Transcript PMP Exam Prep

February, 2013
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PMs manage a LOT of stuff:
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Proposal
Contract
Charter
Guiding Principals
Scope Management
Requirements Management
Risk Management
Staff Management
Asynchronous Work
Geographical Team Distribution
Stakeholder Management
Communications Management
Integration Management
Lessons Learned
Procurement Management
Knowledge Sharing
Tracking and Reporting
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Document Management
Version Control
Change Management
Asset Management
Configuration Management
Financial Management
Issues Tracking
Incident/Problem/Defect Tracking
Action Item Tracking
Basis of Estimate/Estimating
Meeting Management
Call Management
Collaboration
Business Opportunity Capture
Research
Sandbox
… and lots more!
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Nearly every PM has some tools available, such
as:
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Microsoft Project/Primavera
SharePoint/Notes
Web-Based Project Management Toolkit (e.g., EPMLive)
Company Portal
Company-made or purchased Templates
Office Productivity Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Access)
Outlook/Notes (email, calendar, contacts, ToDo)
Telephone
Web/Video Conferencing
Time Tracking Tools
Business Intelligence Tools
Business Process Automation
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Some PMs have access to additional tools … if
the contract can afford to pay for them
◦ Version/Source Control (e.g., SubVersion, Jira)
◦ Requirements Management (e.g., Caliber, Rational, Contour)
◦ Testing Management (e.g., Silk Central, Rational, HP)
◦ Workflow Management (e.g., MetaStorm, BMC)
◦ Incident/Problem Tracking (e.g., Remedy, Jira, Serena)
◦ Etc…
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While these tools work for their targeted functional
area, they typically leave some gaps regarding the full
set of tools that can help PMs.
In particular, these gaps are:
◦ Information Management and Sharing
◦ Integration between Data Sources
◦ Collaboration and Team Building
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SharePoint, the Portal, Web-based PM tools, email, and
intranet project folders provide some information
sharing and some integration, but in general “it ain’t
purty, and it sure ain’t fun”.
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If your folders are
well organized,
you might get
something like
this:
◦ With well named
documents
 Descriptive Titles
 Version IDs
 Dates
 etc…
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But for many, you
might get something
like this:
◦ With documents that have
cryptic names
 QPR013.doc
 No Version IDs
 No Dates
 etc…
◦ What are the Tasks?
◦ What the heck is PZD2?
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The same can be true of a SharePoint or Notes
site
However, you need to know where to look to
find documents, and you still have to open files
to get to the information
Searching project content is not easy and is
frequently not useful
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Outlook and Notes can provide some
integration between emails, attachments,
contacts, calendar appointments, and ToDo
items
◦ But, unless you’re into advanced journaling, really
useful integration and linking is quite limited.
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Wiki pages on SharePoint and Web-based tools
can provide some links and integration
◦ But Wikis are not particularly easy to build or maintain
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Again, Wikis on SharePoint and Web-based
tools can provide some collaborative workspace
and team building support
◦ But Wikis are not particularly easy to build or maintain
◦ Notification of updates or new content is challenging,
when available
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So, how do we fill these gaps for information
sharing, data integration, and collaboration?
◦ The answer is actually right under our noses…
◦ Microsoft OneNote
 OneNote of part of Microsoft Office
 OneNote is installed on most PCs with Microsoft Office
installed
 OneNote on the Web is free
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If you have a PC with Microsoft Office installed, you likely have
OneNote (it is part of MS Office)
There are three versions:
◦ 2003 is barely functional
◦ 2007 is nice, but
◦ 2010 is much nicer
◦ 2013 coming soon
◦ Just Windows, iOS, and Android
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Start Button ( <CTL><ESC>)
All Programs
Microsoft Office
Microsoft OneNote 2010
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I drag the icon to my Quick Launch Toolbar in the Tray
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oh, and there is
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Notebooks, Sections, and Pages, OH MY!
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You can easily move pages and sections as needed
It is VERY easy to create content (text, table, image, links, draw)
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Use existing Tags to label content for later search or action
Create your own Tags (SDLC status? EA elements? ITIL ties?)
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Create your own Page, Section, or Notebook Templates
Or, leverage Templates created by others
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Share the Notebook across your team
Changes are Synchronized near real-time
See and Review Changes and Page Versions
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Anyone who can access the location of your Notebook can open
the Notebook
You can password protect Sections in OneNote
And, you can control access to the Notebook, Section Groups,
and Sections using file access controls in your OS
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Copy emails from Outlook for
sharing or document trail
Creates a link in both
OneNote and Outlook
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Create Meeting Note Pages from
Appointments in Outlook
Copies over all of the metadata from
the appointment
Creates links in OneNote and Outlook
Great place to use Templates for
meeting minutes!
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Take note in OneNote about a Word document, or PowerPoint
presentation, or an IE Web page, and have them linked
In this case, we’re ready to take notes on this Microsoft PowerPoint file.
Note the PowerPoint icon showing the link – clicking that takes you to the
content in the linked file
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The OneNote Notebook Template is designed
to be a starting ground, a sandbox, for
Project Managers to use with new (or even
existing) projects.
◦ Just copy the Template, rename, share, and
collaborate!
◦ It is intended to help the PM and Team collect,
organize, find, and share information about the
project
◦ It is intended to fill gaps, not to replace any of the
tools that PMs have available to them
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Staffing
Role
Name
Company
Emails
Phones
Project Manager
Penguin, Albert R.
SRA
[email protected]
703-522-1234
Notes
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Staffing
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Personnel Notes
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The Execution Section
Group is designed to be
flexible according to
the needs of the type of
Project
◦ SDLC Phases are included
in the Template
◦ For Task oriented projects,
just copy the Task Sections
◦ If you have a particular
layout for your Task
information, create a Task
Section Template for your
Project
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The Meetings
and Calls
Section Group
provides a
location for
capturing
meeting
minutes, call
logs, etc.
This is a great
place to use
Templates tied
to Sections
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The Project
Information
Section Group is
primarily designed
as a Sandbox and
document capture
location
◦ Setup Sections and
Pages to suit your
needs for Planning
and Close Out
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Here are proposed
Pages for Project
Documents
included in the
Template
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Here are proposed
Pages for Planning
activities included
in the Template
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Here are proposed Pages for Close Out
activities included in the Template
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The Reporting Section Group is a location for capturing
information for internal and external reporting
◦ Customize as needed, per client expectations
◦ Easy for team members to add their status information
The Tracking and Control Section Group is a location for
managing Action Items, Incidents, Problems, Changes, etc.
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Easy to add information
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Easy to find information
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Easy to share information
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Facilitates collaboration
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You might already have it!