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A Simple PM Tool for Simple Projects
Categories:
PM Software
Categories: PM Software
Situation: You're curious about SaaS PM Software tools... Recently Sergei Podbereschi, co-founder of 5PM contacted me about their SaaS PM solution. They are new to the market, but apparently are gaining ground by keeping their solution open and flexible. I think its missing some basics for managing projects of any scale, but like many other online solutions, it could be great for putting some structure around simple projects. Q. What is the ideal type of user for 5PM in terms of experience, industry, and project type? What's the wrong type of user, industry or project to be using 5PM? 5pm was designed with simplicity in mind, as a horizontal application. A lot of developers are creating PM tools tailored for IT developers. We tried to stay away from this trend and design an application that can be used in different industries. Our customizable interface and non-enforced features are ways to archive that. Our "ideal" user would be comfortable with internet, using his/her computer from different location and working with a distributed team. Our plan was always to adapt - that's the power of an SaaS model. We are constantly monitoring users' feedback and adjust our plans. If we will see a particular industry reacting strongly to our product - we can switch into a more vertical version of our product, or even create a separate version. So far, we are pleased to notice that 5pm is used by a lot of traditional industries. We even have dentists using 5pm! At the same time, we have bigger companies managing dozens of team members and projects. Lately we started to get contacted by companies that anticipate 400-500 projects. We do understand that our product will not fit everybody. In fact, I think that's why there are so many PM applications out there - there are too many approaches to PM. I wouldn't call some users "wrong", but I can see how some government agencies, or the ones handling very sensitive information will not be able to use 5pm as a web-based service. For those type of organizations we are planning to start providing a self-hosted service. Q. 5PM, like many online PM tools offer a very simple way to look at tasks on projects. Does this imply a limit to the complexity of the projects that the tool will deal with? How would you define those limits? Would it be no more than X tasks, x people, x business units involved? "Simple" is almost a cliche now. With 5pm, when we talk about simple, we mainly mean the user interface ("glance-ability"). We try to hide the complexity from users, but still provide a lot of power "under the hood". For advanced users, 5pm can grow more complex as they discover all the features. Plus the features we plan to add soon (new reports, updated Timeline) will add even more power. As about the size of the projects 5pm can manage... We have about 400 tasks right now in the version of 5pm we use to manage the 5pm project itself (we eat our own dog food). And it doesn't slow down the application in any way. If the number of projects grows, they can always be moved into newly created Groups. That's how, pretty much, 5pm works - you may not even notice or use Groups, till you need them one day. And when you need to - it take one click to move a project from "no groups land" to any group... We still have time to experiment with bigger numbers, and we expect our bigger companies to help with their feedback. I anticipate, for example, that we may need to add groups for user profiles as well. Bigger companies have different needs. A lot of them use contractors besides the main staff, so the relatively "flat" security of simple project management doesn't work well there. That's how we introduced "External User" not so long ago. So don't be surprised to see new features making it even more simple to handle more data. Q. Task dependencies are a basic feature among desktop PM applications, but not always among web-based PM tools. What drove your decision to not include them in the 5PM toolset? I do agree it's a nice feature to have. There is always a choice what to include or not in version 1.0. After a year of development we had to come out with a working product. But we never stopped developing and added a lot of features in the past months (for example, email integration is a big one). We definitely plan to add the dependencies in the Timeline view. In fact, Timeline is the section of our application that will go through dramatic upgrades very soon. So expect this feature sometimes soon in the future. Same about drag-and-drop in the Timeline. Q. How do you see your toolset evolving over time? Is you your focus on developing more collaboration features? Requirements management? Resource management? Some other area of functionality? We have a bit different approach to collaboration aspect of a PM application. We don't plan to expand it into different directions trying to implement it all, at the end killing the idea of a simple application. I still like my email client, I like my IM, my phone, my blog and other tools I use. I don't plan quitting using them just because some tool implemented them all in one over-bloated interface. Instead, we are looking mostly into integrating with other tools. We already added email integration, so the tasks can be created directly from emails (also messages can be sent, progress reported, attachments sent). We also added iCalendar support. Our Reports have CSV export. And we plan to continue growing into that direction, supporting popular formats and integrating with other products' APIs. We also plan to open our API for public. Also, we are looking a lot into "data visualization" aspect of 5pm. That's why the Timeline will become even bigger, to show more information there. Reports section will grow considerably as well. And, once again, we don't have a "set in stone" plan. We prefer to listen to our clients and see what features are really needed at this moment and to balance them with other aspects, like simplicity. |
Posted on: March 27, 2008 03:40 PM
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Comments (2)
Do You Have What it Takes?
Categories:
Advice
Categories: Advice
| Situation: You want to take an honest, yet private, look at your PM skills. -  --to be an IT & Telecom Project Manager? Come take the online self-assessment, brought to you by PMI's IT&Telecom SIG and find out! This assessment takes you through a variety of skills needed to deal with these particularly complex and challenging projects. It will not only help you discover where you are now, but help guide you toward the most effective career development options in the future. |
Posted on: March 13, 2008 04:32 PM
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Comments (0)
Fellow Ganttheads - Connect!
Categories:
Advice
Categories: Advice
| Situation: You want answers, solutions, or fame.
When you post a question in a gantthead discussion, it will probably be answered by someone who just runs across it - a browsing gantthead who just happens to find your posting interesting. Having more connections simply means that your voice is heard by everyone you are connected to on gantthead each time you post something to the site. More connections = more responses. When you post something on the site everyone connected to you gets a notification in their left-hand toolbar (in "network news") that you have created a posting. If you are connected to 20 people, 20 are notified, if you are connected to 150 people, 150 people are notified. Conversely, if you are connected to no people, no one is notified.
Deeper relationships with people like you... So connect to as many people as you can that you think might be "like you" in some way. Unlike linkedin or facebook, ganttface is NOT about replicating real world relationships online. It's all about meeting new people who share your issues, challenges, and type of work. The goal is to get connected with as many people as you can who can REALLY HELP you. Gantthead gives you access to the largest pool of your peers you can find anywhere. I can't imagine a more productive way to network. Connections you create are more likely to generate productive conversations with you because you picked them based on your own set of criteria.
Your reputation on the Internet - enhanced... Connections also help you create and enhance "The brand called you", which is today's world is critical to your success. When you post something to gantthead, you are publicly sharing knowledge. It's not quite like writing a book or winning an award, but it certainly creates a lasting impression. Connections get your contributions noticed. Each connection is not only a potential response, rather it represents an opportunity to make a positive impression - putting you out there as an "expert". So with more connections, every posting you make works that much harder for you.
So, take 5 minutes right now and find a bunch of people to connect with. Later, you'll be glad you did. |
Posted on: March 13, 2008 12:34 PM
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Comments (5)
If Only You Could Control Your Team This Way
Categories:
Time Killers
Categories: Time Killers
Situation: You have 3 minutes to look at some interesting new technology. Sometimes I run across things that have little to do with PM, but I think many of you, as technologists, would be interested in. The folks at Emotiv have developed a headset that facilitates non-conscious communication -- expression, intuition, perception between you and your computer. The idea is that you can control actions on your PC, while playing a game or whatever... by thinking about what you want to do. Take a moment and check out the video. |
Posted on: March 05, 2008 09:58 AM
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Comments (1)
Live From Sydney
Situation: You're a sucker for PMI (or Australian) news.  Anyone interested in what is happening at the PMI Global Congress in Sydney should tune in to Dave Prior's blog and check it out. He's not only been attending the show, but talking to PMI's leadership team - Greg B, etc. See what he has to say... Shawn Belling is doing the same thing. So there you go - one conference, two perspectives. |
Posted on: March 03, 2008 12:36 AM
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Comments (0)