Dear Colleague

Welcome to the December edition of the PROJECT in a box newsletter.  This month we are previewing the version 2.4 release due for January and highlighting our  Case Study in this month's Project Manager Today. 

Also an introduction to how you can personalise your project methods and what this can bring to your projects and team members.

Malcolm West, Managing Director

All new web browser - Version 2.4 Preview

Version 2.4 will provide a significant extension to the way in which users can work with their documents.  Traditionally users have been able to view documents, and published reports from either the Browser client (Enterprise Hub) or the .NET client (deployed software) but have only been able to make changes or add new content from the .NET client.  This has sometimes restricted Mac, Linux or mobile device users from fully contributing to the project, but not any longer.

With Version 2.4 the browser client will provide additional capabilities for Manager and Team users:

• Navigate the project in Process mode
• Check out, modify or distribute and check in files under the control of the permissions model
• Add new project content including files, emails and linked sources to share with your colleagues
• View published reports from the new Report Library
• Browse the all new team console 

These capabilities will give users a real flexibility around choice of platform they work on with general day to day project working available from Browser on any Operating System or even portable devices like smart phones.  In addition Manager users will be able to produce real time dashboards or project reports from the Browser client enabling you to get a live status on your project from even your mobile phone.

The Enterprise Hub has been given a fresh new look which can be extensively personalised to fit into a corporate scheme.  And we haven't forgotten the view only Browser users, they still retain the easy to use single page summary of project activity but now have access to the improved Reports Library as well.

Version 2.4 also enables managers producing reports to auto publish them into the project for other users to view, when used in conjunction with the notifications this makes it easy to publish a report and invite your colleagues to come and view it all in one go.

Click to view the Preview Tour...  |   If you want to join the Beta test just let us know...

Case Study - Personalising PRINCE2

The December edition of Project Manager Today contains a PROJECT in a box case study covering the use of the software with Olympic software in New Zealand.

The title "Personalising PRINCE2" very much reflects the way in which many customers use PROJECT in a box to ease PRINCE2 into their organisation enabling it to have their own scale and feel.

Read the case study...  |   See the document library...

Personalising your project methods

Read on for an intro or jump straight to the 10 minute Video tutorial to see it in action.

A central part of using PROJECT in a box for most people is the capability it provides them to personalise or customise the methodology they use in their organisation.

Community Edition has a 'Complete PRINCE2' method provided as recommended in the manual making it very helpful to support learning of PRINCE2 and to see how the full method is applied in complex environments.

In practice though, most projects which use PRINCE2 are less complex, less risky, less expensive than the type of projects which the full method was developed to address.  PRINCE2 itself copes with this by including the idea of scaling and tailoring, i.e. slimming back how the method is applied for less demanding projects.  In fact OGC has a sister publication to the PRINCE2 manual titled "Tailoring PRINCE2" dedicated to this topic.

With PROJECT in a box you can tailor and personalise on many levels depending on your requirements and we have listed some of them here for your convenience:

• Define just one set starting point (Method Template or MT) for all projects or have different MTs for different types of projects you deliver;
• Use one of our four standard PRINCE2 or sales process MTs as a starting point for your personalisation or create your own new Custom MT from scratch;
• Any number and combination of processes you desire and any arrangement of diagrams and menus to control navigation;
• Use of top level (project) documents as well as repeatable (stage) documents and folder driven archive (specialist) documents, which can be aliased to reflect your needs;
• Include any template files or source information links you wish in your launched project from the MT, either simply edit ours for your logo, edit the content as well or add your on files as you prefer;
• Include your own reporting data collection fields (project attributes) and reporting RAG flags for each type of MT;
• Once projects are created from an MT, users with sufficient permissions can customise the content to the circumstances of the project by adding or removing documents, all of which is recorded in the audit trail.
  

 
To see all this in action view the video tour (10 mins).

With PROJECT in a box we put this control in your hands and provide you with a free Method Manager tool so you can manage and update your Method Templates yourself  thereby giving you ownership of your methods.

If you want we can also do this work for you or help with guidance and workshops as you develop your methods, we will treat your methods and content in full confidence and accordingly the material we show in the tour above is mocked up rather than actual content.

...and finally