<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Full disclosure: I didn't design that project-design methodology. It's just what I was trained to do. This company in San Mateo called IPS offers a 2-day onsite class that teaches the basics of project management. They've been around for a while… I first took their course in 1998 or so! I had the good fortune to do it again in 2005.<div><br></div><div>If anybody's building out a team of project managers, or trying to infect a team with project-management-think, this training would be a good arrow to have in your quiver. Check 'em out. <a href="http://www.ipslearning.com/">http://www.ipslearning.com/</a></div><div><br></div><div>Brian</div><div><div><br><div><div>On May 21, 2012, at 9:35 PM, Ellisa Feinstein wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span>Wow...that's quite the brainstorm/PM session you designed there. Fortunately something that I don't have to do right now (my project is very well-defined) but something to use for future non-defined projects.<br></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Brian Rice <<a href="mailto:brice@bigloops.com">brice@bigloops.com</a>><br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Ellisa Feinstein <<a href="mailto:ellisafeinstein@yahoo.com">ellisafeinstein@yahoo.com</a>> <br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> Mike Kosim <<a href="mailto:mike.kosim@mac.com">mike.kosim@mac.com</a>>; Social Social <<a href="mailto:social@deeptrouble.com">social@deeptrouble.com</a>> <br> <b><span style="font-weight:
bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, May 21, 2012 5:59 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: SOCIAL: PM software (free) recomms?<br> </font> </div> <br><div id="yiv617305401"><div><div><soapbox></div><div><br></div><div>In my humble opinion, the choice of project-management software is not nearly as important as the project-management methodology. Project-management tools are great for MANAGING projects, but they are terrible for designing and scoping projects. The best tool for the latter task is… the sticky note. I am serious. Here is my project-management approach:</div><div><br></div><div>1. Get everybody who will be contributing (work, requirements, or expectations) into a room.</div><div>2. Give each person a stack of sticky notes.</div><div>3. Everybody brainstorms all the tasks they can think of and puts them on the whiteboard. One task per sticky. Should be total chaos.</div><div>4. Everybody winnows
the tasks, consolidating duplicates and roughly organizing them into general phases.</div><div>5. People with an interest in each phase identify dependencies (especially, finish-to-start dependencies). These get marked on the whiteboard with an arrow between stickies.</div><div>6. People who will be doing the work write rough estimates of effort and duration on each sticky.</div><div>7. A walkthrough review occurs (in which everybody can SEE the long pole).</div><div>8. People take lots of cellphone camera pictures of the whiteboard.</div><div>9. Pizza and beer are consumed.</div><div><br></div><div>NOW, at last, one is ready to type stuff into a project-management tool and track the tasks' completion.</div><div><br></div><div>It is commonplace to bash Microsoft Project, but frankly the people I know who most hate it are those who tried to do their project design in it. However, designing a project in any software tool* risks the one worst thing
that can happen to any project: lack of buy-in. Getting everybody into a room as I suggest above gets the human beings on board with the project from the get-go. "Yes, we are gonna finish this by September 8, because I helped write that plan."</div><div><br></div><div>*Any software tool, that is, that's less interactive than sticky notes and a whiteboard.</div><div><br></div><div></sorry for the rant></div><div><br></div><div>Brian</div><br><div><div>On May 21, 2012, at 2:16 PM, Ellisa Feinstein wrote:</div><br class="yiv617305401Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div><span>Thanks, Mike. And this is the problem - so many choices! Hard to tell which ones are good. <br></span></div><div><br><span></span></div><div><br></div> <div style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"> <div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt;"> <div dir="ltr"> <font face="Arial" size="2"> <hr size="1"> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">From:</span></b> Mike Kosim <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:mike.kosim@mac.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:mike.kosim@mac.com">mike.kosim@mac.com</a>><br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">To:</span></b> Ellisa Feinstein <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ellisafeinstein@yahoo.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:ellisafeinstein@yahoo.com">ellisafeinstein@yahoo.com</a>> <br><b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Cc:</span></b> Social Social <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:social@deeptrouble.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:social@deeptrouble.com">social@deeptrouble.com</a>> <br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Sent:</span></b> Monday, May 21, 2012 12:58 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight:bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: SOCIAL: PM
software (free) recomms?<br> </font> </div> <br>
<div id="yiv617305401"><div><div>I just saw this page with a bunch of them -- looks like there's an immense choice of free/ donation based project management software.<br><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://mastersinprojectmanagement.org/top-25-open-source-project-management-apps.html">http://mastersinprojectmanagement.org/top-25-open-source-project-management-apps.html</a><br><br>Let me know what you end up going with. I'd like to use one myself.<br>mike<br><br><br></div><div><br>On May 21, 2012, at 12:48 PM, Ellisa Feinstein <<a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ellisafeinstein@yahoo.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:ellisafeinstein@yahoo.com">ellisafeinstein@yahoo.com</a>> wrote:<br><br><div><blockquote type="cite"><div class="yiv617305401msg-quote"><div style="color:#000;background-color:#fff;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div>Hi - Does anyone have recommendations for free project management software or
online app?</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks,</div><div>Ellisa<br></div></div><div class="yiv617305401_stretch">_______________________________________________<br> Social mailing list<br> <a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:Social@lists.deeptrouble.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:Social@lists.deeptrouble.com">Social@lists.deeptrouble.com</a><br> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://lists.deeptrouble.com/listinfo.cgi/social-deeptrouble.com">http://lists.deeptrouble.com/listinfo.cgi/social-deeptrouble.com</a><br></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div><br><br> </div> </div> </div></div>_______________________________________________<br>Social mailing list<br><a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:Social@lists.deeptrouble.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:Social@lists.deeptrouble.com">Social@lists.deeptrouble.com</a><br><a href="http://lists.deeptrouble.com/listinfo.cgi/social-deeptrouble.com">http://lists.deeptrouble.com/listinfo.cgi/social-deeptrouble.com</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div></div><br><br> </div>
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