How would it sound to you if by getting a certificate you could pave your way high up in today's highly competitive world of project management. Gaining formal recognition for your professional expertise and experience, enriching your knowledge of skills, tools and techniques involved in effective project management, enhancing your employment opportunities and above all earning better-what if just one single degree could do this for you?

That is what PMP Certificate is all about.

With about 60,000 Project Management Professionals successfully employed and the number still growing, the value of this exam is growing with every new day.

PMP exam is a 200 question, multiple-choice, computer based exam organized by PMI and is the most recognized and valued in the field of project management. The exam is of 4 hours with a minimum passing score of 137 out of 200. The cost of the exam is $405 for a PMI member and $555 for a non-member.

The eligibility criteria for PMP Certification include educational qualifications, agreeing to fulfill the Code of Professional Conduct and pass the PMP Certification Examination.

The applicant needs a bachelor's or globally equivalent university degree, at least 4,500 hours of project management experience( evidence must be to verify the number of hours), three years project management education within past six years, thirty-five credit hours of project management education covering subjects like quality, time management, human resources and integration management. For those who do not possess a degree it is important to have at least 7,500 hours of project management experience, five years of project management experience within past eight years, thirty-five credit hours of project management education covering the above mentioned subjects.

The exam covers objectives such as Project Initiation, Project Planning, Project Execution, Project Control, Project Closing and Project Responsibility. It is important for a candidate to be through in all these fields.

The amount of effort you put in depends on your education and experience. However in about 2-4 months you need to put in about 5 hours every day.

The suggested books to refer include the PMBOK guide, the PMP Role Delineation Study, the Code of professional conduct and the PMP Certification Handbook which can be downloaded from the PMI website. (www.pmi.org )

Other books available are Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling by Harold Kerzner, PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahy.

You can also prepare from the various online sources available which provide mock tests and evaluations.

So go ahead and get that PMP Certificate and improve you future prospects!!

Today with tighter budgets, less time, fewer resources, Tele-Transportation, rapid change, expanding technologies and global marketing managers need to do more with less. To lead business in future they need to get things faster, cheaper and better than what their competitors do. The cost reduction programs and management approaches of the past are not enough to meet today's corporate challenges. Meeting the demands of fast changing environment of modern business requires focus on priorities, better tracking techniques and effective structures for communication.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT is one part of a solution to adapt and prosper. Projects are vital for the success of any business organization. A project is an effort made by the organization to create some new product or service and can result into development of a changed product or service or can bring changes in organizational environment. It requires dealing with people, equipment, task, schedule, critical path, material, cost, contingencies and profit.

Related Links
Experienced Project Managers Stop Learning

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAINING is given to the managers so that they are able to apply fundamental principles, skills, concepts, techniques and are able to manage a project from commencement to delivery. Generally, it is the responsibility of Project Management Offices (PRO) to offer training to staff. Before starting with the training program, the candidate must have minimum requirements, qualification and experience and they shall agree to abide by all rules and principles of professional ethics. Before starting with the classes, the PRO shall take the following steps, as they will help him in better understanding his audiences and delivering what is required.

Scope of Training Program:

The PRO must decide the areas and the stakeholders to cover during his training session. The training can be targeted towards project managers, team managers, functional managers, customers etc.

Need of Training:

This includes finding strengths and weaknesses of the organizations environment and people working in it.

Formulating Strategies and Plan of Action:

This includes dealing with how to achieve what needs to be achieved i.e. haw a training program will be implemented at all levels in the organization. Many options such as distance learning program, coaching, customized regular classes or computer based training programs can be considered at this stage depending upon the requirements, budget and needs of training.

Coaching is a bit different from regular training program, which involves a formal teacher- student relation. A coaching is a more personalized, less structured approach that teaches by putting trainee into real situation he/ she might face while working on his/ her projects.

The various institutes offering formal Project Management Training includes:

* ADVANCED MANAGEMENT SERVICES

* AMA PROJECT MANAGEMENT

* AMERICAN GRADUATE UNIVERSITY

* ATHABASCA UNIVERSITY

* BOSTON UNIVERSITY

* BOSTON UNIVERSITY'S CERTIFICATE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

* BRYANT COLLEGE

* BUSINESS ESOLUTIONS

* BUSINESS MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS

* CENTRE FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT

* COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

* CORE IS LTD.

* CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT

* DATA WAREHOUSE DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

* EDWARDS INDUSTRIES, LLC

* ESI INTERNATIONAL

* ETP STRUCTURED PROGRAMME & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

* GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

* JONES INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

* KELLER GRADUATE SCHOOL

* KELLOGG SCHOOL OF MGMT

* MINDLEADERS

* PM COLLEGE

* PM SOLUTIONS

* PMGURUONLINE

* PMP CERTIFICATION

* PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAINING FROM IBM

* PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAINING INSTITUTE

* PROJECT POWER CONSULTING

* PROJECT SOLUTIONS

* PROTRAIN CHINA

* SILICON BEACH TRAINING

* SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT COURSE

* TIM KRESS & ASSOCIATES PROJECT MANAGEMENT

* UNIV. OF MGMT. & TECHNOLOGY

* XANSA INSTITUTE

To conclude Project Management Training helps in learning methodologies for working with project teams formed across traditional, functional and organizational boundaries. It helps in overcoming with difficulties that project managers face due to complex nature of project, high risk of failure involved and long-term planning processes.

Relevant Links
EdistaLearning.com
QAI, along with internationally renowned guru, Dr. Roger Pressman, have launched an online curriculum called EdistaLearning to address the enormous need for anytime, anywhere, high-quality and cost effective training to train the thousands of recruits being hired in the IT industry today.

There is a large collection of templates and checklists available for project managers on the web. That's cool, so we don't have to invent everything twice

On this page some great resources for this kind of project management toolare listed.

ProjectConnections

Very large library of templates for example for…

Phase 0: Concept - Project Definition; Project Team Setup

Phase 1: Initiation - Project Definition and Requirements; Planning, Scope and Tradeoffs; Scheduling, Costs and Estimating; Team and Communication.

CommercialSolutions

Home of the Project Management Productivity Checklist with steps like Initial Project Fact Finding, Getting Enthusiastic Help From Participants, Planning The Project…

ProjectSmart

Project Smart is an Internet based project management resource that helps managers at all levels to improve their performance.

Templates include Project initiation, project control, project closure; mainly PRINCE2 influenced.

CardBoard

These checklists do act as a guide to the majority of the software development life cycle. Do provide a framework to review project activities. Do help you avoid many of the common causes of project failure.

Included Weekly, Planning, Start Of Project, End Of Project,Development Environment, New Team Member and Estimating a Software Project.

Software Engineering Institute

The SEI is often identified with its CMM work. Over the years, the SEI has developed six Capability Maturity Model products. Some are new and build on the work of the older ones.

CMMs that the SEI is currently involved in developing, expanding, or maintaining are:

CMMI(Capability Maturity Model Integration) P-CMM (People Capability Maturity Model) SA-CMM (Software Acquisition Capability Maturity Model)

All the CMMs can be regarded as extensive checklists.

Gantthead

For me still the number one source for templates and checklists for IT related projects.

Method123

Great templates which include Project Plan, Quality Plan, Feasibility Study, Change Process, Risk Process, Issue Process,Change Form, Risk Form, Issue Form.

"A fool with a tool is a dangerous thing" I heard some one once say. Walking around in the project management profession only makes me a stronger believer of this expression. Especially the checklists and templates available are great project killers. How so?

Are you a true believer of the nifty little project helpers that assist in not forgetting anything? Or do you hate the tools that preprocess the project environment so management doesn't have to use common sense? Take your pick.

As the advantages of project tools like checklists and templates are more widely known, I'll give you just two examples of fools running around with them.

I have actually seen a project manager fill in a risk analysis in an application. The guy answered questions like a madman, to conclude in the end that his project had a risk factor of 6.89. Then man was very happy, and checked his list (!) that he had done risk management for his project. To make things worse, when stating the project had a score of 6.89 the entire project board was very happy. No one actually knew what the number said, what to do, or anything. Including project management.

More widely available is the filling in of templates, just for the template's sake… For the project totally irrelevant questions are answered, with made up answers, just to fill in the blank. Just look at the life cycle of templates. They are born with a guideline how to use them, but during their lives, these descriptions are the first ones to be thrown out of the project management guides.

If you don't get the stupidity of the examples above, it may be already too late for you and your tool.

If you get the subtilty, you might want
to check your company if it is vulnerable for this kind of behavior. For this you have to determine to BSS-factor, bull shit stickiness. Just make up a very professional sounding term, like partial intergral superial testing. Write it in a memo, suggest it during meetings. See if it will be used by someone else then you. The more this person is unrelated to you, the higher the factor.

A high BSS-factor and your company is a fool's garden.

VIP Team To Do List is a professional time and task management software to create, manage, and share to do lists with team members by email. We talked with Sergei Toropov from VIP Quality Software.

How does VIP Team To Do List help reaching "the 7 goals"?

1. Improve project reporting and tracking

VIP Team To Do List features advanced sorting and filtration system that lets you make flexible reports on your projects. The program automatically tracks the time left till task's deadline. You can track the task's status, how much you it has already been done and how much is yet to be done. You can set filters by dates to see what you and your team should do today, next week, this month, etc. If your boss wants a spreadsheet of the projects VIP Team To Do List will export it to MS Excel.

2. Improve estimating and scheduling

Of course, the program lets you schedule project tasks, estimate necessary time to complete each of them and set their deadlines. You can plan recurring tasks and set reminder to be notified when the next round is round the corner. But does it help to improve your estimating skills? VIP Team To Do List automatically calculates how much time left to complete the tasks and you are able to estimate actual time you have and change the due dates before it's not too late.

3. Reduce cost or speed process up by automating workflows

For example VIP Team To Do List automatically forms personal to do lists for all concerned in the project. However what can really reduce costs of your project is our To Do List solution based on Pareto Principle. Prioritize before you schedule tasks and assign your team members! Sometimes we just don't realize how much time we spend on doing things that don't bring us closer to successful results. Priority tool can save you 80% of your time thus saving 80% of your money.

4. Improve resource assignments

Our application won't suggest you whom to assign to a certain task. VIP Team To Do List can make the assignment process easier ? just one mouse click. Alternatively you can drag a project team member from the Resource Assignment Bar and drop it on the task. The program also can show you what tasks a certain human resource is responsible for and what is his progress in doing them.

5. Improve project communication

No yelling to the project team to get your message across. All of you don't have to be in the same room. VIP Team To Do List will automatically send the tasks to assigned employees by email (even to their mobile phones) and after they complete the tasks they send you task report with CSV file you can import and update your project to do list.

6. Improve project team collaboration

The same solution mentioned above. Additionally you can publish personal to do lists on your corporate website so that your remote team members visit it to see what they should do today or this week. The whole process will take you seconds.

7. Improve overall project process

Even in project management where each step is written down in the plan we can wake up in the morning having the world upon our shoulders, with a feeling of procrastination and no idea of what to do today. VIP Team To Do List provides you with time management tools that improve overall project process and relieve your stress.

For more information their website.

PROJECT in a box Professional Edition is a document management system for projects built around the European de facto Project management Methodology, PRINCE2. We talked about it with Malcolm West, Managing Director of Prosis Solutions Ltd, the providers of PROJECT in a box. We talk about the Professional Edition, there is also a free Community Edition available.

The system guides you through what documentation you should be producing or reviewing at each step and provides extensive templates but then goes on to provide you with the framework you need to store, manage and effectively deliver your project documentation and to share this across your delivery team even if they are home workers or are based in other organisations.

1. Improve project reporting and tracking

Project tracking as at the heart of all PROJECT in a box products all documents are attached to the system and can be viewed, checked in and out based on user permissions. When a document is changed and checked in the system records details of the change and builds up a very good audit trail and record of the projects progress. A project reporting wizard enables high permission users to create professional management reports which can be compared against other projects in the portfolio for prioritisation purposes. The reports automatically include latest status from the PM?s notes pages and also summary stats on risk, issue and quality from the current project logs. Activity reports can also be included to show individual users activity on the project providing a rare insight into how project activities are being undertaken.

2. Improve estimating and scheduling

In keeping with our ethos of providing practical tools for project managers the system currently has little in the way of practical tools to support estimating and scheduling beyond the template documents. In our experience almost all businesses will have a finance system and company or even manager level preferences about estimating and cost control. Therefore users can manage their information through the system without us imposing a particular format or structure on this exercise which might well clash with the companies own approach. With regard to scheduling, the system will hold and track all known types of planning/scheduling files including MS Project, Primavera, Niku etc. We also have plans for a Product Based Planning module in early 2006.

3. Reduce cost or speed process up by automating workflows

Workflow is very important in PROJECT in a box products, users simply point and click through the familiar PRINCE2 process diagrams until they get to the step or ?sub process? they need to undertake. This makes it very quick to move around your project and the impressive document management capability means wasted duplication of effort is pretty much eradicated. Because of the nature of PRINCE2 and that we enable people to tailor the PRINCE2 management products to fit the needs of their business and project portfolios there is no enforcement of the order in which sub-processes or documents are completed. This striking of a balance between prompting on activities rather than over constraining is very popular with team members, project managers and project sponsors alike.

4. Improve resource assignments

This is not currently a major part of PROJECT in a box Professional edition which is primarily aimed at organizations who have never before required or been able to afford a projects management system. An all to common problem with implementing in such teams and organizations trying to do too much at once and overloading the capacity of the team to learn a system while trying to do the ?day job? and deliver the project. We take this very seriously allowing users to continue using their current tactical tools in spreadsheets or small databases for this sort of activity while concentrating on providing structure and process in the more fundamental aspects of project delivery. A resource management module is planned for release in 2006.

5. Improve project communication

Good project communication is essential to the success of any project and Professional edition provides the tools to help build a culture of communication. All team members have their contact details published in the system alongside their personal white board where they can leave messages for their colleagues and visa versa. These contact details and white boards are accessible from numerous locations through out the system to enable communications to be established, when required, very quickly. Basic Outlook integration has also been provided to enable documents to be checked out directly to email in a single click operation for communications outside the core project team, the same system can also be used to quickly construct team email circulars and other communications.

6. Improve team collaboration

PROJECT in a box Professional Edition has been built with a wide range of collaboration options in mind. It?s Microsoft .NET and web services technology enables it to be used just as easily over a local network within a business as over the internet or as a mixture of the two. When used with SSL certificates Banking level 128bit encryption ensures that none of the information communicated between client user and server can be intercepted. In combination with the permissions model this means that your home workers and collaboration partners can have complete access to your particular projects at the same time as your customer gets read only access and the rest of your organisation is working on a range of different projects that your partners and customer don?t even know exist. Of course with our activity reporting high permission users can also see how effectively this is being used!

7. Improve overall project success

As we said earlier in our answer to question 3, we believe that in 80% of applications too much control and ?enforcing a process? can be detrimental to the project as the user feel they are a slave to the system. Also because we all know that every project is different when you need to do something outside the prescribed flow it can be painful, time consuming and expensive to suspend the model. We therefore make it very clear what is expected to be done at each step or sub process and make it clearly visible via history if it has been done, when and who by but we leave our project team in charge of deciding the priority of what gets done when and by who.

Following the lead of engineering companies Projects are fast becoming the way that most organizations, even in the service sector, deliver their business. This has created a discontinuity in the projects management software market as almost all the systems available have been developed with large highly structured organizations with an ingrained project culture in mind. What?s more they are expensive, frequently starting at ?5,000 or more and requiring extensive implementation support. PROJECT in a box has bucked this trend by providing in Professional Edition an organisation scale system from around ?50 per user where the whole organisation can use it for ?5,000 without the need for Implementation consultancy. You shouldn?t even have to be a good Project Manager to see the benefits of this!

Professional Edition builds on the established concept of Community Edition which launched earlier in 2005 already has over 3,000 users world wide and is the most popular personal PRINCE2 management system in the world. Community Edition has the same core capability as Professional in the process flows, templates, document management and audit trail as well as some useful export tools. It?s biggest advantage though is that it is completely free and can be used as long as you like and for an many projects as you like on your PC. When you are ready to move up to Professional and share your projects with your colleagues you can upgrade your software and your projects will migrate straight over.

Same-Page.com offers eStudio a virtual office environment for dispersed work groups. Within an eStudio there are multiple features that help users collaborate online. The TaskTracker features provides a complete project management solution within the eStudio complex.

How does the TaskTracker project management module in eStudio help reaching "the 7 goals"?

1. Improve project reporting and tracking

eStudio offers three ways of tracking and reporting a project. The GANTT chart system for a visual representation of a tasks in a project, Supervisor Reports provide html reports that filters tasks by task status, by responsible user, and by milestone. A Work Log report that keeps track of time spent on each task.

2. Improve estimating and scheduling

The TaskView includes the SEA (schedule, estimate, active) GANTT chart that provides a snaphot view of the estimated completion for each tasks in a project based upon it's current percentile complete. Project scheduling can be enhanced by utilizing Calendar filter system to view all tasks and a Work Log report that keeps track of time spent on each task.

3. Reduce cost or speed process up by automating workflows

eStudio TaskTracker provides managers with a methodolgy for replicating "Cloning" a project or a sub-project. This feature insures a fast start to subsequent projects. Users are offered several ways of inputting their efforts: register time, percentile complete and status change.

4. Improve resource assignments

The Supervisor Reports allow management to drill down to see how a particular user or resource is fairing on tasks.

5. Improve project communication

eStudio provides email notification options for all newly created tasks, dependent tasks, critical tasks, completed tasks. These messages may be sent to each affected user or project manager. TaskTracker has a complete Issue Management system for communicating and tracking problems related to tasks and to projects. Frequently used for bug tracking the TaskTracker Issue Management system allows users to upload 3 files related to a problem.

6. Improve project team collaboration

eStudio's TaskTracker module provides a central location (usually online) with discrete, secure access by users. Each user has an independent view of his tasks, files, and scheduled activities. Other integrated collaboration tools available at no charge in an eStudio include a live chat module, discussion boards and polling software.

7. Improve overall project process

Same-Page.com eStudio is designed to allowed dispersed workgroups to manage projects, schedules and documents online. We provide free browser based training and online flash tutorials to insure that users get on the same page. Online project management software can make the difference in is your project's successful completion and your bottom line profits.

For more information visit their website.

InterPlan Systems offers the project planning software tool eTaskMaker. We talked with Bernard Ertl from this company about how his product contributes to reaching the 7 goals for implementing project management software.

What is eTaskMaker and how does it help reaching "the 7 goals"?

eTaskMaker is a front end project estimating, planning and scheduling tool. It provides a platform for standardizing and improving best practices in estimating, planning and scheduling across the enterprise for companies that execute projects that are repetitive in nature (such as maintenance, construction, etc.). We currently offer planning modules targeted to industrial plant maintenance and construction and maritime/shipyard repair. However, the system is flexible enough to be used for any industry.

1. Improve project reporting and tracking

N/A - eTaskMaker is a front end estimating, planning and scheduling tool.

2. Improve estimating and scheduling

eTaskMaker provides a flexible platform for storing corporate intelligence in estimating, planning and scheduling. With the eTaskMaker Wizard, planners can prepare customized, detailed project plans and schedules based upon quantities, dimensions and answers to multiple choice questions. This allows companies to standardize estimating, planning and scheduling across the enterprise - ensuring that all planners of varying experience can generate plans and estimates conforming to corporate best practices.

The eTaskMaker Module Editor allows planners to modify the eTaskMaker estimating modules or create new ones. This allows companies to refine, improve and extend their knowledge base over time.

Estimates produced with eTaskMaker can be exported to a variety of third party systems for cost estimating and project management allowing a one to one correspondence between estimates and project schedules.

3. Reduce cost or speed process up by automating workflows

eTaskMaker can dramatically reduce the time it takes a planner to estimate, plan and schedule a work order (or job plan). Consider that the process of detailing (and/or customizing) required tasks, durations, resources and PDM schedule logic can take a planner anywhere from 1-4 hours manually (or by editing a historical template). Generating an equivalent plan with eTaskMaker might take 5-10 minutes. When the savings are extrapolated across a large project, a large planning force or a large enterprise, the cost reductions can be dramatic.

4. Improve resource assignments

eTaskMaker will assign (estimate) resource requirements for all tasks. Once schedules are exported from eTaskMaker, resource management (during the project execution) needs to be handled via the project management system of your choice.

5. Improve project communication

N/A - eTaskMaker is a front end estimating, planning and scheduling tool.

6. Improve project team collaboration

eTaskMaker offers a platform storing a corporate knowledgebase of best practices in estimating, planning and scheduling.

7. Improve overall project success

Project planning lays the foundation for successful project management. eTaskMaker enables a company to achieve consistency and quality in their project planning efforts.

Project Planning Software Tool: eTaskMaker

Software firm Logic Software released their software project management application Easy Projects .NET . For me a great opportunity to have a chat with Logic Software's Vadim Katcherovski.

You explicitly state that Easy Projects .NET is an software project management tool. What makes this product especially suited for SOFTWARE project management?

There are plenty of "fits all sizes" project applications with millions of features. In contrast Easy Projects has only those tools and features that you need to manage your software project. Not engineering, not construction, just software. No bells and whistles - usual software project managers just don't have time to spend on learning sophisticated products.

Easy Projects .NET was initially developed as an internal software project management tool and has gradually evolved into a commercial product. Before introducing any new feature or module to the public, Logic Software first deploys this piece of code within our own company and works with it for a while to make sure that it's easy to use.

I have mentioned on my site 7 goals for implementing project management software. How does Easy Projects .NET contributes to the these goals?

Goal 1. Improve project reporting and tracking

Easy Projects .NET provides you with a bunch of ready-to-use reports showing all aspects of a project development process at once. You can view a summary for all projects, resources workload, team member timesheets, estimated time vs. actually spent time, issues and requests statistics. Flexible filters will make it easy for you to see only the information relevant to you at that particular moment. And since the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 is used as a database, you will be able to create custom reports using any third party report engines such as Crystal Reports or Active Reports.

Goal 2. Improve estimating and scheduling

With help of reports and the statistics functionality you can get historical information about your previous projects and use this data to improve your current and future project estimates. Keeping track of employees' or contractors' timesheets and milestones/builds schedule in real-time will help you prevent any slippage, and helps you finish your project on time.

Goal 3. Reduce cost or speed process up by automating workflows

Easy Projects .NET can greatly reduce time and cost of the time tracking, giving all employees, contractors and management officers a centralized tool to track and analyze time spent on any projects. A team member just has to select the project and task assigned to him, put the number of hours spent, specify the status of the task and voila - you have all necessary data in your database.

Goal 4. Improve resource assignments

Auto-assignment is a unique feature of Easy Projects .NET, which will speed up your team response time drastically. Once a new feature request or issue is submitted to your system by the customer, this request or issue will be automatically converted into the task and assigned to a specific team member based on your preferences (username or team role). As soon as the task is assigned, it appears on the person's task list.

The Project Manager can always see who is doing what and re-assign a task from one member to another.

Goal 5/6 Improve project communication and collaboration

Effective team communication is a key to every project's success. Easy Projects .NET provides you with a set of tools that will help you to improve the project communication process.

E-mail notifications and alerts will keep your team members on the "same page" providing them with updated information in real-time. Each user will be able to receive an e-mail when a task or project he is working on is changed or assigned to him.

The message board is another useful tool that will facilitate the project's team communication. You are able to attach a discussion board to each of your project task. You can have as many topics as you need. This feature will help your team to improve communications and keep track of all discussions.

Our File Attachment feature will allow each project member to share the files and notes with the rest of the team.

Bugs and Requests Tracking functionality will help you to stay on top of relationships with your customers and have a detailed project hours log at your fingertips that can be linked to your billing system.

Goal 7. Improve overall project process

Easy Projects has a centralized project management workflow. When the standard process is in place, it's easier to deliver excellent results. The following list shows the key benefits from using Easy Projects .NET:

- Up-to-date project information available to team members online in real-time;

- Reduced paperwork;

- Centralized data warehouse helping to speed project related data search;

You will be able to decrease customer support response time by implementing task auto-assign feature; almost eliminates employees' idle time, providing them with a complete tasks schedule and a project development plan.

My final question, I find it remarkably that customers can buy the entire source code. Why?

First of all - you have full control over the application. If you need to modify something - you don't need to call the vendor and pay extra money for the customization. Another reason - some people want to have a warranty, that if something will happen to the vendor, it won't affect them. Security issues also can be resolved by having the source code.

Software Project Management Suite: Easy Projects .NET

Although SoftwareProjects.org has its focus on software projects, project management can be found in any industry. And every industry has its own details, that makes its PM-process slightly different from other markets.

For for industrial plant maintenance turnaround projects InterPlan Systems created the project management system ATC Professional. We talked with Bernard Ertl from this company about how his product contributes to reaching the 7 goals for implementing project management software.

What is ATC Professional and how does it help reaching "the 7 goals"?

ATC Professional is a project management system designed specifically for industrial plant maintenance turnaround projects. It is a proactive, work order based system incorporating procedures that involve the entire turnaround management team to promote ownership and visibility of the plan, and objectivity and communication in the reporting cycle. It encourages cooperation and allows all team members to contribute and succeed.

1. Improve project reporting and tracking

ATC Professional has over 50 specific reports targeting all members of the turnaround organization (including the Warehouse, Safety, Operations, Field Supervision, Planning and Management) and all phases of the project (including scope development / cost estimating phase, pre-turnaround, turnaround and post-turnaround analysis).

ATC Professional encourages large, detailed schedules to improve accuracy in scheduling and progress reporting. ATC Professional's Lap Book progress reporting system ensures complete progress updates are completed before the start of the next shift - allowing field supervision updated shift schedules to keep focused on changing priorities and management to make critical decisions based upon fresh information.

2. Improve estimating and scheduling

ATC Professional's work order based structure allows easy storage of plans for re-use on future projects. Plans can be detailed with numerous built-in codes for segregating costs (including lump sum contracts/time and material, pre-turnaround, turnaround and post-turnaround, and overhead/direct).

ATC Professional's scheduling engine and bar chart reporting allow for complete transparency of the critical path. Schedules are shown with both working and non-working time on a 24 hour basis so the calendar basis and true float of every task can be read directly from the display/reports.

3. Reduce cost or speed process up by automating workflows

ATC Professional allows managers an effective means to manage/control their turnarounds for the best possible outcome. ATC Professional's Critical Mass and other analysis reports flag potential problems early enough for corrective action to be taken before time and money gets wasted. ATC Professional can also reduce the time required for turnover meetings between shifts.

4. Improve resource assignments

Because the scope for turnaround projects is only partially known at inception (until vessels are opened and inspections performed) and because of the dynamic and unpredictable nature of turnarounds, ATC Professional uses a flexible scheduling procedure for generating workable schedules where field supervision have discretion within their responsibilities. ATC Professional levels resources when reporting resource requirements. It does not level the schedule in an attempt to produce a static plan for the complete project. This flexibility allows field supervision to have confidence in the schedule and buy in to the system leading to greater cooperation and success.

5/6. Improve project communication / team collaboration

ATC Professional disseminates targeted schedule and progress information to all departments within the turnaround team every shift. The project schedule and status is visible and known throughout the organization.

7. Improve overall project success

ATC Professional allows managers to maintain visibility and control of dynamic, high performance turnaround projects.

ATC Professional Shutdown / Turnaround Management System