Tuesday, January 25, 2005

Welcome Home 4.0 Enhance Proejct Communication for Improved Returns

New Release of WelcomHome helps improve project performance by allowing participants to access key project information through a browser.

(January 10, 2005) Houston, Texas - Welcom, a global leader in project and cost management software and services, today announced the release of WelcomHome™ 4.0, the latest version of its Web-based project collaboration portal. WelcomHome allows teams and stakeholders to use a single, customizable interface to easily access project and cost information from multiple systems. Performance and communication is enhanced as data from various systems is combined and accessed in real time. Live schedule views make it easy to monitor total project progress while document and task management features give users better project control.

“Before using WelcomHome, people had to e-mail back and forth or call to stay informed,” says Thea Yancey, proposal manager with Sperry Marine. “The wrong version of a document could be passed to somebody and team members might miss information if they missed meetings. Now everyone gets general information from the portal’s home pages, reviews an up-to-date notice board, checks documents in and out, accesses process and risk information, and views live schedule and milestone reports.”“

In any given project, many groups of people within an organization are brought together, each with different needs,” says Steve Cook, president and co-founder of Welcom. “As project teams become more dispersed, the challenge to communicate effectively and share information in a timely manner is greater. WelcomHome has the power and versatility our customers need to better monitor a project’s health at any time, whether in the office or on the road.”WelcomHome allows sharing of up-to-date project and cost information throughout the organization. Project teams can communicate easier to bring projects to a successful completion.

The portal integrates data from a variety of business systems, including scheduling tools such as Microsoft Project® and Welcom’s Open Plan®, as well as project cost information and earned value from Welcom’s Cobra®. New features include enhanced item management, comprehensive document management, and greater customization capabilities.

WelcomHome 4.0 pricing starts at US$15,000 for 25 named users. Additional users can be added with pricing beginning at $200 per user. WelcomHome is sold directly and through an international network of distributors.

More information is available at www.welcom.com or by calling 1-800-349-8854 or 1-281-558-0514.

About WelcomHomeWelcomHome is a Web-based project management portal that provides all project participants with easy access to project information from multiple systems. Digital dashboards and project health views provide executives with up-to-date program metrics. Live schedule views, document management, and item management give project managers closer project control and improved team member collaboration.Schedule information from Open Plan and Microsoft Project is accessed and remotely updated through the WelcomHome portal. DataViews (custom reports) are easily extended to interface with other corporate systems. With fully customizable reporting, navigation, and branding, WelcomHome has the flexibility to fit the unique business needs of each customer.

About WelcomWelcom (www.welcom.com) provides cost and project management solutions that allow organizations to effectively plan and manage business-critical projects, delivering the right information to the right person for maximum collaboration and control. With over two decades of leadership and a worldwide customer base, Welcom is an established global leader with extensive project management and vertical industry expertise.

Established in 1983, Welcom is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in Houston, Texas, USA, and offices in the United Kingdom, Singapore, and reseller partners worldwide.

-end-Welcom, Open Plan, and Cobra are registered trademarks and WelcomHome is a trademark of WST Corporation. All rights reserved. All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective manufacturers.

MS Project Tip

Who doesn't like good MS Project Tips. Here is one on how to print the notes. I ran into this in ALLPM, a site dedicated to improve project management.

Q: What would be some tips about documenting changes in the project. My sponsorslike to see the changes in dates, durations documented. I am currently usingthe Notes column. However, this doesn't print well with Gantt charts and printingit at the end has limited utility. Additionally, it seems there is a field limit.

A: John, there are two ways of printing Notes:
- as a separate page through File, Page Setup, tab View
- in between the tasks by using a Report, choose Views, Reports, click Custom,select a Task report and click Edit, tab Definition, select Notes.

The next best way is to save your entire project in MS Access and add fieldsto the tables in MS Access in which you capture the changes.Hope this helps...
Answered by AllPM resident guru Eric Uyttewaal, PMPVice-President, MS Project CertificationInternational Institute for Learning, Inc.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

WBS by Critical Tools

I completely recommend this tool to every project planner. Excellent WBS creation tool which has close to perfect integration with MS Project. The tool works with MS Project 2003 as well as all previous versions. The printing could be improved though.

The same firm also offers Network diagramming tool, unfortunately I can't say the same good things about that one. Still worth to try.

Both tools have trial versions at the companies web site. Criticaltools.com

Checklists and templates

Cardboard Checklists (tm) "These checklists are a tool for helping you focus attention on the critical aspects of your project at the different stages of its lifecycle."
Methods123.com a Project Management Methodology which provides you with all of the documents,processes, tools, templates and methods required in order to succeed as a Project Manager. These tools are an integral part of the Method123 project lifecycle. 12 Templates free! ProgramControl.com makes available for download preformatted and customized templates for managing a wide range of projects. Templates include renovation, systems integration, network implementation, software validation, etc.
Project Management Productivity Checklist
ProjectSmart
Sample Project Charter
SmartDraw Easily Create Gantt Charts and PERT Charts for Project Management in Minutes—Free
[pdf] What Every Project Manager Should Know and Do

Simple but good site for more of similiar tools:

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Couple stuff to start with.

Microsoft Project web site:
http://office.microsoft.com/project

Project 2003
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Migration Tool
Project 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK)
Project Server 2003 Configuration Planning Guide
Project Server 2003 Installation Guide
Microsoft Office 2003 Web Services Toolkit 2.01
Project Server 2003: Multilingual User Interface (MUI) Packs
Project Server 2003 Administrator's Guide
Project Server 2003 Application Configuration Guide
Project Server 2003 Disaster Recovery Guide
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003: Portfolio Analyzer OLAP Extensions
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003: Project Data Service (PDS) Usage and Methods Reference
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Workgroup Message Handler
Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003 Database Compatibility Scripts for Microsoft Project Server 2002
Project Server 2003 Database Schema
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003: WinHTTP Proxy Configuration Tool
Project Server 2003 SetTracing Utility
Project Server 2003 Setup Flow Diagram
Project Server 2003 In-Box Documentation
Project 2003 Database Schema
Windows Server 2003 Statement of Support for Microsoft Project Server 2002
Project Server 2003 PSMIGRAT Utility
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 ConnInfo Utility
Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 PSCOMPlus Tool

Project 2002
Project 2002 Update:http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2002/prj1001.aspx
Project Server 2002 Update:http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2002/ps1001en.aspx
Project 2002 Software Development Kit (SDK)http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2f38311b-5307-4ca4-a7e2-345affc14758&DisplayLang=en

Project 2000
Project 2000 SR-1 downloads
Project 2000 Training Manual 1Project 2000 Training Manual 2
Project 2000 SR-1 download
Project 2000 Deployment Kit

PM tools

This is a blog to discuss anything related to project management tools.