Rest of the series: Project Planning

We know how Deskera lets you work on Microsoft Project files on the web. But that’s not all, Deskera offers much more than just Microsoft Project on the web. 

Simplicity

As we’ve noted earlier, 80% of Microsoft Project users use only 20% of its numerous features. So at Deskera we’ve simplified a lot of rarely used Microsoft Project functions to deliver a more capable, yet simpler, project management methodology.

Earned Value Management

All the main EVM values are calculated by Microsoft Project, including: Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS), Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP), Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP), Schedule Variance (SV), Cost Variance (CV), Budget at Completion (BAC), Cost Performance Index (CPI), Schedule Performance Index (SPI), Variance at Completion (VAC), and Estimate at Completion (EAC).

EVM potentially is a great tool to identify variances and discrepancies and warn managers in advance of looming problems. ‘Potentially’ is the key word here.

One thing consistent across the various EVM implementation methods is that they demand quantification of project plans in advance. And accurate quantification at that.

The truth about most of the projects today is that they evolve with time, albeit within specified boundaries, and EVM is not as effective, infact can be misleading even, when it comes to agile projects. EVM for agile projects is still an ongoing project management reasearch area.

Even for achieving maximum potential of EVM methods, collection of real-time true progress information is critical. And the irony is that Microsoft Project does not facilitate that.

Hence the sophisticated EVM tools in Microsoft Project can rarely be leveraged to their maximum potential.

So in Deskera, we’ve employed a simple 0/100 earning rule for all tasks and we’ll be including intuitive and flexible variance tracking techniques after listening to our customers. You guys know best.

Task Types and Constraints

Microsoft Project provides for different calculation types for tasks: Fixed Duration, Fixed Units, and Fixed Work. In addition, tasks may be marked as Effort Driven.

Now the truth is that each of these, whether duration, units or work, possess a degree of variance with the effort involved being a reflection of the same. When the value of any of these metrics changes, the others are naturally affected and subsequently Microsoft Project asks you to specify a reason each time. This would be really cool if it was infact used as a feedback mechanism to train Microsoft Project, but it just happens to be an unnecessary interruption.

Also, there are eight types of constraints that can be applied to individual tasks in a project. But the true purpose of these constraints can be achieved only when the entire team and resources are aware of these. Which is rarely the case for teams using MS Project.

We believe that the ability to define dates and dependencies get the work done, and you can always attach additional notes to tasks.

User Experience

At Deskera, we pay a lot of attention to User Experience and we’ve worked hard to improve it. Whether it’s Microsoft Project’s inconsistent UI behaviour or confusing expansive error messages, we’ve ensured that along with efficient project management, we’ve delivered enhanced usability and navigability within the system.

Don’t take our word for it. Experience it for yourself by signing up.

Deskera’s Dashboard is a simple, intuitive and informative gateway to your project activities and tasks.

The Dashboard consists of 4 main sections:

1. Task Updates
2. Quick Links
3. Requests
4. Announcements

Task Updates:

The whole idea behind task updates on the dashboard is to bring to your notice the most important items requiring your attention.

These include:

• Tasks due Today and Tomorrow
• Tasks starting Today and Tomorrow
• Overdue Tasks
• Tasks starting in the near future

Each update also displays the concerned Project, the Task Name and the Current Progress (% Complete).

Task Updates help you allocate your time and attention to achieve your short-term goals, which add up to increasing overall project execution efficiency. No more lagging behind just because you couldn’t prioritize correctly.

The other sections displayed (depending on User Role) on the Dashboard are:

• Quick Links to all your projects and their activities
• Requests pending, including connection and administration requests
• Announcements which can be directed at specific users, projects or the entire company

To give it a try and start managing your projects in the best way possible, SIGN UP NOW for Free.

We know how Deskera lets you work seamlessly on Microsoft Project on the web. But that’s not all, Deskera offers much more than just Microsoft Project for web.

In this series of posts, we’ll take on Microsoft Project by doing an in-depth head-to-head comparison around what we believe are the primary four decisive factors while looking for a Project Management Software.

• Project Planning
• Collaboration
• Resource Management
• Deployment and Pricing

PROJECT PLANNING

One of the features we love in Microsoft Project is the ability to quickly create tasks, set dates and define dependencies. This can be attributed to chiefly:

• A spreadsheet style data entry interface
• An interactive Gantt chart where you can drag and drop tasks and links

Microsoft Project:

So we went ahead and did exactly the same in Deskera. For existing Microsoft Project users, switching has never been easier. And for the others, this is one of the fastest ways to create plans anyway.

Deskera:

And as Joel Spolsky says: “Good UI designers use consistency intelligently, and, though it may not show off their creativity as well, in the long run it makes users happier.”

We’re sure you would agree.

Rest of the Series – Simplicity, Collaboration

What’s the difference between tasks and to-dos?

Okay, let’s get that out of the way first.

• Tasks have start dates and end dates and dependencies. To-dos don’t. They are rather simplistic in nature, the kind of stuff you often forget.
• Both tasks and to-dos are assigned to resources.
• To-Dos by nature are simple, and we’ve kept them that way. It’s quick and easy to create them, group them and assign them.

Let me show you how easy it is to use Deskera To-Dos:

• Creating a To-Do:

  Describe the to-do and assign it to a resource. If you don’t specify a resource, it’s assigned to you by default.

  

• Creating a group:

  Just enter a name for the Group. Drag and drop to-dos into groups or to reorder them.

  

• Marking as complete:

  You check them and they are marked as complete. That simple.

  

Tasks are undoubtedly the focal point in Project Management. However all projects still revolve around countless meetings, briefings and other events. Today, more often than not, people rely on individual calendars to manage their time, which differ by platform and features even. Although compatibility and integration capabilities are greatly improved, we still end up shuffling between multiple desktop/web-based/mobile calendars.

Hence the inclusion of a powerful calendaring and scheduling engine in Deskera. Each project has its dedicated calendar(s), all events are shared among team members. No more sending countless invitation emails, waiting for RSVPs, etc.

Let me show you how simple and effective it is to use Deskera’s calendar:

• Creating New Calendars:

  • Multiple calendars can be created and project events can be classified by their nature for efficient organization.
  • Color coding of calendars helps you to identify the events at a glance when you overlay calendars.

  

• Creating New Events:

  • Details such as location of the event, priority and your status can also be specified along with the event date and time.
  • To create events, you can either drag and drop across time intervals or just click on the ‘New Event’ button.

  

• Multiple Views:

  You can view your events across different time-intervals such as daily, by workweek/week and monthly as well.

  Month View:

  

  Workweek view:

  

  You can drag and drop events in the workweek view as well as shown above.

• Agenda:

  • Your agenda displays a list of all your events lined up for the next two weeks.
  • The event priorities are also displayed, so you can allocate your time and attention accordingly.
  • Whenever new project events are created, team members are notified on the dashboard.
  • Project calendars help you organize all your events better in one single place while notifying all your team members of the same.

  

Let me take you through the Project Plan in Deskera

The Task Grid lists out all your project tasks along with their duration, dates, predecessors and resources. Now it not only looks like an Excel sheet, but acts like one too. We find it much easier to edit task details in the cells in the classic Excel fashion rather than having to

• Click to open a form
• Find the fields you want to change and then key in the information and finally
• Click to close the form (and some people seem to throw in a confirmation message everywhere just for kicks)

On the right, we have the Gantt chart. An interactive one, you drag and drop tasks and links much like Microsoft Project, but the coolest thing is that it’s truly collaborative, REAL-TIME. Much like Google Docs. We weren’t kidding about combining the best of both worlds.

Now let’s move on to the toolbar:

• New template:Many projects within a company tend to have a set of common tasks. Hence the inclusion of templates.Templates not only make it easier to enter the same tasks across projects, but at the same time ensure consistency across projects, making it easier to compare performance. So select those common tasks in the plan and click ‘New Template’, give it a name and you are done.
• Insert Template:To insert tasks from a template into you plan, select a blank row, click ‘Insert Template’  and select the one you want.
• New Task:Adds a blank row in the grid where you can start keying in the information directly
• Indent and Outdent:Indenting a task pushes it to a lower level while outdenting it promotes the task to a higher level. So when you indent a task, it’ll become a ’subtask’ of the task above it and outdenting it would make it a ‘parent’ task of the one below it.
• Show Progress:Displays the progress(% complete) of all the tasks on the Gantt chart.
  
• Overdue Tasks:Highlights only the tasks which are overdue on the Gantt chart.
  
• Show Priority:Displays the priority level(High/Moderate/Low) of all the tasks
• Show Resources:Displays color-coded resources for all tasks on the Gantt Chart.
• Task Information:You can update and edit task information by clicking here. Update the task’s % completion and attach notes as well.
• Import/Export Plan:Import/export your existing plans from Microsoft Project. Both .mpp and .mpx files are supported.
• Reports:Generate extensive reports on your project’s status. You can generate reports on activities, resources, milestones and you can also track your project costs.

Get your own hands-on experience at demo.deskera.com.

Deskera is an attempt at making life easy for business & office users. As a business user Deskera gives you an integrated desktop that lets you:

• Manage your projects & teams effectively
• Manage your office documents
• Manage your tasks, contacts appointments and calendar schedules
• Connect with your colleagues

Deskera interoperates wonderfully with popular Project Management softwares like Microsoft Project®. It lets you export/import to & from Microsoft Project®.

Could Deskera be your Business Web-Desktop ? We’ll let our users decide.

Deskera is currently available to a select few beta customers open to all for sign up. You can signup here: signup.deskera.com