The secret of getting ahead is getting started' The secret of getting started is breaking your compl

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• "The secret of getting ahead is getting
  started. The secret of getting started is
  breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into
  small manageable tasks, and then starting on the
  first one."
• --Mark Twain

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Project ManagementGetting Ahead

• Presenter Elise Edson
• September 26, 2003

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What is Project Management?
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What is Project Management?

• Project management is the application of
  knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to
  describe, organize, oversee and control the
  various project processes.
• Involving
• Time Cost Management
• Quality Management
• Resource Management
• Communications Management
• Risk Management

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Project Management in Action

• breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into
  small
• manageable tasks
• Define the project objectives and milestones
• Divide the project up into manageable tasks and
  stages
• Highlight risks and develop procedures to deal
  with them
• Provide mechanisms to deal with quality issues
• Clarify roles to provide the basis for effective
  teamwork
• Establish tools for communication and
  collaboration

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Project Management in Action
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Why do I care?

• Any project can benefit from project management
• Even your chemistry group lab!
• Project management is a method of planning used
  to effectively and efficiently reach a major goal

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Yeah right, how can PM help me when my lab
partner is never around?

• True, you cant use normal PM techniques if your
  lab partner isnt working within your same
  environment and timescale
• However, asynchronous teamwork is becoming the
  standard

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Trend toward Distributed Workplace

• Offshore development
• 473,000 American CS jobs are expected to be moved
  offshore by 2015
• Growing number of home workers
• "In 1990 there were ... 2 million telecommuters
  ... 7.8 million this year 1994 and by 2001, an
  estimated 30 million telecommuters."
• -- Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News,
  March 22, 1994

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Growth of Home Office Workers(in millions)
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Distributed Work Environment
Developer
Developer
Client
Manager
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Virtual Project Management (VPM)Solution for
Distributed Workplaces

• Goal Decrease dependence on synchronicity and
  proximity

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Functional Requirements of VPM

• Project management according to tasks and
  workflow
• Establishment of a new work environment
• Team communication and collaboration
• Document/code sharing and version management

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Outreach Project Tool (OPT)Software Tool for VPM

• Originally developed to support communication
  with customers during project implementation
• Evolved into a comprehensive Web-based
  collaboration system

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Outreach Project ToolOverview
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Outreach Project ToolKey Features

• Web Interface
• Document Archive
• E-mail Archives
• Project Tasks
• Requests
• News and Knowledge
• Newsletter
• Document Links
• Security
• Administration

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Outreach Project ToolLive Demo
https//opt.lanifex.com/
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Getting off the ground with OPT

• Creating a Project
• Registering new users
• Generating requests and tasks
• Assigning users to projects and tasks
• Working with the document and
• e-mail archives

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Creating a new project

• A project is associated with
• Name
• Developer
• Customer
• Description
• People involved
• Status
• Notifications

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Registering new users

• Users?Companies/People
• A user can be a Company or a Person

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Generating requests and tasks

• First choose a project
• Projects?Requests/Tasks

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Assigning users

• First choose a project
• Projects?Tasks?Edit Task
• Owner and More people will be assigned to the task

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Working with the archives

• First choose a project
• Projects?Documents
• Projects?E-mails

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Questions?
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Sources

• OPT opt.lanifex.com
• Slide 9 stats Forrester Research Group Inc.
• Slide 10 stats Home Business Magazine Online
• Graphics from Lycos image search