SharedPlan News

Pro 4.2 released

roger — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:49:25 GMT

We’ve recently released SharedPlan Pro 4.2.

Pro 4.2 is primarily a performance release but not just any performance release, we managed to wring out a whopping 40x improvement in date/cost/critical-path calculations in large-ish projects!

As always, Pro 4.2 is available for immediate download and installation.

OS Agnostic Software

roger — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:11:33 GMT

There’s a lot of talk in the business press about Microsoft’s Vista impending collapse. I wish I had a nickel for every time someone has discounted Microsoft - I’d be writing this article from the back of a sailboat in Cane Garden Bay rather than my office in Boulder. Never, ever count Microsoft out. But, that’s not the point of this post.

Included in the aforementioned articles is discussion of the takeover of OS/platform agnostic applications (applications that don’t care about whether they are running on Mac OS X or Windows). With this, I agree - the days of caring about what sort of desktop computer are long, long gone. I don’t agree that the browser is the platform for this evolution but, again, that’s not the point of this post.

The point is that since we began SharedPlan one of our principle goals was to create platform agnostic applications that worked where ever you are whether it’s Mac OS X, Windows, in a web browser or on a mobile device. We’ve made significant progress toward that goal and we have more work to do but today you have access to your project information pretty much where ever there is a desktop computer or network connection.

Our customers are dealing with information related to their projects and telling them that they can only access that information if the have a Mac or only if they have a PC or only if the have a browser connected to the net is unnecessarily constraining.

Customers should demand access to their information from any and every platform whether they are connected to the net or not.

Mildly Corrupted

roger — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:04:43 GMT

I was just reading through a forum for one of the hosting companies we’re considering for Central - we’re pretty sure Twiggy is going to require us to increase our infrastructure but, that’s for another post.

The money quote in this post was:

A … user had an interesting issue today where they restored a file and it was mildly corrupted during the download.

I didn’t read further but the part that caught my eye was the mildly corrupted portion. Mildly corrupted strikes me sort of like mildly pregnant, mildly circumsized, mildly dead - no such thing, either it is or it isn’t.

Anyone that’s worked on networks, systems, and software knows that corruption can and does occur but I’ve never seen anyone describe it as mild.

The trick with data integrity is to never let data corruption silently pass - it must be noted at the time it occurs and appropriate actions taken at the time of the occurrence. Quite often, retries will fix transient issues and failing that you pretty much need to stop the presses and abort the associated operation. Silent corruption is deadly to user confidence.

What our customers are saying…

roger — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:22:08 GMT

Recently, we’ve been collecting various comments from our customers and have now made them available on our web site under the Buzz tab at the top of each page.

We appreciate and value all feedback, positive and negative, so please let us know what you think through the link on the comments page.

SharedPlan Software Announces DWIM PM

roger — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:36:48 GMT

April 1, 2008

Today, SharedPlan Software is pleased to announce its new line of project planning and management products - the DWIM family. DWIM is an acronym for Do What I Mean.

Our tools now solve any and all problems related to any and all projects - anywhere on the planet. Do you have problems with the price of oil, global warming, war, pestilence, wilted flowers, playground bullying? No problem, just purchase a copy of DWIM for all involved and your problem will be resolved.

DWIM is equally handy at all levels of an organization. Project sponsors can employ DWIM and avoid all that pesky planning, control, and execution - with DWIM, it’s all handled and everything will be fine. Project contributors can skip all the hard work related to completing projects and just let DWIM handle it and since the project sponsors are also using DWIM they won’t be bothering you.

DWIM is based on days of work by the fine folks at SharedPlan Labs (a wholly owned unsidiary of SharedPlan Software) and given that this is an early version we’re making it freely available to everyone until it works. In the spirit of bootstrapping, we’re using DWIM to create DWIM so we aren’t quite sure when DWIM will be released as a supported product.

Do you know where your nukes are?

roger — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:44:10 GMT

Yesterday, I was scanning a news site and noticed a headline along the lines of:

Pentagon Ordered To Locate All U.S. Nukes

Sometimes I think comedians and cartoonists have too easy of a job.

Google Checkout now available

roger — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:39:07 GMT

Earlier this week we introduced Google Checkout as a payment method for our products.

Of course, you may continue to use our existing online store for secure and quick purchases or use Google Checkout - the choice is yours (as it should be).

Customer Creativity

roger — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:18:38 GMT

Early on, we added the ability to associate a web page URL with many attributes of your project plans. You can add a URL to each task, to each project, to issues - pretty much everywhere in SharedPlan.

In recent discussions with some of our customer we’ve found that a common way to employ these links are by linking to Google Docs (documents, spreadsheets, and presentation).

So, if you have a (free) Google Docs account and want to integrate documents into your plans just copy the link to the document from your browser to any of the places in SharedPlan that accept links and you will then have one click access to any project related documents.

The number of creative ways our customers are using SharedPlan in their project planning and management continues to amaze and encourage us!

SharedPlan Connect: Pro 4.1, Twiggy, iPhone

roger — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:02:19 GMT

Pro 4.1 Released

We’ve just released Pro 4.1. A new feature that we think you’ll find handy is the ability to directly manage resources and assignments as well as send email to assigned resources from the Network Diagram and Gantt chart editors. Just right click on any task and you’ll see two new entries in the menu: Email Assigned Resources, and Assignments.

Selecting ‘Email Assigned Resources’ will create a new message using your mail application with the assigned resources as recipients. This is a great way to get an update or pass along news to the resources - project success is all about a little planning and a lot of communication!

Selecting ‘Assignments…’ will display the resource editor where you may quickly add resources to the project or assignments to this task.

All Pro 4 customers may freely upgrade to Pro 4.1 - just download and install the latest and greatest. And of course if you would like to purchase or upgrade to Pro 4.1 it’s quick and secure to buy Pro 4.1.

Twiggy Update

We’re making solid progress on Twiggy (our Gantt chart editor that will be available through your web browser). You can see a screen shot of an early version of Twiggy and our new TeamServices interface.

Once we release Twiggy you’ll be able to edit your plans from the richness of Pro on your Mac OS X or Windows desktop or from any web browser on the planet! No other company can offer you that flexibility.

iPhone Application Contest

We’re geeks at heart and were really excited by the recent announcement from Apple regarding an iPhone SDK. We have some ideas about extending our products to the iPhone but, as always, we would love to hear what you would like to see on the iPhone.

So, let us know how an application on the iPhone could help you successfully complete your projects or, even something as far out as a project related game.

The person that submits the best idea will receive a US$50 gift certificate redeemable at Amazon.com. Deadline for submission is 22 March 2008. Submit your idea.

Don’t fail on the simple stuff.

roger — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:04:58 GMT

Last night I was listening to NPR and heard a story regarding Project 28 - a problematic Department of Homeland Security project involving a 28 mile long ‘virtual fence’ along the southern border of the U.S. with Boeing as the contractor.

As I listened to the NPR piece and the fellow from the Government Accountability Office enumerated the three lessons (about 2:30 into the piece) from this project it struck me that failure to follow these guidelines are the very reasons many projects fail.

1. Involve customers in the definition of the project deliverables.

2. Test before deployment.

3. Manage expectations.

From the comfort of our office chairs we look at that and think how could a company as sophisticated as Boeing fail on such elementary items. No doubt, it took a lot of work by the fellow from the GAO to bring the issues down to the essential three items but had the project started off following those basic guidelines the outcome would have likely been much different.

Most all of us are involved in projects that are complex but adherence to a few simple guidelines can? help prevent falling into the same trap.

This notion is also one of the guiding principles behind the features and benefits of our project planning and management tools: the probability of project success is inversely proportional to the complexity of the plan and directly proportional to the communication amongst the project participants.

Biodiesel processor

Mon, 12 May 2008 20:57:24 GMT

Description: building a Laming Eco-Processor

Last updated: Mon May 12 14:57:24 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

fbfdb

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:13:00 GMT

Description: bfddb

Last updated: Wed Apr 30 03:13:00 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

construcció vivenda

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:43:51 GMT

Description: és un projecte de demo per al curs de ProMa

Last updated: Wed Apr 16 15:43:51 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

WEEKEND AWAY

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:36:17 GMT

Description: for PEC only

Last updated: Tue Apr 08 03:36:17 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

123

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:13:59 GMT

Description: tb

Last updated: Sat Mar 29 20:13:59 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

HEM

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:42:19 GMT

Description: Eerste planning voor HEM

Last updated: Tue Mar 25 14:42:19 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

test2

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:45:42 GMT

Description: ssss

Last updated: Tue Mar 25 02:45:42 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

Test

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:27:29 GMT

Description: testing

Last updated: Sat Mar 22 10:27:29 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

typical

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:16:03 GMT

Description: for use as demo with NESMA

Last updated: Wed Mar 19 18:16:03 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

The17_II

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:14:22 GMT

Description: Bill Drummond's performance for Quad opening

Last updated: Wed Mar 12 08:14:22 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

The17

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:21:26 GMT

Description: Bill Drummond's performance for Quad opening

Last updated: Wed Mar 12 07:21:26 MDT 2008

A project summary page with additional information is available.

How do I create a private account in Central?

It's really pretty simple. Complete...

How do I delete a public project?

In case you store a project in the public...

Is there any way to place text onto the Network Diagram to describe the project etc.?

Yes, you can add annotations (Stickies) to the...

I removed SharedPlan accidentally. How can I reinstall it?

To reinstall SharedPlan simply go to our...

We usually have 3 to 5 projects going at one time. We'd like to be able to see all the projects and how they effect resources, as well as allow some participants to see only their project. How can SharedPlan support that?

To accomplish this, you create one master...

Will I be able to open my old Projects created with Pro 2.X when I upgrade to Pro 3.X?

Yes, projects created with Pro 2.X can be...

I downloaded the trial version. Could you send me a sample project that shows critical path?

Sure, there are thousands of user contributed...

Is there a serial number that I can use to try out the software?

Actually you do not need a serial number to try...

Will sharedplan work on a t-mobile mda pro running windows mobile 5, and could projects be shared between this device and my mac desktop and laptop?

SharedPlan will not work on a t-mobile. It...

The application is asking for a serial number ... I thought I downloaded the trial version?

Yes, you downloaded the trial version.If this...