Method123 announced today that it has released a new Feasibility Study template as part of its Project Management Kit.

When you perform a Feasibility Study what you’re really trying to do is come up with the best solution for your organization from a short list of potential alternatives.  Without the right tools, it can be a very arduous effort requiring extensive time and resources – not to mention dollars – that are better spent elsewhere.  Method123 is changing all that by creating a Project Management Template that is both easy to use and full-featured in order to provide its customers with a simple solution to make the best decisions possible.

“This new Feasibility Study template will really help your organization get a handle on whether or not a project should happen,” says Method123 CEO Jason Westland.  “It basically guides you through the entire process of identifying the need, reviewing all the possible solutions, and helping you choose the best one based on several criteria.”

Method123 is positioning themselves as leaders in Online Project Management with their new project management template offerings.  Their Project Management Kit contains more than 50 project management related templates covering all of the documents and deliverables that the project manager needs in the course of managing an engagement.  With over 1 million kits sold to companies worldwide, Method123 truly has become a leader in the online project management methodology marketplace.

“We’ve worked hard to present the user with templates that are easy to use and very applicable to everyday project planning,” says Westland.  “And our newest template – the Feasibility Study – is no exception.”

Created by professionals, for professionals, Method123’s templates come pre-defined with the proper tables and forms ready to use.  There are even real-life examples in the templates for the project manager to use in filling in their own project data, making it easy for even the lesser-experienced project resource to complete.

The Feasibility Study template will help companies determine the best solution, regardless of the industry or type of business the company is operating.  With this template, users will be able to:

- Define the business need
- Compile requirements for your business centered around this need
- Review all the solutions that are applicable to your project
- Compile information for each solution to help determine it’s feasibility
- Do a thorough risk analysis for each alternative solution
- Select the best alternative for your need
- Create a feasibility report deliverable as a result of your efforts

The template is incredibly full-featured, containing extensive help and real-world examples to help you complete the form accurately and efficiently.  It also helps you throughout the Feasibility Study process with its self-contained procedures, tables and best practice processes built right into it.

It will literally guide you right through the feasibility process and help you ensure that every base has been covered when analyzing the different alternatives to come up with the best overall solution.  You will be amazed at the time saved using this template over traditional methods with other templates and spreadsheets.

Kick Starting Your Project Management Career

Maybe you’re looking for a change or maybe you’ve just determined that Online Project Management is the right area for you.  If that’s the case, then you’ve chosen a very interesting, visible, and rewarding career.  You just need to be aware of the fundamentals of project management templates and some of the criteria behind being a successful project manager.  Then evaluate whether or not it’s the right career choice for you.

Some of the key areas of focus for the project manager are:

- Leadership
- Communication
- Connections within the organization
- Customer focus
- Decision-making
- Organization

Let’s look at each of these in more depth:

Leadership

No matter what industry you’re in, the project manager must be a leader.  If you’re seeking out this type of position, then you’re deeming yourself ready to lead a diverse team of skilled resources on a project planning and guide them toward critical project goals.  Remember, they’ll be relying on you for direction weekly, if not daily.  You must be focused on the end goal and keep your team on track to reach it.  And don’t forget the customer angle.  Projects usually come with a customer – either an internal customer or an external customer.  But you must be ready to guide them as well – they’re part of the overall team, too.

Communication

The project manager must be an effective communicator.  You must be consistent and frequent in your communication.  Throughout the project, your team and your customer will continually look to you for project status information and feedback on issues that arise.  It’s your job to keep them apprised of the status at all times and keep them aware of what’s expected of them and how they’re doing in regards to expectations on the project.  Updating everyone on project progress is the project manager’s job.

Connections within the organization

While this one is not absolutely critical, it certainly helps.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease and it’s a lot easier to get that grease if you have the right connections in the organization.  Customer service, tech support, accounting are all departments that you as a project manager may need assistance from.  It’s helpful if you know people in those departments – it will help your project move along when you need things from them.

Customer focus

This is perhaps the most critical area of responsibility for the project manager – depending on your company and your project management methodology.  The customer is key…they’re probably paying for the project and you need to keep them happy.  Stay focused on the customer throughout and keep them up-to-date and engaged on the project.

Decision-making

The project manager must be a strong decision maker and stand behind what is decided.  Make good, responsible decisions and be stubborn about them.  You can lose your team – and your customer – quickly if you’re too wishy-washy.

Organization

And finally, the project manager must be an organized individual.  The team and the customer rely on you for regular updates, weekly status calls, weekly status reports, revised project schedules and budget management.  If you let these things slip you’ll give the perception to your team and your customer that the project is slipping and confidence will be lost.

Summary

The project management profession can be very rewarding.  It requires a confident person and you’ll enjoy the visibility – just be ready to take the reigns when that high-level project is handed to you.  That’s your opportunity to shine and show them what you’re made of.

New Project Charter template announced by industry leader Method123

To make the lives of every project manager a little easier, Method123 has just released its new Project Charter template as part of its ever growing Project Management Templates Kit product offering.

The Project Charter document is somewhat similar to a statement of work.  It lays out the reason for the project, the general requirements for it, the project objectives, the project scope, it’s major deliverables, resources required for the project, and overall roles and responsibilities.  It is basically a roadmap for the project.  Therefore, it is easy to understand its importance in the overall Project Management Methodology.

Creating the Project Charter is usually a difficult task.  It defines the project and the information for it comes in many forms and from many sources.  This alone can make compiling it into a useable and meaningful format a strenuous effort. It is the basis for getting the project off on the right foot and making sure that everyone understands the overall project vision and objectives and how the project is going to be implemented.  It contains critical information and therefore it must be done right to help ensure project success.

With the Project Charter template, the user will be able to:

- Document the high level vision for the project
- Incorporate all project objectives
- Provide information on deliverables for the project
- Identify the customers and stakeholders for the project
- Define all relevant roles and related responsibilities
- Display an organizational chart for the engagement
- Define the implementation roadmap for the project
- Document assumptions for later reference
- Identify risks and issues for tracking purposes

Method123’s Project Charter template gives you real-world examples to get every section of the charter document created in a useable fashion.  The template contains detailed instructions and help sections to guide experienced as well as newer users through the charter creation process.  Many items, such as the Project Plan for implementing the project are already included in sample format making the user’s job much easier.  And, as always with any template in the Project Management Kit, there are hints and tips included to help the user along the way.

“Our Project Charter template is very unique in that it takes what is normally a much-avoided, grueling task involved with creating this critical document and turns it into a very simplified process.  The result is a very detailed useable document when you’re finished,” states Jason Westland, CEO of Method123 Ltd.

“Our online project management templates really simplify the project manager’s life.  You’ll be amazed at how much time is saved by using this new Project Charter template in your overall project planning process,” says Westland.

Method123’s templates are designed to take the guesswork out of the creation of critical project documents.  This new Project Charter template offering promises to do just that and make the project manager’s life much easier at the same time.  You’ll have one all-encompassing document to refer to that will accurately portray all the critical aspects of your project.

For more information, visit Method123.com.

How to streamline project management without killing the fun

Another way to look at it would be “How I made my customer happy without boring him to death!”  Project management can be both efficient and fun – much to the surprise of those outside of the online project management world.

Project management is generally looked upon as a methodical process.  And, for the most part, that’s true.  There are simply certain things that you ‘must do’ in order to help ensure the best chance for success on a project.

The Efficient Project Manager

You want to be an efficient project manager.  That means you need to streamline your process to help ensure success for the project, the team, and the customer.  In order to do that, you need to focus on the following:

- Engage the customer to work with you as part of the ‘team’
- Formalize your status reporting and do it regularly on a weekly basis
- Formalize your status calls with the customer and with your delivery team and have at least one formal call each week
- Manage issues and risks well and revisit them often – usually weekly depending on your project
- Above all else, communicate effectively.  As the project manager, your team and your customer are looking to you as the focal point on the project – keep everyone up to speed with both formal and informal (emails, phone calls, etc.) communication.

Managing teams of skilled resources and often demanding customers can be chaotic enough.  Ensuring that you have a regular schedule of expected project deliverables and communication points will definitely help you streamline your project processes.  And by creating more efficient and more reliable processes you are giving you and your projects greater chances for overall success.

Keep it Real, Keep it Fun

Project management is all about efficiency and streamlined processes.  That’s a given.  However, if you’re taking on the project manager role and you don’t mind having the target on your forehead for everything that can happen on a project, then you must also be a bit of a thrill-seeker as well.  That’s where the fun and use of Project Management Templates and the project manager comes in.

If you like to be in control and find yourself at your most creative and efficient when things are moving fast and you’re managing multiple projects at once, then you know what I mean.  For the project manager who likes to take charge of his teams and projects, the following three aspects of leading teams on critical projects can help make things more fun and interesting for you on the engagements you manage:

- Utilizing the latest technology – If at least some of the projects you’re managing allow the use of new or cutting edge technology, it tends to keep you and your team energized
- Having authority and flexibility to manage projects your way – Job autonomy is much more fun than micro-management and allows for you to feel comfortable incorporating efficient processes across the portfolio of projects you’re managing
- Incorporating some hands-on work – Be careful not to do this too much or you can lose control of other projects, but being able to get your hands dirty with some hands-on work on one or more of your projects can help keep things fresh

Summary

Unless you’re managing the largest project on earth, you’re likely handling more than one project at a time.  Some are fun, exciting and cutting edge and some are boring and can nearly put you to sleep due to their pace.  Usually, it’s a decent mix of both types.

No matter what, stick with the efficient processes mentioned above in order to stay the course and keep both your customer happy and your delivery team engaged.  Project success is much more likely if you follow a proven process and utilize efficient and effective communication.  And try to make it interesting by mixing in interesting technology, some hands-on work when possible, and remaining flexible to adjust as your project and customer requires it.

 Method123, leading providers in the online project management industry, announced today that the top market research firm Gartner Inc has awarded Method123 as “Cool Vendor of the Month” in the “Online Project Management” space for 2010.

The report states that “Method123′s secret is that it truly understands the world of the multi-project manager in a low maturity organization. Even when things might be done differently in a perfect world, Method123 understands its audience and says ‘we understand that you have multiple things you’re doing; let us help you do the work on your plate.” Method 123 also has expanded into offering basic PPM capabilities as well for clients who like the method and want it seamless integrated into a Saas based project management tool.’

The key findings in the report were that: “We find that many new PMO leaders believe their success or failure will be determined by their ability to develop and deploy a single project management method. Consequently, they spend a great deal of time focused on that objective, often at the price of delaying other, more important activities such as improving project risk management or implementing portfolio management. Therefore, this year’s Cool Vendor report will focus on four PPM methodology vendors — all of whom can provide high quality solutions, often at less cost than most organizations can develop internally”

To purchase the full report, visit http://www.gartner.com

Method123 announces the release of their new Project Review Form template for the Execution Phase of the project

Method123, a global leader in the Project Management Software industry – has just announced the release of their newest project management template, the Project Review Form for the Execution project phase.

The project management tempaltes or Project Management Review as it is often called – is designed to capture all relevant data and signoff information to adequately indicate that a project has completed a given phase and has approval to move forward.  In the case of the Execution phase review, the form provides documentation that the project has met all deliverables and milestones successfully to date and is ready for sponsor signoff before proceeding to the Closure phase.

“Capturing and documenting project data and successes prior to a formal phase review is a critical activity in order to gain swift and smooth approval to move on to the next phase,” states Jason Westland, CEO and president of Method123 Ltd.  “Our Project Review Form allows the project manager and team to document the relevant information to gain the proper approvals.  Showing your customer and sponsors that you have diligently completed all deliverables necessary is important for the forward progress of the project and you can show that with our form.”

The Project Review Form allows the project manager and team to document status and show if:

- The project is on schedule with time and budget
- All project planning and execution deliverables are current and have been provided to the customer and approved by the customer
- Issues and risks have been addressed and mitigated
- Change requests and change orders have been properly approved and implemented
- The project is on track overall

The Project Management Kit product offering from Method123 contains more than fifty full featured Project Management Templates designed to make the life of the project manager much easier.  All templates come complete with helpful hints and tips as well as detailed instructions to help the user complete the document completely and accurately.  Each template also includes pre-filled in sections that will help even the most novice project manager complete forms, plans, and project documentation like a seasoned pro.

“At Method123, we’ve put all of our years of experience into these templates,” says Westland.  “Our products are created by project managers for project managers and they’re usable and practical because we know what the project managers are facing.  We’ve been there and we know what works and what the customers must see to be satisfied.”

Method123’s Project Management Kit has sold more than 1 million units worldwide making it truly a global success.  Project managers all around the world are realizing it’s potential for making projects more successful and for getting critical project documents completed in a timely fashion.  It’s an important piece of any Project Management Methodology.

The Project Review Form can be purchased and downloaded separately or as part of the overall Project Management Kit product.  For more information, please visit Method123’s website at Method123.com

When there’s Nothing Left to Do but Cry

This article may be better subtitled as “The Day My Business Analyst Lost It.”  This one didn’t happen to me, but it did happen to a colleague and it greatly underscores the need to set proper project scope from the beginning.

As my colleague stated to me, they were just kicking off a new project with a major customer and were going through the process of defining project requirements at a more detailed level.  Unfortunately, the account manager who finalized the deal with this customer had left some important details out when he was finalizing the sale of the Project Plan.  What this means is that the project manager and his business analyst on the project went onsite to the customer with expectations a bit out of whack.

The customer did not train on the vendor organization’s Project Management Software offering prior to the engagement, as was supposed to be the requirement.  The customer did not purchase the proper level of maintenance agreement to get the free training as they had expected.  And the customer was nowhere near ready to define detailed requirements because they had not yet defined their own business processes…also a requirement for kicking off the project.

Chaos

What happened next was a fiasco.  The customer was irate once they realized these issues and took it out on the project manager and the business analyst as soon as the problems became evident during their requirements meeting.  The affect on the project manager was frustration, the affect on the business analyst was a little different tears.  First during breaks in the requirements meetings and then during the actual meetings themselves!

The Issue

This project wasn’t ready to start.  The customer wasn’t ready because they didn’t have their current process defined well enough to work on requirements for their new post-implementation processes.  They weren’t trained on the incoming technology to know enough about how it can help them.  And they were angry.

The Solution

The project manager basically called a timeout – nothing good was happening anyway.  He convinced the customer that it was in their best interest to postpone the project using Project Management Templates start by about a month, get the proper training in the meantime, and work with their own internal users to better define their needs and their business processes.  The result was a project restart 45 days later and a successful implementation 7 months later.

Often times taking a step back sounds like it’s a step in the wrong direction, but that’s not always the case.  However, taking a step forward too soon can be tragic for a project.  Keep the end goal in mind and stay focused.  The project manager must maintain control and do their best job to make the best decisions overall for the project and the customer.

Method123 has just released its newest Project Management Template, the Project Job Description

Method123’s full-featured Project Management Kit product just got another boost with the release of the new Project Job Description template.

Identifying new roles on a project or even within an organization can become a rather mundane task.  Using normal shells and templates can leave the user with a job description that is too vague and doesn’t really fit the needs of the organization.  That all changes with this new Project Job Description template.

The uses for this template within a company are endless.  It can save much time and effort for the Project Manager or PMO director when working to fill new project roles.  But its usage is not limited – it can be used by any human resources department over and over again to create job descriptions for any position within the organization.  Finding the right person for every job just became a lot easier.

“We’re in the Project Management Methodology business, but our new Project Job Description template certainly jumps the project management template boundaries,” states Method123 CEO Jason Westland.  “Once they discover it, every HR manager in the country will want a copy – it will make their jobs easier overnight!”

Method123 has a history of creating very full-featured templates for the Project Planning processes that companies go through.  Often, they contain many real-world examples of meaningful text and examples to guide the user through the document creation process.  With over 1 million users of their products worldwide, Method123 has gained a foo¬thold as a major player in the project management marketplace.

“It is our goal to take much of the pain out of the project manager’s job as it’s already hard enough,” says Westland.  “We like to think that we have some responsibility for the many successful projects being delivered daily in the business world.  A happy user community is our #1 goal.”

With the Project Job Description template, the user will be able to:

- Fully define the role’s purpose and responsibilities
- Define position reporting relationships
- Layout the organizational chart
- Identify the experience and skills you’re looking for
- Document qualification requirements
- Define criteria for position performance
- Define working conditions
- Specify salary requirements

As is usually the case with any of Method123’s project management templates, the Project Job Description form will guide you through the entire process.  You’ll be provided with tips and hints, real-world examples of org charts, skill sets, and job description bullet points.  And the form’s full-featured instructions will ensure that every section is completed with the most detailed information possible.

“When you’re going through the project planning process, the last thing you need is HR issues getting in the way of filling the critical roles of your project in a timely fashion,” states Mr. Westland.  “Our template will guide you seamlessly through this process and you’ll gain inroads with the HR manager if you let them use the template, too.  Everyone will be happier!”

For more information on this and all of Method123’s offerings, visit their site at Method123.com.