Why is it that we all seem to allow for things to go undone for long periods of time? Personally, I’ve been guilty of leaving small tasks, which might take 2 hours to complete, go undone for over a year. Am I a lazy person? I don’t think so but then again I have been known to push a few things off which could get done here and now.

I’ve had to question what makes some tasks rise to priority while others just hang in the background for what seems to be eternity. In reflection, I’ve arrived at these insights. (more…)

I’ve now been using SantexQ beta for 24 hours and thus far, pretty darn good for beta and all-in-all a useful tool. I was introduced to SantexQ by one of the comments posted by a reader of our BaseCamp article. The comment couldn’t of come at a better time. We are currently working on our own task management program developed around the way we work. We are developing it out of a need to replace BaseCamp (we’ve outgrown it’s use) and to offer yet another program for task management.

Pros:

I like the overall organization of the system and how it places tasks at the center of the project management process. It is easy to setup and start using. In under 15 minutes I added our team, a few clients and a handful of tasks. Best of all the system is free. I hope it stays that way.

Cons:

The date selector on tasks didn’t allow me to directly enter the date, I was forced to use the calendar tool instead. I feel like the task add page could have been shortened up if organized more efficently and I also wasn’t a fan of the fact it required me to add various fields, like a description. In some instances, a subject is sufficent enough.

I didn’t look at the tool’s billing / time-tracking features because we use ClickTime, and that product is hands down the best tool for time-tracking.

I certainly encourage our readers to give it a try, especially since it’s free.

Since leaving Refinery in 2002 to help start Imulus, I’ve been on a quest to find decent project management software for OSX. At Refinery all project management was handled in Microsoft Project; however when we started Imulus, I chose to go with OSX as my primary operating system which then severely limited my project management software options.

I first started with FastTrack Scheduler only to be very disappointed in it’s usability. We then decided to use 37Signal’s BaseCamp, which we still use today. There is however limitations with BaseCamp. It works very well as a client facing tool to manage deliverables and thread conversations yet it fails at managing large projects with various task / activities and resources.

I now believe I’ve found the perfect answer to my project management woes, Merlin2. I started using this software 2 weeks ago and it is immediately intuitive, easy to use and it produces excellent reports which clients and project teams clearly understand.

Merlin2 has all the primary features that Microsoft Project and then some. Other then the reports, two of my favorite features are the utilization view and the document versioning. Under utilization view I have a quick visual as to the resource allocation across projects. The document versioning let’s me save edits on my documents as various versions so I can have a documented history on the project.

I highly encourage any project manager or development lead to give Merlin2 a try. I’ve been extremely pleased by this well built, intuitive software.

Here’s a really interesting web application made for the graphic designer’s workspace. ConceptShare created a web application playground to present visual design among interactive users in order to communicate design and gather feedback.

ConceptShare seems like a great communicator tool between designers and their clients. Most designers prefer to meet with their clients in physical space when presenting visual designs, but there are times when that communication needs to happen over the phone or e-mail. This could lead to potential confusion and time loss. ConceptShare solves this problem by allowing designers to import multiple desings and chat with multiple clients at the same time. Each design sample can have multiple comments and drawings on top of visuals that are well organized.

ConceptShare works well not only for designers in their professional field, but also for students taking e-learning classes. Although you have to send your e-mail and wait for a registration request, it’s still worth the wait-time to try out this web application.

Sitemaps are a fairly typical method interactive agencies employ to communicate website structure and content flow. Sitemaps do a fairly good job at communicating the site architecture on small to mid sized websites; yet they are somewhat unwieldy for larger sites, so try this approach.

At Imulus we use OmniGraffle to quickly develop sitemaps for our clients. For large sites we approach a sitemap in various phases.

Phase 1: The General Overview
Work with the client to define the top level and sub level content structure. Focus on the priority and the organization of which items will appear in the top 2 levels. Often you will find this is the most time consuming area to find agreement on.

Phase 2: Breakdown Each Section
Take each section and develop a separate sitemap dedicated to that section. This will allow you to focus on the specific content under level 3 and 4.

Phase 3: Change Management
Get client sign-off on phase 1 before moving into phase 2. This *should* help in controlling changes which move content from section to section. Get approval on phase 2 by section. For instance, work on the product section first before moving forward into the solution section or the support section.

Hopefully this process will help you better define site architecture while minimizing changes.