Jeff Perreault

You may need to change some processes to get user buy-in.  The technology part is the easy part, the hard part is the cooperation from your people ( process flows and detailed requirements ).

Configuring @Task before all the details are set up will configure you into a corner.

Top things a PM should not do:

Develop project plan on a napkin
Setup Project Structure as “Ready 1 2 3 go get em”
Status reports “Sooooo how’s it going”

Real success criteria:

Use @Task methodology
PM structure : team meetings, issue management, change controls and documentation
effective communication
thorough test plan
execute recommended education plan
knowledge transfer from consulting to customer core team : find users and deeply understand the requirements
partnership between customer and Customer Core team
Partnership between Customer and AtTask services
Executive sponsorship

Avoid designing into a corner.  Spending a week up front will save time and resources later.

Secret Sauce = realistic scope, right resources, acheivable timeline
plan in 30 to 60 day increments
design for the future

 time – money – value

I am currently at the AtTask user conference in Salt Lake City.

I am listening to the opening remarks, and AtTask has created a new product called “AtTask Stream” which adds a social media component to project management.  It has added some common social media features such as status updates, thumbs-up ( high-five ) in order to get buy in from the users.

There is a new cleaner look and feel to the product.  They have created a project summary dashboard with a few new features:

Ping – project manager initiates a request for a status update.  The developer can add a comment to the project and can update how they feel about the progress [ “going smoothly”, “some concerns”, etc ].  This allows the project manager to see when the last update was.

How this ’empowers the front line’.  Can assign tasks to functional teams- ie you don’t know who is going to work on it but you know which team.  It is then up to the people on the team to “accept” the work.  You are also able to propose a new date for completion.

This is in beta testing now scheduled for release in later in the summer