Daniel Raymond, Author at AceProject

An Underestimated Collaboration Tool in AceProject – The Discussion Forum

Nowadays, we hear more about wikis, blogs and tweets than forums. Actually, forums are not as "Web 2.0" as these collaboration tools. Nevertheless, discussion forums are incredibly useful in a project management application, from a collaboration standpoint.

Everybody's talking about Twitter and how cool it is to post 140-character messages. I definitely agree with that. However, let's not forget that a forum enables you to post both short and long messages. With Twitter, if you have a lot to say, you'll have to post several short messages, which is not always convenient and interesting to read. A forum still remains the best of both worlds.

In AceProject, there's a comment thread at the task level and a discussion forum at the project level. Both empower involved users to share ideas, knowledge, tips or any other useful information. The discussion forum is more powerful however. In addition to general discussion, it permits creating topics. Messages are then posted in a specific topic and replies to these messages can be posted thereafter. Hence, collaboration capabilities using this feature abound. […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-28T13:36:00-04:002009-10-28|

Managing expectations

I love our product, AceProject. I have unwavering faith in the system as it is now, and its potential in the future. When the whole gang here sit down to have lunch, I really like to dream up the future's AceProject together. To share our vision of what AceProject could be in five years.

And it's all good.

Because the team and I know what can really be done, and how much of our dreaming is just dreams. When we sit on the next version planning meeting, things get more practical: what CAN we do? True, we could recode the entire system, but that would mean no new features for our users for a long time. That would make our users unhappy.

We need to balance both the expectations of people who use AceProject everyday, and the expectations of the visionaries we have on the team. Our clients expect us to release new features at least twice a year. Our dreamers on the team (and I am one of them) expect AceProject to […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-27T19:43:00-04:002009-10-27|

The new quiet revolution?

Webcom in Montreal today was a very stimulating conference. While the last one, in May, was all about being open (APIs, OpenID, etc), this one seems to be all about 2.0. The revolution in marketing, medias, products and doing business in the modern world.

In the spirit of the conference, I decided to use Google Wave to document the conferences I was going to attend during the day. A few participants joined me in my documentation of the wave. I’ve had a Google Wave account (and the envy of more than a few of my peers) for a few weeks now, but I hadn’t had a chance to really use it.

With Webcom, everyone was taking notes and sharing their impressions of Webcom. While I was more inclined to summarize what was being said, others we adding context and reference links. The result is a rather complete document of the talks. It was more than a wiki (no coding required) and it was more than simple collaboration (everyone is in the same document and […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-22T22:54:00-04:002009-10-22|

Live Google Wave at Webcom today

Today I am at Webcom 2009 in Montreal. I've decided to use Google Wave to take notes from the presenters. So far it's going really well! I'll tell you more about my experience later this week.

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-22T14:29:00-04:002009-10-22|

Have you ever tried to nail jello to the wall?

How about fitting a square peg in a round hole? Or attracting bees with vinegar?

With these examples, it's obvious that the wrong approach is used. It could be the wrong tool, the wrong strategy or just the wrong idea.

Why do we keep doing it then?

We like our tools. Even if they don't work. We like them because we're used to them and we've learned to work around their shortcomings. Even when our tools have big problems, we tolerate them because at least we know what the problems are.

Alas, it comes a time where we must move on from our old, clunky, comfortable tools to shiny new ones.

Understand it's time for a change

Before we can start looking for a new tool, we should make the case against the old one.

Focus on the pain points of the tool. Get a list of the tool's shortcomings, and explain them in a way that sounds as neutral as possible.
Stay away from blaming the people using the tool. We must remember that people like familiarity and making them feel […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-20T17:21:00-04:002009-10-20|

Something to think about: the project’s impact on our planet

Can our project management style affect the environment? Most of us would say yes, as long as we're working on a type of project that is physical in nature. For example, if we're building a bridge or a building, it's obvious that the project has an environmental impact. It's also obvious that the building style and practices chosen will have an impact.

But we don't think about the environmental impact of office work. Beyond telecommuting to reduce our carbon footprint, here are three areas where we can affect climate change in our project management practices.

The paper-free office is not a dream. As project managers, we have an impact on how we produce our status reports and other documentation to support the project. We have a choice on the media we use to distribute this information. Let's keep this in mind when we have a choice between printing and emailing a PDF file!
Kick-off and team building activities with the planet in mind. Even if it's only choosing reusable glasses and mugs, our project team's carbon footprint […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-15T19:57:00-04:002009-10-15|

Nobody likes having a rash

If we wear an ill-fitted shoe, there will be friction between our foot and the shoe. If left unchecked, this friction will turn into a painful blister. Afterward, we will be unwilling to wear the shoe again because of the pain that friction cause our poor foot.

The same process happens if there is friction in our projects. If friction prevents someone from doing their job on the project, they will associate these negative impressions with the project as a whole.

This is why we should work hard at removing friction and making things easy for the project team, internal and external.

It should be easy

It should be easy for the stakeholder to request changes
It should be easy to a member of your team to raise a flag about an issue with the project
It should be easy to the sponsor to know how the project is going.
It should be easy for everyone involved with the project to know what's the next step

How easy are these things in your project?

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-13T16:55:00-04:002009-10-13|

Using AceProject for document check in/check out

Document management is a very convenient feature in
AceProject. Documents can be associated with a task or a project. AceProject’s document management features include: Versioning, Locking and Public/Private Availability. Locking a document doesn’t hide it. Actually, anyone who can view the document can see it even when it’s locked. It’s simply put in read-only mode.

One might be interested in document management for storage, archiving and collaboration, among other things. Today, I’d like to focus on version control (a.k.a. check in/check out) which can be achieved using the locking feature in AceProject.

Locking a document protects it against deletion and overwriting. Several scenarios can require locking documents. Here are a two examples:

Set in stone documents and document templates

Documents that should not be altered by anyone should be locked. For instance, final/approved versions, legal documents, quotes, invoices, documents from clients, etc. All templates that users start from should be locked as well. It may be forms, invoices, quotes, web pages or any other relevant source that is used over and over again in your organization.

Prevent conflicts when several users […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-13T16:25:00-04:002009-10-13|

PMBOK changes: it’s in the details

This week Josh from pmstudent.com contacted me to update a study help Excel sheet I built back when I was studying for my PMP exam. With the PMBOK update, the spreadsheet was obsolete.

As I was updating the processes, inputs and outputs, I noticed that while the processes themselves hadn't changed much, the inputs and outputs terminology has changed quite a bit – and for the better! For example, instead of listing all the management plans (human resources management plan, comminucations management plan, quality management plan, etc.), the PMBOK nos simply lists "project documents." A much simpler term.

I saw two new things in the inputs and outputs:

Requirements traceability matrix. It's a table designed to link requirements with their origin, like a business need or a project objective.
Stakeholder register. Similar to a risk register, it's a document where information about the stakeholders is kept. This is useful to make sure all stakeholders are involved in the project at the proper level.

Download the study helper: Excel 2000-2003

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-08T15:42:00-04:002009-10-08|

AceProject 4.7 Source Code edition is now available!

When we release a new version of AceProject, we first make it available for hosted accounts, where it’s easy for us to fix bugs. We’ll wait a few weeks to make sure the system is stable, then make the release available to our Source Code customers.

AceProject Source Code installs on a Web server. Ends users still use a Web browser to access AceProject, but the data resides on the customer’s server instead of our servers.

Why buy the Source Code edition?

There are a few reasons why our customers who choose to purchase AceProject Source Code:

One-time payment. Since the Source Code is installed on the customer’s own web server, there is no recurring payment.
Unlimited projects, tasks, and file space. AceProject Source Code licenses are based on users only. For groups that complete a high number of projects, it may be more cost-effective to purchase AceProject Source Code.
Complete control over the system. The customer chooses where to install AceProject Source Code, how to maintain that server and – most importantly – how to secure it. […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-10-06T15:15:00-04:002009-10-06|

About Daniel Raymond