Virtual Project Management Tools

1. Virtual Project Management Tools Ayesha Boyd – Documentation Specialist/WebMaster Cathy Corrigan  - Creative Designer/Researcher Michael Lafferty - WebMaster/Presentation Lead Chih-Wei Tsai -  Team Lead/Project Manager

2. What is Virtual Project Management? • Project management is the disciplineof planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives • Virtual Project Management is attempting the above, when all persons involved are not able to meet in a single location. Possibly spanning different States and/or Countries.

3. Project Goals • Understand the challenges that a team would face managing a virtual project. • Defining what users would need in order to complete a project virtually. • Research several available tools used for virtual project management • Find appropriate software to be used for our use cases, or software that could be customized to fit.

4. Major Issues for Virtual Project Management • Team Communication can be tricky. • Co-ordination of team activities can be difficult because of possible time differences. • Having to rely on technology for collaboration. • Overcoming cultural differences, and possibly language barriers. • Coming up with effective project workflow and process.

5. Dimensions • Running a political campaign for a candidate • Developing new security policy and program • Developing On-Line courses • Planning a Destination Wedding • Top dimensions of use: • Security • Usability • Present status via report, graph, or dashboard • Ability to issue notifications and forecast • Database tools • Manage project tasks and resources

6. Use Case #1 – Planning a Destination Wedding. • Person: Jenny Tucker & Justin Flanagan • Organization: N/A – Personal Use

7. Use Case #1 – cont. • A couple in their mid twenties are attempting to plan a destination wedding. They both reside in Dallas Texas, but their wedding is going to be in Miami, where Jenny is originally from. The obstacles that prevent this wedding from being planned in more of a traditional role is that Jenny's parents now live in South Africa, and Justin's live in Japan. They have one year to plan the wedding, but with both of them working full time there isn't a lot of time to go see every place in person, and they need to book places as soon as possible before it gets booked by someone else. They have hired a wedding planner in the Miami area to assist them. With all that goes into the wedding this will not be enough, they need some sort of software application to make this process easier.

8. Use Case #1 - Requirements • Given the severe time differences, conference calling is not a "must have" requirement because they won't all be able to talk at once. • Database where the bride/groom and their parents will be able to add and remove invitees information. also be able to track RSVP's. • A tool to manage the cost of event, possibly limited only to the view of the Bride's parents. • Ability to search for possible locations and vendors online, where they would be able to see pictures and prices, and if that doesn't exist online, the planner will be able to get such information. • The ability to book services and locations, and the vendor and/or location will be able to confirm price, availability, and reservation. • Easy to use GUI: the bride, her family and the grooms family are not the most computer literate people out there and it would need to be easy to use with little or no training. • Since cost of the wedding is a factor the program would have to have a low cost or preferably open-source. no maintenance is also preferable. • The Bride's father is extremely security cautious, he would not like anyone to see the cost manager figures. also the guest list would need to be private to the outside world so that no one could make unauthorized changes to it. if every person had an individual login with set privileges, that would be the best. 

9. Use Case #1 – Solution • Clarizen – www.clarizen.com • Web-based and easy to use • Email alert notifications • Budget tracking • Easy to upload and share information • Database features • Subscription based service • Team Collaboration feature • Will be able to integrate MS Outlook to be used for RSVP

10. Use Case #2 – Developing On-Line Courses • Person: David Smith • On-Line Courses Assistant Dean • Organization: University of Illinois • Chicago, IL • School of Computer Science • Approx. 2200 Enrolled Students

11. Use Case #2 – cont. • David Smith is a 36 year old recently hired On-Line Courses Assistant Dean at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was recently hired to manage in a team environment to develop online courses in cooperation with faculty members. His group consists of the following: • Graphic artist(s) • Project Manager • Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) • Project evaluator(s) • Coders/Programmer(s) • Video/Audio producer(s

12. Use Case #2 – Requirements • Except the Project Manager and Video/Audio Producer, the rest of the team members are contractors and work remotely away from campus. Thus, David is required to coordinate the collaboration among them virtually. • He is responsible in developing an innovative virtual instruction tool for the school of Computer Science.

13. Use Case #2 – Requirements • Because David is working within a team of 6 individuals that are spread out on campus and remotely, he needs to be able to do the following with his group: • Format screen templates • Flowcharts • Graphical/Screen design • Speak with the Administrator to regarding Instructional objectives by unit • Contract outside vendors • Write scripts specifications • Conduct formative reviews

14. Use Case #2 – Requirements cont. • David would like to be able to use a tool that will allow him to do collaboration with the coders and project manager to complete the milestones of the project. There will always be some instances where he will have to manage time to get the tasks done. • The overall goal of the course online tool is to come-up with full functional tasks to do the following: • Register for courses • Select courses to teach • Request course roster • Maintain course information • Maintain professor information • Maintain student information • Create course catalog

15. Use Case #2 – Solution • Microsoft Project Server – www.microsoft.com • Fully customizable product • Able to track task completion • Share virtually every type of media • Budget Tracking • Automatic updating and rescheduling of project plans from submitted timesheets • User customizable reporting • Customizable security model

16. Other Examples of Tools • myonProject • http://www.onproject.com/myonproject.htm • Turbo Project • http://www.turboproject.com/ • Jtrac • http://www.jtrac.info/

17. What was Learned • What can be viewed as a project. • What can be viewed as virtual project management. • Different types of projects have very similar core sets of requirements. Ergo very similar software. • How many common features are shared across majority of tools. • Plenty of tools out there to fit the situation of the project. • Many tools can be customized to fit a wide variety of different projects.

18. Questions?! • Anyone Have any questions?