SharePoint and Multiple Resource Assignments

While IntelliGantt works with both WSS 2.0 and WSS 3.0, I'm developing a marked affinity towards the latter. I'm sure under the hood it scales better and such, but I like the fact it models the real world just a little better. Today's case in point, assigning multiple resources to tasks.



If you are (or were) using WSS 2.0, IntelliGantt updates were done with a heavy heart as tasks with multiple resources dropped every assignment after the first-- blocked at the WSS 2.0 single assignment gate. Your sorrow over all these lost assignments may have even spurred you to upgrade to WSS 3.0. All set for the new multiple assignment feature, you probably had a bit of a shock when the task list, after publishing, looked like this:



Fear not, WSS 3.0 does indeed support multiple resource assignments, just not by default. Why, I don't know. But I do know how to activate this feature. To do so, we must modify the list settings for this task list:



Within the list settings page are all the columns available for modification. We want to change the Assigned To column:



The details for this columns shows us that it does indeed allow 'multiple selections', which because its a SharePoint member or group field translates to multiple assignments.



A quick click to make the change we want (don't forget to press 'OK')...



... and the next time you update your task list, you'll see IntelliGantt and SharePoint working with multiple assignments in harmony.

Early Reviews for MindManager Add In

We're still finalizing the press release, but two early reviews for the IntelliGantt Add In for MindManager are in. Chuck Frey and Brian Friedlander, Ph.D, have both taken a look and have liked what they've seen. We are really pleased here at TeamDirection that our Add-In is hitting the mark.

Dr. Friedlander hits the nail on the head by observing

"one of the key features that came into sharp focus and that differentiates IntelliGantt from some of the other project management software with links to MindManager, is the ability to share and collaborate on your projects with your project management team."

We do believe IntelliGantt software takes project management to the next level by including the team. What's more, we are very happy to use either our own rich desktop application or an industry leading web solution like SharePoint. Whichever works for your team.

We're especially happy to have a Mind Mapping expert like Chuck Frey give us what we consider to be the ultimate compliment:

"The application's design is simple and straightforward; you don't have to be be a project software guru to figure out how to use it."

What good is a whiz-bang tool if nobody knows how to use it? It's the same theory that Mind Maps are based on, we've just given it a little nudge into the collaborative project management realm.

Thank you Mr. Frey and Dr. Friedlander. We look forward to working with you and the Mind Mapping community.

Resource Management Versus Communication

IntelliGantt started out with a focus on communication. We felt this was the most underserved piece of the project management market, especially since everyone is more or less connected now. However, while communication is great, we're getting feedback from users that they need a few 'traditional' tools. The one we're thinking about right now is Resource Allocation.

Now, just so you know, in my opinion no one has really solved resource allocation problems to date-- and that's just for resources working in a single organization. Throw in the fact that IntelliGantt can work across firewalls and with ad-hoc contractors and I don't think TeamDirection will be able to solve it either. In fact, there is a certain class of problems computers just don't do very well, if at all. One of them is keeping track of every hyperlink in the World Wide Web and making sure nothing points to a broken URL. And the other is resource allocation for tasks performed in a physical world. There's probably a few others :)

This is not to say one can't try to dump millions of users, billions of tasks and trillions of assignments in to a giant 'ultimate solution' database and cross reference everyone's allotted tasks, level of effort and calendars and synchronize all updates. It's just that it will never happen. It's too complex a problem set and as a result is easily (almost comically) broken by Rule Number 1: Stuff Happens. Instead of the proverbial butterfly in China, it will be sedentary Joe down the hall who gets sick, neglects to update his tasks and sets off an unforeseen chain of events resulting in the next blackout of the Eastern Seaboard.

Is it so awful to pick up the phone, or nowadays send an IM? Is it realistic to schedule someone so precisely that 39.93 hours are planned per user across 7 projects with 99.9% level of effort efficiency? This sounds a lot like what airlines have been trying to for the past few years with their airplanes. What do you think the human equivalent is for sitting on a tarmac 8 hours-- buckled in your seat? In the airlines case I'd wager that the proposed schedules were proven to be mathematically correct only to bow under the weight of our culumative randomness.

So which costs more? Creating an environment for a single project manager to schedule and level resources in utopia, or an environment that fosters communication allowing the group to self-balances with the aid of a project manager? I think one looks prettier at the start, but the other is more likely to adapt.

That being said, TeamDirection will strive to bridge both worlds and you can expect more resource allocation features in the near future. But remember those communication pieces-- they just might prevent the next blackout, or at least keep you off the tarmac.

IntelliGantt MindManager Add In Released

We started thinking about an Add In for MindManager way back in January. Call it a 'New Years Resolution'. I'm very pleased to announce this is one resolution we have kept!

We just released our Add In for MindManager and the results are quite impressive. Not only can you schedule topics like some of the other MindManager Add Ins, but you can Share them with your team and Synchronize the updates in your map. We think its a perfect left-brain/right-brain marriage.

We have a few screencasts, of course. You'll also notice this Add In is treated as a 'top tier' product-- meaning all our web navigation had to be updated.

Many thanks to the team for putting in an outstanding effort with this one. It's a very nice complement to our MS Project Add In. MindManager, MS Project and our own IntelliGantt application all represent different ways to create rich project content. Where we bring the added value is by adding a multiplier: making that rich project content interactive for your team. The larger the team, the larger the multiplier.

Consider a team of ten. How much easier will it be when you can create and schedule in the tool of your choice and include your team without having to constantly be on the phone, walking the halls or even recovering from double-entry (or worse, overwrite) mistakes?

We think enhancing team productivity is hugely valuable too. Now I suppose the question is, what Add In should we do next? :)

IntelliGantt MindManager Add-In Release Candidate

TeamDirection is just about ready to release its IntelliGantt Add In for MindManager 7 Pro, but we'd like a few volunteers. So far we've confirmed it works in the Netherlands and in South Africa, but there are a lot more countries and PCs out there.

If you'd like to try it out, you can first see what the Add In is about. I could describe it, but the visuals are much more compelling.

OK, I will describe it-- Take you basic MindMap, add an intuitive, interactive Task List and Gantt Chart, mix SharePoint Workspaces and Members and fold in the ability to bi-directionally synchronize updates. Voila, you have an IntelliGantt MindManager Add In.

Hmm... maybe its better to check out the screencast.

Then download it from our site. We do ask you to register, but we will do a 25% discount to all downloaders when we release next week.

Thank you very much for your interest!

Cooking with SharePoint -- The Gantt View

[August 2010 Update -- IntelliGantt Web Part for SharePoint 2007 and 2010 is now available. Something we like to call 'The Worlds Greatest Gantt Chart']

WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 (which we'll call SharePoint in this post) have a great feature that lets you view any task list as a Gantt chart-- and a pretty one too. Here are the steps to make it happen:

1) Start with the basic Task List view



2) Next, click on the menu item 'Create a View'



3) Choose the Gantt View



4) Name it (and make it your default view, if you'd like)



5) Almost done, just have to set a few columns



6) Click 'OK' and enjoy the view



Of course, if you really want to get cooking with SharePoint services, I heartily recommend adding IntelliGantt Plus or an IntelliGantt Add-In for MS Project to the mix. It slices tasks and dices the amount of time it takes to serve projects to your whole team.

You'll be the hit of the party!

Bad Sign for Groove?

It's always the little things, isn't it.

I visited the Microsoft Office discussion board yesterday to put in a few posts about our new release. I wrote up a beautiful description of our synchronization between MS Project and Groove-- even brought a tear to me eye :)

But when I attempted to post it, the discussion board required me to select the office discussion group. OK, simple dropdown of all the office apps. Let's see... Groove starts with G... G.... Hmmm... could it be Microsoft Groove? No.... MS Groove... Hmmm... I had to settle for General Office Questions.

There is no Groove topic to be found. There is Visio. I certainly see Excel, Word, Project, etc., but no Groove.

Hopefully its all a simple oversight that, when the person running the office discussion group reads this blog post will slap there head and exclaim 'Ach, voy!'

Connecting Groove with MS Project

Now there's a task for you! Figuring out how to combine a solitary scheduling tool with a highly distributed, cross-firewall collaboration platform (disguised as an Office 2007 application). Thankfully we've been doing this kind of thing since 2003.

Even better, we've just updated our product to make the link between MS Project and Groove event tighter. We've had more than a few customers download our free Groove workspace that includes a Task List. As a result, we've had more than a few customers ask how they can get the tasks they've been working on in Groove in to MS Project. Tasks lists typically start out small, and then grow.

Here's our screencast showing how to create an MS Project plan from a Groove task list. As you can see, it's eerily similar to creating an MS Project plan from a SharePoint task list.

Also like the SharePoint demonstration, you'll notice the 'Add New Tasks Created in Groove' checkbox. This feature allows IntelliGantt to recognize new tasks added via Groove and have them show up in MS Project, ready to be scheduled by the project manager. We feel this will be a handy workflow solution whereby people can enter their tasks or issues and project managers can put them on a timeline.

The free Groove task list has been available for a few months now. I think a few thousand of you are using it. This feature is absolutely compatible with the TeamDirection Groove task list-- you can start using it today (it's almost like we planned it :).

Schedule Your SharePoint Task Lists with MS Project

[November 2008 Update - Version 4 Released with a Portfolio Dashboard!]



It's new feature time at TeamDirection once again. This one comes straight from customer requests (pleas?)-- 'How can I schedule a SharePoint Task List we are currently using?'

We thought about it long and hard... Connect an existing SharePoint Task List to MS Project? A SharePoint task list that is currently in use? Can't be done. It's impossible... Inconceeeee-ivable! (apologies to Wallace Shawn :)

And then we realized our IntelliGantt services for SharePoint get us most of the way there. A simple wizard, several cups of coffee for our vaunted programming staff and a few friendly reality checks from QA have led to the cusp of a significant update. The next build of IntelliGantt will be available on the site sometime Wednesday (July 18), but here's a screencast of an MS Project plan created from an existing task list.

There's also a nice supporting feature here, in the middle of the demo, where we show multiple task assignments supported in SharePoint. This has been another high priority customer request and we are happy to deliver this one as well. It does require WSS 3.0 (WSS 2.0 only supports single task assgnments), but if this feature is important to you, then you probably have WSS 3.0 already.

Speaking of features, you may have noticed the 'Add Tasks Created in SharePoint' checkbox. This deserves its own post, and screencast, but the short answer is it will allow MS Project (and IntelliGantt) to recognize tasks people enter into SharePoint with their web browsers. I'll talk about the specific use case soon, but suffice it to say people can add tasks, and project managers can schedule them.

Finally, MS Project users will be happy to note we are making the IntelliGantt Add-In available with its own separate installer. We found companies that have invested in MS Project would like an easier way to distribute and use our add-in. We understand and are happy to oblige. The IntelliGantt Add-In for MS Project will be a standalone MSI installer perfect for pushing via SMS or simply putting on a file server.

We appreciate all of our customer's feedback and encourage everyone to keep pinging us with your ideas. As you can see, your good ideas make it into IntelliGantt products!

8 Random Things About John

I was tagged by Michael Sampson with the latest blog game and feel compelled to play. Who doesn't want to talk about themselves, even if it is 8 random things? Here are mine:

1) When my wife and I met on our first date, we went to a pool hall. Little did I know she actually took a billiards class (honest!) in college. She had to work on how best to throw a game or two and preserve my sensitive male ego, and the rest is history.

2) I grew up in Salem, Oregon and now live in Seattle, Washington, which means I've been a Pacific Northwesterner 99% of my life.

3) My computer science degree is from a liberal arts college (Willamette University) best known for producing future lawyers and state legislators. I think my graduating class in CS was 4 people. I got to know my professors very well.

4) I had a friend in Japan as a result of some sailing adventures. He asked me to sing at his wedding, to which I said 'Of Course!' The song? A reggae tune from Bob Marley, naturally. Redemption Song. I had 350 Japanese wedding attendees in the palm of my hand for 3 minutes, 43 seconds.

5) Prototypical two kids and a dog here. Two beautiful girls that bring such joy and delight. Time starts moving faster when kids arrive and its both a blessing and a lament to see them grow up so quickly.

6) My brush with Silicon Valley fame was a meeting with John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe Systems. He really loved something I was working on at the time. I'm absolutely positive he remembers it, NOT.

7) I am currently trying to assess the best course of action for dealing with the triple terror of backyard nemeses: Ivy, Bamboo and Blackberry bushes. TeamDirection has been providing a haven for me not to think about the battle raging behind our house. But now the warzone is encroaching our very access-- I'm not even sure I can still open the door. I send the dog on reconnaissance every evening. My money is on the blackberry bushes as the eventual winner.

8) When I was 8, I was the world's worst newspaper boy. If your newspaper positively, absolutely had to be there eventually, then I usually rose to the challenge. However, that was just a means to an end as I would apply 1 months worth of work toward 1 hour of flight time-- not only renting the plane but the pilot as well. I would love to be a full-fledged pilot someday soon.

I tag:

Nic Pottier -- Found of TriLeet games for the Danger Sidekick
Richard MacManus -- ReadWriteWeb
Kanwal Khipple -- SharePoint Buzz
Dave Persing -- encouraging him to get his blog going again!

IntelliGantt Add-In for MindManager

Another new product from TeamDirection. It's an Add-In, only this time its for Mindjet's MindManager. Much like our Add-In for MS Project, the IntelliGantt Add-In for MindManager hooks seamlessly into the tool bar (yes, even the new ribbon), lets you publish topics and subtopics to a SharePoint task list and synchronizes everyone's update back into the original map.

If that sentence was a mouthful, check out the screecast and see it in action. In it you will see how we incorporate our nifty task list and interactive gantt chart into the MindManager environment. This lets you easily schedule topics and subtopics to harness and organize out-of-the-box free-form thinking.

What's more, using our IntelliGantt sharing capabilities, its just a couple clicks to share a scheduled map in to a SharePoint or Groove task list. But that's not the end of the story as all IntelliGantt projects maps are bidirectional. This means the topics and subtopics you publish to SharePoint and Groove can be modified by people using only their browser or a Groove client. Best of all, these updates can be incorporated back in to the original map.

If you haven't already, go scroll back up and view the screencast. We're shooting to release it in the near future. If you'd like to test it for yourself, contact sales at teamdirection.com.

The IntelliGantt Add-In for MindManager works with WSS 2.0 and WSS 3.0 (learn what I learned about SharePoint versions). This means it will work with the core (free, as in beer) SharePoint services and the top-of-the-line Portal Servers (2003 and MOSS; not free).

No more import/export, double-entry or other machinations to put your maps into a collaboration system. TeamDirection has made it as easy as drag-n-drop scheduling and 1-2-3 click to share and synchronize with your team.

Reverse Distortion Field

Michael must be right and I must be wrong. It must have been the 24" iMac I mistook as a TV, which is still overpriced but not absurdly so-- just an uncomfortable 'I don't know...' so.

I guess that HP monitor really did turn my head and framed my view of the iMac. How important is framing? Even with Apple's famed 'distortion field', my immediate comparison was to an orange, er ..., wide-screen monitor. I wasn't interested at all in the guts of what was driving the display, the computer itself.

Apple, I'm sorry for comparing the 24" iMac to a 22" wide screen HP monitor. I think the best way for this not to happen in the future is to actually come out with your own TV. I'm ready.

ReadWriteWeb had a recent poll asking what segment of consumer electronics Apple will dominate next. I think it has to be TV, not just the big hunk of plastic you put in your living room (though I'm sure it will be there), but the way TV will be done. Think iTunes, and think YouTube.

Google may or may not be regretting their YouTube purchase, but I do think Google had to buy them because Google needs to stay on top of media-- and YouTube definitely demonstrated the popularity of its media, and medium. But that hasn't necessarily followed with money.

My hunch is it will be Apple that will break the licensing logjam currently affecting Google's monetization of YouTube, and hovering like a spectre (a la the recording industry) of video. The only reason video hasn't been turned on its head like music is the sheer number of bits involved. But once it becomes as quick and easy to copy and move 4GB as 4MB, you can be sure what's coming.

Movie studios are certainly aware. I'm noticing more 'copying movies is illegal' previews in front of the movies I am legally renting. The pressure to address it, and not make the same mistakes as the recording industry, is only mounting.

Actually, if I'm Microsoft, maybe this is the best way to get in front of Apple and get a real piece of the Google content pie. But I can't imagine Google would do a deal with MSFT before AAPL, and Cupertino is just down the road from Mountain View.

My money is on an Apple/Google video content deal of some kind before the end of the year.

And an honest to goodness Apple TV.

Why Apple Hasn't Taken Over The World

I was in Fry's today, ostensibly to return an item. With resolute determination I intended to complete the transaction and head to the nearest exit. However, on my way to the nearest exit, which I swear was the way I came in, I found myself instead heading to the computer components, LCD monitors and chip bins.

Curses, Fry's had foiled my plans yet again!

As I was sauntering through the aisles, it struck me how the price of everything has either inexorably gone done, or the specifications have inexorably gone up. I almost picked up a 500GB external drive as a throw in to my purchase of jelly beans and M&Ms.

One thing that gave me pause, however, was the price of Apple's 24" monitor. $1400.

Yes it still looks nice, though perhaps an age wrinkle or two is starting to show. However, I had just walked past a lovely HP 22" wide screen monitor that had whistled to me, made me pause and think 'I want that'... and it was $349.

Don't get me wrong, I want an iPhone just as much as the next guy. But somehow I get the sense the first adopters are getting Jobbed--- er... letting their emotions get the better of them.

If you've visited my company site, you'll of course notice that we do software for Windows. 'Hey, you're just another Mac hater.' Blah blah. And you would be mistaken. I adore the Macs-- I hope to write software for them someday soon. And the iPods? Own several, of course. I even think the iPhone looks rather cute and I can't wait to see what Apple has in store for TVs.

But a 400% markup on a TV? I just can't do it-- I'll take the $349 HP TV every time.

And that is why Apple doesn't rule the world.... yet.

Grokking SharePoint Versions

Toby Getsch was kind enough to lend his wisdom (and Microsoft SharePoint training) to set me straight on which SharePoint version is called what. I admit to being a little too loose with my references-- basically saying 'The SharePoint released in 2003' or 'The SharePoint released in 2007', which doesn't necessarily distinguish between the free one and the one you pay money for.

So to set the record straight, here is what I believe to be the correct references for SharePoint products:

1) Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). These are the core set of SharePoint services, and they are free! The versions TeamDirection IntelliGantt support are 2.0 and 3.0. You can even download WSS 2.0 and WSS 3.0 from Microsoft's site today.

2) SharePoint Portal Server 2003 is the enhanced SharePoint product you purchase. It is built on top of WSS 2.0.

3) MOSS 2007 is the enhanced SharePoint product you purchase. It is built on top of WSS 3.0.

What does this mean for IntelliGantt users? It means IntelliGantt works with the free version of SharePoint (the core WSS) AND the not-free version of SharePoint (Portal Server 2003 and MOSS 2007).

I think that is right (Toby?...). Now back to programming with WSS. For my next post I might just divulge our next feature, or maybe I'll preview our upcoming MindManager Add-In.

:)

SharePoint Designer Sparks a Question

We've been so heads down here at TeamDirection that we were unawares of Microsoft releasing ShareDesigner (download the free trial). Very interesting. I really like the intent behind it-- empowering normal people with the ability to create and modify SharePoint workspaces. This fits right along with our philosophy and I think they've done a nice job. (OK, the general UI experience still feels a bit 'techie' to me, but I am a techie and I *love* the features).

But it did give us something to think about. Our most recent release now supports creating SharePoint workspaces for your projects based on SharePoint templates. To do this we adapted our philosophy and introduced a TDCreate web services to be installed on the SharePoint server. While we thought it would be nice to work with SharePoint templates without having to install anything on the server, we also thought it might be important for SharePoint administrators to know how people are using the servers and what the 'high value' pieces are. As a result, we thought the TDCreate web services, on the whole, was a good thing, and could serve as a platform to build on in the future if we introduce our own web parts.

The SharePoint Designer, however, uses a combination of Front Page extensions and SharePoint web services to create subsites without additional installs on the server. Which got us thinking: would this be a better way to do things? I think our answer is 'maybe'.

I absolutely love the inherent simplicity of the client doing the work without tweaking the server. On the other hand, Front Page extensions are different than WSS and MOSS web services, and it seems quite possible that a SharePoint administrator, in the interest of security, would turn the Front Page extensions off. But if Microsoft will be pushing SharePoint Designer, it must mean they will also be pushing for the Front Page extensions to be on.

I think the ability to work solely from the client will be too tempting, but we should keep our current TDCreate web service. Call it the 'best of both worlds' approach. I believe we will put in support for Front Page extensions when working with SharePoint, but keep the TDCreate as an option just in case an administrator turns off the Front Page extensions.

Am I rambling? Sorry, but you're reading the thought processes in action.

How To: Enabling SharePoint Templates with IntelliGantt Plus

A quick note to let people know we've posted a page describing the steps for enabling IntelliGantt Plus to create workspaces based on custom SharePoint templates.

Feedback is of course welcome. We're trying to tame the SharePoint complexity beast as best we can with a simple, understandable set of instructions. If you run in to any problems or have any pointers to make things even easier, please don't hesitate to let us know.

We've received a very enthusiastic response to this feature and look forward to hearing how you use it.

IntelliGantt, MS Project Server and eProject Price Comparison

I spent the day researching customers project management options today and the results were interesting. Right now there seems to be a notion that the web is good and the desktop is bad. Perhaps it's a reaction to Microsoft's desktop dominance, a desire for something new or just a knee-jerk reaction to business as usual. Whatever the case, those small numbers that Software as a Service (SaaS) charge per month really add up over the long haul-- even the not-so-long haul.

The three solutions: IntelliGantt Plus, MS Project Server 2007 and eProject PPM6. First off, in all fairness, IntelliGantt Plus has the fewest features of the three. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing as IntelliGantt Plus also doesn't include features only a rocket scientist can understand. IGP (as we call it) is designed to be useful and usable. We're not so worried about the high-falootin cube transformation of critical path chains for resource levelling as we are about getting everyone on the team communicating and reporting progress.

If you need the high-end features, then by all means look at MS Project Server and eProject. However, if your needs are more down-to-earth and your goal is adoption, then IntelliGantt Plus is very powerful indeed.

But on to the comparison (if you can't wait, go here). We chose two common, generic cases: 1) a 10 user group and 2) a 100 user group. For IGP and MSP we proposed a general ratio of 1 client application for the project manager for every 9 users. Thus the 10 user group has one PM tool and 9 users accessing and updating the project. The 100 user group has 10 PM tools and 90 users. For eProject, we couldn't really make that distinction, so everyone is treated as an equal user.

These two groups (10 user and 100 user) represent two interesting plots on a curve that demonstrate most of all that Saas might not scale, economically the way most people think it does, and that MS Project Server 2007 actually looks very reasonable next to eProject as the number of users increase. Neither, however, approaches the economical solution if IntelliGantt Plus.

Why? Because we don't make it complicated. No databases, no Client Access Licenses, no server components (well, actually one that supports our SharePoint Template feature). We work with out-of-the-box SharePoint Services (WSS 2.0 and MOSS 3.0) that actually ship with Windows Server 2003-- for free! We still need to flesh out the benefit comparison, but as you can see, there are a lot of compelling IntelliGantt features.

However, in straight number terms, the IntelliGantt Plus solution for a 10 person group costs roughly $60 per person for one year. By comparison, eProject costs $45 per person per month! Furthermore, while the IntelliGantt Plus costs per year go down in year two (because the license has been paid for and the only out-of-pocket expenses are support and software assurance), the eProject costs march on at $45 per month. This means after 3 years, the eProject solution is about 20 times the cost of IntelliGantt Plus. Software as a Service indeed.

MS Project Server 2007 is more of a hybrid solution, similar to IntelliGantt Plus. However, where IntelliGantt Plus makes use of existing SharePoint services, Project Server introduces its own server in addition to using SharePoint. Because of this configuration, the 10 person group using eProject actually comes out a bit ahead in year one compared to Project Server. However, once again after the initial license is purchased, eProject turns out to be more after years two and three are included since Project Server CALs turn out to be less than $45 per month. Of course, IntelliGantt Plus is still 10 times less than the cost of a Project Server 2007 solution.

This illustrates where we believe the market lies for IntelliGantt Plus-- or as we say 'bigger than a spreadsheet and smaller than the enterprise.' Once you get in to managing a group of people, does it make sense to jump right in to enterprise class solutions? They do not economically, and I don't believe they do in terms of productivity and usability either.

MS Project Server 2007 and eProject PPM6 are great solutions for enterprises, but make no mistake, that is what they are built for. As such, IntelliGantt is happy to work with them (certainly in MS Project's case), but also provide tangible value to the market between the single user project manager and the thousand-person workforce.

And its not like we skimp on features. For instance, we work very well off-line, thank you. Multi-Level undo? Check. Multi-Project view? That too. Automatic backup and restore points? Yes. Task based permissions. Yes again. The ability to drag a summary task and watch the gantt update in real time all the ramifications? I think that's just us. The ability to use alternate collaboration platforms like Groove, Amazon S3 or even a simple File Server? Definitely IntelliGantt :).

If you're intrigued, then check out the numbers for yourself. If you want to see IntelliGantt in action, check out our 15 day trial today and see what IntelliGantt can do for you.

Microsoft's Magic Milan Touch

How could I not have noticed this earlier???

From a recent CNet headline: "Microsoft hopes Milan has magic touch".

OK, so I edited the headline just a little bit. But still, it's always fun when your name comes in vogue. Only recently has the self-satisfaction of having a car named after you begun to wear off. I really have to get one of those.

I wonder if I can put one of them new-fangled Milan table PC's in the back of my Milan? When I get in and drive off, would that be similar to the Russian dolls where one fits inside another which fits inside another?

Of course, at times like these I have to bring back my old standard:



Cheers!

When to Adapt Your Philosophy

TeamDirection and its IntelliGantt products have been built with the notion of working right out of the box, which is something of a novel ideal in this interconnected world. True, this is a good thing. In fact, IntelliGantt works very hard on the interconnected pieces so you don't have to-- integrating with MS Project, MindManager, SharePoint and Groove.

However, there comes a time when a feature is too compelling to grind under the foot of unyielding dogma. No one likes a Zax.

With our next release of IntelliGantt, we are introducing a feature that lets you publish projects to SharePoint utilizing any custom template registered on the SharePoint server. We've received feedback from customers and consultants alike that this will provide the best way to tailor projects to individual (company) needs. And we agree.

The result is IntelliGantt Plus will let you select the SharePoint template to use, but it will require a web service installed on the SharePoint server. It's a simple web service that is only in charge of listing available templates and creating a site based on a template. In fact, in large measure it got its inspiration from Todd Baginski's great examples on how to create SharePoint sites based on templates.

For about a month we struggled to with 'no code to install on the server'-- until it became untenable. Our new philosophy is a more realistic 'as little code as possible on the server, and make sure its well documented.'

You tell me how we did. We'll be updating or site over the weekend, but if you'd like to see IntelliGantt Plus using custom SharePoint templates on your server, then go get IntelliGantt Plus, read this document and install this web service.

Supports WSS 2.0, MOSS 3.0 and enables your team.

To see it in action, check out the screencast in the blog post below.

IntelliGantt WBS

We had a lively discussion over on our forum today about how to keep track of tasks once they've been published to SharePoint. The basic SharePoint task list is, well, pretty basic. What has been needed is a way to match the task IDs in the SharePoint list with the task IDs in the IntelliGantt or MS Project task list.

Except that there aren't any ordinals in the basic SharePoint task list.

We've been looking at this problem for a bit and the discussion today gave us the perfect reason to execute on a design we had in mind. Since we just released support for SharePoint custom templates, our developers had List web service APIs on the brain. We had also just implemented a WBS feature in our core model. When these two ideas met, the result is code that updates the basic SharePoint task list with a WBS column that IntelliGantt will populate.

Like this:



The result is people will know exactly what task they mean, and they can sort and filter them. This particular screenshot shows the SharePoint task list with the WBS column visible and the IntelliGantt Plus view with the WBS column visible. Our Add-In for Microsoft Project will also do the same thing-- publish WBS codes to SharePoint task lists.

The minor trick at the moment is the WBS field will not be visible by default. If you want to turn it on after you share, click on 'Modify View'.



IntelliGantt as added WBS to the column list as a result of a successful share. If you have a custom SharePoint template that already has a text column for WBS, IntelliGantt will recognize it and use it. Otherwise it creates it for you.



Just click on the column to make it visible, and set the layout position to '2' so its on the left.



Now you can keep track of your tasks as you get down to business with your project. As you move tasks around, indent and outdent them, add and remove them, the WBS codes will be updated and in sync.

You'll never lose a task again.

Project Management with Groove Templates

Though SharePoint gets most of the press, Groove brings a unique set of features to collaboration as well. In fact, it's amazing how similar the SharePoint and Groove platforms are at times and how well they lend themselves to a similar philosophy.

Take templates for example. In my previous post I showed how IntelliGantt Plus can publish and synchronize tasks with SharePoint templates. Not to be outdone, Groove has its own templating system (arguably a bit more simple for the user to work with) and TeamDirection, of course, is happy to build on it.

Here is a screencast showing how to drop the TeamDirection Task List for Groove 2007 in to a standard workspace, save it as a template and use it again when you publish and synchronize your project.

If you have a Groove Forms developer in house, or if you've contacted a consultant, it's terribly easy to drop a TeamDirection Task List into a Groove workspace and gain powerful project management features.

As an added benefit, we've unlocked our forms as well. This means you can actually open up the TeamDirection Task List itself, make a few modifications for your needs and still have the power of IntelliGantt Plus. This Groove Workspace Template ships with IntelliGantt Plus. Head over to TeamDirection and check it out, or go right to the source and try it today.

Now wouldn't it be cool if you could point IntelliGantt Plus to any SharePoint or Groove task list and create a project from it?

Hmmmm.... :)

Project Management with SharePoint Custom Templates

Yes, it's been another quiet period, which can only mean one thing: new features!

We're quite excited about this upcoming release as it gives you more control of your projects, SharePoint and Groove. We're about to introduce the ability to publish projects to SharePoint and Groove based on custom templates. This means if you've got a SharePoint workspace or Groove forms guru in house (or if you've paid an external guru a handsome sum) to customize and personalize workspaces for your needs... you can keep using them. Better yet, feel free to make new ones.

On my techie SharePoint blog I'll go in to the guts a little bit and explain how it works. But here I have a screencast that shows this feature in action. It's just showing SharePoint at this moment, but we will be improving the screencast shortly to show more or less the same thing with Groove forms and workspaces.

This link will take you directly to the SharePoint Custom Template screencast. If it looks easy, its because it is easy.

We've also written up the installation (and uninstallation) instructions so you can see for yourself how straightforward we've made things.

This release has tons more stuff in it (and a few important usability fixes-- no more needing to specify server names when logging in to SharePoint!). Look for email in your inbox announcing it shortly.

IntelliGantt use of MS Project Resources

In talking with a few customers, I thought it would be worthwhile to produce a screencast showing how IntelliGantt can work with MS Project resources and turn them in to real people. It all revolves around the simplest forms of id: EMail.

We figure most everyone has an email address (or two), and most business applications account for this property-- like Microsoft Project! When you attach an email address to a resource in MS Project, IntelliGantt will recognize it and automatically match it up, whether you're sharing the project to a local file system, SharePoint, Groove or our Internet Workgroup.

Here is the direct link to the project resource screencast.

The next screencasts will be of IntelliGantt using custom SharePoint templates. But I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual :)

IntelliGantt Begins to Support Vista

Windows Vista is beginning to come up more and more, as expected. It's only a matter of time before it eclipses Windows XP since all (well... over 90%) new computers ship with Windows-- roughly 250 million a year, give or take. Obviously no company in their right mind would want to exclude 250 million potential customers, including us.

Though we haven't trumpeted it quite yet, the current release of IntelliGantt and IntelliGantt Plus will run on Vista and integrate with Groove 2007, Microsoft Project 2003 & 2007, MS Outlook (most versions), Windows Live Messenger and Mindjet MindManager 6.0 (and 7.0 as that is coming out shortly).

A few items remain-- spit and polish mainly. We're looking at the new requirements for full 100% Vista compatibility, but if you want to run IntelliGantt on Vista today, be our guest.

I have to admit I like the pretty, shiny features of Vista. In my opinion, it follows our philosophy of making things as user friendly as possible. I think our color scheme matches Vista out of the box quite nicely as well.

Well, back to getting our release ready for June 1 (which we will most likely announce of June 4-- who announces good news on a Friday?). We're pretty excited about this one, as are our partners. Support for SharePoint and Groove templates, nice speed improvements for MS Project synchronization, a few usability issues solved (the big one: no longer will you need to put the server name before your login name when using external SharePoint providers!!!)

All Coming Soon...

IntelliGantt does Groove Workspace Templates

We've been burning the midnight oil lately with our newest features, and with the price of oil being what it is today we decided its time to release another one:

IntelliGantt Plus now lets you specify the Groove Workspace Template to use when creating a new IntelliGantt Project. Anyone interested in Groove Forms development can create a template and then put it into their Groove Workspace Templates directory under My Documents. IntelliGantt will read the templates from this directory and offer them to the user. Here's a screenshot:



This is the first iteration of the feature. Right now if you need the TeamDirection Task List for tracking tasks, you will need to add it yourself to the template-- if our TD Task List is there, IntelliGantt will use it. In the future, we will make it automatic. But we thought the feature would be so nice in the hands of developers who know their vertical domain, but would like a simple task list to track things, that we thought the time was right.

This feature is in the shipping product, so you can download IntelliGantt Plus today and try it with your own template.

But the template vision isn't quite complete yet; SharePoint templates are coming too. We are in QA right now with general availability June 1. Just like Groove, we will query the SharePoint server for a list of all available templates with which to create a workspace. Again, developers can bring their domain knowledge, we connect to the standard SharePoint task list.

SharePoint templates demos coming soon...

Introducing a Local way to Share Projects

There is data, and then there is data. A few of our clients have cringed a bit when we tell them how easy it is to share valuable project data on the internet, in SharePoint or Groove. I tend to notice when clients cringe and, as a result, we've unveiled a feature-- the Local Workgroup.

Our IntelliGantt technology really doesn't care where a project is stored, it just needs everyone in the project to have access to it. Sometimes being on the internet makes sense because you may be working with external professional services. But many, many projects are still run strictly in house. In these cases, the easiest means to share projects may be right down the hall, tucked away securely in your corporate intranet and backed up regularly by your data retention policies.

I'm describing the common file server.

TeamDirection IntelliGantt can now use a simple file server to as the means to share and synchronize projects. Nothing will be more secure, and nothing will be faster- it simply doesn't have the latency other internet based solutions incur.

Here is an FAQ, with a screencast, showing just how well the Local Workgroup works. We still make it easy for you by making it simple to join projects and work interactively. The file server makes it easy for you by being simple, cheap and reliable.

So now you have four ways to share projects with your team, be they external consultants or internal colleagues. Intranet, Internet, SharePoint and Groove-- if you have a project management sharing requirement, chances are we've got it covered.

And do I mention it's also quite a bit more cost effective than those web server based solutions... *cough* eProject *cough*...?

SharePoint Buzz Raffling a Free IntelliGantt Plus License

SharePoint Buzz was kind enough to review IntelliGantt Plus for us. We provided a free license for a raffle that is closing as you read this. Actually, it may have closed yesterday, but don't let that stop you. IntelliGantt Plus is a rich, full-featured solution and free is always a nice price.

Check out the review, and check out IntelliGantt Plus. And don't forget about the two new features we've just released that make Plus even better.

How to Find Overallocated Resources

First you need and IntelliGantt solution!

We've just put the finishing touches on two new features. I'll profile our new 'Local Workgroup' in a couple days. Today I want to show you how easy it is to identify overallocated resources in one project AND across many projects.

Here's a pretty picture of several projects with their overbooked tasks highlighted.



Better yet, here is a screencast.

What it shows is a simple filter that can be applied to a project, or any group of projects. IntelliGantt has two filters that can work in conjunction. One filter is for things task related like 'ToDo' or 'This week's tasks'. To this filter we have added 'Show Overbooked Tasks'. The algorithm takes all resources and all tasks in the working set and computes which resources have been overallocated. These tasks are then listed in the task grid and gantt chart.

The other nice thing about how this feature is implemented is the highlights don't go away when you select another filter. For example, if you wanted to see the overbooked tasks in relation to all tasks, select the 'Show all tasks' filter. The overbooked tasks will retain their markings and will be easy to spot-- even with all the other tasks in view. Overbooked tasks can run, but they can't hide :)

Finally, we upgraded the resources filter so that instead of only one resource to filter against, you can have many. This means you can see two or three people's overbooked tasks at once. Or, for that matter, two or three people's ToDo lists, or their tasks next week.

Check out the screencast, and if you're impressed, download IntelliGantt Plus for a 15-day free trial. There's lots more to impress you.

It's Been Quiet.... Too Quiet...

But that will change soon.

Just in case you haven't noticed the pattern yet, this blog usually goes quiet right before we announce cool new stuff. Well, the cool new stuff is coming. I have to work on the screencast now and show the world.

What will it be?

An even easier way to share tasks and a great way to find resources accidentally overallocated-- both within a project and across many projects.

Screencasts coming soon!

Vicarious Travel

What's it like to be single, no kids and able to work online? A friend of mine is taking the opportunity to find out. He decided the other week that he wants to work in Peru. Not changing jobs, mind you, just physically be in Peru while he continues his day job. What's that? Running his company TriLeet.

I don't match the profile he has, but I can (and am quite happy to) read his 'working' blog and vicariously enjoy the scene.

I guess he got a little Stir Crazy (his blog).

It's a travelogue, so its best to start with his first post and work backwards.

Flexible Pricing Model

Consultants have been keenly interested in IntelliGantt project management because it makes it so easy to share tasks with colleagues and customers. Often they would like to leverage a client's SharePoint installation in order to share project schedules and status. Other times they just need a way to keep everyone update to date.

One common feature consultants need is a flexible pricing plan. In truth, this applies to companies that hire consultants as well. What we've heard again and again leads us to believe a project that spans people and companies is most likely an ad-hoc project. As a result, time and again we've heard the purchasing manager ask if they can re-use licenses.

For example, say project A started last January and is just wrapping up. As the project manager starts planning the next project, perhaps he/she will use several consultants or contractors again, and one or two consultants for the first time. What about the consultant they bought a license for back in January? Wouldn't it be nice to re-use that license for the new people?

We think it would too!

Therefore we've implemented time-limited licenses: 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and Unlimited. Now you can purchase a 3 month license for the project starting this month (and outfit everyone very reasonably, I might add). When the project is done, your licenses are done too. If you need another project, buy a few more short-term licenses.

If you have a consistent group through the year, buy a longer term license for them, and a shorter term license of others. You can mix and match licenses just as you can mix and match IntelliGantt, IntelliGantt Plus and the IntelliGantt MS Project Add In.

It's the same product with the same features. Basically you decide how long you want it to run. It's our job to make project management as easy, rich and elegant as possible so IntelliGantt is always your best choice for running a virtual team.

Check out the pricing on our purchase page.

Scoble Interview Published

If you're looking to meet some of the people behind TeamDirection, Robert Scoble provides the chance. Here he is interviewing, of all people, me.

This was a lot of fun to do, and I like how it turned out. My head doesn't even look too shiny.

On a serious note, though, I read on Robert's blog the serious news of the day. I sincerely hope a few bad apples don't spoil what people like Robert bring to the online community. The Scoble show is a great opportunity for companies with cool stuff to spread the word. I, for one, believe he is doing an essential service of connecting consumers and producers. We should be thanking people that put themselves out there like Robert or Kathy Sierra.

They make the world a better place.

Independent Groove User Group Forming

Jim Moffat has taken the initiative and is forming a Groove User Group that looks very interesting. I've joined up and will add what I can. Other prominent Groovers are also coalescing around www.grooveuser.org.

Not to say Microsoft hasn't been pushing Groove hard enough. I'm sure you won't hear anyone say such a thing. I know I'm not going to say Microsoft hasn't been pushing Groove hard enough...

The thing is, it's still a great virtual team solution, but now it has to prove its right to exist within the gargantuan MS Office world. Honestly, Groove could use another zero or two at the end of its install base numbers to become a full-fledged member of MS Office.

But, by providing a still compelling solution for virtual teams, by inspiring enough from its user base to form user groups and maybe even by still having a special place in Ray Ozzie's heart, Groove will get those numbers.

Venture Capitalists, Chickens and Eggs

Don Dodge had an interesting post the other day that speaks to an issue front and center in my mind: Venture Capitalists and Angels invest $40 Billion per year but see only $18B in exits. Why is that?

Venture Capitalists are an interesting breed. They sit on a pile of money, keep it warm and look for the next sure thing to hatch. Most often the next sure thing has already hatched and is busily rewarding the investors who helped them get their start as they make one of life's nicer choices: Acquisition or IPO?

In other words, there are no sure things. It's all about the risk.

So what to make of VC firms that look to 'add value' to a company already making money, but not really big money. Who doesn't want to make really big money, right?

TeamDirection would like to break into the big money stratosphere just as much as the next company, but at what cost? For instance, we are currently building our inside sales presence and becoming more customer facing. Before, we relied on Groove Networks to handle the heavy lifting of Sales and Marketing. This was a nice arrangement as we could focus on some heavy technology-- merging distributed sets of data into one cohesive whole. Presenting multi-user applications in a single steady state to all users. Non-trivial tasks we had to make easy.

This is not to toot our own horn (much). Sales and Marketing are just as difficult and hard-- technology people like myself just don't know it yet. (When they start their own company, they figure it out!) Honestly, it would be nice to have help now and then to build an internal sales and marketing organization. For me, this is the siren song of the VC.

You know technology, We know sales.

Remember back in the day when people were up in arms over rock music being played backwards on phonographs? Even in 2007, it can still be fun thing to do-- especially for VC siren songs. Play this song backwards and you get:

Show us your chicken, and we'll show you our eggs.

It's really odd, but it seems the more successful TeamDirection is becoming, the more VC phone calls I'm fielding. The latest pitch was, in essence:

If you build a successful inside sales and marketing organization, we can help you build a bigger sales and marketing organization.

Hmm.. well, I'm starting from scratch and building something out of nothing. It's kind of like that old tune about becoming a millionaire (I'm not-- I'm referring to Barron's popular refrain):

The First Million is the Hardest.

I'll lay it out straight-- at this point I'm much more interested in getting help building a successful sales and marketing team than applying MBA measurements and improving a successful sales and marketing organization.

Now that is worth a reward, and a lot of chickens, in my humble opinion.

Building Intuitive UIs

If you've read any of my posts at ReadWriteWeb, you know I love to look at things with an eye towards the past. So many times a new problem is really an old problem. Like User Interface Design.

I came across this video (Introducing the Book) while reading Scott Maxwell's blog. After I stopped laughing, I began to think about our own UI and how well it performs for our customers-- especially for a 'complex' business segment like project management.

In my opinion, we're doing pretty well. In fact, we recently did a screencast to show a few UI niceties we bring to project management. Little things like telling you whether your tasks are to the left or to the right of your current Gantt view. Or showing you why you can't link two tasks together-- highlighting the path that would create the circular link.

But I don't think we've built the most intuitive UI by any stretch. Project Management does have a certain amount of complexity. Connecting business systems to the web is not trivial. However, if you happen to hear from a customer 'That's all you have to do?', then you know you're on the right path.

And we do listen to our customers.

A Note for Groove Project Edition Users

Hello out there!

What a transition it has been since Microsoft purchased Groove way back in March of 2005. I'll bet you can count the number of communication updates regarding your Groove product on one hand.

First of all, I would like to stress that TeamDirection will be supporting TeamDirection tools within Groove Project Edition until June of 2009. I know there are many companies of all sizes currently (happily) using this product. It's one of those software releases that just works. So if you're not in a hurry to upgrade to Groove 2007, I understand.

TeamDirection will make it as easy as possible to continue running your feature-rich Groove 3.x software for a couple years to come. We will also make it as easy as possible when you're ready to move to the Microsoft Office edition of Groove.

One thing you should be aware of, however, is TeamDirection has no plans for adding any more features into the Groove Project Edition set. We are very excited about our product mix going forward, of which Groove is a major part. In addition to Groove, we've been able to bring our years of collaborative experience to other platforms as well.

We've added support for SharePoint 2003 and 2007, and a new creation-- our Internet Workgroup, which incorporates Amazon S3 services to make sharing projects ridiculously easy. Groove 3.x was a great market, but now events have pushed everyone into the even larger Microsoft Office ecosystem.

It will be interesting to see what life is like for the Groove customer base once its multiplied by a few factors.

IntelliGantt Milestones

There's a nifty feature in the new IntelliGantt products that we've seriously under-represented. In fact, I just put up a new screencast that mentions it (Tour Project Features).

If I recall, I believe this feature came as a result of a request from Siemens. Their project managers had grown rather cross with dumb milestones. They had gone through the trouble linking milestones to tasks, but then pointed out the futility of their efforts as these milestones behaved as individual entities.

For example, even if all the predecessor tasks of a milestone were to be incomplete, or even late, a milestone could still be marked complete. This made it rather difficult for project managers to filter large projects such that only milestones would be visible. Actually, it wasn't the filtering that was hard, it was the ambiguity of the milestones themselves-- would you trust a completed milestone not knowing the state of its predecessors?

TeamDirection went about solving this problem, and the solution ships with IntelliGantt today. We made our milestones, er... intelligent. If a milestone has a predecessor, then that milestone reflects the status of its predecessor. If the predecessor isn't complete, then the milestone isn't complete.

In fact, this works on down a chain of predecessors. For instance, if the immediate predecessor of a milestone is on track, but its predecessor is behind, then the milestone will be behind. A milestone is only shown as completed if all its predecessors are completed! This lets project managers (or other interested parties) filtering on just milestones get a more accurate read on areas of the project that may have problems.

Displaying accurate information and identifying potential issues as soon as possible gives you more time to communicate issues and make corrections-- both of which help your projects succeed.

TeamDirection has a 15 day free trial so you can try out some intelligent milestones today.

SharePoint/Project Use Case

As we've been enriching our integration with SharePoint and Groove, a use case is coming up that is neither wrong nor right-- it's just expectations.

Currently in IntelliGantt Plus, if you publish a project to a SharePoint workspace, IntelliGantt will be selective in how it updates. For instance, if a GUEST logs into the workspace, obviously SharePoint will not allow them to edit tasks. But what about a contributor?

We've designed things such that, if you are a contributor in SharePoint, you must be assigned to a task in order to update it. We can't tell SharePoint to disable those fields as if you were a guest. Rather, when IntelliGantt Plus synchronizes with the SharePoint task list, it examines who made the change to the updated task.

If you are not a manager, not a guest, but in fact a contributor, then IntelliGantt checks for task assignment. If the contributor is not assigned to the task, the updates will be tossed and IntelliGantt will reinsert its view of the task. If the contributor is assigned to the task, then the changes are reflected in the IntelliGantt project.

This works well for the project manager monitoring the project. They don't want to let just *anybody* update tasks. However, what if team members wish for a less restrictive approach. For example, maybe there are no task assignments. Everybody has the ability to change any task. This is in fact how our Internet Workgroup works, but with SharePoint we wanted to make use of permissions.

Perhaps we need a less restrictive mode? In talking with project managers, no-one wants to give up our current assignment enforcement. However, we do look to be inclusive-- and if some people would like to have more of a 'free-for-all', we are listening.

Freudian Slip

The picture of the Fire Rainbow I posted the other day certainly received a lot of attention. Thanks for all the interesting comments. The one I really enjoyed, however, was a nastygram from, of course, an anonymous commenter.

Pathetic way to steal a photograph, you didn't even clone out the (C) AP. This has to be a joke or you are about as stupid as one can me.

Heh heh, can't argue with that :)

Fun With Blog Statistics -- Who is Using What

We make project management software. And while we would like to do it for every platform, right now our IntelliGantt suite runs only with .NET on Windows platforms, or really good Windows virtualization platforms.

However, anyone can certainly come and look at TeamDirection's wares. And it's interesting to see who does. For example, according to our logs we recently had an XBox come check out the site. Just one so far, but you never know what might be a latent market.

For instance, Microsoft will cringe to hear that Sony has an 1,100% advantage with the number of PlayStation portables visiting TeamDireciton with a full 11 gamers checking out project management software. Maybe they like the simplicity in sharing tasks.

Mac OS makes a surprisingly strong showing, with 12.6% of our traffic. I believe this is because of our rich SharePoint integration. This lets a project manager running Windows use IntelliGantt software, and when they share tasks to SharePoint, Mac users in turn can participate via their browser. Although with a number of 12.6%, a Mac platform has piqued my interest.

Linux makes a showing, but only for 5% of our traffic. Of course, they get the same benefits as make users as Firefox browsers on Linux work just fine for interacting with Microsoft SharePoint. Linux users too can update their assigned tasks.

Finally, for the odds and ends we have the following:

IBM OS/2 12 viewers
Be OS 8
Symbian OS 1

and finally...

Windows 3.x 37 viewers

What are you people doing on Windows 3.x?

The Week Ahead

With all due respect to Frank Sinatra, it's time to start spreading the news.

TeamDirection will be notifying all its customers this week of our new IntelliGantt line of products. The MS Project Add-In is already receiving quite a bit of interest. I think the Internet Workgroup will capture interest as well, provided we explain and present it well.

Which will be my task. I'm looking at creating several screencasts this week. If a picture says a thousand words, then a screencast conveys a user manual!

The IntelliGantt screencasts will be here. The MS Project Add-In screenshots will be here.

And one packaging note: We have decided to bundle the MS Project Add-In with IntelliGantt plus. For $549, this is an insane deal. You get an Add-In for MS Project, you get IntelliGantt Plus which has even more functionality (synchronizing with MS Project summary tasks) AND you get MindManager synchronization.

Your project manager will thank you!

What Digg Taught Me About Attention

Alex Iskold wrote an interesting piece at my favorite blog ReadWriteWeb the other day called "The Attention Economy: An Overview". It's well written, cogent and backed by solid analysis-- as usual. For me the take away quote is this:

It is important to realize that the key ingredient in the attention game is relevancy. As long as a consumer sees relevant content, he/she is going to stick around - and that creates more opportunities to sell.

Quite unexpectedly, I managed to prove Alex's hypothesis this morning. The test case is the blog post right before this one. The one with the pretty picture. Fire Rainbow.

Now this here blog is more of a business blog. You'll notice that if you go to TeamDirection, the corporate blog at the footer of every page is in fact this one. Generally I tailor the content as such. But every now and then I like to put in something fun or unusual-- maybe even funny. I figure blogging is a good tool for people to find TeamDirection and come to know our products.

So I got this really cool picture and I thought:

A) That is amazing
B) Other people would like to see it
C) Amazing pictures often do very well on Digg.

Up to Digg it went. And it got Dugg.

If you enjoy watching the hit counter spin, then this experience is for you. Project Management is typically a workweek topic, so the weekends tend to be quiet at ye olde blogge. But as I type this, Fire Rainbow has managed 1667 diggs. This translates to, at this moment:


7 1/2 Hours of Digging
74,807 Page Views
65,382 Unique Visitors

Given that the purpose of this blog is to talk about TeamDirection, Project Management and our new IntelliGantt line of products one would have to think some number would click to the company site. Even if by accident (falling on the mouse, dog pawing at the owner for a walk, momentary loss of motor control, etc..), some number would click through.

Well, some number did. And that number is ........ 9.

Yes, 9.

Out of 65,382 visitors.

As Alex said:

As long as a consumer sees relevant content, he/she is going to stick around - and that creates more opportunities to sell.

Consider this experience the proof. QED

Ever Heard of a Fire Rainbow?

[UPDATE -- I've been duped -- see below]
[UPDATE II -- If you're curious about Digg and Attention]

Under the category of 'There's something you don't see every day', a friend of friend lives on the Washington/Idaho border and took this shot last week. In fact, I have never seen this before-- wish I had.

In her words:

This is a Fire Rainbow-- the rarest of all naturally occurring atmospheric phemonema. The picture was captured this week, with the event lasting about 1 hour.

Clouds have to be cirrus, at least 20,000 feet in the air, with just the right amount of ice crystals and the sun has to hit the clouds at precisely 58 degrees.

Enjoy




[The Duping Scoop]

Good thing I didn't name names! This email comes in from a good, reputable source (my father-- sorry dad :) Beautiful photo of an event I've never seen before. Add in the fact of local connection and I think 'I can't wait to share this'.

So I go to Digg and write up my title and description (here's the link)

http://intelligantt.blogspot.com/2007/03/ever-heard-of-fire-rainbow.html

And what should show up but the exact same photo from August of 2006. (here's that link)

http://learnandtell.com/2006/08/01/rainbow-that-set-the-sky-on-fire/

Now I'm not one to show the world my family's dirty laundry, but someone's in troooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuubbbbbbbbllllllllllleeee :)

The other reason I immediately believed it? The statistics. I'm a sucker for statistics. 20,000 feet. 58 degrees. Yeah Baby!

And people wonder how rumors and mistruths propagate.

Shhh TeamDirection Doing a Soft Launch

Until next week.

We're still putting the spit and polish on a couple things before let everyone know what's up. But if you're interested, you can get the following before anybody else:

1) IntelliGantt -- Our rebranded Project Management solution that incorporates Amazon's S3 storage services. Now sharing projects with anyone in the world takes about three clicks.

2) IntelliGantt Plus -- Everything that IntelliGantt does, PLUS the ability to tightly integrate with business apps (MS Project and Mindjet MindManager) and collaboration platforms (SharePoint Services 2003 & 2007 and Groove 2007).

3) IntelliGantt MS Project Add-In -- Give the power of sharing tasks to MS Project Standard and Professional without having to buy Project Server-- for less than the price of upgrading MS Project Standard to Professional.

And we have a spiffy new website too.

We've done project management for Groove Networks for many years, but now we're branching out to bigger platforms (SharePoint) and bigger ideas (our 'Internet Workgroup', which uses Amazon S3 to share worldwide).

But don't tell anyone quite yet :)

Interviewed by Robert Scoble Today

That was fun. Of course, Robert didn't bring a makeup person, so there's an excellent chance my bald pate will be gleaming throughout the video. Hopefully the post-production can take care of that!

Don't hold your breath for the video, unless you can hold it for 3 months or so. It's always cool when people recognize you for doing something interesting. Judging by the response we've seen for the IntelliGantt Add In, he's in good company.

The other thing I learned from Robert today is just how many software developers are catching on to Amazon's S3 cloud. I'm actually working on a post for ReadWriteWeb right now covering this very topic, and I better finish it quick before its out of date!

How is TeamDirection using Amazon S3 services? That's the 'Internet Workgroup' option you see in our demo when sharing a project. You don't *need* to know its Amazon on the backend, but just in case you were wondering about scalability and reliablity... now you know.

What does it mean? It means sharing tasks with the person down the hall or a consultant in London is a one-click operation. We'll be releasing it next week, so you'll be able to see for yourself.

Back to work on my punditry, and the new website...

IntelliGantt FAQ

Thanks for the reception!

"Desktop only" MS Project implementations are much more common than most people think and I can definitely see how this could help many organizations use those licenses more effectively.

Dave Garrett
President and CEO of gantthead.com

We think so too.

In that vein, I'd like to run through a list of frequently asked questions regarding our IntelliGantt Add In for MS Project.

1) Does everybody need MS Project?

No, only the project manager who needs MS Project's robust scheduling, advanced costing and more complex features. Everyone else could use a simple browser to update their SharePoint tasks, or a rich, secure Groove workspace-- but IntelliGantt works with both SharePoint and Groove out of the box with no additional installs. If some people prefer a rich, interactive Gantt chart with cool features like Multi-Project view and Instant Messaging, then I can recommend our standard application for $199.

2) What a second, you mean I don't need to install anything on a server, or update my SharePoint configuration? Not even an ActiveX program?

Correct. IntelliGantt works with the standard, shipping task list for SharePoint 2003 and 2007. Groove 2007 doesn't actually ship with a Task List, so we created a simple Groove Form Task List and give it out for free. And no, there's no ActiveX involved.

3) What versions of MS Project does IntelliGantt work with?

MS Project 2003 and 2007 Standard and Professional.

4) How do my SharePoint users become resources in MS Project?

There are two options. Option one happens during the initial publish, or sharing, of a project. When you publish your project to a SharePoint or Groove workspace, IntelliGantt retrieves the members and inserts them as resources within your project. IntelliGantt then keeps track of the resource/member relationship so you can make changes to names, costing and other fields, but still have the proper connection.

OR, you may want to work from a project template, which may contain resources like 'Developer 1' or 'Engineer 2'. If you give these MS Project resources email address, then when a project is shared or updated, IntelliGantt will see if a member with the same email address is a member in the SharePoint or Groove workspace. If so, a link is created.

In both cases, if you assign an hourly cost to your MS Project resources, and your members update their percent complete, the project manager can see cost information updated as the project executes.

5) I see on your site you also support MindManager. Is there a MindManager Add In?

An Add In for MindManager is coming soon! But we do have MindManager integration available today with our Plus product. This lets you synchronize Topics and SubTopics with your SharePoint and Groove users as well. You can even try it today.

6) What external SharePoint host providers do you work with? Can you recommend one?

We will work with any Windows SharePoint Services V2 or V3 provider. Our goal is to work with as many as possible, and partner with the ones that make sense.

7) In addition to SharePoint and Groove, the demo also showed 'Internet Workgroup'. What is an Internet Workgroup?

You will have to wait a week or so before I can answer that one. But I can promise you it'll be worth the suspense!

8) OK, how much?

$299 for a single license. This is an insanely great deal in that one license lets a project manager interactively share tasks with all the members of a team, lets a team use a simple browser to report progress and raise issues and gives a window to management what's going on.

I'll be able to provide more information as we get closer to release, which is getting closer by the day.

Again, thank you all for your interest in IntelliGantt.

IntelliGantt Add In for Microsoft Project in Action

Sure I posted a couple of screenshots of our new Add In for Microsoft Project (standard or professional), but here it is in action. Mind you, this is not available yet. As a reader of this blog, you get a sneak preview! But, hopefully next week, the whole world gets to download and try it out for themselves.



I should also warn you this demo has an audio track narrated by yours truly, but don't let that dissuade you.

Feel free to comment on what you see, or shoot me an email if you want more information, or just want to be alerted when this product becomes available.