This week I am running a short contest on Twitter and I am giving away 5 copies of this great book by Dux Sy. As in free. As in you pay nothing to get one.

I know how you are dying to try out Twitter. But your colleagues and your mom are telling you it’s a waste of time. Forget them! Give it a spin.

Of course you can also participate when you are already using Twitter.

The enter the contest:

So, if you are new, sign up for Twitter and login. At the Twitter website enter in the big white box on top of the page (“What are you doing?”) why you need the book “SharePoint for Project Management”.

Don’t forget to start you entry with @projectshrink. This will make sure I will notice it.

End of this week I will pick 5 random answers. Contest ends Friday 27th evening GMT.

Below are some entries from two weeks ago.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Looking For An Excuse To Try Twitter? Win “SharePoint For Project Management”! is a post from: Project Shrink.

“If there is a playground for project management software, this is the cool kid to hang out with. It is Web 2.0, it is cool, it is innovative and it is just what our profession is looking for. Look at their site to see what I am raving about.”

More importantly, it introduced ranged estimates as a great way to express uncertainty in your planning.

They are back with version 2.0.

One of the new innovative features is the integration of micro-blogging functionality into its core service. Twitter-style communication in your Project Management tool.

I had a great conversation with Charles Seybold, CEO and co-founder of LiquidPlanner.com, about the innovations in LiquidPlanner 2.0.

You can view the interview below, or follow this link to YouTube.com.

You can also check out this review of LiquidPlanner 2.0 on the PM4Girls blog.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - LiquidPlanner Introduces Micro-blogging Into Project Teams is a post from: Project Shrink.

What will Project management Software be like in 5-10 years?

“We have seen a major shift in project management in the last 5-10 years that will change even more over the next 5-10 years. Traditional Project Management is often thought of as the PMI and PMBOK path. Many people in management positions looked to this way for tools, guidance and advice. PMI is definitely still very relevant and is evolving, but for many small business or niche industries they are not necessarily the best method for project management.

On the development front you have Agile methodologies popping up all over the place with tools and methodologies like scrum that have their own subset of rules. I think we will see more of this diversification and niching of project management. We will see software that addresses certain philosophies.

Since philosophies and methodologies tend to grow and evolve there will be more and more tools and ways of doing things. The nimble nature of the web is going to make it easier for companies to build, launch, and evolve these tools. For example, web development agencies are going to have several options targeted to their industry and development method of choice. The products offering a one-size-fits-all approach to project management are going to struggle to stay relevant.”

How do you think tools will support proper communication between mobile, multi-cultural teams?

“Most people prefer to work in small teams. Many large companies have embraced this concept and are growing their companies from a network of small teams. Communicating in small teams is much easier than traditional channels in larger organizations. Communicating across different timezones and cultures is challenging, however, the bigger challenge is asynchronous vs. synchronous communication and building a company culture. We’ll always have phones and email, traditional and preferred forms of communication. Online tools will need to embrace and enhance already accepted forms of communication and not try to replace them.”

How do you think tools will build a sense of community?

“No matter what the tool is you need to spend time face-to-face and on the phone to develop rapport and communication patterns. With IM, Skype, and web-based project management software your physical geography becomes much less important. Getting people on board with the rest of the team becomes the higher priority for getting the day-to-day work done. Our company, Pelago, benefits greatly by having everyone in one big room. There are conversations, jokes and team building moments that would be difficult to replicate with a distributed team online.

This is both a challenge and an opportunity for web-based tools. We try to turn the mundane task — “hey update this” — into a fun conversation, injecting it with jokes, lolcat pictures, and other pop culture references. To achieve this with an online tool it needs to allow for some freeform expression of thoughts and ideas. Otherwise, you are trying to build community around workflow, and what fun is that?”

What makes your product different than other Project Management Software?

“The canned answer for that question is that Intervals was one of the first, and still is one of the few, hosted project management tools that combines time tracking with task management. However, Intervals goes beyond just mixing two features. It is a project management tool designed to address the entire workflow of a small team consisting of 5 to 20 members. Intervals sits in the middle of two widely different approaches to project management. On the one side, you have tools like Basecamp that reduces project management to one feature, the task list. On the other side, you have tools like MS Project that has too many features to count and is geared toward the enterprise company. Many small businesses need more than what Basecamp can offer, but are too overwhelmed by MS Project. We designed Intervals to give a small business all the tools they would need to manage projects end-to-end inside of one app.”

Your company is part of “One Percent for the Planet”. What does this organization do and why does your company support it?

“1% For The Planet is an alliance of businesses that donate at least 1% of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide. The main reason we support this organization is that the founders of Pelago all firmly believe our generation has been called to be stewards of the environment. Other reasons are that this particular environmental organization was started in our backyard and we get to decide which nonprofit receives our donation. 1% For The Planet is simply a catalyst, which speaks volumes to their desire to help out. Last year we gave our donation to the Eastern Sierra Land Trust, an organization that is working to protect vital lands for both people and wildlife. Pelago has held a few of its company retreats in the Eastern Sierra and giving back is our way of helping to protect a region that has helped forge us as a successful company.”

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Future of Project Management Software: Intervals is a post from: Project Shrink.

1. What do you think project management software will look like in 5-10 years?

The future of project management is about moving from “project planning” to “project implementation,” where true cross team participation is at the core of the project from beginning to end.

When a team collaborates on completing tasks and works together to achieve a common goal, the interaction with each other encompasses all aspects of real collaboration: the creation of joint objectives; the alignment of these objectives towards a final product; the act of resolving joint problems; the creation of shared knowledge databases; the improvement of the entire process based on past experiences; and the ability to be transparent and assign accountability. This is the future of project management.

2. What are the technologies that will drive the software?

Technologies that relate to the “cloud,” or SaaS, approach will be the dominating forces behind taking project management from its current role as a planning tool to its future role as a project implementation tool.

Technologies that enable connectivity between the enterprise and the cloud will enable the user to have one single interface for all tasks and projects, rather than having to switch between various tools to get the job done.

Tasks which require collaboration and team participation, such as meetings, discussions and decision making, will take advantage of mobile and conferencing technologies within their existing SaaS project management applications. This technology will streamline these activities and enable the collaboration across the entire team that is needed in order to complete each task in the project.

3. How do you think tools will support proper communication between mobile, multi-cultural teams?

People need the ability to update, report progress and access information regarding their work from various locations around the world.

Enabling team collaboration between various systems using mobile devices, conferencing solutions and instant messaging technologies supports the vision of global participation in a project, without limiting participation and implementation due to physical distance.

4. How do you think tools will build a sense of community?

People working together on a project have inherent shared interests and need to share information, IP, knowledge, skills experience and the communication process in order to achieve the goals of the project.

People who have shared interests are the basis of any community, and those who work together using an online SaaS project management tool come together to create something new – community-based project management. This process ensures that all common information, IP, knowledge, skills and experience is saved and can be used in the future by the same community to streamline similar projects in the future and increase productivity, shortening the time to market for all future projects.

5. How do you think tools will keep the team focused on the overall goal?

The SaaS-based project management tool creates clarity on shared objectives of a project, as well as a shared knowledge of the assigned responsibilities for each task.

The fact that the solution is available online and is transparent to all who are involved means that change is easily managed, giving flexibility and accountability to the project management and implementation process that has never before been experienced.

6. How will decisions be supported (about features, about allocation of resources)?

The dynamics of business means that we must respond to change as quickly and as efficiently as possible. The decisions made must be responsive to the immediate needs of the project; and the process in which these decisions are made must be flexible in order to accommodate for a constantly changing business environment.

This environment dictates that the decision making capabilities move away from centralized command and control, and move towards distributing the decision-making capabilities to the team in the field.

In order to do this, the team in the field must have full and transparent access to all the information so that the decision can be made quickly and efficiently, while at the same time taking into consideration all the related dependencies.

Clarizen’s SaaS solution is built to provide the infrastructure for such decision making capabilities to take place on an ongoing basis by all members of the team, not just the project manager.

7. What makes your current product different than other Project Management Software?

First, Clarizen’s product is unique in that our focus has always been on creating team participation across all areas and phases of the project execution and implementation.

We empower the team to go beyond the planning stages, and implement the project in a systematic way that enables learning and knowledge sharing between team members, between project managers and clients and between two separate companies working together on common projects.

This is actually the second concept that makes Clarizen unique from other SaaS project management solutions – our product enables collaboration not only between teams working inside the same company, but also in teams where the resources are dispersed between two or more companies. These distributed teams have common objectives and goals, share joint milestones and tasks, are dependent on each other for various parts of the project and all work together to achieve the end goals by using the Clarizen solution, but are still able to work completely independently from each other in all other areas.

This vision of true team collaboration is at the core of Clarizen’s SaaS project management product, and will continue to drive all future releases and product features.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Future of Project Management Software: Clarizen is a post from: Project Shrink.

1. Programeter is a tool that measures “meaningful” productivity metrics. What do you measure and why is it considered “meaningful”?

First of all, it is important to mention that Programeter is focused on measurement of teams and individuals. In contrast to many other measurement tools in software development we do not measure quality of the code. We try to provide information about the most valuable resource in the software development and it is developers themselves. There are two important aspects which Programeter is measuring. It is CONTRIBUTION and KNOW-HOW.

Contribution Indicators

• Contribution Size illustrates the size of code produced by the developer during the reporting period. Size is measured in lines of code and takes into account new lines added by the developer, lines that developer has modified and lines that he has deleted.
• New Code is the number of new lines of code that developer has added during the reporting period.
• Modified code is depicted by two indicators, namely “other” and “own”. These indicators represent amount of lines of code modified by the developer during the reporting period. If the developer has modified a line of code created by someone else, then the indicator “other” is increased by one. And if he modifies a line created by himself, then the number “own” is increased accordingly.
• Deleted Code is traced in a same manner as modified code, by two indicators “other” and “own”. They keep the count of lines of code deleted during the reporting period. Each deleted line increases either indicator “other” or “own”. If developer deletes his own line of code then the indicator “own” is raised by one. If the deleted code was created by someone else, then the indicator “other” is raised consequently.
• Active Days illustrates the number of days when developer was making code contributions.
• Activity developer’s or team’s activity during 1 month. It measures the number of components and frequency of modifications made to them by the given developer (or team).
  

Know-How Indicators

• Know-How Score illustrates the breadth of the developer’s knowledge in the project. The value is measured on the scale from 0 to 10. For example, the know-how score of 6.5 in certain project, means that developer is capable of working alone with most project components.
• Fresh Know-How represents the knowledge that was refreshed during the reporting period. For instance, if developer A has developed component “C” in the product and he has done changes to this component during last month, then it will be counted in his fresh know-how.
• New Know-How measures only knowledge that was introduced during the reporting period. For instance, if developer A has created new component “C” in the product during last month, then it will be counted in his new know-how.
• Unique Know-How similar to know-how score, but measures only knowledge that is NOT shared with other team members. For instance, if developer A has developed component “A” in the product and nobody else contributed to this component, then it will be counted in his unique know-how.
• Shared Know-How similar to know-how score, but measures only knowledge that is shared with other team members.

Why our metrics are meaningful? The key goal of our R&D is to make sure there is a way to apply our metrics in real-life. Instead of bringing mathematical proof I will give you an example:

Programeter has a metric called “know-how”. This give you the numeric representation of one developers breadth of knowledge in given product/project. We also can identify “unique know-how” which tells how much of know-how is unique to this developers. By unique we mean that only this developers to those components. Now lets imagine, there is developer in a team which has unique know-how 2.0 (20%) in project A. Now if the person with unique know-how of 2.0 goes away project and resource manager have good idea of how much they loose. They also turn to Programeter to find out which component were developed by leaving employee to make sure know-how transfer will happen efficiently.

2. Every team member can view the performance and contribution of the other team members. This can empower people to help each other out and focus on the overall team performance. What are the experiences so far? Does this actually work?

We are still in private-beta, so it is too early to do conclusions. Actually, that is the reason we wanted to outreach developers community so anybody could share their opinion whether it can really help you out.

One interesting example shared with us by one of the developers trying out the Programeter. He has used his profile reports to negotiate the salary with his manager. He used the report to convince his boss, that he deserves better salary. Without the Programeter reports he would lack any reasonable tool to proof that he is right.

3. Metrics can also be used to “do evil“. What are the characteristics of the companies / organization where this concept might not be effective?

There are so many tools that in hands of uneducated or inexperienced people that could be used as “weapons”. What we always tell to our users is that be sure to think carefully when interpreting the indicators. Metrics are often the reason to ask new questions. Those helps you to identify problematic situations, which you would miss otherwise.

So if you ask, which company would be the best users for our tool. It is the team with smart programmers, smart project managers and experienced top level management. They would get the biggest benefit. I would not suggest to implement the measurement system in a company which is stressed by low-quality, constantly missed deadlines and too emotional employees.

4. What is “The” story you tell at a diner conversation to illustrate the power of Programeter?

Imagine you have a big software development team. Lets say 100 developers. Would you agree that 20% of this team is not used to full-throttle? Usually the reasons for that are poor management, poor expertise, miscommunication, emotions, … Programeter would allow you to identify those 20% correctly and give them another project where they would be able to show-off the full productivity. So you can achieve the same result with smaller team. It give benefits both for programmers and managers. Programmers become valued at new project and managers can better manage the rest of the team.

More information about Programeter can be found on their site.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - How Fast Does Your Developer Go? Measuring Productivity Metrics With Programeter is a post from: Project Shrink.

What, do you think, Project management Software will look like in 5-10 years?

It’s hard to predict what kind of technologies will be available in 5-10 years, however I’m pretty sure that “go-and-do-everything” robots won’t be available yet (at least not to everyone), so regular mortals will still have to manage and execute their projects. That having been said, I strongly believe that the focus of project management software will shift from data to people. I think the future of project management software is in a true collaborative environment, where two or more people will not only be able to see and hear each other, but also share, visualize and manipulate the context: e.g. if one person changes the schedule, everyone else instantly sees the change and is able to make respective changes as well.

What are the technologies that will be driving the software?

Developing technologies generally percolate into the market, and while we never know what crazy technologies are brewing in the top secret labs around the world, it is easy to spot the emerging trends. From what I can see, communications, AI, virtual reality and mobile technologies will be driving the future of PM software. These technologies will ensure that key information is easily accessible to everyone regardless of geographical or time-related barriers.

Virtual or 3D-environment technologies might even become critical for some projects. For example, constructing a new office building. This is a big project and having the owner able to see each stage of the building’s construction online without having to be physically present is a big deal and a big advantage. Now in this scenario, the project management software is also smart enough to know (from past projects done in this city and state) which building permits might be needed when, and when each inspection will happen (it can coordinate with the inspector’s calendar on your behalf). The ability of the PM software to do this can eliminate costly stoppages while permits or inspections would occur.

The key change in PM software is that it really will begin to focus on people rather than focusing on the data, and for PM software vendors to understand that most projects fail because of human to human interactions, not because the software tools failed.

How do you think tools will support proper communication between mobile, multi-cultural teams?

First of all, proper communication is essential to mobile teams, so in 5 to 10 years, all standard desktop-based products that don’t support remote teams will simply disappear. Presently, web-based project management tools are gaining prevalence in the market due to their collaborative abilities. The ideal tool of the future will further strengthen this team communication by providing each stakeholder with information personalized to their specific cultural context.

For example, a person in Spain will see the same information as his colleague in India, but that information will be presented in a completely different way, set up to ensure the fastest comprehension by each end user. We call this specific context for each user “local context”. The goal of local context is to present project data in a way the person will understand it, but it is also a critical piece in each project team member understanding each other.

How do you think tools will build a sense of community?

Studies show that people living on upper floors of a building tend to go outside for a walk less frequently than their counterparts living on lower floors.

When there are barriers like too many steps involved, the subconscious kicks in and a person feels that the obstacle outweighs all other desires (i.e. to interact with the community, in this case) The same principle applies to software. In the future, software developers must focus on eliminating barriers. The less barriers users encounter while using software, sharing information and communicating with others, the more inclined they will be to become an active part of the community: to contribute, to participate, to engage others. The other issue is that people have to see that there is a personal advantage to being part of the community.

Usually these advantages are that they get more information more quickly, that the community will filter in relevant information for them that they might not have seen. That they get access to people and expertise they might not normally have access to, or that working within the community they can complete their tasks in a shorter time and more effectively. I think project communities will be a big deal in the near future!

How do you think tools will keep the team focused on the overall goal?

In my opinion, tools alone cannot keep people focused on a goal, but team members and people themselves can. Often it is the role of the project manager to provide focus to the team.

As soon as software stops complicating the lives of project team members and starts adding value to them, people will be able to concentrate on their actual goals and tasks and forget about the tool. For this reason, the ideal PM tool has to be “transparent”, to work behind the scenes so an individual can focus on what’s really important – the goal.

How will decisions be supported (about features, about allocation of resources)?

Future project management software will rely heavily on historical information. Data mining along with Artificial Intelligence will generate predictions that allow project managers to make informed decisions. Who knows, maybe some of the decisions will be made by the software itself. The integration of mind mapping software, and GDSS (group decision support systems) functionality like categorizing, lateral thinking and brain storming will also help teams to make better decisions around a project. When the software will bring up similar issues on other projects and show what decision that team made, as well as the corporate policies, initiatives and goals, all these things will help project teams make better decisions.

What makes your current product different than other Project Management Software?

We believe that focusing our efforts on the following principles allows Easy Projects .NET to stand out in the market:

Focus on users
Most of the people using project management software are not PMI trained project managers, so it is critical to make the software easy enough for them to use effectively.

Ease of use
Easy Projects .NET was specifically designed to make project management hassle free and straightforward. This means that there are no bells and whistles involved and no need to worry about a sophisticated setup process. Learning to manage your projects shouldn’t require an entire training course so EP.NET features an intuitive and friendly interface so easy to use that you will be set up and going in 30 minutes or less.

All-in-One
EP.NET features not just project management, but also time, issue, and request tracking. We believe that our customers should not have to pay for and learn how to use each of these functions separately, so we brought all the features together under a single umbrella.

Flexibility
A customer (or the main stakeholder in the project) should always have a choice! We allow customers the option between running EP.NET in-house (licensed software) or using our hosted SaaS service. If customers want to customize the product – no problem; the source code package to the rescue! If customers need integration with 3rd party tools or add-ons – our API is the perfect solution.

Customer support
Unlike other well-known products on the market, our customers can actually talk to live people– and support isn’t just limited to the phone; we also offer e-mail, instant messaging and remote access support.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - Future of Project Management Software: Easy Projects .NET is a post from: Project Shrink.

Photography by TheBusyBrain.

If you are considering buying a PM application, you can use sites like this for comparison and review.

If you are especially looking for construction project management software, SoftwareAdvice.com might come in handy. Houston Neal explains:

“Our website reviews and compares construction software programs, much like a consumer reports. We cover project management applications, accounting/job costing and estimating programs.

We just completed a project management feature checklist and made it available as a PDF download on our website (you can find it here) .”

When you do all this comparing, you must have some advice to share for those searching construction project management software…

“Suppose your construction firm has specific technology requirements, and it’s important to choose a system that matches your needs. With nearly 100 construction project management systems available, it can be difficult to identify the right program for your business. Three top-level features to look for include:

• Project scheduling to manage projects along the critical path;
• Job costing to ensure projects stay on budget, and;
• Document control to manage change orders, RFIs, submittals and to enforce accountability.”

If you don’t like the looks of these lists, here is an article on how to choose on your own project management software, and you can read my guide on software selection.

Do you have a good tip for people looking for project management software? (Be a sport, and don’t just put a link to a product in the comment… )

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - When You Are Looking For Project Management Software is a post from: Project Shrink.

I talked with Bruce Daley of Test Common to get some insight.

Photography by fdcomite.

Q. How do virtual test environments work? Is this suited for every project?

A. “Thanks to advances in cloud computing virtual test environments can be quickly-to-instantly created using companies that specialize in offering these services like Skytap. By utilizing the cloud there is no need to buy, connect, and configure hardware to create a test system. You simply pay for the time you use. This flexibility is especially useful for project managers being held to tight deadlines and suddenly being faced with unexpected testing needs. Because this technology is dependent on an underlying technology (which in this case is virtualization software from vendors like VMWare) not all operating systems are supported so it is not appropriate for every project. ”

Q. Could you explain us how a Project Manager can find suited testers for a test job he has to perform next week? How would that work using Test Common?

A. “There are two ways a Project Manager can find testers using Test Common. The first is the traditional way of posting job requirements and waiting for response. In this regard, Test Common is no different from the classified ad section of the newspaper except that the site is focused on testers and Project Managers can check past experience. The second way a Project Manager can find a tester is by using the site as a social network similar to Facebook or LinkedIn and actively search for the right tester.”

Q. Do you have a tip for companies that are using virtual testers and testing for the first time?

A. “Start small. Perhaps so small as a test with a single developer and a single tester.”

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - The Virtues of Virtual Testing is a post from: Project Shrink.

In the previous conversation Massimo explained that his company strongly feels that project success depends on two factors:

• Every person in your team must know what to do every morning
• Information must be shared in real time

Their project management product, WhoDoes, has been primarily designed to fulfil these needs.

With the new version they introduce some nice features:

• Fast Planning: no more clicking through screens, but one simple screen where you can enter tasks, milestones, dates and assignments;
• Project E-mail: it is now possible to centralize within a unique shared archive all the information contained in an e-mail, allowing the whole team to remain completely updated with the communication relative to the project.
• Directory of users: WhoDoes 2.0 introduces a new extended teamwork concept that will allow you to invite all the users that form part of the WhoDoes Network to participate to the projects, it will actually be possible to invite all the people that use WhoDoes and have chosen themselves to be visible within the Network.

Give it a spin. There is a free version.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - WhoDoes 2.0 – Now With Fast Planning is a post from: Project Shrink.

ConceptDraw innovates in two areas: 1) supporting the process from idea to schedule and 2) visual representation.

Idea To Schedule

The application lets you draw mindmaps around certain themes. If you need to build some piece of software you can just think of all the steps you need to perform and mindmap it on the screen. This mindmap can be enhanced by entering dates, resources and slowly turned into a Gantt chart, a real genuine schedule. With this approach it truly reflects the real world planning process. We all hate to send a half-baked draft MS Project file. Well, ConceptDraw will have none of that. Just communicate the mindmap and there will be no false expectations.

The whole process is task oriented. This allows you to go from mindmap to Gantt to Work breakdown structure to tasklist. All in one process.

Visual Representation

As mentioned before the basic enity in ConceptDraw Office is “task”. The data can be represented for both linear and visual thinkers. It can be viewed as a mindmap, network-like overview, or as a hardcore schedule or WBS. The visualization is also very pleasing to the eye, it creates beautiful web 2.0 dashboards. These will wow the stakeholders. Although it’s not the most important thing, a professional presentation always helps.

A drawback of this version is that it doesn’t allow for remote collaboration in the mindmap phase.

Bas de Baar helps people find ways to enjoy the diversity of human interaction in their organizations so that they can get out of their own way and achieve their goals. - ConceptDraw Office: The Missing Link Between Idea And Schedule is a post from: Project Shrink.