PROJECT Management explored

The upgrade of Community edition to .NET at version 2.0 resulted in many clear and visible advantages for users including a more convenient layout, drag and drop, hyperlinks and support for multiple methods.

However there were just as many powerful new features introduced as part of the background technology set including multiple language support, files only data management, improved installation routines and portable mode.  It is this last item we will focus on here.

Because Community Edition is a .NET application and is a files only application it can be operated in a portable mode.  What do we mean by portable mode?  it means you can load the application and all it's managed projects, view folder and check out folder areas onto a portable data device such as a USB stick or an SD card and take your whole Community Edition set up with you from PC to PC.

This makes it great for the PM on the move, for consultants working on customer machines and in fact for anybody who wants to use Community Edition on their work PC but who doesn't have admin permissions to install CE....you dont have to.

So here is how it works in practice...arrive at a PC, plug yoru USB stick or SD card into the PC and once it is recognised browse to Community Edition executable and start it.  Once started use it to manage your PRINCE2 or DSDM Atern projects....yes it is as simple as that. 

In practice when you start Community Edition it requires the .NET framework to operate and this will be already installed on your host Windows PC Which is why you can move everything around so easily.

When you come to install Community Edition instead of choosing the default install location into Program Files, browse to your desired location and continue.  When on the Choose Components step make sure you select the Portable Mode option and then wait for the installer to finish.  If you are  wanting to use CE on a corporate PC for which you don't have Admin rights you can use this approach and instead set the install location to My Documents and Portable Mode will work very well for you here.

If you have already installed CE to your program files location and you now want to take it walkabout you, go into options and change the mode to portable and then grab the set of files from your Program files location and move them to the desired portable device.  Please note that once set to Portable mode CE will not operate in the program files are, Install mode MUST be used in the Program Files area.

I hope you have found this interesting and that it has introduced you to a fantastic new capability of Community Edition we know that the CE users who have discovered it like this feature.......but it is the best kept secret that deserves to be shared!