There are many traits that make a good project manager. Having these to start with is almost essential. Project management is one of the most challenging roles one can take on. There are many things you need to know, but here are ten skills that will help you to become a successful project manager.

Manage Your Time Well

Project managers always have demands on their time. Time management skills are essential to succeed as a project manager. You will find yourself pulled in all directions, sometimes all at one time. You must know how to effectively schedule your time and prioritize your action items. Don’t forget to schedule in some time for the unexpected because they will happen and having time blocked out allows you to deal with them. See “Management Tools – Time and Problem Management Simplified“.

Learn to Effectively Use Project Management Tools

There are a vast number of project management tools available today. They can be an enormous aid to a project manager that can mean the difference between a project succeeding or failing. You should learn to effectively use these tools. Not just learn them, but become a master of them.

Learn to Anticipate Problems

Project management does not come with a crystal ball, but there are times when you will wish it did. Instead you must be diligent in overseeing all aspects of the project looking for issues before they become problems. Don’t want until an important piece of equipment is overdue before you check with the vendor. Check in often with every vendor, contributor and team member to be sure they are still on time and on track. See “How to Restart a Stalled Project“.

Be Effective at Conducting Meetings

Meetings are a necessary evil that comes with project management. To be a successful project manager you must learn how to hold effective and productive meetings. Don’t let meetings wander off the topic, you do not have time to waste. Control the meeting, effectively relay or collect the needed information and move on.

Become an Effective Decision Maker

As a project manager you must make decisions all the time and they always have to be the right one. To complicate matters you do not have the luxury of spending much time to make a decision. Sometimes they must be made on the spot. Team members look to you for yes or no, not let me get back to you. While you should never make an uninformed decision, the better honed your decision-making skills the easier your job will be and the more successful you will be at it.

Be Receptive to New Ideas

A “know-it-all” does not make a good project manager. Even though you are expected to know it all, there is no way you can. You rely on your team members, other project managers and anyone else who can help you out. When issues arise and it is time for new approaches or new directions, trust in the people you surround yourself with. This is a good reason you need to surround yourself with a talented and diverse team. See “The Nine Belbin Team Roles“.

Keep the Focus on Quality Not Milestones

Too often project managers get caught up in reaching their milestones as if they were the determination whether the project fails or succeeds. Milestones are important, but the true test of the success of a project is the quality of the product it produces. It does not good to cut corners to reach milestones if you produce a poor quality product. Quality, quality, quality. The rest will speak for itself.

Address Issues Right Away

Issues always arise, unknown, out of the blue and you have to deal with them. You may have two team members fighting about how an important part of the project should be done that is putting the project at risk. Step in right away, tell them this is how it will be done and BE SPECIFIC so everyone understands. Leave an issue lying around too long and it will grow large enough to derail your entire project.

Roll With The Punches

Things will go wrong. Vendors will fail to delivery hardware when they promise. Programmers will fail to delivery software to the proper specifications. A successful project manager must have a sense of composure during times like these. It even helps to have a sense of humor, though at times it may be hard to find. What you can not do is allow issues to consume you to the point you lose sleep and do not take care of yourself. If this happens it is a warning sign that you need to deal with.

You Are a Project Manager, Not a Project Micro-Manager

In the same way you can not be a “know-it-all” and must rely on your team for support, you can not be a “do-it-all” and try to do all the tasks yourself. Your job is to manage the project and focus on the big picture. Delegate tasks to your team and let them do their job. Follow-up, but don’t helicopter each team member to be sure they are doing the job right.

Take Away

To be a successful project manager you must wear multiple hats and be able to switch the quickly. Successful project managers are people who are driven to succeed at all costs and never lose sight of the big picture. To deliver a project, on time, on budget with a high quality product.

Successful project managers need to learn many skills if they do not already have them. If you want to be a successful project manager learn to be a good manager, a good negotiator, a good leader, someone who can easily adapt to inevitable changes and make the right decision on the spot.

Most of all understand successful project managers are not superhuman. Maintain your drive and focus, but do not allow a project to become an obsession that consumes you.

Most project managers are about the business side of the project. The resources, time, money and scope of the project. They do not need a deep technical knowledge to do their job. This is usually not a hindrance since any good project manager is going to surround themselves with a technically knowledgeable team.

As a manager skilled in a particular area of IT you have the technical expertise that a lot of project managers do not have. Since you are already a manager you have many of the business and soft skills a project manager uses. Adding project management skills will make you more well-rounded and could lead to more opportunities. The goal is not to become a project manager, unless that is a path you want to take. The goal is to learn more about project management and the skills used to manage projects.

The Benefits of Project Management Skills

There are many benefits for an IT manager to learn project management skills.

Allow You to do Your Job Better

By adding project management skills you will be able to do your own job better. Look at some of the tasks you do now. Hardware and infrastructure upgrades, deployments, enhancing services, and much more. These may not be fully blown projects, but you can manage them that way. Project management skills will allow you to better plan, initiate, manage the budget, manage resources and deliver the product.

The Ability to Manage Simple Projects

IT is full of projects large and small. Not every project needs a dedicated project manager. With project management skills you will be able to manage small projects. Experience is the best teacher so by showing you can manage a small project, you may get tapped for something larger. This will enhance your reputation and your value to the company.

Better Able to Contribute to Projects

With knowledge of project management you will be able to better contribute to projects you are involved in. Not only will you be lending your technical expertise, you will be able to be a more active participant in the project. This benefits the project, the company and yourself.

Learn Project Management Jargon – For some project management has a language of its own. If you are not a trained project manager and attend project meetings you are likely to hear terms and phrases that are Greek to you. Learning the language can be very beneficial by giving you a better understanding of the projects you are involved in.

Become a Project Manager

Who knows you may like project management so much you will want to make a career move and commit yourself to becoming a project manager. Project managers are in high demand in IT and other departments. It will take a real commitment and a lot of time, but the payoff may be well worth it.

Open New Doors and New Opportunities

Over time as you prove your capabilities you may be called on for special projects. Ones that require both technical expertise and project management skills. Any new skill, technical or otherwise can open up new opportunities for you. Project management skills are highly valued and sought after.

How Managers Can Obtain Project Management Skills

CompTIA Project+

The CompTIA Project+ certification covers the entire project life cycle from initiation and planning through execution, acceptance, support and closure. Unlike some project management certifications, CompTIA Project+ can be earned quickly and cost-effectively. There are no prerequisites, and candidates are not required to submit an application or complete additional hours of continuing education.

The CompTIA Project+ exam consist of 80 questions and requires a passing score of 499 on a scale of 100-900. You can self-study with books, take a class or learn through online resources.

For more information visit the CompTIA Project+ web site.

Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is given by the Project Management Institute. It is intended for those who contribute to projects. It requires a high school diploma or equivalent, and 1500 hours experience or 23 hours of project management education. There is an application process and a multiple-choice 150 question exam.

For more information visit the Project Management Institute web site.

Self-Study

If you do not have the time or money to pursue a certification you still have options to learn project management skills. The goal is to learn project management skills, not to become a project manager, though it could lead to that on some scale.

For starters there is a wealth of information on the Internet. Just head to your favorite search site and type in Project Management Skills. If you are an avid book reader like me head to Amazon, your local public library or local college or university library. There are many resources out there that will make you more knowledgeable about project management.

Where You Work

If there is a Project Management Office (PMO) where you work take some time and talk with them. Explain that you want to increase your knowledge and skills about project management and ask them for suggestions. Some companies know the value of project management skills and offer in-house project management basics training.

Summary

As an IT manager adding to your skill sets makes you a more valuable asset to the company. Much of what IT does is project oriented so knowing the language and how projects work is important. As a manager you already have some of the business and soft skills needed in project management.

To move up the company ladder, increase your reputation and your salary you need to continuously improve your skills. Adding project management skills will put a very useful tool in your managers toolbox.

The survey results of a new study released by ESI International of Project and Programme Management Office (PMO) executives in the UK and Europe reveal that most PMOs are not realizing their full potential for cost savings and performance improvement.

The survey results represent government, education and not-for-profit organizations, as well as commercial industries in financial services, telecom, IT, energy, pharma & health, professional services, manufacturing and other sectors, which are contained in the study, “The Challenges to Success for Project/Programme Management Offices.”

PMOs are widely adopted in organizations’ Centres of Excellence. In fact, 96 percent of executives surveyed said they either have a PMO or are planning to build one in the next 18 months. Yet time and again respondents reported a lack of support and resource allocation to make their PMO a success. As a result, only eight percent of executives surveyed believe their PMO is successful.

“PMO maturity is at the core of the issues and challenges that PMO executives face,” said J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP, Executive Vice President, ESI International. “At the same time, PMOs can’t mature without the support of the organization’s senior executives and an enterprise-wide awareness of its intrinsic value. These key constituents often don’t recognize the PMO’s value because it has not yet fully developed processes and achieved results that a mature PMO delivers.”

Among the study’s findings:

Of the 92 percent who do not believe their PMO is successful, the main reason was a lack of:

• Executive support (34%)
• Defined roles and responsibilities (20%)
• Dedicated facilities, equipment and infrastructure (20%)
• Corporate goal alignment (12%)

Eighty-three percent responded that their PMO was somewhat effective in addressing the key business challenges of their organization. Only 17 percent said it was very effective.

Thirty percent of the respondents said the existence of their PMO has been seriously questioned in recent years. Among the attributable reasons are:

• The PMO is seen as an extension of administrative support, rather than a professional body with value-add skills.
• Budget cuts necessitating cost justification, a difficulty for the non-revenue producing PMO.
• PMO size and organizational set up that are counter to time constraints under which project and programme managers operate.
• Lack of understanding of the business benefits of the PMO.

The four main factors respondents identified that establish whether a PMO is mature are:

• Adoption of processes and goals.
• Support from management.
• Experience of PMO managers and members.
• Perceived value and benefit of the PMO within the organization.

“PMO executives are keenly aware of the obstacles to their success,” said Ward. “Closing gaps in skills, knowledge and tools are critical for enabling PMOs to meet these challenges and enhance organizational project performance.”

Survey methodology: ESI International sent a survey of 17 open and close-ended questions to 387 project and programme managers with senior job titles in various sectors and industries. Sixty executives participated for a response rate of 15 percent. Their firm sizes range from organizations of less than 101 employees to more than 30,000 employees.

The survey was distributed via email on 24 Nov. 2008 and open for 12 days. The survey was anonymous unless respondents wanted to receive the results, in which case they had to complete their details.  The quantitative survey results were enhanced with qualitative interviews of senior PM executives.

[Editorial note:  Electronic copies of the report are available upon request.]

About ESI International

ESI, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LSE:INF), helps people around the world improve the way they manage projects, contracts, requirements and vendors. In addition to ESI’s more than 100 courses delivered in 18 languages at more than 75 locations worldwide, ESI offers eight certificate programs through our educational partner, The George Washington University in Washington. Founded in 1981, ESI has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Washington. To date, ESI’s programs have benefited more than one million professionals worldwide. For more information visit www.esi-intl.co.uk.

ARLINGTON, Va. USA – Jan. 19, 2009 – ESI International revealed the 2009 Top 10 project management trends that will impact both private and public sector organizations this year. Identified by a global panel of ESI’s veteran consultants and senior management, these trends point to organizational need for expertise while coping with tighter budgets, fewer financial and human resources, and change. The forecast suggests where project management will focus in 2009 to drive project and organizational success.

The Sandwich Generation: Middle Managers’ Emerging Role in Change

Seventy-five percent of all change management programs fail because of a lack of employee support. Today’s economy will force organizations to confront the important roles middle managers play in the success of change efforts. Middle managers’ roles will shift from simple messenger of directives ‘from above’ to creating a positive environment to enable change, accountability and ownership of change initiatives, achieving the full benefits of change and ensuring return on investment.

Navigating Virtual Teams through Change

As budgets tighten, the role of virtual teams will grow along with the demand for the skill sets to manage them, especially through change. Powerful communication, key management strategies and new rules of engagement will be required to manage virtual teams as organizations seek to effectively shift with the turbulent global economy.

Sharper Distinctions Between Project and Program Management

Many global organizations have managed programs with the same methods used to manage projects, with predictably disappointing results. Programs are not merely “bigger” projects, and program managers aren’t simply professionals who are one step up on the organizational ladder.  This year will see an increase in the understanding of the cardinal differences between projects and programs and the utilization of strategies to boost program managers’ effectiveness and increase program success.

Leveraging Communities of Practice To Hone Skills

The number and importance of project management communities of practice will increase significantly in 2009. These informal communities will be highly prized for the lack of bureaucracy that increase the sharing and use of best practices, enabling increased dialogue to overcome challenges and growing future leaders.

Strategic Selling of the Project Management Office

Although the project management office has gained wide acceptance, it still needs buy-in at the senior executive level. 2009 will see an increase in the importance of quantifying the PMO’s value and how to present that data to the CFO to ensure funding in what promises to be highly competitive arena for organizational resources.

Back to Basics for Successful Project Portfolio Management

More than any year in recent history, 2009 will be a critical year for ensuring project success.  Project managers will increase their emphasis on the basics, taking a first-things-first approach and address fundamentals such as gaining and sustaining executive commitment, addressing gaps in the alignment of organizational strategy and projects, project selection, and efficient measurement process while leveraging existing resources to increase project success.

Right-sizing Staff with Demand Driven Resource Management

The adoption of Demand Driven Resource Management will increase significantly in 2009. Its ability to right-size internal staff and draw on outside contractors when demand requires will be viewed as an essential cost containment approach leading to greater organizational performance and efficiency.

Improved Requirements Metrics

The economic need to accurately assess and evaluate the organizational and cost impact of project requirements will bring a greater role for requirements management and development.  Also known as business analysis, RMD’s ability to provide quality metrics that project and portfolio managers can use to assess the economic, performance and feasibility value of each project component will become essential to organizations successfully maximizing the ROI of their projects.

People Will Come Before Technology

Organizations will increase their demands for smart third-party guidance that ensures technology investments deliver enhanced performance. This will result in greater recognition of the critical role people play, leading to increased recognition that employees need the right skills and knowledge before applying processes for consistency and adding technology to deliver increased efficiencies.

Risk Management for Governance

In 2009, many organizations will say goodbye to the ‘one number’ method for project outcomes and embrace a quantifiable range of potential results on which to base decisions. Recognizing that best governance hinges on the availability of quality information at the project level, education and leadership in risk management and best practices permeate organizations wanting to optimize project forecasting to deliver more effective governance.

“While these trends are about doing more with less, they all speak to the concept of less is more,” said J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP, Executive Vice President, ESI International. “In 2009, more than any time in recent history, empowering people with the right skills, knowledge and tools to pick the right projects, ensure support for change and effectively track progress for smart governance will be key to project success – saving time and money while driving organizational success.”

About ESI International

ESI, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LSE:INF), helps people around the world improve the way they manage projects, contracts, requirements and vendors. In addition to ESI’s more than 100 courses delivered in 18 languages at more than 75 locations worldwide, ESI offers eight certificate programs through our educational partner, The George Washington University in Washington. Founded in 1981, ESI’s worldwide headquarters are in Arlington, Va., USA. To date, ESI’s programs have benefited more than one million professionals worldwide. For more information visit www.esi-intl.com.

The “Method123 Project Management Methodology” (or MPMM) is a software toolset for organizations that run multiple projects at the same time. These organizations usually need to implement projects in a standard manner, using best practice project processes. MPMM contains such processes to ensure that projects are always run in the same way.

“Project management can be chaos at times,” says Jason Westland, CEO of Method123. “Everyone is scrambling for time, money and resources to try and achieve an objective that the organization is dependent on meeting. Most successful organizations attempt to control this chaos by implementing projects in a standard manner. “

“Every project passes through the same life cycle phases, they have the same reporting mechanisms, and changes, risks and issues are all handled in the same manner. It’s like clockwork. Everyone knows what they have to do, by when and how to do it. The only way to achieve this is by implementing a best practice methodology. That’s where MPMM steps in. It describes every phase, activity and task in the project life cycle so that projects can be undertaken in the same repeatable manner. It’s a recipe for success.”

In this latest version of MPMM, Project Managers and teams can create and customize their own methodologies for projects. They can take the methodology that comes with the product and customize it by adding their own terminology, language and acronyms. They can also adapt the processes to conform to their own organizational standards and they can upload new processes as they wish. Teams can create as many project management methodologies as they wish.

Originally released as stand alone software, this new version allows teams to collaborate on projects. Team members can all work on the same project management methodologies at the same time. And they can upload their own project management templates into the tool to act as a repository for their projects.

In the future, Method123 Ltd is planning to allow Project Managers to publish their own project management methodologies to their corporate intranet, so that the entire company can access the valuable knowledge included.

“A Project Manager’s job is not an easy one,” says Westland. “They have a lot of deliverables to produce within a very short period of time. Adopting a standard methodology to follow, can reduce their stress levels because no longer do they have to work out how they are going to achieve everything. The Method123 Project Management Methodology describes every step in the project life cycle, so that Project Managers know what they have to do and when. It’s as easy to follow as 1-2-3.”

MPMM is produced by Method123 Ltd, the original creators of the online project management template. Method123 also offer online project management software to complement their suite of project management tools.

For more information visit the Method123 web site.

Imagine being asked to work on a project, only you don’t speak the language in the country in which it will be conducted. You wouldn’t get very far, and you’d most likely experience a lot of raised eyebrows because all you could do is point and smile. Sharing a common language is not the same thing as speaking the same mother tongue. But, as project managers will tell you, project-speak has a dialect all its own. Whether in Singapore or Stockholm, communicating what you mean in business is critical to completing a project on budget and time.

An emerging global business culture has brought with it an ever-expanding language of ‘project-speak’ that you hear in boardrooms around the world. My advice is to learn the lingo in your field as quickly as possible to maintain your competitive edge.

The more diverse the field, the more terms are needed to operate within it. With over three decades of experience with project managers from Shanghai to Stuttgart to Salt Lake City, I have witnessed an explosion of new terminology in project management first-hand (from just over 1,600 terms in the 90’s to over 3,400 today). As globalization broadens markets, the language required to keep up grows with it. What you say is as important as how you say it.

Let’s take the term ‘drill down’. In the oil industry, you might think it refers to the act of seeking oil under the Earth’s surface. In project-speak, it actually means the act of moving from a summarized view of data into a lower level of detail. While on an oil rig in the North Sea, you would want to know the difference.

Or consider ‘unk-unks’. No, it’s not a Bali starling mating call, but a risk management term that stands for unknown unknowns (risks that are unknowable). ‘Pound of flesh’ is another favorite, eliciting scenes from your favorite horror movie. In project management, however, it really means you’re going to have to pay someone back in a huge way for doing something for you. Aside from the obvious hard skills, language is key in project management. After all, projects are people.

There exists an international business culture that has emerged as a result of globalization and cross-border and cross-functional project activity. Managers worldwide tend to be a highly educated, well-credentialed body of professionals who are apt to read the same business books and who listen to the same lecturers and pundits on various topics. It’s best to learn the language so, when you attend meetings, collaborate on projects or are involved in any business activity, you understand what people are saying. And, perhaps more importantly, when it’s your turn to speak up, they understand you, too.

J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP, author of Dictionary of Project Management Terms (3rd edition, October 2008), is Executive Vice President at ESI International, a global learning company helping people and organizations improve the way they manage projects, contracts, requirements and vendors. Complementing a 17-year career with four U.S. federal agencies, Mr. Ward is responsible for, among other things, ESI’s product offerings worldwide.  He is a noted author and speaker and appears frequently at project management gatherings around the world.  http://www.esi-intl.com

New Release: Dictionary of Project Management Terms

Project managers can now rely on a newly updated handbook, thanks to its author, J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP, Executive Vice President at ESI International. Dictionary of Project Management Terms, now in its third edition, shows how the field of project management has exploded in the last few years. With over 3,400 terms, up from 1,800 in 2000, this book includes not only traditional project management terms, but also broader business terms to help seasoned managers as well as their successors navigate the ubiquitous language of project-speak more easily.

“The larger the field, the more terms are needed to operate within it,” said Ward from his Arlington office where he heads ESI’s worldwide training programs and international partnerships. With over three decades of experience with project managers from 50+ countries, Ward has witnessed the upward trend in project management first-hand.

“LeRoy Ward proves himself to be the Noah Webster of project management,” stated Carl Pritchard, PMP, EVP, Principal, Pritchard Management Associates in Frederick, Maryland. “He provides a comprehensive, clear, incisive assessment of the body of terms in project management, rich with both technical and idiomatic terms. This exhaustive lexicon is a must-have for any project manager.”

Spanning over 480 pages, the Dictionary of Project Management Terms encompasses acronyms, relevant project management organizations and project-speak to ensure consistency in communication, an indispensable skill arising from globalization itself.

“This book is one of the rare examples of a successful marriage of quantity and quality,” claimed Piotr Maciejczyk, Chairman, Management Training and Development Center in Warsaw, Poland. “No wonder that, along with the PMBOK® Guide, it is one of the two most popular, most recognized, and most useful books among project management professionals in Poland. And no wonder that it became the basis for creating and promoting a common project management terminology, which is one of the most crucial aspects of communication in the PM environment.”

Dictionary of Project Management Terms ($39.95) is available for immediate purchase at www.esi-intl.com or www.amazon.com.

About ESI International

ESI, a subsidiary of Informa plc (LSE:INF), helps people around the world improve the way they manage projects, contracts, requirements and vendors. In addition to ESI’s more than 100 courses delivered in 18 languages at more than 75 locations worldwide, ESI offers eight certificate programs through our educational partner, The George Washington University in Washington. Founded in 1981, ESI’s worldwide headquarters are in Arlington, Va, USA. To date, ESI’s programs have benefited more than 950,000 professionals worldwide. For more information visit www.esi-intl.com.

Reprint permission from ESI International

Adding project management skills to your skill sets will greatly enhance your worth and your ability to contribute to your company.

The top five project management skills an IT professional should look at to add to their toolbox include:

PMP – Project Management Institute’s Project Management Professional

Individuals who hold PMI’s PMP credential demonstrate a proficient level of project management leadership skills, and as a result are able to command salaries that exceed those of their non-credentialed counterparts.  To be eligible for a PMP credential, you must meet specific guidelines that objectively measure experience, education and professional knowledge.

For more information about PMP certification visit the Project Management Institute website.

CAPM – Certified Associate in Project Management

Designed specifically for project team members, the CAPM credential is aimed at improving overall project success by helping to ensure project management knowledge. To become a CAPM credential holder, you must meet specific guidelines designed to objectively measure experience, education and professional knowledge.

For more information about CAPM certification visit the Project Management Institute website.

ITIL – Information Technology Infrastructure Library

ITIL offers three certifications. Foundation which offers inside into ITIL processes and relations. Practitioner which is a specialist in the design and execution of processes. Manager which is for those responsible for the setup and implementation of ITIL.

• The Foundation Certificate enables people to understand the terminology used within ITIL. It focuses on foundation knowledge with regard to the ITIL Service Support and Service Delivery sets as well as generic ITIL philosophy and background. It is a prerequisite for the Practitioner’s and Manager’s Certificates in IT Service Management.
• The Practitioner Certificate focuses upon the understanding and application of the specific processes within the IT Service Management discipline.
• The Manager’s Certificate is aimed at experienced professionals, who will be involved in managing service management functions.

For more information about ITIL certification visit the Official ITIL website.

CBAP – Business Analysts’ Certified Business Analysis Professional

Certified Business Analysis Professionals are experts in identifying the business needs of an organization in order to determine the best solutions, a role that is increasingly seen as a vital component of any successful project. More and more companies are recognizing the CBAP designation and the value and expertise that these professionals bring to their organizations.

For more information on CBAP certification visit the International Institute of Business Analysis website.

ISO 20000

ISO/IEC 20000 is the first worldwide standard specifically aimed at IT Service Management. It describes an integrated set of management processes for the effective delivery of services to the business and its customers.

ISO/IEC 20000 is aligned with and complementary to the process approach defined within ITIL from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

ISO/IEC 20000 consists of two parts:

ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 is the formal Specification and defines the requirements for an organization to deliver managed services of an acceptable quality for its customers. The scope includes:

• Requirements for a management system;
• Planning and implementing service management;
• Planning and implementing new or changed services;
• Service delivery process;
• Relationship processes;
• Resolution processes;
• Control processes; and
• Release processes.

ISO/IEC 20000-2:2005 is the Code of Practice and describes the best practices for Service Management processes within the scope of ISO/IEC 20000-1. The code of Practice will be of particular use to organizations preparing to be audited against ISO/IEC 20000 or planning service improvements.

For more information on ISO 20000 certification visit the ISO/IEC 20000 website.

COBIT – Control Objectives for Information and related Technology

(COBIT) is a set of best practices (framework) for information technology (IT) management created by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) in 1992. COBIT provides managers, auditors, and IT users with a set of generally accepted measures, indicators, processes and best practices to assist them in maximizing the benefits derived through the use of information technology and developing appropriate IT governance and control in a company.

For more information about COBIT visit the ISACA website.

Press Release

Riverock Technologies has announced a ground-breaking way to manage business chaos with the availability of its OnePlace on-demand project management and collaboration solution.

“The Chaos Theory tells us that chaotic systems are systems that look random, but aren’t,” said Steve Kickert, ceo, Riverock Technologies. “Business operations fundamentally prove this theory. The Chaos Theory suggests that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas (known as the Butterfly Effect). Likewise, in business, an individual’s actions can impact the performance of the entire business, both in good and bad ways.” Kickert theorizes a business can influence this impact by providing teams and individuals with tools enabling them to collaborate more and coordinate their efforts.

During his sixteen year tenure as MN-based HighJump Technologies’ Chief Technology Officer, Kickert witnessed first hand the impact both chaotic and ordered teams can have on the overall performance of a company. The complex relationship between project management, information management and individual productivity often makes teams operate in a perpetual state of chaos.

Kickert realized that a solution was needed to channel the chaos and fundamentally stabilize a team’s initiatives. The best solution must focus on the needs of the individual while at the same time coordinate those needs with their teammates.

While Kickert led a team of nearly 100 technical personnel to develop state of the art supply chain execution solutions that grew HighJump software from $8M to $50M, he quietly internalized requirements for the development of the OnePlace Chaos Management solution.

Now, with business partner Denis Ahearn, formerly of MN-based Superior Edge, Kickert is bringing to market the OnePlace Chaos Management solution. Together the two envision helping business teams effectively provide order to the daily chaos of their critical work environments.

The OnePlace Chaos Management solution is perfect for business teams of any size who need to manage multiple complex projects. Teams who are succeeding with OnePlace include:

• Technology Development organizations that can now more efficiently:
  • Capture requirements
  • Draft specifications
  • Architect software
  • Draft code
  • Test quality

• Advertising and Marketing Agencies that can now seamlessly:
  • Collaborate with clients
  • Conduct media research
  • Develop creative content
  • Manage placement
  • Measure results

Additionally, teams like sales teams, finance departments, human resource organizations, in-house marketing departments, remote teams and many others will find OnePlace to be much more effective at bringing order to their daily business chaos than a traditional project management or collaboration tool.

When teams realize that a true chaos management solutions exists online, they may never again look for a thinly sliced project management or collaboration solution.

“We believe that the OnePlace chaos management solution is poised to revolutionize the project management and collaboration space,” said Kickert. “Teams can prove it to themselves when they sign up for 30 chaos-free days via unlimited access to OnePlace at https://www.oneplacehome.com/signup.”

Kickert and Ahearn are confident that the free trial will convince teams, of all kinds, that project management solutions are the past tense way to look at managing complex projects. They know that the chaos management benefits of OnePlace will be widely sought after in the very near future.

About Riverock Riverock Technologies is the developer of the revolutionary OnePlace Chaos Management Solution. The robust and easy to use tool helps business teams effectively manage projects and collaborate in a way that gets things done. OnePlace is a trusted chaos management solution for many local industry leaders such as Misukanis & Odden, an online PR and marketing firm. For more information about the OnePlace chaos management solution, visit info.oneplacehome.com or call 952-314-4124.

iTaskX provides the support you need for professional project management. iTaskX 2 adapts to your working processes and ensures an overview on your targets, dates, costs and the current status of your projects. iTaskX supports you in making your projects more transparent in terms of organizing, monitoring or administrating your tasks.

Key Features:

Appearance

• Multiple Views (Gantt View, Tracking Gantt, Calendar, Network View).
• Possibility to format each table row individually.
• Possibility to adjust the height of each table row individually.
• Possibility to configure the displayed columns of each table.
• Extensive display options for the Gantt Bars (shape, color, shadow…).
• Extensive format options for the timescale.
• Individually configurable custom views.
• Page Layout View with page margins and complete set of controls to adjust the page settings for perfect print outs.

Usability

• Supports multiple selections.
• Integrated Project Guide.
• Extensive Help files.
• Supports shortcuts and context-menus for importance commands.
• Interactive scheduling messages.
• Quick insert of multiple tasks through the help of a special sheet.
• Import of Resources from Address book, Directory server and Public Folders of a Microsoft Exchange Servers.
• Specialized views for scheduling and tracking.
• Provides specialized sheets for updating the progress of selected tasks or the whole project.
• Calculation of the project in real-time.
• Complete support for drag/drop in the Gantt views.
• Supports Templates.
• Spotlight searching (Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or 10.5 Leopard).

Scheduling and tracking

• Complete task constraints (start as soon as possible, start as late as possible, must start on, must finish on, start no earlier than, start no later than, finish no earlier than, finish no later than).
• Supports all possible task dependencies (Finish to Finish, Finish to Start, Start to Start, Start to Finish) and positive or negative lags for task links.
• Extensive task information’s (over 60 task fields).
• Supports linking of summary tasks.
• Effort driven scheduling (standard).
• Configurable task types (Fixed Duration, Fixed Work and Fixed Units).
• Scheduled, base und actual task dates for effective tracking.
• Calculation of start slack, finish slack, free slack and total slack for tasks.
• Support of work (persons or groups of people) and material (supplies, stock or other consumable items) resources.
• Support of work and overtime work for assignments.
• Support of time units for assignments units (for example, 5 Liter/h) of material resources.
• Supports Fixed Costs, Cost per Use, Standard Rate and Overtime Rate.
• Possibility to specify the cost accrual (Start, Prorated, End).
• Supports of different calendars for the project, timescale, tasks and resources.

Data exchange

• Microsoft Project XML format.
• Microsoft Project MPX format.
• Tab separated values.
• CSV (Comma-Separated-Values).
• iCal calendar format.
• OPML format.
• Possibility to export each view as image (PDF, JPG, TIF, PNG).

Visit the iTaskX web site for more information.

Do you need Project Management software, but don’t have a lot of money to invest in it? Take a look at dotProject. It is a free open source Project Management tool alternative to Microsoft products and other expensive applications.

Features Include

• User Management
• Email based trouble Ticket System
• Client/Company Management
• Project listings
• Hierarchical Task List
• File Repository
• Contact List
• Calendar
• Discussion Forum
• Resource Based Permissions

dotProject is a volunteer supported Project Management application. There is no “company” behind this project, it is managed, maintained, developed and supported by a volunteer group and by the users themselves.

Right from the start, dotProject had, as it’s core aims a number of simple requirements:

• Clean, simple and consistent user interface;
• Project Management functionality – not another CMS, groupware environment or all things to all people collaboration tool, but a project management environment;
• Open source / open access / free usage.

Core Modules Include

• Companies – entities that group projects together
• Departments – are subsets of Companies
• Users/Contacts – defined users with permissions
• Projects – the overriding elements within which tasks are performed
• Tasks – are the actual work components or jobs assigned within the project
• Gantt Charts – charts are available at the individual project and all project levels.
• Files Module – There is a basic files module which allows you to store files against a project / within dotProject for access by project workers.
• Forums Module – Discussion forums can be created against projects for recording discussions / notes / information against a project.
• Ticketsmith – Ticketsmith is a third party legacy package that was incorporated in the initial releases of dotProject for handling incoming support tickets.
• Smartsearch – System wide search module – within individual “modules” there are search features, smartsearch works across all modules.
• Reports Module –
• Backup Module – New module as of 2.0 to create an XML backup of your dotProject database
• System Administration – All the system administration features, including system configuration are incorporated in this module.
• Resources Module – There is a resources module which allows you to incorporate non-human resources into a project (eg rooms / equipment etc.)

There are also several add on modules, including Help Desk, Eventum Integration, Invoicing and Time sheet.

Visit the dotProject web site to download the software and find out more information.