New Twproject Release – Assignments and load for departments

Despite the summer period, the Twproject development team has certainly not stopped and today we are releasing a new version that we are sure you will appreciate. This new release, which is free for all customers, includes an important new feature on the workload and in particular on the use of department on projects, but let’s see all the details.

In Twproject, it was always possible to assign a department to a project, but the assignment had the sole function of giving all those belonging to that department specific permissions on the project.

From today, this assignment will have even greater value.

But this release does not only include this important change, we have also significantly enhanced Twproject’s financial management, making it more suitable for highly structured companies.

Also included are numerous bug-fixes, a complete list of which can be found on the changelog page.

This upgrade is free of charge for all Twproject users and includes updates to the database. A full backup of the application is therefore recommended before upgrading.

Let us now see the new features in detail.

New features

Department assignments

This important new change has several consequences.

As we have already mentioned, the assignment of a department to the project has always been possible, but the function was only to grant permissions to people who were part of the department/section (permissions are those given by the role with which the department is assigned).

Resources could not record hours worked on the department, but required their own allocation.

From today this will be possible! Being part of a department assigned to a project will give you the possibility to report directly on this assignment, you will be able to see the project and work with the to-do’s.

This major change will allow you to assign a department without worrying about who will be in charge of the activities specifically, knowing that everyone in it is fully operational.

In work environments where there are large teams and where there is a tendency to work in agile mode, it will be very convenient to have one assignment to which everyone reports.

Also, the assignment of a ToDo to a person will no longer create an assignment to the person if that person is part of a department/team already assigned on the project.

In the worklog analysis interfaces, however, the detail of the persons who reported on the departmental allocation is shown, while all analysis, control and approval procedures remain unchanged.

This is a new default behaviour of Twproject and therefore does not need to be activated.

Consequently, in all interfaces where one’s own assignments are shown or where one can record one’s worklogs, in addition to one’s personal assignments, those of the department to which one directly belongs are also shown, with the possibility of reporting on them.

If, on the other hand, a person also has his or her own nominal assignment on the same stage, the departmental one is ignored and only the personal one is shown.

Department workload

Obviously, this change, which gives the department an even greater importance than it has had up to now, could not remain incomplete, which is why the optimised load calculation on the department as a whole was also added.

Until now it was only possible to view the workload of people; with this release it becomes possible for departments as well.

The workload calculation takes into account many parameters such as dates, status and type of projects, estimated assignments, planned hours through the plan and/or ToDo’s, actual workable hours net of leave/vacation/illness, hours already worked on each assignment, for each person belonging to the department. Once this data has been extracted, the algorithm tries to optimise the allocation of resources so as to obtain the most plausible load possible, based on the available data:

Hours worked by the resource (both person and department)
Work capacity for that day. It is the sum of the capacities of all the resources belonging to the department; it takes into account working hours (horizontal or vertical part-time) and can therefore differ from day to day.
Total load calculated as the sum of all contributions.

Colours are assigned on the basis of the phase/project. If several resources are allocated to the same phase/project, the box represents the total of all contributions.

Unavailabilities, shown at the bottom of the bar in pale pink, are holidays, leave, etc., entered in the Twproject diary indicating their type.

For more details on the algorithm implemented by Twproject for this calculation, we recommend reading this post on resource workload.

Improved cost management

Let us now move on to the part concerning cost enhancement.

Project budget

Several configurations have been included that can be switched on and off by default, giving you greater control over budgets and estimates.

The activation of the parameter BUDGET_OVERFLOW_FORBIDDEN makes the application prevent the input of financial costs, or costs arising from allocated resources, if these exceed the allocated budget. In addition, the sum of the budget distributed over the phases must respect the budget defined on the higher level.

This behaviour is intended to facilitate the financial planning activities of the project manager, who is then guided by Twproject in entering consistent estimates with the available budget for each individual project phase.

If we then analyse in detail the control exercised by the budget, we see that:

each sub-phase cannot have a budget greater than that of the phase to which it belongs (overflow) and, similarly, the budget of a parent node cannot be less than the sum of the budgets of its own sub-phases (underflow).

the estimated costs of a phase cannot exceed the budget of the relevant phase as well as the costs arising from the work of the assigned resources (hourly cost of the resource multiplied by the estimated hours of work on his or her assignment).

the real costs, in turn, are subject to the control of the estimated costs to which they must necessarily refer and which they cannot in fact exceed.

lpersonal expenses are tied to one’s personal budget, which in turn contributes to eroding the phase budget.

In order to better manage finances, Twproject shows for each node the budget allocated to all its sub-phases, if any, as well as the residual usable amount (value given by the budget on the phase minus what is allocated to the sub-phases and the costs of the phase itself).

As mentioned, by symmetry with the overflow, the underflow is also controlled, so an already entered budget may not be changed below what has already been distributed or estimated, and likewise, an estimated cost may not be lowered below the actual cost already incurred.

Two new budget management permissions have been created.

Management of resource cost per hour
USE_REAL_RESOURCE_COST

Twproject has two cost per hour indications: one on the resource, the other on the assignment.

This is done in order to differentiate the cost of the employees to the company (cost on the resource) from the value with which the resource is ‘sold’ to a customer (cost on the allocation).

However, should it be necessary or more convenient to always use the cost of the resource, this new flag has been introduced, the activation of which disables the hourly cost on the allocation, which is then ignored.

As a consequence, any change of hourly cost on the resource will be propagated immediately to all task assignments with active or pending status. The display of historicised consumptive costs (worklogs) and estimates, discounted to the new cost, is also activated.

The historicised worklog cost (actual cost) is the sum of the individual worklog costs to the hourly cost of the resource at the date of entry, while the estimated cost is the historicised hourly cost, on what was actually recorded, and the current cost for the residual part:

actual worklog cost + (estimated hours – hours worked) * current hourly cost

Please note that if the hourly cost of a resource is changed, the project cost page should be interpreted by taking into account the above calculation, not simply by multiplying the hourly cost by the hours.

Management of final reports (worklog entry)
WORKLOG_OVERFLOW_FORBIDDEN

Linked to the management of the project budget, but independent of it, is the blocking of worklog entries in the event of overruns.

Once this property is activated, it will no longer be possible to enter hours in excess of the estimate; therefore, in the case of non-estimated hours, worklog entry is disabled.

In the case of assignment to a department (see next paragraph), the block is activated on the total number of hours entered by the whole team.

In the event of an overrun, an alert warns of the error and shows the remaining number of hours that can be entered.

Note that this ban does not take into account budget overruns (provided the functionality is active), but only the estimate on the allocation; this is to avoid blocking normal work activities in the event of changes in the hourly cost of resources.

The property WORKLOG_ROUNDING_TO instead, controls the rounding to ‘n’ predetermined minutes. The value 0 (default) does not round and therefore deactivates the property.

Management of cost centres

With the same aim of simplifying the management of large teams and complex projects, several innovations concerning cost centres were introduced.

Cost centre propagation

A new default behaviour means that when the cost centre on a task or resource is changed, all ‘children’ having the old cost centre are updated to the new one. If, however, a child had a different one, it is not changed.

Choice of cost centre type
USE_DISTINCT_COSTCENTER_PRJ_RES

Its activation involves the appearance in the cost centre editor of a new drop-down menu, the ‘type’, having only two values, project and resource, and the task and resource drop-downs will only show the respective cost centres.

Cost centre inheritance
COSTS_INHERIT_COST_CENTER

This new custom feature has been introduced so that additional project costs inherit the cost centre from the phase, with no possibility of modification.

Security

With this release we have introduced 5 new permissions related to phase/project management of the budget, revenue and cost centre.

The application update procedure automatically adds them to all existing roles that have similar cost permissions.

To increase security, ownership of project phases will automatically be inherited from the parent node.

Thus, if even the individual project phase will have a different manager (e.g. a junior project manager) than the main project, this manager will not acquire ownership over all aspects of the phase, such as costs, etc., by default.

Many other new features

Kanban: added search in each column.

Assignment list: the printout now also includes any customised fields.

Operator loading: in the detail popup, we have increased and improved the summary information.

Tasks with an undefined status: their progress percentage is always zero and they are not taken into account in the project progress calculation.

But all this is but a brief extract of what you can find in Twproject 7.1.007!

With this release, Twproject has made many other system improvements and bug-fixes, a complete list of which can be found on the changelog page.

Wrike vs Clickup: which Project Management software you should choose for your business?

You have finally decided to adopt a unified system for tracking projects and for assigning activities to your work team. So you hope to optimize the time you spend every day juggling shared folders, e-mails, paper notes, worklog files scattered everywhere and you are looking for a single tool that allows you to manage all these aspects in a single platform. But which one to choose?

The transition will certainly take some time, a lot of data will have to be transferred to the new system and you will face resistance from someone.

You are quite convinced that you will have to choose between one of the two “big names” of the project management market, Wrike or ClickUp and you would like this rating not to take up too much time. Usually these software offer a free two-week trial, but for those who feel like getting started, knowing that the learning curve could be long, it is important to speed up the software testing phase.

And this is where we meet you. We have tested the two most popular software in depth and we can provide you with a detailed analysis of the main features by comparing them and highlighting their pros and cons. We’ve tried to anticipate the questions you might ask and have broken down the top issues by topic.

In general, you need to know that you will not regret the path taken and that adopting a good project management system will bring you undoubted benefits, both in terms of optimizing time and resources, and in terms of quality of the level of collaboration within the team. Numerous researches have shown that sharing of information and individual empowerment of workers, such as when they are placed in charge of project phases, increase overall productivity and team satisfaction. This is all easier said than done when you learn to use good tools.

But let’s get to the point and start with the analysis of the single functions of these software, divided into macro areas.

Project planning and Gantt diagram

The first aspect that we have considered concerns a tool that project managers deem very useful in terms of visula impact.
If you have done some researches in this field you will most probably know what it is. Put simply, it is a horizontal bar graph showing the various phases of a project between a start and an end date and the possible relationship between the phases.

During our study of this aspect within the two examined software, we were struck by a good usability of the tool in both, but in particular we liked Clickup for a small but useful detail: a green bar showing the entire duration of the project phases by making a sum between the activities present within it.

In both software we found it useful to see the assignee’s name on the project phases, and yet it would have been even better in our opinion to be able to display further information, such as the project’s code, which many companies use for immediate identification.

In Wrike it is possible to enter your days off, as we will see in the next point, and this has an impact on the Gantt chart and on the duration of the project in general, since it causes the slipping of all the activities planned for those days and all those connected to them. Consequently the project extends beyond what was planned.

Moreover, the project manager does not receive a notification of the changes that have occurred and therefore we consider this method quite unacceptable for the achievement of good results. On Clikpup the problem does not arise because inserting days off by employees is not allowed. Therefore, even if this is a general shortcoming, at least it does not affect the timing of the projects.

Workload

The second aspect that you will improve with the adoption of a project management tool is the management of the workload. In fact, this is a factor that plays a key role in the success of a project given that it is normal to have your staff involved on several fronts. Calculating the load of each resource is essential to understand who and when will be able to complete the assignments. If we unify management systems, this work will certainly be faster and more effective.

In Wrike , we have found workload management simple and intuitive . This aspect can be managed in the “Tools” area and allows you to easily move the assignments from one user to another, when the load is excessive. To calculate the total load, Wrike lets you to enter the number of hours required for each task per day, even if it is not possible to change the dedicated hours among the days.

Unfortunately in Wrike it is not possible to set daily working hours other than 8 and the project manager cannot enter their empoyees’ days off, since users can only enter their own hours: this is a little limitation in workload management processes. Perhaps in a slightly less intuitive way, Clickup instead proposes the insertion of a maximum number of daily tasks for each employee as a solution, but it does not allow you to indicate the hours to be dedicated to projects. We believe that this method is very simplistic because it does not take into account the substantial differences that may exist in the use of resources depending on the activities to be performed.

As for Wrike, also in Clickup it is easy to reallocate activities among the personnel involved, however the system lacks a bit in accuracy. Furthermore, Clickup does not support tools for managing hours, holidays and leaves while Wrike does not have worklog recording.

So, even if Wrike’s workload management is more accurate than its main competitor, in our opinion it would be useful to go a step further and allow the load to be allocated dynamically, with an optimized distribution that assign hours dedicated to projects differently among days, depending on whether or not the resource is engaged on other fronts.

Agile management with Kanban board

To identify which between Wrike and Clickup offers a better approach to the Agile methodology, we mainly focused on the composition of their Kanban board. This is a sort of “whiteboard” in which the project activities appear as post-it notes arranged in columns based on their production status and it is much loved by those who want to speed up times in updating data.

Also in this case, the two platforms proved to be aesthetically pleasing and easy to use, but Clickup scored slightly higher for allowing to customize the statuses of the task phases . Not only those standard statuses (typically: to be done – in progress – to be approved – closed) but all those you need and with a customisable label.

It would have been even better to give the possibility to organize the columns according to different criteria other than the status, but in general we found this function satisfactory.

Cost management

And here we are at the last point taken into consideration and also the one that has scored more sore points in our view. Cost management doesn’t offer any further advantage compared to the mere use of classic spreadsheets and therefore the only advantage is the usage of a unique platform. But the project manager will have to enter everything manually and define the values to be analysed without any support from the system.

Neither platform has automatic calculation functionalities and the project budget is an almost accessory value, of no use with the basic features.

Wrike catches up a bit in its “Enterprise” version since it offers the possibility of downloading advanced reports with different predefined templates from which to start for cost monitoring.

But high-level skills are needed to be able to understand how the Report section works, since it is very unintuitive compared to the rest of the platform, and this could discourage small managers or those who are beginners on the subject.

What if there is a third solution?

We examined four specific topics that we consider fundamental in the project management sector and the two software examined scored equally in our personal ranking. Although they both offer a solution to the four problems proposed, neither of them can be considered complete.

The inefficiencies we found make us affirm with certainty that there is a third way: Twproject. We have tested the functionalities of the two biggest project management platforms on the market and we have discovered that all their features are handled with greater accuracy in Twproject. In particular:

1. Project planning and the Gantt diagram: setting up project timelines and the dependencies between its phases is the basic work of the project manager that must be done carefully, considering multiple aspects and not just the availability of a worker.

Therefore our choice in Twproject is to let the availability of employees be managed independently based on their time sheets, but the absence of an employee will not change the dates of the project and its phases, but simply the workload will be recalculated.

2. Workload: the workload distribution in Twproject is really dynamic and optimized, qualities that other software lacks. This is what our smart time management looks like.

In the image, the different colors represent different projects and the dedicated hours change according to the load of each single day. In fact, Twproject uses a load distribution algorithm that optimizes resource capacity, it does not simply sums up the values entered by the user.

3. Agile management with Kanban board: here Twproject takes a further leap compared to its competitors and allows you to view the columns of your Kanban according to other criteria in addition to the status. In fact, it may be useful for you to view as many columns as you have Projects: you can easily move the To-Dos from one project to another. Again, you can have Assignees organized into columns and move tasks from one person to another or even distribute unassigned tasks. Also if you wish, you can view the To-Dos in Priority columns and then reassign them accordingly.

4. Cost management: as we have seen, budget planning is practically not contemplated in the two software analysed. On the contrary, with Twproject, cost management is a function of paramount importance and really allows you to take care of this need completely within the software, without the need to use additional external tools. Our software follows you step by step in the creation of the project budget as it has a dedicated report for each ongoing project and also for its sub-phases and activities.

In this table, the project manager can enter the planned cost and its actual application, divided between personnel costs and ancillary costs, estimated and actual.
In fact, only Twproject allows you to indicate the hourly cost of employees and as they insert the hours worked on projects, these will increase the expenses incurred on a project or one of its phases. At the same time, the project manager can record all additional costs, starting with estimated budget and then entering the actual expense items later.

In this way you can always keep expenses under control and compare them with the planned costs. You can possibly adjust the data over time and the system will warn you in case of overrun of the planned budget.

Put us to the test

The fact that Twproject has turned out to be better, even compared to the big names, in many key aspects, is due to the experience acquired in over twenty years of activity since the first release of our software, which has allowed us to deal with different needs of large and small companies and to find ad hoc solutions for each of them.

Twproject offers you fifteen days free trial, during which you can take advantage of the advice of our support team.

Let us know if you try it and don’t forget to share your experience with us.

New Twproject Release – All types of Gantt dependencies

After months of study and implementation we are really happy to announce that a new version of Twproject has been released and it includes, among other optimizations, a particular step forward on the use of the Gantt chart.

The Gantt developed by Twproject is undoubtedly one of the best on the current market in terms of flexibility and interaction with other pages in the application. It is also one of the few that allows you to do all sorts of tests on project duration and dependencies, thus proving to be a useful tool not only when sharing timelines but also in the process of studying them.

As always, the new release will be for the immediate benefit of all our customers, who can start using the new features right away!

Dependencies in the Gantt

According to definition, in the context of project management, “dependency” is defined as the relationship between two activities in a project or between an activity and a milestone (a precise point that defines the beginning or end of a relevant phase).

Dependencies thus allow one phase to be linked to the next in a way that indicates that they are consequential.

Introduction of new typologies

Until now in Twproject, the dependencies between project phases that the user could enter were of one type, the so-called classic Finish to start (FS). This means that activity A must finish before activity B starts, or in other words, activity B cannot start before A is finished.

But as we delved deeper into this topic and also through feedback from our clients, we realized that limiting the possible relationships that exist between the phases of a project to this classic type of dependency was reductive. In fact, there are additional relationships that can develop between the activities to be performed and that have been theorized in the principles of project management. Let us look at them in detail:

The Finish to finish (FF) relationship type implies that activity B cannot finish before A is also finished. For example, if activity B is the completion of writing a book and activity A is the writing of the last chapter, it becomes clear that A must necessarily finish for B to be considered finished as well.

Furthermore, there is the case that a certain activity cannot begin before another activity has in turn begun, and in this case the relationship will be Start to Start (SS). A classic example is the project management activity (B) of a project that cannot start before the project itself (A) begins.

Finally, a very specific case is the last type of relationship called Start to finish (SF), which is probably the most complex to understand and applies only in certain contexts. In this case activity A must start before B finishes, or in other words B cannot finish until A is started. Such a scenario may arise, for example, during shift change in a manufacturing plant whose machinery needs constant monitoring. The initial shift (A) cannot be said to have ended unless the next shift (B) has already started, on pain of putting the plant at risk.

We are therefore overjoyed to announce that in the new release of Twproject we have introduced the ability to assign all of the above types of dependencies to project phases.

After creating the dependency between two phases, you can possibly change the default value represented by the FS dependency and select another type of relationship.

The application of the concept of “elasticity”

Another important paradigm shift, which makes us very proud of our work, is that we have made all the newly added dependencies “elastic.”

Indeed, if until now the assignment of a dependency established the linear succession of one activity after another, we know well that in the real world the downtimes.

That is why Twproject decided to allow the user to freely manage this elasticity.

So from now on when you enter a dependency it will be saved at first with the default FS hard type. But this classic “hard” dependency can be converted into “elastic” and with any type of relationship.

This means that two interdependent activities may also not be chronologically consequential and move apart, leaving any gaps between them, or overlap for a time, as long as the logic of chosen dependence is respected.

This is a big change in terms of sticking to the facts when carrying out a concrete project and reinforces the concept of delegation that is central in Twproject.

Imagine a project tree where a Project Manager (PM) is assigned for the whole project and then a specific one for each phase, one for the analysis(PMA), design(PMG) and production(PMD) phase, these phases are linked by an FS dependency.

The PM can define a total project duration and assign a specific duration to the phases, thanks to the elastic dependencies, he can, while maintaining the logic of the dependencies, create a lag between the phases and therefore leave to PMA, PMG and PMD great freedom of action (moving end and start data) without affecting the overall dates!

This was not possible before, since a postponement of an end date, for example of the analysis phase, would necessarily have led to a postponement of the consequent phases, phases over which PMA has no right.

Other news

But it doesn’t end there. With this release Twproject has made really a lot of improvements to the system, a full list of which you can find on the changelog page.

Here’s a sampling of them:

Revenues: a useful tool for turning an estimated value into actual revenue has been introduced to further facilitate the entry of these items.

Worklogs: filters by ToDo and by project have been added to the worklog analysis sheet, and in addition a column with the sum of total worklogs on a phase or project has been added on the timesheet.

Role security: we have made permissions on task management even more secure in relation to cost and form entry.

Agenda: various improvements have been made to the agenda, including the ability to view the duration of ToDo’s, and in addition, events entered in the agenda have been integrated into a dedicated row on the ToDo and resource planner.

So, don’t waste any time and go find out now how much these latest innovations from Twproject will benefit the efficiency of your work!

All clients using Twproject on the cloud will get the update automatically in the coming days, while those who have Twproject installed on their own servers can find the new installers here.

Revenue management with Twproject: an excellent solution

The detailed and constant analysis of a company’s financial flows is the main tool for not making losses, and in general for not running into unpleasant events that could easily degenerate over time.

But why is it so important to schedule periodic checks of these flows?

Because in order to manage a company properly, it is often necessary to play in advance, predict the moves and have clear forecasts of future trends.

To do this, it is useful to know in detail the economic potential of the ongoing projects, so as to make the right investments and not grope in the dark.

To this end, it is essential to have a tool that aggregates costs and revenues, and this is where the management of these factors with Twproject comes into play.

CONTENT

Estimated and actual values
The method
The progress diagram
An advantage in many respects

We have recently seen how easy it is to keep the costs of your projects under control.

Now it is time to focus on revenue posting. Doing it with Twproject is really fast and easy.

Estimated and actual values

What distinguishes the cash flow analysis in Twproject is the possibility of always differentiating between estimated and real flows.

This applies to both costs and revenues.

In fact, as in the cost sheet, also for revenue management you can add all the expected revenue streams, thus obtaining a probable trend of this crucial aspect.

Thanks to project graphs X-BRAIN now keeps track of actual costs and revenues against what was budgeted.

Read the interview with X-Brain and find out how they manage project revenues with Twproject

The method

First, enter all the revenues you think you will get, with an expected date.

Later you will enter the actual revenues and if you want you can also attach the billing document.

Twproject also offers you the possibility of quickly converting a forecast into an actual revenue with a simple click if the value and date have been respected. This will save you a lot of time!

Furthermore, revenues can be registered at each node of the project tree and the total will be reported in the main node under the “total on children” item.

The progress diagram (cash flow)

As you enter your data, you will see the financial (or cash) flow of your project compose with a linear diagram that aggregates income and expenses.

In addition, here you will also find the graph relating specifically to the revenue trend and which shows the gap between real and estimated values.

RRemember to always include dates so your diagrams are as accurate as possible!

And remember that the cash flow is visible in each node of the project’s tree so you will not only have a general trend of the project but also a specific detail phase by phase, depending on how you want to track the data.

As you can see, also in this case Twproject offers you the solution to leave all spreadsheets behind and to manage all aspects related to financial performance in a single platform.

An advantage in many respects

1. The importance of forecasting

Currently, if you use any electronic invoicing software it is normal to have invoices already managed and saved online, but there are no tools that allow you to differentiate between expected and actual revenues and above all that give you this information relating to a specific project.

This will allow you to truly identify those projects that do not meet the billing plan or whose income does not exceed the expenses.

This is crucial for analyzing deviations from the project baseline and refining techniques to make more accurate forecasts.

2. Data transferability

Consequently, it is clear that this is also an excellent tool for refining business strategies and using the real data of a project even on similar projects to be programmed for the future.

Having the situation of your revenues in real time will not only help you stay within budget during construction but will also be useful when you want to estimate the budget for new projects.

3. Sharing of responsibility

You will be able to choose who and to what level of depth will be able to access data on financial flows, making the monitoring of this aspect a team effort.

By sharing the data with your team, you will be able to give responsibilities to those directly involved, whether they are project leaders or in charge of single phases, or also decide to leave this aspect to well-defined figures.

Twproject security is extremely refined and you can define who will have the opportunity to interact with project costs and revenues.

Do not waste any more precious time and take a free trial to experience how convenient it is to monitor your revenue with Twproject.

If you like, share your experience with us and let us know what you think.

Track time with Twproject – Simple as it should be

In the workplace everyone has their own habits and what a project manager soon learns is that the way of recording the time spent on the various tasks is very different depending on the person involved.

Some people focus on a task and complete it without distractions, putting off logging time spent until the end.
Others prefer to range between multiple commitments in a day and gradually register their timing.
Yet others find it useful for concentration purposes to activate a stopwatch that monitors project activity, turning the counting off and on when switching from one task to another.

But not only are we all different on a personal level, it is also the role we play that certainly determines how we count our time and categorize our activities in order to ultimately obtain a reliable work report.

CONTENT

The importance of accounting
Timesheet
Time counter
From the to-do list
An easy and suitable solution for everyone

In my experience, managing a small team of developers, coordinating and analyzing their work, mediating between the needs of clients and those of my colleagues, I find it useful for me to keep track of the projects regularly. Several times a day, I insert worklogs for projects I deal with, and for what purpose.
On the other hand my coworkers, most of them developers, find it better to follow a task from start to finish and then write down the activities performed and the total times.
In short, each experience and each person is unique.

In a recent article, we talked about the fact that one of the main resistance factor in the transition to a new project management system is the desire to migrate all the procedures used in the company so far within the new tool. This can be a blocking factor if you do not find a system that accommodates individual needs but at the same time shows advantages in terms of practicality and depth of analysis.

Finally, in addition to the different work and personal needs, in our opinion an efficient tool for recording working hours should give the possibility of entering timing at different levels of hierarchy in a project.
A project manager may need to enter his timesheets at a more general level than the workers engaged in project sub-phases.
An executive will be placed in a further grade, and so on.

The importance of accounting

Regardless of the method chosen, there is no doubt that for correct project management it is essential that each participant takes into account their working times, known as worklogs. Recording the hours or days that have been spent in performing a phase and more generally a project is useful both for those who carry out the time analysis and for those who carry out the work.

On the one hand, the transparency of work increases and this allows project managers to know in detail the operations that their team carries out to reach the objective; on the other, it helps workers to better plan their times and also to have an extra tool to report any work overload should this occur.

It is important that everyone feels comfortable with this monitoring operation. And as we have seen, the requests of companies, combined with the attitudes of workers, can give rise to various methodologies for tracking worklogs.

For this reason Twproject, a tool characterized by an extreme versatility in many respects, has developed a diversified method of entering hours according to the preferences and needs of individuals.

In Twproject there is not just one way to mark your worklogs, but you can use different tools and methodologies.
Let’s see them in detail.

Timesheet

The first element of the menu item dedicated to this topic is the Timesheet. Here you will see all your assignments, i.e. projects or phases in which you participate. From this table you can enter your worklogs with a brief description of the activity performed and you will easily see how many hours you have left to complete your total working time. The integrated agenda, showing your appointments, will help you fill the table out.

No other project management software offers such a detailed entry method, which proves to be very useful at the end of the project or at any time you need to report on the activity carried out: with a simple click on the chosen assignment you will see the total list of all the worklogs entered up to that moment by a resource.
This view can be very useful for providing a report on the work performed, for drawing up a final balance sheet and so on.

Time counter

This type of worklog is useful for those who work on one project at a time. On the main page you will find a widget from which to select the assignment and start a stopwatch. The same operation can be done from the relative Time counter menu item, which opens a specific pop-up with the list of projects and sub-phases assigned to the user.

From the moment you activate the tool, it will start counting the time even when you browse other pages and you can stop it at any time by clicking on the button in the menu item, possibly inserting a detailed description of the activity carried out and also if necessary changing the total duration.

From the to-do list

Finally, for those who are used to orienting their daily activity on the basis of assigned tasks, the to-do list is the mainly used tool. To make work easier for this category of people, with Twproject it is possible to insert worklogs directly from the to-do list.

At the closure of each to-do, but also during ongoing processes, you can add the hours worked, while the description will automatically be pre-filled with the description of the to-do itself. From the list it is also possible to start an automatic counter, so as not to have to worry about calculating the times at the end.

An easy and suitable solution for everyone

These three tools, or rather methods, allow you to freely choose how to monitor your own work and that of the other members of your team.

And for the forgetful, Twproject has a way of signaling, with a reminder sticky note, in case you miss recording hours for a few days.

In this short video you can find a summary of what has been explained so far.

As you have seen, Twproject offers a solution suitable for multiple work styles and will help you not run into internal resistance and finally have greater control over your work and that of your team.

If you like, you can do a free trial and experience what we have shown you.
Don’t waste any more precious time and start tracking your work now!

Project costs: everything under control

A successful project must not only be on time, but also on your budget.

In this article we will see how Twproject manages project costs.

The overall cost of a project depends mainly on the scope of application; the list of items contributing to the total will be very different between a consultancy project, a building construction project or an R&D project.

We can identify two categories of costs: those related to the people involved (resources) and those related to material goods (or “lump sum” services) necessary for the execution of the project.

For the resources we will have both the costs of the work done (simplifying: hours worked x hourly cost) and any costs incurred by the resource for carrying out the work (expense notes).

For all these entries Twproject collects both estimated and actual values. These data compared with the expected budget will give a complete picture of the progress of the project from an economic point of view.
A simple management of expected and actual revenues will also allow an estimate on the cash flow.

Let see in detail how it works.

Resources: the hourly cost

Each resource has its own hourly cost which depends on many factors (duties, seniority, etc.). Its definition is beyond the tasks of the PM.
Once this cost has been determined, it can be entered in the user card:

It is quite common to insert a “standardized” cost instead of the actual cost of the resource, in order to solve the problem of the exact calculation which could be complex.
In this editor you can also assign the resource to a cost center for cross-project analysis.

To simplify data input, in Twproject, both the hourly cost and the cost center (but also the working time) can be defined at the resource, department or company level; in this way the value will be inherited unless otherwise specified.

Resource’s cost will be entered only once, as it represents the “business cost” and will be the same on all projects in which this resource will be involved.

Resource costs: the cost of work

On each project, phase, sub-phase, etc. you can indicate resources that are involved through the assignment.
The project estimation is specified during the assignment phase (100 hours in the example below).

Entering the expected hours, the estimated cost of this assignment will be computed using the actual resource hourly cost.

Each time a resource enters the hours worked on the project, a phase or a ToDo, the total will be updated on the project, thus generating a real cost that we could then compare with the one entered in the estimation phase.

In Twproject there are many ways to enter the hours worked; the timesheet (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly), the start / stop buttons on projects and ToDo, while closing a ToDo etc.
It’s a very quick and easy operation.

One “worker hour” record, brings with it the hourly cost and the cost center of the resource at the date of insertion.

Resource costs: expense reports

An expense item related to resources is the expenses report.
For some projects it is a non-negligible cost item and Twproject takes it into account; both in the estimation and reporting phases.

Expense reports and work costs close the resources related costs.
The summary dashboard looks like this:

For each resource we find the estimated hours, the hours worked, the hourly cost, the equivalent amounts, personal budget, total expenses incurred. At the end the estimated total cost and real cost.
Each overshoot is clearly visible and marked in red.
If the project is divided into phases, the last line will report estimates and costs on the entire underlying tree.
Estimates and costs can be structured along the WBS (Work Break-down Structure) simplifying its analysis .
Browsing through WBS will show at a glance where there are discrepancies between estimate and actual:

Twproject was our number 1 choice as a project management tool, because it provided an excellent combination between the pure project management and the budget and cost control view

Read the interview with Temera and find out why they eventually chose Twproject for project cost management

Additional project costs

This category includes all those costs that are not dependent on the activities of the resources.
Typical examples: materials, licensing costs, external consultancy, suppliers, rental fees, etc.
For each of these items, you can enter estimated and actual value, classification, cost center, any attachment etc .:

Also in this case a table will summarize the values for this project / phase and a summary row for the data of the sub-phases:

Project’s budget

So far we have compared the estimated values with the actual ones.
Twproject allows us to add a dimension, the project budget.
The project budget can have different meanings and uses depending on the goal we aim to achieve.
A very common use, which is adopted by companies that work on order, is that the “budget” represents the “cost to the customer”. In this sense, the summary table is quite clear:

On the “Forecast” line we will read the expected margin for the entire order. This is the data that comes to the PM from the commercial negotiation.
On the “Estimated” line we will read how much margin we still have to stay in the estimated: depending on the phase of the project (start, ongoing or completed) it can be used in different ways, but in any case it depends on the quality of the estimates made by the PM (or by the project team).
The last line “Actual” also takes on different meanings depending on the phase, but upon completion it will tell us the profit we will “take home” with the project.

Even for what concerns the budget, it is possible to indicate it both at project level and at phases / sub-phases.
This approach, especially on very complex projects, together with the refined security management of Twproject, allows you to implement a delegation mechanism, in which the PMs of the underlying phases can manage their own budget.

With Twproject you can analyze costs, expense reports and cross-project hours worked with dedicated tools. Of course, there is also an export to Excel for fans 🙂

Remember that all changes to costs, budgets, hours entered, expense reports etc. are recorded daily in the project statistics, so it is always possible to go and see what the situation was on a given date:

To contextualize the costs with the other project parameters (dates, progress, ToDos, hours worked etc.), the statistics page with the use of the slider will allow you to have a complete picture at any point in the past:

Complementary to cost management, Twproject also provides tools for revenue management, but we will address this part in a dedicated post.

Try Twproject for free and see how easy it is to have the project costs under control without complications.

Visual project management

Visual Project Management is an interesting approach to project management. A project management strategy designed to increase success by visualizing project components like data and activities.

It is a proven fact that people receive more than 80% of information through the sense of sight.

From the most tender age, we write and draw in order to visualize our thoughts, emotions and things to remember.

Why not use this way to make work simpler and more efficient? In fact, visualization is something we can implement in project management.

CONTENT INDEX

Visual management of the project
Physical boards and digital boards for visual management
Visual Project Management as a facilitator
The Scrum-ban style
Accelerate processes with Visual Project Management

Visual management of the project

By adopting a visual project management, teams and organizations can complete projects of any kind with more speed and efficiency.

Visual project management therefore becomes a technique for work management.

Instead of listing activities in “to do list” or wasting valuable time tracking information in the mailbox, shared files and spreadsheets, it is much easier to track the work using a visual activity management tool.

Visual functionalities can be a valuable resource for any design style, but are more commonly associated with agile methods like Scrum and Kanban.

In a certain way, Visual Project Management is inspired by the old school blackboard.

The board acts as a roadmap, progress tracker and collaboration tool for all types of development teams.

This is why in TW project, besides the use of visual tools we have already talked about (such as the gantt chart and issue management), we have created real blackboards.

Physical boards and digital boards for visual management

Physical whiteboards are a common way to share information, for example to gather topics for a meeting. In Twproject, we find the “digital twins” of physical boards.

A blackboard is an “open space” where everyone (almost everyone, security is always in the background) can insert a message.

Here’s what a used blackboard looks like.

At any time during a project, hundreds of single data are manipulated, transformed and communicated.

These data include labor estimates, capital and operating expenses, activity lists, performance metrics, calendars, cost-benefit analysis, risk profiles, trend data, etc.

As business speed increases and the need to focus on increasing numbers of data in order to keep project execution under control, new and innovative tools and techniques are needed to help project managers.

The visualization of complex data and processes has proved invaluable in meeting these needs.

Visual Project Management as a facilitator

Traditional visual tools such as Gantt charts, Kanban cards, process diagrams, project team calendars, stakeholder organization graphs and similar are advantageous in their own way, but they do not tell the collective story of the general state of the project.

Complicating the issue, sponsors and key project stakeholders may no longer have time for long project status reports or weekly briefings.

Decisions must be made at the moment, with any data available.

For this reason, the traditional discipline of project management, that exploits processes and documents approaches in a “heavy” way, is quickly abandoned in favor of more agile methods.

Some studies have also shown that the information presented in text formats is ineffective and inefficient.

The human eye can see visual schems 65,000 times faster on an image with respect to a tabular form.

These facts have therefore led to the creation of a new niche within the project management community known as Visual Project Management.

The Scrum-ban style

Regarding the current methodology, many of the useful visual tools combine the best aspects of Kanban and Scrum to which project teams are accustomed.

Some users have started calling this style “Scrum-ban“.

Common visual features include:

Real time dashboard
Timeline
Graphic reports (Gantt, burndown, ecc.)
Boards (Kanban)
Roadmap of the product

The key advantage of this new approach is speed, as critical project information can be produced, replicated and digested in more efficient and effective ways.

The adoption of this new approach also offers further distinct advantages to project managers, team members and, above all, to the most important stakeholders:

The state of project planning, execution, monitoring and control activities are available in a single view, at a glance and it is easy to understand
Improve clarity, visibility and understanding of the project’s overall scope and operational plan
Resource allocations, or over-allocations, through the project or multiple projects, are clearly visible.
As a consequence from the previous point: better planning and allocation of resources
The impacts of changes to the scope, plan, priority or resources are available in real time
The information is provided in such a manner that everyone can access it, at any time, place and convenient way
Ability to isolate problem areas faster

Accelerate processes with Visual Project Management

Visual Project Management can accelerate progress by sharing project information in real time in such a way that is easier to access, understand and transmit.

Today’s project manager has much more to manage than just the project scope, deliverables, communications and teams.

The visual management of the project is not really a radically new approach that messes up the discipline.

It is just a set of tools and techniques that reinforce what we already know: people work and manage projects more efficiently when they have a clear vision of how the project components move and connect with each other.

The best way to represent and share this information in real time is not with a spreadsheet or series of emails, but an image.

Have you adopted visual project management in your work too? Tell us about your experience.

Manage your project in a visual and intuitive way.

Try Twproject

A try is worth more than a million words.

Work Breakdown Structure: some suggestions for using it to the best

A Work Breakdown Structure, abbreviated with WBS, is a visual tool for the definition and tracking of a project deliverable and all the small components necessary to create it.

With a Work Breakdown Structure, the project manager can concentrate on what he has to accomplish as he approaches the project deadline.

This is a fundamental tool for a PM as it helps to plan, manage and evaluate any type of project.

CONTENT INDEX

What are the purposes of a Work Breakdown Structure?
Work Breakdown Structure templates
Work Breakdown Structure: Best practices
How to create a Work Breakdown Structure

With a WBS, we start from the result or the desired final product, we analyze it and decompose it into smaller deliverables or the activities necessary to create it.

In a WBS, the deliverable can be an object, a service, or an activity.

Focusing on deliverables, rather than methods – the “what”, not the “how” – a Work Breakdown Structure helps to eliminate unnecessary and superfluous work.

A weighted WBS helps in planning, costs estimation and risk analysis.

It is usually a graph or a visual diagram that defines the temporal sequence and the process of a project. It breaks down into each activity that will be performed during the project life cycle.

A WBS is often represented as a structure, as a summary, but can also be organized using tabulations or other visual organizational systems.

What are the purposes of a Work Breakdown Structure?

Here are some of the benefits that arise whit the creation of a Work Breakdown Structure:

Provides a visual representation of all parts of a project
It offers a continuous vision on how the whole project proceeds, helping its management
Defines specific and measurable results
Decomposes the job into manageable blocks
Provides a system that allows successful experiences to be repeatable
Sets a basis for estimating costs and allocating resources, both human and other
Avoids overlaps or lack of work for the resources
Minimizes the possibility of forgetting a critical result or a risk.

A well-done WBS can make the team work like a well-oiled machine, with the following advantages:

Increases productivity
Helps project managers predict results based on various scenarios
Helps with the project organization
Helps to describe the scope of the project to stakeholders
Helps to distribute responsibilities
Allows a correct estimate of costs, risks and time
Increases and improves communication
Allows more creativity and brainstorming
Focuses on the final results
Organizes the details
Prevents potential problems
Addresses programming issues
Helps to manage risks
Gives flexibility to the team
Eliminates confusion
Provides clear descriptions of the tasks of each team member
Provides a basis for a clear report on the status of the project, since each task is a measurable unit

Work Breakdown Structure templates

For a WBS, different types of formats and templates are possible:

Graphic format: emphasizes visual visualization of the project;
Linear structure: presents a time interval and dependencies between the components of a project;

Hierarchical structure: puts at the top the most important elements of a project for a greater emphasis;
Tabular view: allows team members to easily navigate to the most relevant sections for them.

Not all projects require the same type of format.

This can and must be adapted to the type of project and the type of members in the team.

Work Breakdown Structure: Best practices

1. Focus on the final results, not on the methods / actions.

The key lies in thinking about the “what”, not about “how”.

The main purpose of a WBS is to define the main deliverable taking into consideration the small components that compose it.

If the deliverable is not a physical product, a specific and measurable result must be provided in any case.

For example, if you are creating a WBS for a professional service, you need to define the results of that specific service.

2. 100 percent rule

The work represented by the Work Breakdown Structure must include 100% of the work required to complete the general result without including any extraneous or unrelated work.

Even sub-activities, at any level, should be taken into account, because are all necessary to complete the main activity.

In other words, the elements in the second level are equal to 100% and the elements in the third and lower levels are positioned within the percentage of the higher level with respect to them.

The finished project should never give a sum greater or less than 100 percent.

3. 8/80 rule

One of the common mistakes is to break down the work too much or not decompose it enough. There are several ways to decide when a work package is small enough without being too small.

The 8/80 rule is one of the most common suggestions: a work package should not take less than eight hours of work, and no more than 80 hours.

Other rules suggest not to give activities that exceed ten working days – which is equal to 80 hours if you consider a full-time employee.

In other words, a work package should not take more than a month to complete.

Clearly, this rule should be applied if it makes sense within the project and the industry.

4. Attention to the level of detail

In general, work packages should provide activities that can be completed by a team member, or by the team in general, within a reference period.

If the team is less experienced and needs more supervision and coaching, one solution is to make the work packages smaller and shorter.

If you have a deliverable that may take longer to complete or cost more than your given budget, it may be useful to divide the project into smaller deliverables with shorter work times.

With a more frequent reporting and review time, you can solve problems and solve them earlier.

Another suggestion is to create tasks and delegate activities at the beginning of a project, but in case and if necessary create new tasks and new delegations during a project.

We gained a time optimization thanks to the structuring of projects with tools such as the template generator and cloning function of entire projects or portions

Read the interview with Gap Studi e Consulenze and discover the great advantages gained when they started using the WBS in Twproject.

How to create a Work Breakdown Structure

The first step to create a WBS is to bring the team together.

Regardless of whether the team works in an office or remotely, it is essential that members participate in identifying derivables.

Collaborators must know exactly what is happening.

The project manager must also assemble the key documents of the project in order to start the development of the Work Breakdown Structure: the project charter, the problem that the project will solve, the scope definition, the documentation that refers to the existing processes for the project management, etc.

To start the creation, it is necessary to define the level one, ie the main result of the project.

Then gradually add as many details as possible. From the second level you will descend to the smaller pieces up to the third level, to the fourth level, and more, if necessary.

It is important to always define what is required in the previous level in the most detailed way possible before moving on to the next levels. It will be essential to further break down the work.

Here is a brief structure that can be useful for writing a WBS:

Determine and describe the project result;
Highlight all the necessary phases of the project;
Divide the final results into manageable tasks;
Assign each section and make sure that each owner, ie the corresponding team member, has all the information, skills and knowledge necessary to complete the job.
Ensure frequent feedback. The WBS is a dynamic document, whose content can be revisited, even frequently, to ensure the correct execution and delivery of the project.

In conclusion, the creation of a Work Breakdown Structure is a team effort and is the point of arrival of multiple inputs and perspectives for the given project.

Its goal is to make a large project more manageable.

The deconstruction into smaller blocks means that work can be done simultaneously by different team members. This will lead to better productivity and easier management of the project in general.

Have you ever created a WBS structure for your project? What tools and methods did you use?

Share them with us in the comments below.

Start creating your Work Breakdown Structure.

Try Twproject!

Project management software: 7 tips to help your team implement a new software.

Implementing a new project management software is not a trivial task!

It is a very complex process that must be faced in a methodical and thoughtful way.

You must be aware that this is a real change in the company. A profound change, especially if it involves a large number of workers and teams.

Like all changes, this change can also provoke opposition. A real resistance to change.

Fortunately, there are several strategies to follow that allow to create acceptance among employees.

Today we are going to see some of them.

*****************

“CONTENT INDEX”

Before purchasing

Identification of the need for change
Performance of the impact analysis on the stakeholders
Finalization of the requirements

After purchasing

Training
User Acceptance Test – UAT
Coordinate the transition between one software and another
Reward the implementation team
Measure the results
Ask for feedbacks

*****************

First of all, it is essential to contextualise the moment of intervention.

This is because the strategies that allow to improve the implementation of the new management system, can be used in two fundamental moments:

Before choosing and purchasing the new software
After the purchase.

Clearly, it is possible to take action at any time. Let’s see how:

Act before selecting and purchasing the new project management software

The first step to facilitate the adoption by the user, in this case the worker, of a new project management tool is to involve him/her.

Finding a team to manage organizational changes is a great way to overcome some of the resistance to change.

This group will be responsible for creating an organizational change plan. The plan will be designed to involve stakeholders during implementation.

This group will therefore be responsible for three key aspects:

Identification of the need for change
Performance of the impact analysis on the stakeholders
Finalization of the requirements

Let’s every point in detail.

Identification of the need for change

This means taking a proactive approach to change and not a passive one.

Active research into ways and tools to improve inefficiencies will not only improve output, it will also be a great way to support the evolution of the project manager in his role.

An organizational strategy should be implemented and initiatives must be linked to business goals.

It is also necessary to know the goals that all the teams, or the company in general, are trying to achieve and all the critical points that can hinder success.

Having identified the goals that project teams are trying to achieve, it is possible to work to decide whether a new project management software can help in achieving these goals.

Performance of the impact analysis on the stakeholders

In order to perform a proper impact analysis on the interested parties, it is essential to create a list of each person, team and department that is going to use the new tool.

Not only is it necessary to indicate who the stakeholders are, but also how they will be influenced by the new software.

The consensus of the stakeholders is the key for a successful implementation.

It is important to communicate because change is essential. Not only that … the parameters that will be used to compare the products and who is responsible for the final decision should also be known.

When stakeholders know why change is occurring and how it will have a direct impact on them, they are more likely to be motivated and involved in using the new tool.

In fact, the best implementations provide an explanation on why the new software is being implemented. Advantages will also derive from the knowledge of benefits for everyone and clarity on the timing of implementation.

Finalization of the requirements

After having done the analysis of the impact on stakeholders, it is necessary to have an idea of the requisites required by each one of them and the way in which they translate into functionality within the new software.

For example, imagine that the result you are trying to achieve is a better planning of a project, with which stakeholders want to keep track of employee skills, availability and performance.

In this case, the key features expected from the new software will include resource management with these specific criteria.

After the purchase of a new project management software

Once the research has been carried out, compared to other products and taking into account the needs and requirements, the new project management software is purchased and installed.

Now begins the proper implementation phase of the new project management tool within the organization.

Software implementation may require a long initial process. The benefits that will result in the long term, however, will be worth the time commitment.

While working in implementing a new system, there are a number of factors to consider. These are factors that can bring undoubted advantages. Let’s see them together:

1) Training

When implementing a new project management software, it is a good practice for the software company to train one or several key people who will be able to manage the system.

That or those people become the “experts” and will therefore be responsible for teaching others.

In some other cases, it is preferable to train all the personnel that will have to deal with the software.

It is important to avoid misalignment regarding the use of new software. Misalignment can mainly be avoided by creating rules, FAQs and practical documents. You can also limit the rights and have a limited number of administrators / moderators.

To support this delicate situation, in TWproject we have thought of two areas of intervention able to provide multiple solutions

An area is linked to direct training, through courses and webinars dedicated to the company.

At this link you can find all information: https://twproject.com/it/servizi/

The other is always available online (both in Italian and in English) https://twproject.com/support/it/

A proper user manual, simple and always available, which updates on the basis of new releises and requests from the users.

2) User Acceptance Test – UAT

This is an important step. The aim is to ensure that the software works as intended and to help in finding any bugs.

It will be important to test few data in order to see if the software correctly processes all the information and in order to allow the staff to get used step by step.

If the system is integrated with other software tools, it is important to ensure that the systems communicate correctly.

3) Coordinate the transition between one software and another

When it is time to start switching to the new software, it is a good practice to keep the information even in the old software.

This allows the staff to get used to the general appearance of the new software and creates a greater level of trust before moving on to full use.

For a short time, the two systems can run simultaneously.

It can take between 6 and 12 months for users to feel completely comfortable with the new software. During this period, historical information should be always accessible.

4) Reward the implementation team

When certain employees have worked harder to implement the new software, it is a good idea to reward them

A party, a small bonus, a gift, a verbal “thank you”. These gestures can mean a lot. Such gratification is often worth more than a cash prize.

5) Measure the results

After the implementation of the new software, it is a good idea to analyze and measure the results in order to monitor the trend.

This can include things like the ability to process more orders in a day, the reduction wages paid for overtime or other factors.

Continuing to monitor and measure during the year is a good practice to make sure that the investment made sense.

6)Ask for feedbacks

Problems always arise during the early stages of implementation. It is absolutely necessary for the team to expose the problems it faces.

To get suggestions and create a positive feedback loop, a suggestion is to perform an internal survey about a month after the introduction of the new system. The survey will be repeated again after three months.

Team members will feel listened to and the process will also lead to useful tips and best practices for the future.

These tips will help both the project manager and the team to properly plan the change.

However, it is fundamental to ensure that, in general, new implementations are not misaligned with company goals, otherwise they will be destined to fail for sure.

Have you ever experienced the implementation of a new project management software?

How was your feeling towards this change? Tell us your experience and write us your suggestions.

Access your new project management software.

Try Twproject!

The project milestones: planning objectives and results

Milestone or project milestone is the management tool used to define a specific point in the project planning.

The points define, in fact, the beginning and the end of work and mark the end of an important phase of the work.

Milestones can be used to symbolize all started and finished stuff.

CONTENT INDEX

Project milestones: the planning
Keep track of progress
Simple task or milestone?
Project milestones: Why use them?

If a milestone focuses on the main points of project progress, it becomes useful as a planning tool.

Just as the tasks break down a larger project into manageable parts, the milestones split a project into milestones.

So, when starting a project, milestones can help immensely with programming.

Milestones are usually present in project management software, and of course also in Twproject.

They have their own specific icon in the Gantt chart function, and are diamond-shaped.

Project milestones: the planning

Project milestones are a way to estimate the time needed to complete the project more accurately.

Hence, they become essential for precise project planning.

With milestones, you can better calculate project planning by segmenting it into more manageable and easier-to-control time intervals.

They are also a flexible tool for planning.

With a little bit of flexibility, they can do much more than act as mere indicators of the project phases.

For example, milestones can be used as reminder of important meetings for the project or to report other interesting events, such as workshops or training courses.

They can represent also the moment of invoicing customers.

In short, using this diamond icon is a great way to make sure everyone is aware of upcoming deadlines and upcoming important meetings.

Naturally, milestones can indicate the deadlines for anything related to the project.

Project milestones: Keep track of progress

Part of a project’s planning is the ability to monitor and keep track the progress of that program in real time.

Milestones are a way to see both at what point is a specific single activity, and the general state of progress of the project itself.

This is useful when dealing mainly with stakeholders.

In fact, these are generally not interested in a detailed report of the project progress.

What they want to know is if the project moves forward or not as initially planned.

Milestones are ideal for this type of report because they show the main phases completed.

Here at Twproject, for example, we use milestones to define the release dates of the software. This helps us being aware of how many features we can add from time to time in order not to stray the release plan. But this is just one of the many ways they can be used!

Plan your milestones!

In Twproject you can plan your project by highlighting the milestones. Thanks to the interactive Gantt you will always know if a delay has an impact on the milestones and you will be notified immediately.

Try Twproject now!

Project milestones: Simple task or milestone?

Discern between what to consider a simple desired dates and what to consider a project milestone can be difficult.

More projects are complex, more difficult is to recognize the difference between simple dates and milestone.

To resolve the doubt it is essential to ask itself the following questions:

Is this a dates that can be rescheduled or not?
Will this affect the final deadline?
Is this an important moment in the project that will indicate future progress?
Is it an event that has an impact on the project?

Answering these questions will help you understand if we are talking about a normal date or a milestone.

Basically, the most important events of your project must be reported as milestones, so that they can be easily visualized and mapped by the project team.

Project milestones: Why use them?

Milestones can improve project planning and execution in different ways:

1) Monitor deadlines

No plan is complete without a list of deadlines. The best way is to use the project milestones to indicate them.

The milestones, as already mentioned, are usually marked as a diamond-shape icon in the project planning software.

Hence, this icon represents a delivery, a presentation of the deliverable or in any case a deadline that mustn’t be forgotten.

2) Make it easy to identify important dates

Are there important days that may have an impact on the project?

Perhaps a training course for the project team or a workshop?

Or a meeting with the stakeholders?

It is important to keep in mind all these events in project planning.

These are events of such importance that they can have an impact on the whole project and it must be easy to identify them.

3) Identify potential blocks of the project

Many projects rely on work produced by external teams or partners in order to progress.

If these external factors are not monitored, the probability to forget or not following them increases.

So, if you are working on a project that depends – even – on someone or something of external with which you do not have frequent contact, it is important to list these results as milestones.

As we have seen, milestones are a very useful project management tool.

It is also an easy-to-use tool for project planning and reporting.

In Twproject a milestone always coincides with the beginning or end of a task, this because normally a milestone is linked to a delivery or a kick-off phase.

In order to support the team in achieving the goal, Twproject also sets up a milestone notification system.

The notifications make even easier the work of the team that will automatically receive the alerts of the activities expiring or delayed and they will complete the tasks.

By default the alarm (milestone of the neighboring task) is 3 days before the milestone, but it is also possible to change it from the configuration pages. (insert a screen)

Reaching and overcoming a project milestone is also good for the morale of the team and of the project manager himself.

This is why every tool (like the alert) that facilitates the task is always very well received.

Watch an overview about the Gantt diagram and its miestone in Twproject

Now it’s your turn to try to map your project with milestones and see if they help you better understand deadlines and deliveries

What are your waiting for?

Set the milestones of your project.

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How to apply the Kanban method to project management

The Kanban method was developed as a methodology to improve production efficiency.

The Japanese word “Kanban” means “billboard” in English and it was born in the company of Toyota, in Japan.

Today this method is widely used.

Nowadays, the Kanban method is not only used as a planning system for lean production, but also in Agile projects in order to manage the backlog of activities.

CONTENT INDEX

What is a Kanban Board?
What are Kanban cards?
How to use the Kanban method in project management
The Kanban method in the software

Actually, thanks to the popularity of Kanban, there are now countless project management tools that follow this method. The goal is to help people plan and prioritize.

The advantages of this method are different.

Kanban cards work like visual panels with virtual notes that can be added.

These notes can be moved to organize the order of activities or in order to prioritize the things to do.

Kanban is often used by software house to manage bug status. We use for example Twproject, to change status and priority to all our new features inserted in every releases.

Therefore, Twproject enables more flexible planning options, a quickier output, as well as more carefullness and transparency throughout the project life cycle.

Try Twproject for free now

The Toyota company, where this system was first implemented, has created six rules that permit to apply the Kanban method to the production process.

Today, people and project managers of the most different sectors use the Kanban method for planning and managing activities and their priorities.

In fact, Kanban is a structured process of prioritization.

What is a Kanban Board?

A Kanban Board is like a blackboard.

A space in which Kanban cards stand for the individual activities that have to performed and are categorized based on priority and delivery.

Nowadays, Kanban cards are used mainly as online softwares, or in some cases are directly integrated in more complex project management softwares.

In general, they allow to track the work flow not only of a team, but also of the single collaborators.

It is particularly used by the software development teams that follow the Agile methodology.

It is used to define user history and the activity priorities in the backlog or as a collaboration tool for innovation.

If we consider the most basic (and more structured) form, the Kanban card can be divided into three levels:

Work/activity in standby;
Work/activity in progress;
Work/activity completed;

Obviously, the complexity of the card depends on the goal of the project.

As every task is completed, team members move Kanban cards through the different sections of the board.

Kanban cards allow to:

Visualize the workflow;
Limit the number of activities in progress;
Move an activity from one section to another;
Monitor, adapt, and improve the process.

What are Kanban cards?

The Kanban method can be considerated as a system of knowledge and the cards permit to represent each singular object of work or activity.

Each Kanban card includes the critical data for the specific activity to which it refers.

The cards have different colors that indicate the type of task performed.

Different colors can also refer to other distinctions that have been agreed upon at the beginning of the project.

Some of the ways a Kanban card helps teams and project managers:

Quick understanding of the details of every activity/task;
Easy communication within the team;
Information on documents;
Support with the future workflow.

How to use the Kanban method in project management

In order to manage different projects in an efficient and productive way, different methodologies are required.

In general, the Kanban method is an excellent tool for planning the project and prioritizing the activities.

It can increase team efficiency, optimize time management, as well as allow a more fluid and simple overall project management.

It is also excellent for supporting with resource allocation, workflow management and waste reduction.

Here is why in more detail:

Use the Kanban method to: Assign resources

The first step is to create the activities and then assign them to a team member.

It’s fundamental to make sure that the right people are working on the right job in the proper manner.

This will help to correctly manage the work, without blocking any other member of the team or delaying production.

Everytime a new project activity is added into the workflow, the right resource can be assigned to it in a easy and quick way.

Use the Kanban method to: Workflow management

The Kanban method is a perfect tool that allows to visualize the workflow of any project.

The workflow is a sequential series of activities and the Kanban card with its visual representation makes everything more understandable.

Thanks to the observation on how activities are related, collaboration within the team will be promoted and at the same time greater efficiency and productivity can be achieved.

Use the Kanban method to: Reduce waste

The reduction of waste, whether of resources or costs in general, is not only the rule of a lean system.

Every project manager is interested in obtaining results in this sense.

Kanban cards help in the identification of a probable expensive process.

Something that does not work as planned, an overproduction or a situation where team members are blocking the workflow are easily detectable.

The big advantage lies in detecting these factors before they become problems.

There is no limit to the number of cards, integrations and workflow management that the Kanban method allows.

This method can work not only in a small company with a single office, but also in a multinational company with offices all around the world.

The Kanban method in the software

The common thread that permits to use all the advantages of this method is a project management software.

For this reason, we added in Twproject the Kanban functionality in order to organize the to-do-list of the project.

The ToDo that in Twproject are used as cards can be easily managed with the Kanban multi-dimensional of TWproject.

Indeed, it allows to organize them in a fully visual way.

It is possible to move them and organize them by task, assignee, status or severity degree.

Shortly, a very flexible multi-dimensional Kanban.

Do you also use the Kanban method for your projects?

Use the Kanban feature to organize the to-do-list of the project

Try TWproject

A proof is worth a thousand words.

The sixth edition of PMbok

General overview and differences from the fifth edition

At the end of 2017, the sixth edition of the PMbok was published.

Let’s start from the base: what is the PMbok?

It is the Project Management Body of Knowledge, a guide, published by the Project Management Institute – PMI, which aims to document, gather and standardize the practices generally used and recognized in project management.

“Generally recognized” practices means the ones that can be applied to most projects and on which there is a widespread consensus on their value and usefulness.

This means that sometimes the latest project management trends promoted by some consultants, even if interesting from an evolutionary point of view, may not be part of the latest version of the PMbok, because they are not “generally recognized” practices.

The PMbok made its debut in 1987 and it has evolved over the years, up to the current sixth edition of 2017.

But which are the PMbok changes from the fifth edition to the current one?

Let’s summarize the differencies in this article.

CONTENT INDEX

Increase of total chapters
The areas of knowledge
The new three processes
6 changes in existing processes
Who will be affected by these changes?

PMBOK sixth edition: Increase of total chapters

In the fifth edition of PMbok five groups of processes were listed:

Initiating
Planning
Execution
Monitoring and Control
Closing

The number of processes remain unchanged in the sixth edition, but what changes is the number of sub-processes within each process.

Furthermore, in the fifth edition there were a total of 13 chapters. In the sixth edition we find instead a new chapter that deals with the role of the project manager and its functions.

In addition to this, the skills and competences that a project manager must possess are now aligned with the so-called Triangle of Talent.

It is not enough to have technical skills, but due to the dynamism of the working environment and the evolutionary trends in the sector, it is necessary that the project manager possesses also additional skills. The most relevant include:

Strategic and corporate management: It is necessary to understand the progress and the functioning of the company business in order to adapt the project to it. The project manager must therefore possess the skills to analyze the competition, the market, know the legal implications, business models, etc.
Leadership skills: In the fifth edition of the PMbok, this skill is already explained, but the new edition gives it more emphasis. Among the leadership skills, we find emotional intelligence, problem solving, team building and the ability to influence and motivate the team;
Technical skills: This refers mainly to the sector in which a person works and the specific skills required for the project.

The sixth edition of the PMbok: The knowledge areas

In the fifth edition of PMbok 10 areas of knowledge were listed.

These still remain in the sixth edition, but two appear with new names, as specified in the following list:

Integration Management
Scope Management
Time Management is replaced by Schedule Management
Cost Management
Quality Management
Human Resource Management is replaced by Resource Management
Communications Management
Risk Management
Procurement Management
Stakeholder Management

Why these two changes?

The new term Resource Management refers not only to the human workforce, but also to the physical resources (such as materials, equipment, licenses, etc.) that can be part of a project and contribute to its success.

Time Management has been replaced with Schedule Management, so that the importance of project management planning is emphasized.

Moreover, in the sixth edition of the PMbok, each area of knowledge has four additional sections:

Furthermore, in the sixth edition of the PMbok, each area of knowledge will have four additional sections:

Key concepts;
Tailoring considerations: they must help to focus on the important processes of a project depending to its size and, of course, on the scope of work;
Developments and new project management practices;
Focus on the Agile and adaptive Methodology.

PMBOK sixth edition: The three new processes

The sixth edition of the PMbok lists 49 processes, 2 more than the last edition.

In reality the changes to the processes are 4 because the three processes have been added while one has been eliminated.

The Close Procurement process has been removed. This refers to the closing of vendor contracts, a task that in most organizations is not performed by the project manager.

Among the new processes added we find:

Manage Project Knowledge: born from the need to process the data of the market and the business in which the company operates to transform them into knowledge and “wisdom” on which certain decisions will be based. Knowledge is a power that will help the project manager to use data processing technologies and make decisions based on concrete analysis;
Implement Risk Response: PMI surveys have stated that most project failures are due to improper risk management. Therefore, implementing the risk response in the management of the project is a necessary addition;
Control Resources: this new process refers to the monitoring and control of the various resources present in the project and is aligned with the modification, seen previously, in the area of knowledge from human resources.

PMBOK sixth edition: 6 changes in existing processes

6 processes are renamed in the current PMbok edition, even if their content remains unchanged:

Perform Quality Assurance becomes Manage Quality.
Plan Human Resource Management becomes Plan Resource Management.
Control Communications becomes Monitor Communications.
Control Risks becomes Monitor Risks.
Plan Stakeholder Management becomes Plan Stakeholder Engagement.
Control Stakeholder Engagement becomes Monitor Stakeholder Engagement.

From Perform Quality Assurance to Manage Quality. This refers to the fact that, while quality assurance is a way to manage quality during execution, in reality there are also other qualitative aspects to consider.

This overall quality management is what reflects the name change.

The change from “Control” to “Monitor” indicates that, during the execution of the project, we monitor it to understand what is happening everyday and personalize the strategy to meet the changing needs.

Points 5 and 6 on stakeholders refer to the essential factor of understanding how to involve the stakeholders to ensure that everyone agrees with progress and results.

Who will be affected by these changes?

The role of the Project Manager is becoming more and more important and is spreading in every sectors; this is why the need to certify its skills increases.

The PMbok then becomes a fundamental text for all those who are dealing with an official exam to get the title of Project Manager.

Nowadays, there are five internationally recognized certifications:

CAPM – Certified Associate in Project Management
PMP – Project Management Professional
PgMP – Program Management Professional
PMI-SP – PMI Scheduling Professional
PMI-RMP – PMI Risk Management Professional
PMI-ACP – PMI Agile Certified Practitioner

Regardless of the type of certification, students and prospective Project Managers will refer to the Pmbok and, consequently, their work will for sure be influenced by the changes in the sixth edition of PMbok.

But not only.

Even a certified Project Manager must be updated on the changes contained in the new edition of PMbok.

Being up-to-date is the best quality of a serious and competent professional.

A careful reading of the new edition of the Pmbok will certainly be useful and a source of interesting reflections that could help guiding any type of project in an efficient and professional manner.

Leave us your comment or your impression on the new edition of the Pmbok.

Get familiar with the phases of your project.

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Tips & Tricks: Create Projects by E-mail

Even if I’ve worked with Twproject for several years I get surprised every day by its number of hidden features. The one that I show you today could really help you, if, for example, you cannot access the application and you have to create a task to save information that you can loose otherwise.

Twproject is able to create a task, with document attached and assignments simply reading an email written in a specific yet simple defined format.

Example:

Email Subject
NEW PROJECT Twproject Mobile Release 3.0
Email Message
CODE TW_MOB3.0
START 08/11/2016
END 15/03/2017
A complete redesigned user interface and functionality for Twproject mobile app.

This email will create a task with name “Twproject Mobile Release 3.0” and code “TW_MOB3.0”. As you can imagine this task will start on the eight of November and it will end in the middle of March.
All the text of the message will be saved inside the description, and last but not least, in case you attach documents to this e-mail, those will be saved as document in the task.

Twproject security model works also in this case, the sender e-mail, in fact, needs to be related to a user with task create permission.

Is that simple, isn’t it? You can even create a template of your message that you can use to compose it in seconds!

[av_button label=’Try Twproject now’ link=’manually,https://twproject.com/on-your-server/’ link_target=” size=’large’ position=’center’ icon_select=’no’ icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ color=’green’ custom_bg=’#444444′ custom_font=’#ffffff’ av_uid=’av-2ywic6′]

The Map For Great Customization – Twproject Objects Reference

One of the most interesting characteristics of Twproject is the great customization capability that it offers to all its customers. Customizable dashboards and web parts, custom fields on all main objects, custom filters, custom Excel exports, this is what Twproject lets you modify in order to best fit your own work habits.

In order to help you generating great reports in few minutes we recently introduced an interactive page showing a complete Twproject Objects reference. Navigation between Twproject Objects is intuitive giving you access to the complete set of field you can add in your own report.

This new page is available from the customizing page in the admin section, let’s see an example of how to use it.

Say I want to modify the Excel Export on my task list adding task start date, the number of issues created, the number of open ones and also the first custom field I’ve added on my tasks.

First of all I need to go in the admin page in the Excel customization part and change the value of the CUSTOM_EXPORT_EXCEL_TASK field.

Custom Excel is created reading a JSON object specifying the name of the column and the values.

Clicking on “see Twproject’s object reference” you will be able to navigate all the task fields and methods finding all data you need to read:

The number of total issues, the open ones and the custom field are available directly on the object as fields using:

  obj.totalIssuesOpen
  obj.totalIssues
  obj.customField1

Instead there is not a direct start date field but a schedule which represents a Period object that can be navigated.

Navigating the Period object you will find the start field, reachable this way:

obj.getSchedule().getStartDate()

So here is what you have to write in the export customization field:

{"id":"obj.id","code":"obj.code","start":"obj.getSchedule().getStartDate()",
"status":"obj.status","custom Field 1": "obj.customField1", "total issues": "obj.totalIssues", 
"total open issues":"obj.totalIssuesOpen"}

Navigating all Twproject object is really easy using this reference, but in case you need help writing your Excel export do not hesitate and write us.

Let’s check this new feature.

Get us a try!

Lots more…

Twproject facilitates user interaction and at the same time offers tools and tricks for the power user.

Languages, dates, currency

Twproject is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Slovenian, Chinese and Japanese. You can easily create and modify labels. Notice that also non-latin alphabets are supported. So also aesthetic and linguistic preferences can be satisfied. Moreover, dates and currency handling can be configured to adapt to your regional settings on a user basis.

Search anywhere from everywhere

The search field in the menu accepts a “prefix syntax” of search shortcuts: by default it searches in resources, t: searches in tasks, d: in documents, etc. . Notice how what you’ve written appears in the resulting filter, and can be further refined.

Templates

Any project can be used as template for any other. This holds for sub-trees, assignments, issues and more.

Cross links from any text

You can refer and link to any “entity” from any descriptive field. For example, you can link any task, resource or issue from any event in the agenda. You can link any other task from a project description or deliverable. Same from the issue description and so on.

Query by example (QBE)

The query by example search method offers an easy way to compose complex queries, by using operators in the search fields. Even date functions can be used in searches (and also saved in filters). A complete guide to QBE is linked from all search pages. Now filter by datecontrols support dates shortcuts.

Search and saveable filters

All filters can be saved, reused, refined. You can also define a default filter and order to be applied on accessing the search page. Notice also that all lists are paged, page size can be defined, applied immediately.

Delete preview

Deleting a task or a resource can have far reaching consequences; it is essential before proceeding to have a detailed picture of what we are eventually removing. Twproject provides an accurate and interactive feedback.

Worklog <-> agenda

You can move between worklog weekly view and the corresponding agenda week and meetings with one click. Hence you can evaluate resource availability.

Acting by e-mail

Not only agenda events can be added from Outlook, but also documents can be added to tasks by sending an e-mail, and resources created by sending a VCard. See the “manage by mail” video.

Additional fields on tasks, resources, assignments, issues, costs

By just giving labels to them, you enable additional fields on tasks, resources, assignments, issues, costs which can be used in search and filters.

Custom forms and prints

Twproject supports the creation of complete custom forms, which are automatically linked to projects and tasks, according to type. Example forms are provided. Additional prints, and actually any kind of wizard and page can be added quite easily.

Counters

Which number should I give to the next document? An easy protocol numbering system is included. You don’t need to keep counters in Microsoft Excel or in mind :-D.

Remember my choices

Whenever it makes sense, the interface automatically records the filtering options you chose. See a few examples.

Custom homes

Every user can customize the layout and content of her/his home page, with a simple drag and drop interface with an immediate preview of what will be obtained. With the help of your technical staff, you can easily build custom parts and integrate them in the homes. With the built in news management system, “company news” can be published in all home pages; the news archive constitutes a sort of “company history”.

History in short

For all objects (tasks, resources, issues, assignments, appointments …) you always see when they were created, by whom, who last modified them, in which area they belong; also from lists.

Compute in fields

You can use arithmetic expressions in numeric fields: the result of the computation will be saved. You don’t need to bring out the calculator (actually, there is one built in Twproject).

Shamelessly cheap

Well, it simply is the cheapest complete work management application ever.

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Access projects anywhere

Access all your Twproject projects, issues, worklogs, events. Add and close issues, record worklogs, add events, read contacts. Read documents. And a nice last touch, access Twproject ‘s file storages acting as a gateway to your intranet documents.You won’t need to install anything on your mobile, It is simply HTML5 so it runs on all devices.

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It integration

Twproject runs on any server (is built in Java), on any application server, on your database, on all main browsers and in your language (all utf-8 encodings are supported). Moreover, its sources are available. It is the easiest application to integrate with your IT infrastructure. Being on your database in a normal and simple relational form, you are always in control of your data.

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Get your projects done

How do you facilitate getting your projects done? Twproject answer is capturing work done in real time. With Twproject you will be always able to access up-to-date projects data: tracking progress, forthcoming deadlines, worklogs and costs will be much easier. And you can do this while changing projects structures, creating new tasks, moving one task from one project to another.

This makes it possible to adapt and change projects as does the real state of the matter you are working with. Twproject has a built-in agile backbone that makes it useful in the most diverse situations.

More projects done by:

quickly create and change projects with the powerful tree and Gantt editor
insert and manage quickly tens of issues with several dynamic editors
real time monitoring and projections of work state, past and future
active time-sheet definitions, and hence cost control

And more!

Moreover projects support cut/paste, cloning, creating templates, have milestones, dependencies, have integrated issue tracking, a diary, boards, detailed log of scope creep, have deliverables, have customizable project forms for evaluating complexity/risk/value …

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Workflows

With Twproject you get the advantages of both project management and workflows in an integrated solution. Twproject has complete coverage of business process patterns giving you flexibility and standardization of processes and easier change support.

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Agile / Scrum / Kanban

Designed to adapt to your organization’s processes, Twproject supports different flavours of Agile methodologies: XP, Scrum, Kanban.
Twproject is so flexible that it lets you map projects, tasks, issues to people and customers, in many different ways, but so that all data from the different projects and methodologies ends up in the same place.
Twproject includes tools such as Kanban, burn down graph, tasks as sprints, panic board, delegation by contract.

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New features

Department assignments

Department workload

Improved cost management

Project budget

Management of resource cost per hour USE_REAL_RESOURCE_COST

Management of final reports (worklog entry)WORKLOG_OVERFLOW_FORBIDDEN

Management of cost centres

Cost centre propagation

Choice of cost centre type USE_DISTINCT_COSTCENTER_PRJ_RES

Cost centre inheritance COSTS_INHERIT_COST_CENTER

Security

Many other new features

The new release is awaiting you

CONTENT

Project planning and Gantt diagram

Workload

Agile management with Kanban board

Cost management

What if there is a third solution?

Put us to the test

Try the alternative choice with Twproject.

Dependencies in the Gantt

Introduction of new typologies

The application of the concept of “elasticity”

Other news

The new release is waiting for you

CONTENT

Estimated and actual values

The method

The progress diagram (cash flow)

An advantage in many respects

1. The importance of forecasting

2. Data transferability

3. Sharing of responsibility

Manage your flows from A to Z with Twproject

CONTENT

The importance of accounting

Timesheet

Time counter

From the to-do list

An easy and suitable solution for everyone

Choose the most flexible tool: try Twproject.

Resources: the hourly cost

Resource costs: the cost of work

Resource costs: expense reports

Additional project costs

Project’s budget

Start now with a proper cost managemen!t

CONTENT INDEX

Visual management of the project

Physical boards and digital boards for visual management

Visual Project Management as a facilitator

The Scrum-ban style

Accelerate processes with Visual Project Management

Manage your project in a visual and intuitive way.

CONTENT INDEX

What are the purposes of a Work Breakdown Structure?

Work Breakdown Structure templates

Work Breakdown Structure: Best practices

1. Focus on the final results, not on the methods / actions.

2. 100 percent rule

3. 8/80 rule

4. Attention to the level of detail

How to create a Work Breakdown Structure

Start creating your Work Breakdown Structure.

Act before selecting and purchasing the new project management software

Identification of the need for change

Performance of the impact analysis on the stakeholders

Finalization of the requirements

After the purchase of a new project management software

1) Training

2) User Acceptance Test – UAT

3) Coordinate the transition between one software and another

4) Reward the implementation team

5) Measure the results

6)Ask for feedbacks

Access your new project management software.

CONTENT INDEX

Project milestones: the planning

Management of resource cost per hour
USE_REAL_RESOURCE_COST

Management of final reports (worklog entry)
WORKLOG_OVERFLOW_FORBIDDEN

Choice of cost centre type
USE_DISTINCT_COSTCENTER_PRJ_RES

Cost centre inheritance
COSTS_INHERIT_COST_CENTER