Amazon for Outsourcing?
Situation: Need an (hourly rate/pricing) point of reference for outsourced development I'm not sure that this is something you actually want to try, but it's an interesting point of reference from a pricing perspective. What does an outsourced .NET developer cost these days? Check ODesk and find out.Here's their description of who they are: oDesk enables buyers of services to hire, manage, and pay technology service providers from around the world. Buyers choose oDesk for top global talent, comprehensive management tools, and a flexible hourly payment model. Service Providers choose oDesk for challenging jobs and guaranteed payment. Every day, thousands of buyers and providers work together through oDesk - a unique company at the forefront of reinventing work. |
Basic Free Gantt Charts
| Situation: No Software $, No Training $, No Corporate Restrictions on installing software, Need a simple PM tool I get this question about once a month. Where can I get a low or no cost tool for drawing gantt charts? If you have Excel, you can use that, but there are also tools out there that are free or near free and actually do a pretty good job. Everyone in the simple project tool space repeats the mantra that 80% of MS Project users use 20% of its features. An example of one such tool is GanttProject. GanttProject is a scheduler driven by gantt chart and resource load chart views of your project. So you've got your basic what to do and who is doing it views. Task dependencies and some simple reporting functions are available as well. Support is provided by Gantthive, an online discussion area fo issues and future plans. A number of developers have also created third party add-ons that facilitate web page integration and add some enterprise functionality. |
Keeping it Simple
| Situation: We really just need a calendar... Let's face it, many people deal with small projects that don't require a professional tool jockey. They just want a simple calendar with deadlines. 30 boxes is about as simple as it gets. Just create a calendar and share schedules among the people you work with. Tie in blogs and other information stores and you have a basic way to drive simple projects forward. Try out the sample calendar at the bottom of the page. It'll give you a feel for what the tool can do. |
REALLY High-End Presentations
Situation: My presentation includes a video, but needs a little something... A good friend of mine (and co-founder of gantthead), Kevin Murphy, used to deliver these amazing business presentations and my favorite was one that walked through Apollo 13 as a project management case study. He embedded video from the movie in powerpoint slides and audiences really ate it up.When I saw this new product from Mojiti it made me think of Kevin. Video alone can make a world of difference in your presentations - but being able to focus your audience's attention on some small part of the action is even more valuable. Mojiti essentially let's you place a "lens" over the part of the video that supports the point you are trying to make and allows you to include captions that can really spell it out for the audience. Take a look at the video below and you'll see what I mean... |
Remember ABT's Project Workbench? Now its free!
| Situation: Loved ABT's WorkBench - where did it go? |
Many of us remember, about a decade ago there was a very popular scheduler called Project Workbench. Loyalists were a lot like Apple users are today, consistently touting the superior features of their favorite scheduling product. One of the more popular PM conferences of the day was the PLC, which was very much focused on the use of PW.
