pm: project mgmt
Project Management – the SaaS Natural
April 4, 2012 | 
Author I have always wondered why SalesForce.com with its CRM system has been the pioneer in SaaS applications. Yes there is the need to communicate in a mobile fashion among all members of a scattered marketing team. Yes, SaleForce has great mail and messaging capabilities. essential for marketing collaboration. Yes, tieing things together with SalesForce AppXchange and Scripting Toolkit brings an App approach to the the Sales and Marketing cloud that is SalesForce… but that is the problem.
SalesForce is depth strong but narrow in business management. In contrast Project Management has all the the natural SaaS attributes – Cloud inclined for its collaboration and communication needs. Cloud centric by its ability to provide cross platform services from desktop through mobile to backroom server data access. Project Management also thrives on being able to store project data in the Cloud for instant access by all stakeholders. Finally Project Management has a broad management reach – it needs and feeds data to accounting, operations management, CRM, ERP, and the highest levels of executive management systems.
This breadth of enterprise management interest is reflected in the fact that most corporate top managers now come out of not a specific discipline like accounting/finance , human resources management or operations responsibilities – but rather out of the cross corporation experience that is project management.- the ability to foster innovation and change in the organization in a variety of settings is paramount in these disruptive days. So it behooves us to to take a look at Project Management tools in the Cloud.
Project Management is flourishing in the Cloud
So it should not be a surprise to find project managemet tools absolutely flourishing in the cloud. For example if you go to TimeDoctor’s GoogleDocs Spreadsheet on SaaS based Project management tools you will see close to two dozen of the most popular tools for SaaS based project management. The full report shows over 40 Project Management tools. These tools go well beyond simple time aand milestone tracking. Some provide a range of desktop PM features like Gannt charting and load balancing. Other PM SaaS tools provide exports into strategic project consolidation and tracking software. The range of solutions is quite wide.
But the common denominators among all the tools are 5 Cloud assets. First, all the data is stored in the Cloud – so anybody authorized can get at it anytime anywhere. This latter provision now means not just access from Linux, Mac and Windows desktops but also Android, Blackberry, and Apple iOS apps as well. Second, many systems are starting to add offline as well as online viewing [first] and editing of PM data[second option delivered]. Third, the best tools because they deliver using Web browsers primarily also offer extensive customization of the look and feel of reports/output inluding export/ delivery in a variety of formats from HTML to PDF and XLS. Last, some of the systems have added developer APIs and/or scripting for 3rd Party add ons and Apps that extend their basic capaibilities. Thus, to give a feel for what is possible we look at the second most popular PM SaaS tool, Zoho Projects. Finally, Cloud based systems are naturals for providing the messaging tools that are an essential part of PM’s collaboration and teamwork[see here what Harvard Business Review says about the importance of teamwork in contemporary organizational management].
The above screenshot shows the tasks online data entry environ. This example is for a free Web Creation Lecture that the theOpensourcery is offering in the Toronto area. It is a simple, single user project with two milestones and 6 tasks. The data entry is simple and straighforward but that is partially because the Zoho Projects does not offer sophisticated project features such as slack time estimates, resource management or critical path analysis with their additional data requirements.
However, Zoho project does have all the essential ingredients for project management - multiple user, multiple tasks with start and end-dates, plus dependency relations among tasks. This means that a Gannt chart of tasks and activities can be tracked as follows:
In addition, Zoho Projects supports several practical views of a project :
1)calendar for all the tasks and milestones pending and completed,;
2)task reports useful for getting a summary of each users status on tasks and unassigned tasks ,
3)a dashboard view of each user giving a quick overview of their status and completion record on tasks.
Finally associated with each project[there can be multiple projects] there are attached documents, timesheets, a wiki, and chat facilities. In short all the key ingredients necesary to facilitate collaboration and a common understanding of the project status and expected deliverables. This has been a critically missing ingredient in desktop systems like Microsoft Project. In sum, Zoho Project is well suited for the Agile style of development that prevails in not just IT development but general operational mangement today.
Howver, Zoho Project does not have a portfolio of projects facility to look at the comparative status of many concurrent or overlapping projects. But its export facilities makes it suitable for passing data to such programs. Also more sophisticated project analytics like earned value, task scheduling +optimization or critical path analysis are beyond its capabilities. See here for a list of project management tools that can meet these more stringent requirements.
But Zoho Projects certainly does take advantage of the Web display and Cloud storage to bring across multiple internal and external users who may be operating with various PCs and mobile devices, a common and integrating place for tracking their project effectively. Yet it can feed /export its data onto other systems in a variety of ways.
Summary
Web based Project Management software seems a better fit for SaaS because it integrates tightly Web access, common Cloud storage, and the many means of online documenting and collaborating that are so essential to getting a project effectively managed and done. However, most SaaS PMs do not offer the high end project analytics that desktop systems deliver. And in fact, software like PrimaveraP6 are starting to offer SaaS like features. Finally, new touch screen operations and NFC communications will offer even better project management services. So watch for this PM SaaS to influence broader Business app development.
Posted in 
“Most IT pros not planning on Windows 7 rollout”
“Most IT pros not planning on Windows 7 rollout” is the headline of an article at the IT scoop site, theRegister. The story is based on a survey done of 1100 business users by Scriptlogix. This survey goes counter to what Microsoft has been saying about users reactions to Windows 7.
A number of factors are cited for the rejection of Windows 7:
1)Time to test and rollout the OS;
2)formidable learning curve for existing users particularly with revamped Office 2010;
3)1/3 of firms do not have staff because they have cut staff or delayed hires;
4)the step from Windows XP to Windows 7 is perceived as being even more daunting.
Bottomline is that the survey found that 60% of surveyed users have no plans whatsoever to upgrade to Windows 7. The Register notes:
“ScriptLogic’s findings will jolt Microsoft who’s already deemed Windows 7 a success, at least in hitting the development milestones. The data also runs counter to an apparently emerging industry wisdom that Microsoft’s next client will be a relative shoo-in compared to Windows Vista, because it offers significantly improved performance – and because nothing could ever be as bad as Windows Vista.“
This analysis does not take into account that a)Windows Vista is not faster than Windows XP and b)will be faced with odious comparison for speed/performance with Apple’s Snow Leopard and Google’s Android and Chrome OS. One begins to wonder if Microsoft is getting to be a fumble-butt in the OS game.
Virtually Speaking
My what a difference a year makes. The trends on viirtualization have reflected the markets – and not quite 180 degreee changes but drastic revivals are the order of the day. Just take a look at Serverwatch’s 2008 predictions versus the assessment for the year ahead at ZDnet for 2009. Perhaps a stop at Information week’s Virtualization survey will provide some key insights as to what are the key barriers in virtualization deployments:
43% reported Internal political issues
40% cited lack of time or people
35% noted that their Applications are not supported in virtual world
34% cited insufficient virtualization skills
30% noted the high costs as a barrier
Source: Information Week page 16, December 2008 from EMA Research survey and story
Severwatch has been prophetic on 2 of the driving needs. First, the value-add in virtualization that makes it easier to deploy and manage has certainly turned out to be a major factor in deployments. Thus enterprise configuration and management have proved critical even is modest systems. But as ZDNet points out virtualization is “One of the few surefire techniques to cut floor space and power costs, virtualization will continue to deliver savings, meaning environments will grow from a few hundred VMs to a thousand by the end of the year.” On some simple projects the need for virtualization for security and efficiency were so compelling, the organizations simply had to approach and decide how to use the technology. But the conundrum is in anenviron of less is more – can virtualization really deliver more of less. The opportunities are there but a lot of the skills and skilled people are still virtual.
Heck of a Good Review
Mike Heck and Infoworld deserve top marks for doing an old fashioned, comprehensive and good review of the Portal Software and 7 of the major players there: BEA Portal Server, IBM Webphere Portal, Microsoft SharePoint Portal, OracleAS Portal 10g, Plumtree Suite, Sun Java Portal, Vignette Application Portal are all covered in great depth. In fact this is a throwback to 14 years ago when Mike enlightened readers on the latest range of Project Management or other tools for Infoworld in thorough yet illuminating fashion.
Yes, Sybase, Hummingbird and maybe URFavorite portal were missed. And there was only limited commentary about other competing thin technologies such as the new Java Server Faces or thick technologies such as RIA-Rich Internet Application tools (think Adobe Acrobat Designer, Macromedia Flex, Droplets, Nexaweb, etc). But Mike more than makes up for that with good coverage of the major trends and trade-offs in the portal market. Top marks.