I was reminded recently about how much the successful management of remote writing projects relies on common sense, communications, and teamwork. Looking back over previous part-time remote projects I’ve worked on the lack of one of those elements usually made for a lot more difficult of a project.
However, I’m the first to say that communications are a two way street between the remote writer and the mother ship.
Takeaway: OmniPlan for iPad packs features you’d expect in a desktop project management application. Will Kelly reviews this powerful iPad project management app.
The recently released OmniPlan has professional-level features that set a new bar for iPad project management apps. This is the culmination of the Omni Group to port all their popular Mac productivity applications to the iPad, which makes it well worth the $49.99 (USD) price tag. When I previously wrote about tablet apps for project management, OmniPlan had yet to launch. After checking out this app, I’m here to say that no coverage of iPad project management apps is complete without it.
via OmniPlan: Visual project management for the iPad | TechRepublic.
Project managers are turning to cloud-based project management applications with a mobile client component — but security considerations should be top-of-mind.
Breaking away from traditional desktop project management applications like Microsoft Project and going to the cloud has never been easier, with companies like LiquidPlanner, Daptiv, and Mavenlink delivering innovation at speeds that desktop application vendors can’t touch. However, with all this promise, project managers need to keep security considerations high up on the list of requirements when moving their project management data to the cloud for access by tablets and smartphones.
via The Mobility Hub – Will Kelly – Security for Mobile Project Managers.
Project management can be a very mobile profession, and there are quite a few project management apps available for tablets. Tablet clients for cloud-based apps and standalone project management apps each have their drawbacks, but the potential is there to manage an entire project from the mobility of a tablet.
via Tablet apps for project managers | TechRepublic.
The forgotten player is the success of Microsoft SharePoint is often the guy on the project team who makes SharePoint work for the team from a combination of their prior experience and seeing the potential in SharePoint to solve some sort of existing project-level problem whether it be dealing with project management, collaboration, or communications. Organizations who take a few simple steps to create a culture of SharePoint champions are going to reap the benefits in their business without a heavy financial outlay.
Here are some things organization can do to foster a culture of SharePoint champions:
I previously wrote about Do.com, gave it high marks, and then got to thinking about how it could work for managing offsite technical writing projects. I’ve had mixed experiences myself with offsite technical writing projects and while I still think some organizations are more equipped to deal with remote workers than others. However, I haven’t given up the hope that putting a management tool layer between the remote writer and those involved in the project at the mother ship couldn’t help improve communications and create an audit trail.
With a little bit of setup, Do.com can serve as a task management and communications broker between a remote writer and the rest of the project team.
I’ ve long been a believer that project teams can get a lot more out of SharePoint team sites if organizations decentralized SharePoint team site development and management to the team level. SharePoint 2010 for Project Management by Dux Raymond Sy is just such a book a must read for project managers and team leads who want to centralize their project information.
The book leads readers very methodically through building a Project Management Information System (PMIS) from SharePoint 2010 right out of the box without the need for third party add-ins much less a professional services agreement. The steps that Dux Raymond Sy lays out in the chapters of the book only require your IT/IS group to set you up with the appropriate roles and privileges and then following the steps in the book can take you to PMIS nirvana. He goes into enough detail where even first time and novice SharePoint users can get a PMIS up and running.
Even smaller projects can benefit from a project management tool where the team lead and members can at least centralize task management. However, Microsoft Project can be overkill in such situations so it is better to look for a more mid-range tool for managing such projects and tasks. This is where cloud based project management applications really excel. After recently writing about Do.com, I learned about Asana – a cloud based task management application and had to check it out.
As a cloud-based task management application, Do.com greets you with full HTML 5 goodness. It’s a real slick and responsive task management application for individuals or project teams. I’ve long been a believer in the democratization of project management data and how cloud-based applications can help geographically dispersed project teams collaborate and communicate during projects. read more
With the cloud becoming more the project management platform of choice, the market for cloud-based project management tools is really heating up. Cohuman – now owned by MindJet, of MindJet MindManager fame—is in the same league as Asana and Do.com but touts more control over tasks and projects with their locking feature. Cloud-based project management tools are great for freelancers and project teams because they are easy to learn and implement while owing no allegiance to any particular project management methodology.
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