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.Quick PM Learning Via Cell Phone
Situation: No bandwidth for brown bags. Need a simple way to sharpen the saw. Podcasts are all about time shifting. They are typically bite-size snippets of learning or entertainment that you can listen to whenever you like. They are nice because you can listen while you work on your PC, which works really well if you can multitask on that level. iPODs and other MP3 players give podcasts portability, but not everyone carrys an iPOD wherever they go.We ALL carry our cell phones everywhere and now there are new services that let you dial a number and listen to podcasts over the phone you have now, with no additional software, and at no charge. Let's say you want to listen to podcasts put out by our friends at the PMI IS SIG, perhaps the one on Mastering IT Requirements. Just take 2 minutes to sign up on Fonpods and add the podcast you want to your subscriptions. Then dial up one of their access numbers (712)432-3030 or (712)432-3031 and drink in the knowledge. If you need to take a break from all of that learning, I'd recommend the Onion Radio News feed. A similar service is Podlinez, where the process is a little different. Instead of a single access number and episode codes, you have a different phone number for each podcast. One advantage of Podlinez is that you can easily add podcasts that do not exist in their catalogue - provided there is an RSS feed available. The interfaces for each of these sites suffer from the same strip mall approach that most podcast portals currently follow. They just add a feature that is not commonly available from podcast providers themselves. Hopefully one day every podcast provider will offer this functionality directly and streamline the process, but for now these sites make it more convenient to tune in. Just what you needed - one more reason to spend time on the cell! Note: The Web 2.0 guys would refer to this as software above the level of a single device. |
