Posted by godzhesas on 28 May, 2008 13:41

Looking for an alternative to Basecamp? This website can help you. And of course Comindwork is mentioned as one of the alternatives. Keep Comindworking!

  Posted by godzhesas on 27 May, 2008 10:59

In my previous post last week i wrote who are the project stakeholders. Project team - one of the project stakeholders, what is the project team role? Who will do the work? The answer is the project team, together with the project manager. All who contribute time, skills, and effort to the project are considered team members. In addition to the people from the company assigned to the project, these can include contractors, vendors, and even customers.

The concept of customers as team members might seem confusing, because they are the ones being served by the project. But it is not unusual for customers to have specific project tasks to perform. For example, on information systems projects, customers are often active participants in the system definition and design phases. Or, when the project involves switching to a new office complex, the customer might take responsibility for organizing the training associated with operating the new facility.

Determining who will be part of the team happens at the start of the project, during definition and planning. This process is complete when the team members have agreed to their responsibilities and roles on the project. Let's look at the steps in this process, from start to finish:

• Tasks are broken down until the different skill requirements emerge.
• The project manager and sponsor then begin recruiting people and organizations with the necessary skills.
• The project manager negotiates the involvement of these new team members.
• The manager clarifies the plan and ensures that all members understand it.
• Team member responsibilities are documented in both the statement of work and the project plan.

It's often easy to identify the essential players on small projects, but much more difficult and time-consuming on large projects. However, this time is well spent because the makeup of the project team is critical to project success. Need effective team management? Sign up for a free account and start managing your team today!

  Posted by godzhesas on 23 May, 2008 07:27

Every project is unique and temporary and requires different management approaches. Because projects have different characteristics than ongoing operations, they introduce a new set of challenges. Here are some of the challenges that project managers face:

• Unrealistic deadlines - For project managers "on time" can be quite a relative term, managing deadlines and schedules is one of the most common challenges project managers deals with every day, read my previous post about  realistic schedules.
• Team. Every project has different team needs. The number of people needed-and their different skill sets-is different for each project. Where do these people come from? Where do they go, once they are no longer needed? These staffing problems may be compounded if several projects are running simultaneously. If all projects hit their resource peak at the same time, it could place an impossible burden on an organization. And if all the projects should end around the same time, the company may be forced into layoffs.
• Communication.  One of the main reasons why projects fail is lack of information and communication between team members. Comindwork gets this obstacle out of your way, it provides all what you might need for effective project communication - project RSS, project blogs, project wiki, instant email notification, case video replies. You have the tools, so why not to use them?
• Estimating. In order to evaluate potential projects, organizations need accurate estimates of costs and schedules. But because each project is different, estimates may contain more assumptions than facts.
• Stakeholders participation. Usually it is hard to get input from end users and customers during the project, especially for distributed teams. With Comindwork this will make it much easier for all of the stakeholders to collaborate and communicate.

This list of difficulties and challenges could go on, but it is clear that that for a successful project you will need strong management leadership. You fail or succeed in any case you earn invaluable experience, analyse your projects, learn from the team and always keep moving forward, keep Comindworking!

  Posted by godzhesas on 20 May, 2008 11:03

Who Are Project Stakeholders?

It is always people who make the technology work, not the other way around. On projects, we call these movers and shakers stakeholders, because they have a stake in the project. The first task of a project manager is to identify these stakeholders. Customers, decision makers, vendors, and employees obviously belong in this group, but, in a larger sense, anyone who participates in the project or is impacted by its result is a stakeholder.

Identifying stakeholders is a primary task because all the important decisions during the definition and planning stages of the project are made by these stakeholders. These are the people who, under the guidance of the project manager, establish agreements on the goals and constraints of the project, create strategies and schedules, and approve the budget. This identification is an ongoing task. Throughout the initial stages of the project, the project manager must continue to clarify who the stakeholders are and what roles they will play. There are five primary stakeholders - project manager, project team, functional management, sponsor, and customer. It's important to keep in mind that these are all roles. They can, therefore, be filled by one or more people, and an individual can play more than one role.

Project managers may have to satisfy each stakeholder, but they will also receive valuable contributions from each one. All parties involved in a project have a vital interest in the project's success-and each has an essential contribution to make. Whether it's authority, funding, or expertise in product requirements, all contributions are needed to ensure success. Projects that lack one of the key stakeholders are likely to fail.

Comindwork will help in achieving the best results for effective stakeholder communication and management. Sign up for free account today!

  Posted by godzhesas on 13 May, 2008 12:30

Recently we have added new pricing plans that will serve better to the demand of different users and companies:

• Hosted Plans - true web application, fully hosted in our datacenter. No installation required - all you need is browser and internet connection.
• Dedicated Server Plans - your Comindwork site is hosted on separate dedicated server (managed hosting) and you have full access to it.
• Self-Hosted Plans - you host it on your own server in your datacenter or right in the office. 100% control and confidentiality. You can upgrade hardware, add storage, memory, perform managed backups, monitor usage of traffic, perform security audits and more.

And keep in mind that when you upgrade from free version of Comindwork, you will notice faster response and page load times by at least by 30-40%. This is because queries are run on the separate dedicated server. So choose the plan that suits your needs best and get in control of your business and projects!

  Posted by godzhesas on 07 May, 2008 09:03

All businesses have there own success stories and believes. We, at Comindwork believe that we will be successful if our customers will be successful. These are seven principles that we at Comindwork, believe, leads to business success:

1. Knowledge Sharing - today it is critical to share knowledge effectively. Comindwork enterprise wiki, online document management, advanced search, tagging and other features available 24/7 makes sure that you would have all the tools needed for effective knowledge management.
2. Planning - Comindwork all-in one set of project management tools, creates to perfect environment for real time planning. Strategic planning, marketing planning, operational planning, Comindwork will help you stick to your plans in real time.
3. Effective Communications - essential component of organizational success. Comindwork project RSS, email notifications, project blogs, video replies, tasks and ticketing systems helps people to effectively communicate anytime anywhere.
4. Building Relationships - Comindwork provides superior customer support, users actually help making Comindwork the best online project management solution, by suggesting features, which are being implemented within a month or two depending on difficulty.
5. Customer Satisfaction - with the ongoing development it's hard to make the system bug-free, but even when customers encounter problems, they are fixed ASAP. Customer satisfaction and service quality are the highest priorities for Comindwork team.
6. Flexible and Innovative - new innovations that increase effectiveness of communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing are presented to users on a regular basis. The use of new technologies in Comindwork helps to stay users on top of their business.
7. Getting Things Done - with a variety of free, onsite, self hosted and customizable plans Comindwork just helps you get things done in a way convenient for you. You don't need to worry about security, hosting issues and IT environment - Comindwork will do that for you.

Start building your success now, by signing up for a free account with Comindwork!