining data refers to the values needed for the remaining part of the project:

• Assigned – the planned work resulted from assignments
• Available – the unassigned work that can be done by resources according to their calendar
• Capacity – the total work (assigned + available) that can be done by resources according to their calendar
• Actual – the work already performed according to the completed part of the project
• Remaining – the work to be performed to complete the unfinished part of the project
• Standard – the work paid at standard rate (planned in the working hours of the resource)
• Overtime – the work paid at overtime rate (planned beyond the regular working hours of the resource)
• Overallocated – the work which can not be physically performed

An important feature that a resource planning software must have is the ability to handle multiple working calendars for different shifts and holidays. The capability to manage leaves, holidays, planned, unplanned work is necessary in relation to overtime work. It is a well known fact that overtime rates are always higher than standard ones and these should be avoided as much as possible in any project in order to not increase the costs and to fit in the estimated budget.

The possibility to have a time distributed sheet with different timescales is a big bonus. Sometimes it is needed to manage resource bookings in hours, days or even minutes. A flexible and dynamic timescale would do the trick. The system should also be very user friendly and easy to learn, allowing users to handle functionality with a minimum number of clicks.

An powerful resource management software can keep the overtime costs of a project as low as possible and thus can make the project management process more effective and finish the project on time and within budget.

The post How To Best Manage Resources In A Project appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

However, the new rapid pace of development can quickly overwhelm your entire company and disrupt your growth if it isn’t handled right.

But don’t worry. If you’re a startup project manager, this article has you covered.

Here are 3 pro tips that will help you improve the project management of your fast-growing startup.

Invest in Powerful Project Management Software

If you’re going to take on more complex projects, you will need the right project management software to help lead your team.

As projects grow, you’ll find yourself having to coordinate a growing staff, answer more client queries and complete more demanding tasks.

It can be quite the leap for a small-staff startup with just a handful of projects to keep in the air.

Once you’ve passed a certain threshold, a basic version of project management software simply can’t accommodate the growing needs of your projects anymore. This is especially crucial as you seek to find a CTO for the startup, someone who can strategically guide your technology initiatives and ensure that the software solutions align with your evolving business requirements.

PMI did a global project management survey in 2019 and found that businesses which use project management technologies waste only 8.5% of resources, compared to 16.3% of companies without project management solutions.

In other words, companies with project management software waste almost twice as few resources as companies that don’t use such solutions.

There are many project management tools available nowadays. Airtable, Asana, and Trello are just some of the tools you can look into but they all have different strengths and weaknesses so spend some time finding the one that works for you.

Here are some questions you should ask yourself before choosing one:

• Is the admin panel easy to use and intuitive?
• Can I easily add new users to my existing project?
• How does the pricing scale with an increased number of users?

But, of course, project management software is only as good as the quality of the input data so let’s talk about the metrics…

Define Your Key Project Management Metrics

Startup businesses have to define their key metrics accurately if they want to deliver successful projects.

A metric is a quantifiable unit that enables you to track a specific process. Look at project management metrics as critical success factors you need to work on for your startup to get to where you want it to be.

Metrics identify the pain points in your operations and guide your decisions towards fixing them and consequently achieving business growth.

For instance, a report by DecisionWise found that 53% of surveyed companies track employee engagement as a critical metric. Employee engagement has a significant impact on their overall performance and, therefore, on the company’s success and growth.

Without defining your key metrics, you’re not making data-backed decisions but trusting your gut instinct instead. And instincts can be wrong.

So, how do you define the key metrics for your projects?

You can start by asking yourself what determines the success of your project management process and how can you measure it?

Here are two staple examples of team management metrics that startups pay close attention to.

Employee Satisfaction Score

Since your employees are critical to the success of your project management and the growth of your startup, tracking their satisfaction is a must.

In a fast-growing environment, it’s easy for employees to feel dissatisfied and out of place.

You can measure their satisfaction by running anonymous surveys after every project, and calculate the employee satisfaction score using this formula:

ESS = (Total Survey Points / The Number of Questions) * 100

The survey should ask employees to score survey points so that you get a number to work with.

Insight into how happy your employees are will allow you to make the necessary steps towards improvement.

Churn Rate

Your churn rate is a metric that reveals how many customers stop using your product in a specific period. It is calculated in two different ways: annually and monthly.

Your churn will fluctuate monthly, reflecting your team’s day-to-day efforts in retaining customers, whereas your annual churn rates will give you an overview of long-term trends that those efforts resulted in.

That’s why both rates are essential.

Churn Rate = (Leaving Users / Total Number of Users) * 100

Let’s say you had 1000 users, and 20 of them stopped using your software at the end of the month. Your monthly churn rate would be 2%.

You can then calculate your annual churn rate by dividing the number of churned users by the total number of your users at the start of the period.

So if you have 5000 users and 300 users have left your service, your annual churn rate would be 6%.

Plan Ahead

A successful project manager always plans ahead.

When startups are going through rapid growth, it’s wise to plan for the upcoming stages so you can make the most of your momentum.

By mapping out your next steps, you can prepare your team for the road ahead.

With a structured plan, you won’t be thwarted by unpredictable challenges that might arise as you work towards your goals.

According to data by the National Business Capital, 50% of startups in the US shut down within the first 5 years of their launch.

The same research found that 70% of startups are likely to fail by their 10th year of business.

However, effectiveplanning reduces business risks significantly. You can assess which circumstances pose the greatest threat to your business and take minimal calculated risks. You can also create contingencies in case something goes wrong.

Here are the basic steps you need to take when devising a plan.

Assess which are the greatest risks for your startup. Knowing what can decimate your growth will help you keep clear of any dangers and impact your project management decisions. 

For example, running out of funds is the main reason most startups fail, according to research. If a business move poses too significant a risk, you would be wise not to rush.

Set schedules for your project management. If you’re doing your job right, your startup can attract a barrage of new inquiries, assignments, and projects in a relatively short period of time.

By properly scheduling all your activities, you can remain organized even as you experience rapid growth.

Introduce flexibility in your planning. Startups adjust their plans towards meeting a sales goal. If they fail to do so, they risk failure. With flexibility, you don’t have to re-write your plan if something unexpected goes wrong.

Conclusion

Taking on the project manager role in startups is challenging. The project dynamics are constantly changing, and you can’t afford to make big mistakes.

However, even rapid growth is nothing you can’t handle if you stick to these tips.

When you build the right project management infrastructure, define and track your key metrics and plan for future challenges, you will always be one step ahead.

—

Lisa Michaels is a freelance writer, editor, and a thriving content marketing consultant from Portland. Being self-employed, she does her best to stay on top of the current trends in business and tech. Feel free to connect with her on Twitter @LisaBMichaels.

The post Project Management Tips for Fast-Growing Startups appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

Considering the fact that 14 percent of IT projects fail, project managers and their teams cannot be expected to perform all tasks efficiently and collaborate seamlessly without using a well-equipped project management and team collaboration tool.

You see, project management planning is much more than assigning tasks to people, checking the project progress, managing dependencies, controlling budget and risks.

Besides the technical aspect of project management, a competent project manager is also expected to deliver projects successfully while navigating constraints of scope, schedule, and budget.

And then, keeping all team members, clients, and external stakeholders on the same page is easier said than done.

That said, complex project management can be simplified if you use the right project management and team collaboration tool. This also applies to those scrum teams who are into agile project management.

To begin with, the tool can automate many tedious manual tasks and procedures, which improves productivity. Two, there are no misunderstandings and confusion regarding who is supposed to do what. Three, project managers can have ultimate control over teams and projects.

Now, the thing is choosing the right PM tool for your project is not as easy as randomly picking any tool out there. There are so many choices, but not all PM tools are created equal. Every tool offers a different set of features that may or may not meet your project management needs.

So,  how do you figure out which PM tool is the best fit for our team and company?

Generally, there are some crucial features in a PM tool that help you run your project smoothly, with minimum hassles.

You should not consider a PM tool if it doesn’t offer users the following “key” project management software features.

Check them out.

1.  Cloud-Based

One of the first things you should check while considering a project management tool is that it should be cloud-based and preferrably available as Software as a Service. This will make sure that all your data is stored, managed, and processed on a network of remote servers hosted on the internet, rather than on local servers or personal computers. Also, choosing a SaaS project management tool will save you from the hassle of installation and licensing fees. You can work from any computer, anytime.

2. Affordability

Your budget also plays a crucial role in determining which project management tool you would be able to invest in. Not all teams can afford to spend big, especially startups and small teams. If you have a limited budget, you should look for a PM tool that offers fixed-rate pricing plans. You can add more members to your team without worrying about incurring additional per-user fee. You only pay once and that’s it.

3. Integration With Existing Apps And Software

Some project management tools offer a broad array of functionalities including task management, intra-team communication, note-making, file management, time tracking and expense tracking. If you choose a feature-rich PM tool then you can manage all these tasks using a single software without needing to switch from tool to tool for different tasks. Also, using different tools to perform different tasks can punch a deep hole in your company’s pocket. Ensure that the project management software you choose offers integration with your existing apps to save your team’s time and help them in improving productivity.

4. Team Collaboration

What’s project management without seamless team collaboration? Nothing. As simple as that. Unless your team is not on the same page with project managers, stakeholders, and clients, it’s very difficult to ensure optimal transparency and coordination. Since many people are working remotely these days, good collaboration is the need of the hour. It is important that a project management software offers a list of collaboration features, like online discussions, group chat, file sharing, Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and more. Good collaboration is one of the vital keys to the success of your project, so choose a PM tool that takes your team collaboration to another level.

5. Simplicity

Now, you might be using a fully-loaded PM tool with all the bells and whistles, but it might be so complicated and overwhelming that it results in an increase in transition time and slows down your team rather than making things easier for them. So, make sure that the PM tool you choose has a minimal learning curve and intuitive interface. That would mean less time spent on training team members and more time utilized on working. Having simple PM software saves one of the most valuable resources– time. 

Conclusion

 Choosing the right PM tool is critical to your team’s performance and project success. As is clear, choosing the best tool might not be the best option for you as every team’s workload and projects are different. The best PM might have all the features that you do not need in the first place.

Therefore, you should first identify what are your team’s requirements and what type of projects you usually undertake. The factors listed in the article will help you choose the right PM tool that syncs well with your needs. Good luck with your project management!

The post Do You Know How To Choose The Right Project Management Tool? appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

I told her that the normal approach project managers follow is to tailor communication to the needs of the stakeholders, explaining how for some of my stakeholders I’ll create a formal report while others just get a text message.

When I tell people this, I often get the same response. But that’s so much work!

Yes. Yes, it is.

Creating bespoke communications for individual stakeholders, based on how they want to communicate is a ton of extra work for you, the project manager.

And it’s not just communication. The whole pattern of doing the work seems to fall apart because of the diversity of preferences and styles between colleagues.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for diversity. Studies show that diverse teams make better decisions. There are many known benefits from creating diverse workplaces, not least improved financial results for your business. (Don’t believe me? Read Why Women Mean Business by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland, and you’ll soon see.)

But the more work preferences there are in the team, the more busy work a project manager has to do to ensure everyone’s needs are met.

Meeting the needs of cross-generational teams

Boomers. Gen X. Millennials. Gen Z. Xennials. I didn’t even know that generation existed until last week when someone told me on Twitter they were part of the Xennial generation – the group sandwiched between Gen X and Millennials!

No one seems to know how to work together anymore. Not in a way that feels effortless and easy. My life is one constant round of tailoring to help my team do their best work.

It shouldn’t be like that. We should be able to find ways to work together, across generational and departmental divisions. We’re all in it for the same reason, after all. To deliver whatever projects help get our organizations that next step forward. Everyone can buy into that, so we need tools to help support the way we all want to work.

Work has fundamentally changed

The challenge is that the work itself has fundamentally changed. Our digital revolution has pushed more and more work online, and our organization’s customers and clients are online too. Response times are shorter than ever. Delivery dates for projects are constantly brought forward to meet competitive pressure and consumer demand.

Honestly, working like this is fun. I love blending online and offline tools to work with colleagues to deliver our strategy. It’s fast-paced. It’s interesting. But my goodness, I don’t want to be on track for burnout in a few years. We’re crying out for systems that help us do projects in a faster, slicker, more collaborative way, and juggle all the BAU stuff too.

The switch to Work Operating Systems

One of the biggest challenges I have is that I run projects, but also have non-project work. All my project team colleagues have the same issue. They act as subject matter experts and team members for other projects. They also have day job responsibilities.

It’s tough to track your personal To Do list when you’ve got three different project managers and your boss asking you for status updates.

My notebook has a To Do list page for each category of work I do, and what tends to happen is whatever page I open it at in the morning is where I spend most of that day. It doesn’t help me prioritize my workload, interact with the people who are important today or stay on top of the important tasks that I really should be doing.

But there is another way. Work operating systems like monday.com work across generations, and across the BAU/project divide. Regardless of your approach to work, tools can close the generation gap because they bring people together. A work OS lets you work the way you want to and get to know the work preferences of your colleagues. Oversight into everyone’s work provides the immediate feedback some team mates will crave, and yet provides autonomy for the team to make their own decisions. The more different generations understand each other, the more we can break down preconceptions of what it means to be a boomer or a millennial.

They help manage workflows, keep your boss in the loop, and liberate teams from mundane tasks.

They work on mobile devices, and have a virtually non-existent learning curve that means even the most tech-phobic person in the team can use them.

Work operating systems plan, run, and track everyday work as well as the things we think of as projects. So they suit teams that have hybrid responsibilities. All your stuff is in one place.

Automate routine work

Built in workflows make it easy for task handoffs, and by standardizing the way work moves through the project team, we can create repeatable processes.

I love the idea of reliable repeatability because it means I don’t have to think about the next step: the process guides me through it, every time.

If the out-of-the-box workflows don’t do it for you, a good work operating system will let you create your own. The more you can automate, the more time you can spend on the tasks where you really add value, like the face-to-face interaction with key stakeholders or customers.

Built-in tailoring

Work operating systems are different from project management tools in that they do more than simply help you plan project tasks. This is great, because even as a project manager, I have stuff to do that isn’t on my project plan, like process reviews for the PMO, ad hoc reports for my manager, mentoring other project managers and then following up, even organizing the occasional team social event.

The flexibility of a work operating system means you can tailor how you use it to the work you do. It also means that any data in the system can become part of a report. Result! We all know how much project executives love to have tailored dashboards. The more you can make it easy for everyone to see their own metrics – the things that matter to them – the fewer ad hoc requests you’ll get for project reporting.

Transparency by default

The other thing I love about the idea of work operating systems is that the transparency is there. When your team use it for everything, there is nowhere to hide. When your colleague tells you they haven’t done a project task because BAU work took precedent, you can ask them to show you… and find out what they’ve really been working on! (Note: only do this if the trust levels in your team leave something to be desired, otherwise you’ll jeopardise the working relationship you have with your colleagues by coming across as an annoying micromanager – there are quite a few generations who won’t appreciate that.)

You can easily see the outcomes of the project team’s work – and so can everyone else (within their designated security permissions, of course). This approach takes away a lot of the nervousness I sometimes see in project teams, when they think they aren’t being give the whole picture. I’m a big fan of transparency, and in a work operating system, it’s all laid out for you. Whatever metrics you track can be played back, so you get a single version of the truth at all times.

It is possible to work smarter, provide tailored solutions to the people who want them and meet the needs of a diverse project team. You just need tools that support the complexities of the modern, virtual, cross-generational workplace. Try a work operating system and put your tools to work for you.

This is a guest post by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.

The post Why We Need Cross-Generational Tools appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

Cambridge, United Kingdom: 12th September 2019

Bubble^®, a leading provider of cloud-based Project Portfolio Management Software, today announced that Richard Carter has joined the company as Chief Technology Officer (CTO). In his role Richard will be responsible for overall application development, technology development, and product delivery.

 Joining from American Express, Richard brings 20+ years’ experience to Bubble^®, having previously led and delivered software in some of the world’s most demanding commercial environments.  His accomplishments include hands-on development of market-critical platforms for among others J.P. Morgan, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Based alternately in Bubble’s Cambridge (UK) HQ and London offices, Richard will head up the continued growth of the company’s in-house software teams and development engineers.

Announcing Richard as CTO, head of developmentBen Cann said: “Richard brings a wealth of technology and business know-how to Bubble and, as we continue to grow the technology development team, it’s fantastic to welcome him as Chief Technology Officer”.

Chief executive Peter Hoyland added: “I am thrilled to welcome Richard to Bubble. He is an outstanding technologist and his engineering leadership and corporate experience will be invaluable to the business as we continue to grow our global client base”. 

PPM Software customers today demand excellence as standard! With ever more nuanced Project and Portfolio needs they require an application that’s powerful, flexible, and intuitive.  As we begin the roll-out of our next generation Project and Portfolio Management solution – Bubble PPM – I believe Richard will be instrumental to our continued success.

Richard also added: “Bubble have built an amazing team of in-house technology developers. With a brand-new application framework as my starting point, I’m really looking forward to the challenge of taking our technology development to the next-level”.

About Bubble^®

Bubble^®is a leading software company specialized in the development of Enterprise Project Management and Project Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions.  Our cloud-based PPM software, Bubble PPM, helps organizations in Innovation, R&D, New Product Development, and other disciplines, to select the right projects, execute them reliably, and improve productivity.

Founded in 1999, the company is Headquartered in the UK, serving customers across the globe via our offices in Cambridge, London, and Toronto.

Visit www.bubblegroup.com for more information.

The post Bubble Ltd, grows technology development capability appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

I’m not going to give some long-winded introduction on Excel, we are all professionals, we all open up Excel files and we get its importance in an organisation. Yet, the PM world still scoffs at it, so I’m going to rebut that notion with a dose of practicality.

Excel’s brilliance first is its flexibility. I’ve often referred to it as an analytical sketchpad, almost like a notepad with data capabilities. Excel’s second brilliance is ubiquity – that is no matter where you end up working, you can bet your last bit of budget that Excel will be available and not only that but your stakeholders can open it up, understand it and work with it!

In a world of growing toolsets, most of which aren’t available from company to company, the kind of accessibility that Excel offers makes it a great tool in the arsenal of any project manager and it’s considered one of the essential small business tools.

Sure, you have purpose-built alternatives but Excel is a one stop shop that can achieve so much without much hassle. Certainly, for small projects (<£1m), Excel can allow a PM to get up and running and start sketching out some of the key particulars to mobilise and manage a project.

Rather than be a slave to perfection and tools, Excel encourages the kind of pragmatism that’s expected of any PM. So, to that end, in this post, I’m going to go through some of the reasons a PM will want to leverage Excel.

1. Maintain the Project Plan

Alternative: Microsoft Project

Now, ideally you want some kind of Gantt chart and this is as easy as writing a list of to do’s with corresponding baseline start/end dates. With Excel you can get visual and start colouring cells or use a bar chart to construct a Gantt chart, there are options here. Of course, Excel won’t re-baseline easily without some rework or clever use of formulas, Microsoft Project wins here especially in the way it can reposition predecessor and successor tasks. However, Excel still does a solid job of allowing you to track your road to delivery.

2. Create a RAID Log

Alternative: PPM tools like Clarity, Primavera, etc

Ahhh, the trusty Risks, Assumptions, Issues and Dependency log that is the cornerstone of every good PM’s management tools. Break open an Excel file, create four tabs and you are good to go. What I love about an Excel RAID is that anyone can open it up, it’s easily distributed, you can pre-filter it (i.e. for open items) and it can drive a weekly RAID meeting.

3. Track Financials & Resources

Alternative: Finance system, an enterprise system like Oracle, Hyperion, etc

Here’s one of the most obvious one’s since the ‘spreadsheet’ was originally intended to replace the accountant’s need for number crunching and what Excel seems to be most synonymous with. Excel really just shines here ta keeping on top of all the costs of a project. So, build your forecast, track your actuals and understand variances as a management tool.

4. Track Requirements

Alternative: Requirement/Test tool, possibly Jira

Here’s one that I’ve seen many PM’s not always do but it really helps to keep on top of those troublesome scope and quality conversations. Agreeing the requirements early on and using that as a list to ward off scope creep, incongruent testing and of course, loathsome chancers (‘I’m sure you said the new functionality would also help my dog win Crufts!’)

5. Carry out ad hoc Data Analysis

Alternative: None!

Now, this is an open ended one but PM’s with some Excel know-how (think VLOOKUP’s, Pivot Tables, Filters and some more advanced formulas) often can quickly do some analysis. This might be verifying some claims around data, it might be costing out two possible solution options to help Execs make a delivery choice, it could be a reforecasting exercise or so many other possible tasks.

Compelled to work with Excel on your next project? Maybe you’re still sceptical and happy with your existing tools, but if you’re open and want to get up and running on your next project quickly, give it a go.

Sohail Anwar is a PMO/PM who happens to teach best practice Excel to PMs, PMOs, Analysts and pretty much any professionals who work with Excel, you can learn more over at Earn And Excel

The post 5 Reasons Project Managers Need To Know Excel appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

Certain project management tools have specific defining methodology behind how they work. For instance, Trello and Agile Zen along with Blossom.io follow the Kanban method of project management. A few other project management tools are almost like Facebook or Twitter.

The options can be bewildering indeed. So, here’s an attempt to point you in the right direction as far as project management tools are concerned. If you are a project manager looking for a great tool to bring your team together to work collaboratively and manage projects successfully, look out for these options:

Telerik TeamPulse

Telerik TeamPulse is an all-in-one team management solution that enables multiple project management, enhanced collaboration, planning work, and even helps you leverage agile best practices.

Ideally suited for any software project management requirements, you can improve your decision-making, keep up-to-date on team progress, bridge the boundaries between team roles, open gates for communication, manage bugs, and much more. The web-based solution also extends itself for time-tracking, cross-project reporting, and also doubles as an ideas and feedback portal.

Agile Zen

Focused around visualization, communication, improvement of workflows, and efficient organization of work, Agile Zen is project management software that aims to offer a lean solution for businesses.

It renders itself very well for projects of all types – with a slight emphasis on the coding, software and development niche – while featuring some nifty features such as “performance metrics” showing you cycle times, lead times, and percentage efficiency. On the communication tab, you’ll see some inspiration from Trello-like flow, and especially Trello swimlanes, with ready, working and complete columns to minimize interference in communication and to make sure that you are able to call attention to problems as they surface in the midst of a project.

Basecamp

The folks led by Jason Fried at 37Signals– the company behind Basecamp, High Rise, and Campfire – practically invented web-based project management. They are still big except that they chose not to add too much cream to the milk. By that, we mean that you won’t find anything fancy in Basecamp. No rich UI motions, no Gantt Charts, no visual reporting (except for a project progress bar, if you can call it that).

Yet, it has a strong following. It’s appeal as a simplistic project management tool is irresistible for many businesses. All you need is to assign projects to teams, and check the progress while keeping everyone on the same page using a calendar.

How much more simple can it get?

Asana

It’s amazing how many different ways a simple but powerful project management software tool can be used. Asana is the brainchild of Facebook’s co-founder Dustin Moscovitz and it’s rapidly growing to be a hugely popular web-based project management tool and it’s completely free to use for up to 15 users.

You can choose to run private or public projects, have granular control on who gets to see what, use Harvest App for time tracking, and Google Drive for document uploads and usage (In addition to Dropbox and your own computer hard drive). The project tool makes project management accountable with work assigned efficiently to the right people.

Deskaway.com

Project collaboration tools are getting smarter and with that, project managers and teams get the best of what is available. Deskaway.com is a smart, web-based collaboration tool, which provides you with project collaboration, which includes time tracking, project templates, documents, timesheets, and milestones.

It also provides you with a choice of options for reporting and analytics such as Gantt Charts, individual project and user reports. Deskaway does integrate with third-party apps while also being made available on your mobile devices.

Workzone

For project management, you need security along with plenty of other features that teams find useful. Some of the web-based project management tools either go overboard with features or underplay it completely missing out on what’s important.

Workzone focuses on exactly what teams need with features such as Status alerts, secure file sharing, flexible and manageable permissions, approvals workflow, file version, a group calendar, and even image markup. It has the ability to manage multiple projects and easily duplicate tasks that have similar workflows. It’s easy, intuitive to use, and gets you to work.

Worketc

How about using a single tool for almost everything you’d ever need to do for your business, managing projects and even billing or invoicing? Worketc.com is one single, web-based app that almost gets there with integrated CRM, project management, Billing, Help Desk (Customer Support), and much more.

The cost of using Worketc is much less than if you were to use CRM and project management separately. Further, everything remains on the cloud (much like all other project management tools) with business-wide visibility and real-time accountability. It’s the perfect way to get your team onboard and give them one single office to work from. Even the remote workers feel at home with this tool.

There’s no one tool that’s the best as most of these listed project management tools have some great features and each has their own breed of users. Asana, Workzone, and Basecamp for instance, can fit any type of project while Agile Zen and TeamPulse make better choices for software development projects.

As a project manager, try to fit a project management solution around your needs instead of picking up any project management tool. You’d need a fairly flexible solution, which is also easy on the eye and easy to use. Look for the third-party apps your project management tool integrates with – sometimes, that will decide which tool to go for.

For instance, Agile Zen mostly integrates with development tools and not with some popular apps such as Google Apps, High Rise, Zen Desk, etc. Do your due diligence and you won’t have to waste time working with the wrong project management solution.

What’s your favourite when it comes to project management solutions?

The post 7 Project Management Tools that are making Life Simpler for Project Managers appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

Cambridge, United Kingdom: 9th January 2018

Bubble, a leading provider of cloud-based Project Portfolio Management Software, today announced that it has received the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 security certification (ISO 27001), one of the most widely recognized and internationally accepted information security standards.

The ISO 27001 designation formally confirms the company adheres to legal, physical, and technical controls that put Bubble on par with the world’s top cloud software providers.

The announcement verifies that Bubble systematically approaches business information management and applies the highest standard of data security. In order to achieve the certification, Bubble’s compliance was validated by an independent audit firm after demonstrating adherence to a comprehensive framework of policies, procedures, and controls.

Announcing the accreditation, Laura Erickson commented: “It’s still the case that relatively few Project Portfolio Management software vendors have ISO 27001 certification. This is surprising. Especially given that data governance, risk, compliance, and security, are all key concerns for today’s enterprise. We’ve seen a real increase in requests for ISO certification and, while it’s not yet mandatory for the sector, I don’t see the trend abating.”

ISO Data Security and Compliance Manager Jake Langford added, “Bubble’s certification is tangible proof of our high standards for information security. This announcement reassures current and prospective users of our PPM software that we treat data confidentiality, integrity, and availability, with the utmost importance.”

About Bubble
Bubble help organizations to select the right projects, execute them reliably, and continuously increase their productivity.   Bubble Innovator is a leading cloud-based Project Portfolio Management Software designed to help organizations select the right projects, execute them reliably, and continually improve productivity across their enterprise. Visit www.bubblegroup.com for more information.

Contact links
Mark Illman
Business Insight Manager

Direct:      +44 (0)1223 564 323
E-mail:      markillman(at)bubblegroup.com
Web:         www.bubblegroup.com

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The post Bubble Ltd, achieves global ISO 27001 certification for its information security management system. appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

Is PrimaveraReader the solution to needing a Primavera licence for everyone on your team – even people who only need to look at the schedule without making changes? We review whether this tool can cut costs and improve productivity for your project team.

Primavera is one of the top project management solutions out there, but it’s such a feature-rich product that it often isn’t necessary for everyone on the team to have their own installation of it, especially if all they need to do is access project schedules to check progress. If they aren’t editing the plan, then they don’t really need their own licence.

The difficulties this brings is that it creates more work for the project manager. They have to print schedules (or at least PDF-them and email them to the team). They have to do all the updates themselves. And team members have a handy ‘get out of jail’ card: without the ability to check their tasks for themselves they could use the excuse that they didn’t know what was coming up.

But Oracle has this functionality already – the add on tools like the TeamMember mobile app are designed for this purpose. They let you share information with the team without needing to give them the whole Primavera tool suite.

However, not every business is prepared to invest the time and money into the full web solution for Primavera P6. It’s a significant piece of work to move your whole business to using the solution fully, and if you aren’t yet ready to make that commitment, but you still love the features and flexibility of P6, then you’re limited with what your team members can do.

Enter PrimaveraReader

PrimaveraReader is a stand-alone software app that lets you open, view and print your Primavera XER and XLS files. And you don’t need Primavera installed on your device. Consider it the Adobe Acrobat of Primavera – a way to open files in a format that feels familiar but that offers only the functionality they need.

It’s perfect for teams that need the professionalism of Primavera, but not for everyone.

Key Features

Opening a file in PrimaveraReader is easy. It looks like P6 but it doesn’t have all the features you’d expect in the full product. For example, you can’t create new projects or add new tasks.

However, it does what it says it does: it lets people in the team see the schedule without needing to give them access to the full package. They can even see variance to baseline to compare different versions of the schedule.

The benefits to the project manager are clear:

• Team members can’t accidentally (or deliberately) change parts of the schedule
• You can get project updates from the team in a way that feels ‘native’. In other words, it’s aligned to what they see if you share the full P6 plan in a team meeting or web conference. The team can talk about the schedule in the same way as it appears on the screen.
• Project managers don’t have to type out task lists or create sub-plans in spreadsheets just to get a To Do list for their team.
• No need to create limiting PDFs. You can navigate around the schedule as if you were in P6. It’s not a screenshot of the plan, it’s like having the real thing.
• It’s faster than importing and sharing files directly in P6.

There are some other good features worth calling out.

Trace Logic View: A relatively new addition to the tool. You can use this for detailed analysis of your schedule. It shows you selected segments of the schedule with predecessor and successor activities. The critical path arrows are also highlighted in red. Great for digging into schedule dependencies.

Critical Path: As you’d expect from a project scheduling solution, critical path analysis is a feature. You can easily see the chain of activities that make up the critical path which determines the project’s end date. Helpful for checking that everyone knows what’s on the critical path so they can manage around those activities and ensure the dates are protected.

Driving Activities: This goes beyond critical path and flags up activities that have significant importance in relation to the completion date for the project. These are the tasks that drive the project. Pinpointing them lets the team see where they should be spending their time.

System Limitations

The system is really only good for one thing: it just does Primavera file viewing. There’s no integration with P6 so you can’t edit a file and have the updates upload into your original schedule. It doesn’t integrate with any other tools either (although you can import Excel files).

You can only view one file at a time, so if you’ve got multiple projects on the go you’ll have to close and open each time.

While it’s not essential right now, in the future it would be good to see the tool updated to include support for XML files. Primavera P6 EPPM uses only XML, so it’s going to be important for future releases that PrimaveraReader moves to support this too.

You are only getting a ‘read’ view so the customization options aren’t there unless you create a customized view in Primavera and then export using that. You can use custom filters though.

The help feature isn’t as intuitive as it could be either.

In Summary

While the system has limitations, it is good at doing what it is supposed to. It’s not supposed to be an all-singing, all-dancing customizable version of your project plan: that’s what P6 is for. It’s a lightweight viewer aimed at saving your team time, your business money and your stakeholders’ sanity when it comes to tracking progress effectively.

Overall, PrimaveraReader is a cost-effective alternative for teams who want the power of Primavera at project manager level but without the overhead and learning curve for people in the team.

PrimaveraReader is not a product of Oracle®, nor is it endorsed, sponsored or affiliated with or by Oracle. Oracle® and P6® are registered trade marks and brands of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.

The post Software review: PrimaveraReader appeared first on Project Accelerator News.

Microsoft Project is the most commonly used PM application; but is it efficient for multi-project management? GetApp Lab, a company that highlights current trends and research in business software tools, reports that 67% of respondents to their 2016 survey use MS Project for their project planning and management needs.

Still, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Project Management Maturity Survey indicates that only 2.5% of companies successfully complete 100% of their projects. The Project Management Institute’s  2016 Pulse of the Profession report estimates that for every $1 billion invested in the US in 2016, $122 million was wasted due to poor project performance. Considering that the latest statistics point to frequent project delays and cost escalations, project management appears to be on the verge of failing. Is the lack of proper PM tools the reason for the above-mentioned painful outcomes? The Epicflow team, with 30 years of combined experience in project management, has investigated what features MS Project is actually missing and has offered a solution to consider in 2017.

Why MS Project Is Not Enough For Multi-Project Management

When searching for software features to develop in 2017 to meet the current demands of project managers, the Epicflow team noticed that almost all PM tools were designed for single project environments. Nearly every project management solution, including MS Project, Jira, Trimergo, TOPdesk, and Primavera is built on a single project philosophy and requires manual planning and replanning. Even though they encourage continuous collaboration, these apps lack software features that can set priorities, create adequate effort-based workloads, and eventually prevent overload and planning overhead in multi-project environments. How can project managers respond to this ongoing flux of replanning and what digital tools do they prefer to track project performance? How can you upgrade MS Project to fit multi-project environments?

Don’t Change the Tool, Change the Philosophy Behind it

MS Project is cumbersome to use in multi-project environments, as it lacks analytics to allocate resources efficiently. But what if you could get insights about where processes are stuck and predict resource bottlenecks in your pipeline with MS Project data?

Dutch scientists Albert Ponsteen and Jan Willem Tromp have already made this possible by integrating smart algorithms into their web-based solution that fits modern multi-project environments in many domains: engineering, manufacturing, software development, and others. These PM-savvy experts with 30 years of combined experience collected evidence from 4,000 business experts, CEOs, and project managers and concluded that it was essential to find a solution that would set priorities and reduce overload and planning overhead.

Approach Multi-Project Management from the Perspective of Resource Availability

Ponsteen and Tromp agree that what overwhelmed project managers really need is flow, order, and simplicity to help them manage large numbers of projects, solve capacity problems, set priorities, and allocate resources properly. One of Epicflow’s purposes is to save time and energy otherwise spent on excessive planning by approaching project management from the perspective of resource availability and task distribution.

Opt for Speed, Durability, and Flexibility in Multi-Project Management

Is there a reliable PM solution that can be easily integrated and used with MS Project? Yes, there is. Now it’s possible to upgrade MS Project for multi-project environments, adding analytical value to a static PM application and lifting the planning burden from project managers’ shoulders.

The Epicflow software add-on offers a package of useful PM features and integrates data from MS Project or nearly any other PM tool you use. Epicflow was designed to prevent bottlenecks by collecting and analyzing workflow updates and visualizing these analyses in a number of graphs that provide full visibility of resources, tasks, and projects. It brings order and simplicity to dynamic work environments and increases focus.

The Epicflow team discussing the SaaS release

Even though Epicflow’s web-based version has just been released, it has already been proven effective; many companies already consider this project management software the key to solving their top PM issues. The early version of Epicflow, Flow MPM, was an offline application that helped many businesses reduce lead time, restore due date performance, and improve the quality of business outcomes. Flow MPM proved effective for the TKF cable factory, which produces transatlantic cables. Hans de Boer, R&D Director at TKF, pointed out that Flow MPM helped the company increase its output by 200% and reduce lead time by 50% over 2 years, at the same time enabling realistic commitments to customers. This PM application, the precursor to Epicflow, successfully connected with Trimergo to help construct superyachts like the “Venus” for Steve Jobs. The web-based version, Epicflow, is even more flexible.

In tandem with MS Project, Epicflow offers superpowers for successful multi-project management. It enables smooth and adequate workflows and resolves resource conflicts, not only engendering a peaceful environment for win-win cooperation, but signalling where your project’s arteries are clogged. From now on, it’s possible to revamp MS Project by adding new analytical prowess courtesy of Epicflow. What’s actually stopping our progress when the solution is at hand?

References

1. Project management software features report: is 2017 the year to replace your current solution?
2. Project Management Maturity Survey
3. PMI’s Pulse of the Profession 2016

Biography: Albert Ponsteen and Jan Willem Tromp are Dutch scientists with deep knowledge of project management based on more than 25 years of experience. They have contributed their research expertise to Epicflow, an online PM tool.

The post How to Survive in a Multi-Project Environment Using MS Project appeared first on Project Accelerator News.