Managing projects is not a trivial job. You need to have the necessary skills, experience and of course the right project management tools to help you. But when it comes to managing large projects things are becoming even more complicated.

Sometimes companies need to manage large projects that extend on several years and that require a huge amount of work to be completed. This kind of projects are too big to be handled as a whole and must be decomposed in several smaller parts. Each part is treated as a separate project with its own assigned project manager and its own budget and time constraints. However all these projects are related and are actually subprojects of a master project.

The idea is that the program manager is running multiple projects and all those projects are managed by other project managers. As a program manager, you need to see a consolidated schedule view to see how the program is doing. The master project should offer the structure of the subprojects and show the dependencies between the projects. Of course resources can be shared so that overallocations and overtime costs to be detected and correctly computed.
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RationalPlan version 3.26 was just launched with support for working with subprojects. Besides this feature, useful for big projects, other changes were added like improved printing customization, other types of task scheduling and much more.

RationalPlan is a project management software created to serve many types of users starting from novice project managers, users that need an environment to handle multiple projects and up to companies that need a server solution with concurrent access. It has been developed to help project managers keep their projects on time and within budget.

Important changes added to this version:

• possibility to work with subprojects
• dependency driven duration type scheduling
• customizable header and footer for printing
• added date range for Task deadline filter
• more data added to the web interface of the Server

Certain companies often need to manage large projects. This kind of projects however are to big to be handled as a whole and must be decomposed in several smaller parts. And each part is treated as a project with its own assigned project manager and its own budget and time constraints. However all these projects are related and are actually subprojects of a master project. This necessity is now covered by RationalPlan Multi and users will have the possibility to work with master projects and subprojects. Of course resources can be shared between project so that overallocations and overtime costs to be detected and correctly computed.

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The mysterious critical path notion seems to put project managers in difficulty and especially the novice ones. However if anyone would take just a few minutes from his precious time to pay a closer attention to it things would be a lot more clear.

The origin

In order to clear things up we need to have a background knowledge. On short it all started with the Critical Path Method (CPM) an algorithm for scheduling activities within a project. This method is best used within the project scheduling phase and basically it requires to construct a model of the project that includes:

• the list of activities needed to complete the project (aka Work Breakdown Structure defined in the project planning phase)
• the duration estimates for these activities
• the dependencies between the tasks

Graphical representation

There are two possibilities to render the structure created according to CPM: activity on arrow and activity on node. The most used representation nowadays is the activity on node. The activities are rendered as nodes and each node contains the duration of that activity while the dependencies are rendered as arrows where the arrowhead points to the successor while the tail to the predecessor.

To some extent a Gantt chart can also be considered as a CPM presentation although a more complex one. Read the rest of this entry »

MOOS Project Viewer version 2.7 added a new view from Microsoft® Project – the Team Planner view.

Project managers struggle with seeing clearly and quickly what their team is doing at any given point in the project schedule. Using Team Planner view in Microsoft® Project Professional 2010 you can see at a glance what tasks have been assigned to resources. According to Microsoft the main idea behind Team Planner is combining the power of the Gantt chart with the simplicity and familiarity of the Outlook calendar.

NOTE: Team Planner is a feature available only with Project Professional but starting with version 2.7 it is also available in MOOS Project Viewer.

The latest version can be downloaded from the official download page.

Time management is the act of planning, controlling and finally executing specific activities, especially to increase efficiency or productivity. It applies to a wide usage area starting from personal time organization and up to business related time management. For the best results and the biggest efficiency dedicated time management software should be used.

A time management system is a combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. There are many books and case studies focusing on these notions.

Personal Time Management

The notion of time management was initially used in business related area but in time the term started to also be used for personal activities. People started to be interested on it when they felt the need to be more organized and more productive. It all happens when you start working all day long and at the end you wonder why you haven’t accomplished much.

Time management methodologies consist of a series of habits and good practices which help you to get more organized. The most used and well known time management methodologies are GTD and ZTD. Getting Things Done (GTD) was created by David Allen and it is based on the following principles:

• do not use your memory to collect your ideas, tasks and arrangements
• do not delay decisions on what to do next
• if you can complete a certain task in less than 2 minutes, do it now

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RationalPlan version 3.25 was just released. The most important thing to be mentioned in the new version is the availability in Spanish language. Other features include the addition of a new resource type – cost resource, the possibility to sort clients and resources, better notification mechanisms, improved printing and much more.

RationalPlan is a project management software designed around the principle “easy to use” and can serve many types of users starting from novices, those that need an alternative to Microsoft Project, users that need an environment to handle multiple projects and up to companies that need a server solution with concurrent access for multiple users. It has been developed to help project managers keep their projects on time and within budget.

Important changes added to this version:

• availability in Spanish language
• improved printing
• added cost resources
• added accrual notion for costs on resources and assignments
• improved notification mechanism
• improved behavior for different time zones
• better handling of external tasks from MS Project

The developers from Stand By Soft would like to thank to all the people that have contributed to translating RationalPlan in Spanish with special thanks to Pablo Avegno, Project Manager at Ventalum Argentina.

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Project scheduling should be considered the central piece of any project management software. Without the possibility to easily schedule all the tasks of a project there would be little expectation regarding the efficiency of controlling complex projects. However a project scheduling software should simplify a project managers work and not complicate it.

The project schedule

The project schedule is the central part of the project plan and it is used to connect the tasks to be done with the resources that will accomplish them. It consists of a list of deliverables with intended start and finish dates. Deliverables are the lowest level elements in a schedule, which are not further subdivided.

In addition, the schedule provides project teams with a map for project execution and offers a baseline for tracking progress and managing changes. It can be used as a checklist to make sure that all necessary tasks are performed. If a task is on the schedule, the team is committed to doing it. In other words, the project schedule gives the means by which the project manager brings the team and the project under control.

The visual representation of a schedule is a timeline chart. It is created such that it depicts the tasks of the projects, the duration and the sequencing of them, and the major milestones of the project. The Gantt chart is the most popular timeline chart.

Prior to creating the project schedule the project manager must have a work breakdown structure (WBS), an effort estimate for each task, and a list of resources with availability for each resource. Once these data are established a project scheduling tool can automatically do much of the tedious work of calculating the schedule. However, before a project manager can use such tools, he should have an  understanding over concepts like WBS, dependencies, resource allocation, critical paths etc. These are the real keys to planning a successful project.

When establishing the project schedule a few important steps must be performed:

• Establish dependencies – The first step in building the project schedule is to establish the order in which tasks are going to be performed. The WBS structure will be used as input. A dependency will be created between two tasks if one depends on the other. There are four types of dependencies: Finish to Start, Finish to Finish, Start to Start and Start to Finish.
• Assign resources to tasks – The next step is to identify the resources required to perform the work. A resource is any person, item, tool, or service that is needed by the project. Based on its availability the schedule might get adjusted in time.
• Create the schedule – Once the dependencies are established and the resources are assigned the project manager must enter the work effort or the duration for each task. With this information in place a project scheduling software should be able to automatically arrange the tasks and calculate a final date for the project.

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Nowadays almost any manager uses some kind of project planning software and the reason for this is simple: software can help and ease a lot the work of any person.

Many experienced project managers have created over time a knowledge base of tips and tricks that they can use. However novices are not that lucky. They need to gain all these in time. In this article we shall try to present some of the most encountered ones.

Keep your project as dynamic as possible

Projects tend to move and change in time and for this reason there must be an easy way to update it. If it is created using hard constraints a simple shift in time might actually be a very hard to do operation. Here are some things that you should take into consideration:

Use of constraints. Constraints on tasks impose certain restrictions in the scheduling algorithm because it relates to certain dates. Fixed dates should be avoided as much as possible since this links the project to a certain time period. Instead of using dates to specify the sequence of tasks you should rather think at adding dependencies between them.

Creating dependencies. If certain gaps must be created in the sequence of tasks within a project then these should always be represented using dependencies with “leads” or “lags”. This is very useful in case of shifting the project in time. Do not simulate them using false tasks or hard constraints. Using false tasks will result in an increased total work and constraints will make the project to be connected to certain dates. Furthermore dependencies should be avoided to be used to resolve resource overallocations.

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A good plan is just the first step to the success of a project. The real work starts only after the project plan is ready. As a project manager you have to track the project’s evolution and make sure it follows the initial plan as much as possible. And the easiest way to accomplish this is through the use of project tracking software.

It is a well know fact that the initial plan does not always fit your expectations. The unpredictable happens. To increase the chances for project success, once your project is started the project manager needs to constantly monitor its progress keeping up with what everyone is doing. There are several factors that need to be kept under control: activities, resources and work, budgets and costs, progress.

Activities

Activities in a project can be categorized based on certain characteristics as projects, phases, milestones and tasks (the term task is generally used for all these terms). A milestone is a key event marking the end of a major stage of a project. And for this reason managing milestones is the most important factor. Essentially these are the deliverables which your project sponsors will remember and keep asking you about. You need to immediately recall these dates to instill a sense of confidence in your ability to be on top of things. The key here is to have a clean layout over the milestone plan and to make sure you check them as completed at the already planned dates. You can do it sooner but not later.

The next important activities are the low level ones. Since phases are just a summary of all these tasks it is obvious that once the tasks are efficiently tracked all the above levels up to the root project are also on schedule. In this case the key is to easily determine the critical path of the project and to constantly track those tasks. Project management tools like Gantt charts can make this job as easy as possible.
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When designing some reports which were expanding on multiple pages the need of numbering the pages occured.  The first thing to do was to search the internet and see how others managed this problem. The first idea that popped out was to use the Page X of Y tool from iReports located in the Palette view. It was a very easy and straight forward approach because there was no need to implement additional functionality, just a simple drag and drop to the Page Footer band and some additional tweaks just to look god.

However this approach proved to be a bad one when the page number grew to a 2 digit number and the two text fields overlapped and lost their alignment. Even more, on the last page of the report the page number was not shown. To properly solve this problem the RationalPlan team found a new way to show the page number on each page including the last one.

For showing the page number on the last page of the report the Last Page Footer band must be added by right clicking on it in iReports in the left panel called Report Inspector. After having both bands active (Page Footer and Last Page Footer) drag and drop the Page X of Y tool from the Palette view to the Page Footer band. Resize each text field to look like in the picture and align the text to right respectively to the left in each text field. Now the expression of each text item must be slightly changed by right clicking the text items and writing “Page ” + $V{PAGE_NUMBER} in the first one and ” of ” + $V{PAGE_NUMBER} in the second one. Make sure that the first text item has the evaluation time set to Now and the second one to Report. This setting is located in the Settings view in the Text field properties category.

The last thing to do is to copy the first set of the text items and paste it over the Last Page Footer band and align them accordingly and this is it. Now the text will appear as it should be regardless of the number of pages and the last page will be also numbered. Good luck!