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Professional Project Management, Training, and Consulting

Saturday
27Feb2010

Get the New KSH Blog iPhone App!

Now you can read the Key Stakeholders Blog on the go. Version 1.0 of the new KSH Blog iPhone app is available in the Apple iTunes App Store. And, it's free! Furthermore, there aren't any ads to take up the precious screen real estate. 

In this, the first iteration of the KSH Blog iPhone app, we tried to focus on the blog posts related to aspects of project management. The site's other content, forum, bookstore, job board, etc. will be added in future versions. 

So head on over to the iTunes App Store and take us with you!

Sunday
07Feb2010

Of iPads and Project Management

Now that the Apple iPad super-hype has finally reached a crescendo and has sort of subsided, Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field (RDF) has once again collapsed until the next one more thing® moment, the all knowing tech industry analysts have given the new biggest thing from S.J. their thumbs up or down, and Apple fan-boys and Apple haters have all had their say, it's time for us level headed PM's to take stock of what has happened, and more importantly what it all means (if anything) to successfully managing projects in the future. Whew.

Who among us has not dreamt of having all knowledge easily accessible in the palm of our hands? Drawings, build lists, risk logs, schedules, emails, tweets, presentations, you name it, all conveniently available where and when we need it. And, in rich vibrant color easily viewed on a large crisp display. The concept of an electronic, lightweight, intuitive tablet (slate, pad, etc.) is not new of course. Many have tried for almost a decade to introduce this category of computing to the mass market. All, including that very sharp successful guy, Bill Gates, has failed. So why all the excitement with this iteration? There are many opinions out there why this time it will most likely work. The various rationales can be summed up in two words: Steve Jobs. Of course only time will tell.

Whether or not the tablet concept takes off this time and rewards Apple and its shareholders with zillions in profitable revenue, project management, like many professional practices, stands to benefit tremendously if the best use cases are actually developed and brought to market. We wrote about the growth of very powerful alternatives to the entrenched Microsoft Project running on a Windows PC paradigm previously. Software as a service (SaaS) project management tools that leverage web 2.0 technologies seems tailor made for the Apple iPad. In addition, the user acceptance of general purpose productivity tools and services in the cloud means the iPad is able to become part of a web enabled solution that is in great demand. Cloud services like Dropbox, Evernote, Box.net, and many others can become even more indispensable to knowledge workers on the go. 

But desktop productivity software developers are also licking their lips at the prospect of hitting a home run, developing versions of their software for the new Apple iPad. For example, Omnigroup, developers of a project management software called Omniplan has said they intend to develop iPad specific versions of all their titles. In addition, because the iPad OS is essentially the iPhone OS (which is a modified version of the Mac OS X desktop OS), virtually all existing iPhone/iPod Touch apps will run on the iPad without modification. This means iPhone apps like ProjectWizards Merlin should just work on the iPad. Of course, we want to see developers rise to the challenge and create new apps that can truly leverage the promise of the iPad. 

What do you think, will the iPad have an impact on project management? 

Friday
08Jan2010

Real-time Collaborative Diagramming In The Cloud

 The really bright devs at Nulab in Japan have just released their real-time collaborative diagramming tool, Cacoo. And it is amazing!

While we have seen many such online diagramming tools from Creatly, Gliffy, and others, for an early build beta release, Cacoo is very impressive indeed. Impressive both in terms of scope and execution: The app is snappy, feeling more like a desktop application than one stuck in the limited confines of browser space. Its UI is well thought out and implemented. Real-time collaboration with your project team or other stakeholders is a breeze, and (whew) it allows you to embed the current version in your blog or groupware site (below) using copy/paste. The changes made to the original digram are of course automatically shown in the embedded diagram.

As an early beta, expect some rough edges. But in our quick testing we have not seen any show stopping defects. In addition, your diagram changes are saved in a version history. So you can roll-back to earlier versions if you choose. 

We will of course keep an eye on Nulab and Cacoo for you. But why not give it a try?

 

Tuesday
15Dec2009

Risky Business

The first part of our series on Project Risk Management (PRM) is now available. In this first installment, we introduce the key concepts, and provide practical advise on how to begin managing project risk like nobody's business. 

The presentation can be downloaded in either a Quicktime file, here, or an Acrobat PDF, here. We recommend getting both. If you don't have Quicktime installed, you can get it for free from Apple. The free Acrobat PDF reader is available from Adobe. With Quicktime installed, simply open the "Project Risk Management - Part One.mov" file you downloaded from our link above, click on the first slide to begin, and advance at your own pace with a mouse click or arrow keys. 

We would love to get your feedback to help us develop the second part of the series. Have fun!

Tuesday
08Dec2009

Project Management for the Legal Industry

Recently on a social network site, I read a question about if and how project management can be used in the legal industry to increase success rates. The question caught my eye because I had thought about this very thing several months ago. I wondered why in fact there isn't more application of formal project management in the legal industry, especially among legal teams that handle larger more complex cases.

Here is a reprint of the answer I posted there: 

Sarah, 

I can see why people in the legal industry want to know more about how formal project management can help them achieve their objectives. 

By definition a project is a unique endeavor, is complex, has a target end date, and probably hasn't been done by the organization before. Furthermore, projects are governed by the "triple constraints" of time, money, and scope of work. Projects involve risk and can sure be stressful at times. 

Pharmaceutical, construction, IT, transportation, banking, and a myriad other types of organizations use formal project management to achieve their strategic objectives. Why not legal? 

I would suggest the best place to start for a legal firm interested in leveraging project management to win more cases, is with training for its senior management that explains the value of the project management practice. Then develop a plan to incorporate project management into the organizational structure. 

This process is probably a six to eighteen month project, depending on the environment, level of commitment of senior management, and resources. 

Hope this helps. Feel free to give me a shout for further clarification or advise. 

Take care,
DVR