Mobile Visualization for Project Management

Five Collected Interviews

Demographic Information
What is your job title? Randy Katherine Chad Roberto Leonardo Grinding Fluid Manager Grant writer. Not only am I responsible for assisting and writing grants, but I also manage people through the grant proposal process. Assistant dean of SOIS I was a coordinator in construction engineering. Basically an engineer. Im a senior project manager for Brook Stevens Design.

How many years of experience do you have doing project management? Randy Katherine Chad 34 years Id say about 10 years. 12 years I was working for this company on this project for two years. It was one project, but this project was composed of different tasks. So basically it was one big project, but it was divided into sub-projects. About 7.

Roberto Leonardo

General questions about project management

What kinds of projects do you usually manage? Randy Currently, distributor growthbuilding business through new distributors/customers (for grinding fluids.) Generally, I put teams together around an idea. For example, when I was volunteering for the city of Kenosha, I co-managed a team of volunteers to create an event that would promote green living and alternative methods of transportation and growing food, to raise awareness. Thats one example of a project I managed, for an event. Related to this job, I put together a group of people to get a grant for the city for bicycling. We applied for a grant to have a pilot planning year. Usually Ill come up with an idea thats something that needs funding, usually for a non-profit. IT projects, human resources (hiring: job description, interviews), schedule of courses (affects students, professors, faculty), enrollment issues, coordinating events for student services We were working with projects that dealt with engineering construction. We were focused on controlling the money spent on each project -- the budget, raw materials and the work made by people. Innovation and product development from industrials to consumer products to motorcycles, heavy production.

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What is your typical project time frame (1 month, N months, 1 year)? Randy Multiple months to multiple years. Typically no end, on-going This one is a 20 year process, because you cant think short-term with something like this. SOIS is international, which is really good, were well-respected on campus for that. Id like to expand that to the city of Milwaukee to attract a lot of foreign students here, and also to encourage people to stay and start businesses. There are some other cities in the United States that have done this and really recovered their economies and had a Renaissance in the city because of all the new ideas and international flavor that they bring to the city. Then Id like to see those relationships with where people came from be very active, so that we can promote peace-building with the kids, and teach those languages to kids as theyre growing up. And also teaching English there, and having changes going on with the young people too. Dependent on what it isposition (HR function): month to two months. The schedule of courses is ongoing: 3-4 months for each semester, but there is much overlap in planning for each semester. In construction engineering, you always depend on your client, so your client sets your time. So, it depends. It could be from one month to one year. It always depends on the client. The project we were managing was originally for one year, but it extended to be more than that. Construction is always affected by weather, so. We can go anywhere from one month to one year. Most of my projects have been in a one year frame.

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What kinds of resources are used in a typical project -- human, information, & financial? human (technical and internal/external), information, trade organizations (American Gear Manufacturers Association, Society of Manufacturing Engineers) Definitely the computer, the phone, physically meeting with people, so human. Theres a lot of research that goes on, so library sources and the internet. We dont use a lot of financial resources, because this is my job and for every faculty member, its their job as well, to be seeking funding. All of thosesome have no financial resources initially, but it does factor in (such as number of students enrolled eventually affects revenue.) Job searching involves human resources (HR assistant and members of Search and Screen committee.) We need human, we need financial information, we also depend on weather. We need to have very good control on how many raw materials were going to use on each specific project. For example, we can run short on something when were far from a supplier. Mostly human.

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How do you manage these resources? (Give example)

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Being strategy-focused. Most work is done in-person (travel). Use emails as link between on-site personnel and off-site. Well, in terms of working with a person, Im on the phone with them, and also emailing and texting. Example, hiring someoneI initiate the process, then there is a trajectory as the process goes through HR, checking the budget, and then gets back to me. 85% of the time we use email communication. When you get to the point of interviewing someone that should definitely be done face-to-face. Basically, by controlling the final cost. So, we had to always play with the prices for both the people who were working for us, and also for the raw materials. Basically we were controlling prices. Based on their skills, mostly. Every resource is based on the skills and needs for the project, and availability.

How many people are usually involved? Internally: half-dozen; externally: dozens. This is all very dependent on the project and its maturity, however. Fewer people in the beginning more at full maturity. Distributor growth, for example, begins with a few key people then moves on to about a dozen sales people. For the grants, youve got two or three PIs, then you have Laura, the office manager who has the budget information. Then you have Hope, because she has to approve of everything. Then you need at least two reviewers, so were up to seven, and ideally thered be internal and external reviewers. Id say there could easily be 10 people involved each time, and that might be on the low side. And I forgot to mention, in the graduate college, theres somebody whos involved at the beginning as well. No matter what the project is, if you have an idea you have to create whats called a whisper (?) record right away. Its a program in the graduate college, and theyre supposed to keep track of every project in the school. Get this -- Jennifer, at the graduate college, told us two weeks ago during the big snow in D.C., there were a lot of grant deadlines on that Friday. Everybody was trying to submit grants from all over the U.S. Youre not supposed to submit at the last minute because it jams the system, and you can get rejected just from that. Anyway, Washington was closed. Five grants came into her office on that day, the first time shed ever seen them, and they wanted them to be processed. Not only could she not process them because Washington was closed and grants.gov was down, but she had never seen these records before. Thats what UWM is trying to avoid right now, because its bad for everybody. Id be interested to do a study about the relationship between the amount of time spent on a grant proposal and the actuality of getting funded. In general, about three. It depends on every type of project, depending on how big it is and when the deadline is. For example, if the deadline is close, we would focus more people on that specific task and order more equipment. Its going to be variable. It depends on the cost. It could change from 10 to 50 or 100 people. Whats important is controlling the final price. For example, if a task is easier and

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cheaper to get finished by using 100 people, then we use 100 people. If its cheaper by using more equipment, we do that. No matter how you arrange your resources, whats important is the whole -- that you are able to satisfy that low price. Its difficult to give a specific number. Internally from 3 to 8 or 9, then externally depending on the customer, then it can go up to 20 or 25. My experience tells me that directly, you can proficiently manage six to ten people, then you need to delegate into smaller teams because it becomes difficult to control everything, to interact with everybody. At 20, it starts to be difficult to control everything. So I guess 10, 10 is a good size.

Which management system do you usually use for your projects (with excel sheet, Gantt chart, any kind of visualizations? Randy I do use my brain. I use Google calendar and my notebook. Generally thats been my method, is to write down everything every day as it comes up, and then cross it off as it goes away. I dont use any online source or software. I use good old-fashioned paper and pen, with multicolor pens. I use Microsoft Project, and to visualize then you can go from a white board to a poster to any kind of visualization that can be either hung on the wall or put on the board. The visualization is basic because its easier to understand whats going on. For example, what do we do? The cost was being managed by spreadsheets in Excel, but more than the spreadsheets, it was more important to do graphics with all of the projects that we had.(quote8) For example, we had a big project with 20 different subfields, so it was more important to have pictures and figures showing us what was going on in every subproject with respect to the total that we were executing. For example, we have a final number of how much money is being utilized for each project, so in the end we would know what part of the whole cost was being assigned to the specific tasks. So it was easier to visualize them. For example, we were using histograms. Just bars.

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What things do you want to do when you are on the phone but not in front of the computer? For example, if you are on the phone and you get new information (i.e. someone involved is sick), how do you want to manage this information? Randy To gain immediate feedbackalmost an interview process. To be able to get new information and clarify. I do usually take notes. If I dont have my notebook, I grab a pen and a piece of paper. Its very inefficient. Normally if someone told me to remember something, Id set up a time to get together with them and put it in my calendar or send them an e-mail. Youre absolutely right that writing things down does help me remember.

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Chad Since we were working in construction, it was easier to send somebody to see what was going on in the construction site. Wed call another person so that they were able to go and see what was going on. We didnt take notes. Every week, we had to spend a report on the construction evolution, so all of those situations were reported in the weekly report. There was also a daily record, too. I would like to be able to take notes and pretty much record whats going on during the call, and then after the call interact with other people.

Roberto Leonardo

Do you use project management software? Randy Katherine Chad Roberto Leonardo Occasionally Visio. Internal sales management software/intranets (allows to compile information and keep it relevant.) No. If I did use it, I would start using it at the beginning of the process. No. Yes. Yes.

If yes, what software do you usually use for project management? If you dont use any software, why not? (If no, skip the rest of this section) Also, Microsoft Outlook contains detailed information about clients/customers. Excel is used to determine sales opportunities. Excel tables make visualizing data easier (for example, names) and to see commonalities amongst projects (quote 1). For example, enables recognition of similar projects among competitors/other vendors with distribution. I dont really know how to use Excel. Im enrolled in classes. So, thats probably why I dont use Excel. Id be open to using a project management program, especially if its easy to use. Thats why I like Lucios idea -- having the circles that you can touch is the more the way I think -- more than lines and squares and charts -- I dont think that way. I like the concept webbing, thats way more how I think. Ive been using Excel depending on the customer -- there are customers that use Excel -- but the flexibility is not as good as in MS Project, lets say in Excel table you can really have just the tasks you need to perform, and a start date and end date, but its very difficult to correlate the different tasks together. (quote9) Were using Project and Excel, theyre basically tied together.

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In which phase of your projects do you use software? Randy Katherine All phases. Other colleagues dont use software as much.

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Since the very beginning. The sooner, the better. All the phases, from when I do the proposal and I need to do the estimation of time and cost and resources, to the control phase, so during the project, controlling the budget, deliverables, competitions, duration, delays and also to report to the customer how his money has been spent, pretty much.

Can you tell me about a particular case where your project management software was very useful? A customer makes drill bits and we sell the fluid to make these. We analyze the customers samples of fluid (sent in) in order to maximize the product. I use software to map data, like viscosity and phosphorous counts in order to create a trend analysis by plotting lab report data. Tables, easy-to-use, adaptability (for multiple uses). For example, multiple ways to view, plot the same data in order to identify the changehow to best visually demonstrate that change.

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Controlling deadlines. Yeah, in all of them. As I said, I usually use Project Manager just for the proposals, just to understand how many hours and what kind of people I can use, and to have the physical numbers and costs of the project. And also I use the Gantt diagrams, I usually include my Gantt into the proposal so the customer can see how and why Im going to spend that amount of money, so he knows, and I have a justification behind my proposal for that amount of money.

What software features do you think are important in order to help you manage your resources? Randy Katherine Chad Roberto Would like to customize toolbars in order to eliminate extraneous features.

Leonardo

Accessibility, so it has to be easy to visualize and find the information we need. Status of every task, how the tasks correlate to each other, and most of all cash flow -- I can plan how much money Im going to spend during my time frame, I estimate it at the beginning of the project using the software, then while Im in the software I can keep track of how much money Im spending, so if Im spending more than Im supposed to and over-budget, or less than Im supposed to and under-budget. And another important thing is the workload, so if Im overloading my resources.

Which features of do you find the most useful in general?

Randy Katherine Chad

Microsoft Office programs are woven together well. It is easy to import and export among different programs. Rather intuitive.

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Accessibility. It has to be simple. It has to provide access to information, but it has to remain simple. I think Projects interface is simple enough. For example, if you want to change something, you just have to click on a specific thing and it changes, but the mainframe remains basic. Especially for keeping track of the costs Workload, looking back on resources, looking back so you can update the status of every resource and see how every resource has been used, if youre under- or over-utilizing the resource.

Are there any features that you try to use and find too confusing or frustrating? Randy Katherine Chad Yes. In Project specifically, its difficult to match dates and budgets. I think its a little bit difficult. It should be easier to make changes that reflect changes in cost. In Project table, when you start to update the status of your tasks, its a little bit complicated to keep track of multiple processes.(quote6) You start to change things. It requires a little bit of work to change the project from what you originally planned.

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Leonardo What do you like and dislike about the software that you use? Nice thing about Outlook is that everyone has it; it is universal. For example, sending out invitations to a video conference elicits immediate responses from those with Blackberry or other smart phones. Because of its universality, never need to convert an Excel graph to PDF. A common problem now is Microsoft Word DOCXDOC compatibility issues. The solution to distorted graphs is exporting the file as a PDF.

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I do like the cost analysis, keeping track of the load, the resource leveling. What I dont like is that when you start to have a lot of connected tasks, it gets complicated to keep track of everything. Keeping track of the evolution of the process is not so easy with Project.

What do you spend most of your time doing with the software? For example: arranging, editing new data, viewing progress, etc.

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Dislike: cumbersome because there are too many features that will never be used. Suggestion: link a toolbar task to a website that explains how to use the feature (ex, YouTube.) Eliminates the risk of experimenting.

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Editing data. Typing information in, for example. Making changes. Typing information in the beginning and making changes. Usually its the dates that are always changing. Forecasting -- trying to understand if the project is going to be late, if the tasks are going to be completed on time. You do the work up front, you make a to-do list of the list of all the tasks you are supposed to do, then you put connections behind the different tasks, then you assign resources and duration and rates so you can have an idea of how much your project is going to cost. At that point you start, and you keep track of the process, you keep track of the cost and how much youre spending, you keep track of if youll be able to complete every task in the time you were supposed to, and if not, how your project will be affected and if youll be late for milestones.

Can you show me how you use your current software? Viewing progress. Always editing new data. Another suggestion: if you could view charts from a mobile device. For example, send an email with an attachment. Can enlarge and shrink, but cant look at any one part in depth. Impossible to scroll (on Blackberry 9830.) (quote 6bis)

Randy Katherine Chad Roberto Leonardo

Sure. Thats easy.

Specific questions about project management

Do you usually perform the same tasks on different projects, or do you create new tasks for every project? Randy Katherine Every project has different tasks. I think that they can be very consistent. There are definitely steps that should be followed. For this job, they should be the same. 80% it is doing the same tasks for the project. Once you become comfortable with a task though, such as the Schedule of Courses, you can always find something to improve itand that results in creating new tasks. When I take on a new project I absolutely invent new tasks, or hopefully making other persons tasks better, if thats possible. No, in construction you usually follow the same steps.

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Well, there are tasks that are common with every project, like a kickoff meeting when you start the project, with the customer, you usually have milestones. A milestone is usually when you provide a deliverable to a customer, so you provide something that you can touch. For example, if youre building a house, a milestone is when the foundation is done. For example, two months from now, the foundation needs to be done, four months from now, the side walls need to be done. So, when you say Ive accomplished this phase, thats my milestone.

How are the tasks in your project usually organized (a simple to-do list or well-connected task sequences)? Identify sales opportunities and existing commonalities. Whether maintaining an existing account or going to a new distributor account, every project is different. Every distributor has different parameters and different liaison personnel (whether going directly to the customer or distributor, or requiring notice of contact.) I organize myself with to-do lists and my calendar. (quote2) I tend to do tasks in a very linear process, following a list. Sometimes if its a project I dont really want to do, I will do the simplest things first to at least get myself started. That doesnt mean I do everything the same way though. The linear process I take one time may be different than the linear path I take the next time. Conceptually I divide the tasks in my mind and then I put them down in a list, using Excel, or Word I tend to identify tasks in a very connected sequence graph such as with a workflow chart . Thats the best way to control, so youll know everything. Its easier to visualize the evolution of everything. (quote 10) You usually start with a WBS (work breakdown structure) thats no more than a to-do list, and then you try to connect all of those tasks, depending on which follows which -- this one first, then the other one second, then the other third. There are tasks that are sequential, and others that can be parallel. You need to decide which ones to do first -- which you need to do in advance to get ready for the others. You need to estimate which tasks are going to take longer and act accordingly. I make these lists directly in Project. There are other softwares that just do the to-do list, theyre called WBS. You can do some sketches beforehand, then go to the office, talk to the other members of the team and see if they agree, they provide you with some feedback because in the end, because theyre going to be the ones doing the tasks.

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How would you like to keep track of the tasks progress? Randy Id like to know whats coming up in the next week. What Id like is to have automatic reminders to send out. Id like to set everything up in the beginning -these are the deadlines, reminders will go out here. Id like to have a way to watch and see, was there a response to that, did they get it done? Id like for

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there to be a way for me to see if something is completed, and Id like to be able to monitor and change deadlines as needed. Time management is really the biggest part. I really just go through the list. I use Excel to help with something like classroom scheduling. Ive done scheduling for 5 years now, with 4 semesters a year, and I cant tell you its the same as it was when I first started. By linear I mean I know what needs to be done. I use my email calendar and my little list, which is augmented by a list the dean gives me which includes bigger picture school information and tasks. By looking at the evolution of the costs. You have to keep your costs under control. Presentation of completion.

How do you usually manage your personnel? Randy I havent had as much experience here, but generally I like to have regular meetings for updates. I like short meetings, and to always be available on the phone, but e-mail is probably the most frequent way I keep in touch with everyone until we get together. I think people really appreciate that and theyre begging for it, because they want to be held accountable, they want to stay on track, and they want to be successful. I tend to be a very hands-off manager. I dont micromanage. On the other hand, I believe in giving fairly direct supervision. As long as you get to point B, thats all that I care about. When it comes to a list I need someone to do, I will email that person, but I prefer to talk about it in-person first. Controlling the number of hours they spend on a specific task. Based on skills.

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How can you usually measure team member efficiency in a task completion? Randy You have to be really sensitive. Everybody has a different way of performing. Thats why you need one-on-one interaction with people, because people arent responsive to anything but one-on-one interaction. Make people feel theyre a part of it. Help them to define what their part is. I should have everybodys schedule, I should know peoples availability and also how overcommitted they are with other professional things theyre involved in, because some people have lots of time to meet an early deadline, but other people have no time for it. For some people, you might need to give them extra time. Measure efficiency by giving people timeframes and deadlines. Deadlines. Basically controlling if deadlines are being accomplished. If they deliver on time with good quality and based on feedback from the customer.

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How do you manage your resources? Randy Katherine Chad Roberto Leonardo

I know when going into a project I have a clear definition of time and cost. Im not sure. I think the question isnt very clear. Based on the workload. I start with eight hours a day, and I try to keep it based on that.

How do you determine the man-hours for a task completion? Randy Theres a recommended time frame for each task. I would create a timeline for each individual who has a project idea, but its going to take me years of experience to be able to figure out how long an idea would take to complete. I dont think about it in man-hours, necessarily. I view it in knowing how long it takes to complete activities. Knowledge of the organization. I can rush things through if its important, but that means something gets pushed to the backburner. Cost. So, we have control of how many hours every person is working on one specific sub-field. We always know the skills of the people. We control how many people we have. Once something is completed and its been finished, we go back and we account to determine the real number of people and hours we had to employ to accomplish the deadline. I usually talk with the resources Im going to use and have their feedback.

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If there are typical tasks that you perform, what are they? Randy Right now, I do a lot of document rewriting and editing. For this job, that would be just part of it. The rest of it is assigning tasks and seeing them through, assisting faculty in staying on target to complete them. Also, tons of note taking. I read a lot, too. Theres so much background in everything that I do. We want to understand as much as we can about the idea and the field around it. I dont have to read everything, but to understand someones proposal I do have to be somewhat knowledgeable. Keeping track of people; making sure they meet deadlines. Communication and feedback is essential. Making them feel like they are a valued part of the organization. Proving results is also essential. Updating dates. Thats something were always doing. Updating information. The projects are standardized. We always have updates in, for example, designs. We were getting the construction done for something, the updates were continuous. In construction, youre always working with final details after the

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design. In this particular project, we were also working with other teams, so we always had to be interchanging information. It was basically updating designs. Mostly control of the progress, meetings with the team and customer, feedback, trying to understand if theres anything I can do to improve efficiency, keeping communication up.

What are your methods for dividing the tasks into different phases? In which way do you divide your projects into phases? Time managementkeeping all accounts active regardless of phase (via personal visits, email, telephone calls.) Recently, boss has required monthly updates from management. For me, the structure is predetermined. Initially, a person thinks about their idea. Then they need to look at the literature to see if its a new idea or where the gaps are in the literature. Concurrently, you want to be keeping an eye on the grant agencies that you think are most likely to want to support your idea, so you want to be reading all of the things that you can related to your topic from their websites. Your job as the researcher and creative thinker is to find the gap that is there and that you are interested in filling. Your idea will fit in somewhere, and initially it might be too broad or not exactly something that fills in the gap, so theres a lot of honing. This is when they actually come to me, and I look at it and say its great and then we look and find as many possible foundations and agencies as possible. We write letters to the agencies asking if they might be interested, and theres someone designated at each of those places who reads those letters of intent. Then we might get some bites and then we start working on the larger project and getting collaborators and partners in other fields. This is a lot of work and intensity, but these are the projects that get funded. Once you have a really solid idea, things start to fall into place. If you fully know what you want to do, then the other pieces are not difficult to draw together. People will want to fund you and get involved. Conceptually I divide the tasks in my mind and then I put them down in a list, using Excel, or Word. Then I figure out who is going to get the relevant tasks. (quote 7) I havent done that. The problem is that this question is basically what the chief engineer does, so its not something that I regularly do. It can also be provided by your client. The client will tell you, do this, this, this and this. It can also be done by somebody else. Its based on deliverables. Every deliverable is something you can touch or see -it can be a report or a decision, something that you can well-define. Based on those, you create the tasks and sub-tasks that are required to accomplish those deliverables.

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How do you usually identify the critical path in your project? Randy

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Thats definitely predetermined; it goes along with the tasks. Its well laid out how this should go. I got the structure from a book. I started reading it and saw that I was already following this critical path laid out in the book. The path and the idea is there, but how you get there from start to finish, who you choose, how you find those people, thats your own creativity. I identify the critical path if there is some outside force pressuring me to complete something by a specific deadline or in a certain way. If you dont follow the directions of somebody else, you have to look at the project. When you have your project, you divide everything into tasks, okay, and when you have divided everything into tasks, you assign timing and you also assign a logic sequence. You know that there are going to be some activities that are going to require previous activities to be completely finished. Other activities can be started without having finished others. It has to show you easily which activities of the ones youve divided your project into are going to be the most important not to have any delays. These activities can be part of the critical path. Usually its the sequence of events or tasks in the project that define the length of the project. There are tasks that are done in parallel and those that are doing sequentially. You need to identify those tasks that are linked to each other and define the minimum length of your project.

Do you use Gantt diagrams? (If yes, ask them to draw their idea of a perfect Gantt diagram) Randy Katherine Chad Roberto Leonardo No. No. No. Yes but thats basically too much time. Yes.

Do you usually input all of the data into the software at the beginning of the process or input data as you go along? Which would you prefer? Randy I would put it all in at the beginning. Right now I just use folders with peoples names in My Documents. I input data as I go. For the timeline, I put everything on the calendar at the beginning, yes.(quote 11) I take a model of previous spreadsheets and then apply it to the new project. In construction its always an update. You have to start at the beginning with something, but you always have to update. So one feature that I think is important is that they have to allow you to make changes quickly. Usually you start at the beginning with main tasks, and main phases and then the more you know in the project, you need to add more tasks or other things. But its a good rule of thumb to have most of your tasks in the project because you

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need to know where you are to know where youre going. Do you usually write reports? Are they short, or long? Summary reports, keeping different people abreast. For example, emailing updated information to other personnel via Microsoft Word or Excel attachment. Communication is all done electronically. Oh yeah, I write a lot of reports. I write very short list reports for Hope [my supervisor] to show her where we are -- Ill send it through e-mail or write it out. Its for Hope and me together, and its basically a to-do list. I dont destroy it until everything is finished and crossed off. We dont archive the handwritten things, but it would probably be a good idea. Maybe its unnecessary. If were moving forward and shes happy with the progress, why do I need to keep everything and have a record of my weekly meetings with Hope? I have all the physical evidence that things are moving forward already. Maybe it would be helpful for looking back during future projects that are similar. My reports tend to be 2-3 pages, which is a good summary length. I have written longer ones. Yes. The shorter the better. Yes. Most of our presentations are PowerPoint, and then you discuss with the customer. I dont necessarily write short reportsmaybe there can be an Excel spreadsheet that shows man hours and time.

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Would you like to be able to access your reports directly from the timetable? Randy Katherine Chad Roberto Leonardo Yes. Yes. It could be useful, if I spent the time to put those comments in the first time. Yes. That would be good. That would be great.

What kinds of functions do you want available from the calendar view? In Microsoft Outlook: summary line by appointment is useful (allows to input extra notes). Printable calendar, ability to archive. Outlook allows you to download calendar to electronic devices (i.e. Blackberry). Trend is moving away from paper planners. If I click on something on the calendar, Id like to see everybody whos involved, and then Id like to go into what I have scheduled for them, their tasks, and where they are. I would like to generate an agenda by being able to look at all of those things. Yes. Deadlines.

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Deadlines. Allocations of my resources. My key facts of something that happened during the project -- notes that I can write on that particular day marking up what happened. Reports from meetings to record what was discussed.

What are the main functions that you would like your project management software to support? For example, achieving deadlines, keeping reports, etc. Beng able to see the status of a project: quick overview of past tasks, ability to see gaps you need to work at still. In a lot of sales management, you have to identify potential customers likely to purchase the product, who have characteristics similar to other projects (i.e., size, locations.) For example, gears for wind turbines We have a unique product. First, identify the company/manufacturer. Identify traits, then personnel to contact. In this case, Milwaukee Gear, and characterize why they would be a good match. Then look at Milwaukee Gears competitors and see if they have similar problems (and if they could use our grinding fluid as well.) Use Internet search to learn more about potential buyers (i.e., lawsuits, expansion plans, financial trouble) Randy I think it would be very useful to be able to shoot the documents back and forth. To be able to look at the documents, you know, if Im sitting there with it, I can see on my software that its complete, Id like to click on it and go to the document. Or for there to be a link to where I could put it, that would be helpful. I dont really use one right now, so I dont know if I can answer that in an informed manner. Email should be worked into any project management software, since communication is so important. Some kind of real-time updates would be great. So if someone sends me an email about a task, that email is linked to that task so I can see all of the emails and the communications that have been reported to that task. Because again, the key of success in every project is communication.

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Visual features questions

Would you like to be able to directly edit from the chart or timeline view instead of having to edit from a different data input page? (Give example) Randy Yes, Id like to be able to change it. If I need to update something in the timeline, for example, to give someone a new deadline, I want to be able to shoot someone an e-mail about changing that deadline. I would also like for everyone on the project to be able to have access to this -- I would have one big picture that shows every project Im doing, but if I go into one persons proposal, that

Katherine

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Roberto Leonardo

person can also see everything within that project so that were all connected. I think it is important that other people are able to create and delete to my calendar. Also I need robustness in how it can be viewed online. Also, how it prints is important, because you may need to hand your calendar to someone else. PantherCalendar is a bad example, since it cannot print unless you do a screenshot. That is ridiculous to me. Viewability of the calendar is really, really important. Yes, that would be great. Although, that has a problem. When youre editing information from this software management tools, its important to haveif youre making changes, you have to make sure youre able to make those changes just from one point affecting everything else. If you have different placesI know how important it is to be automatically updated. I think its difficult to implement. Yes.

If your software supports multiple project views, which view do you use the most? For example: Gantt charts, network diagrams, resource sheets, PERT charts, etc. Randy I just really look at the calendar to see whats going on, and my lists, but thats not efficient, and thats why Im interested in this project, because I need to be able to see more. Right now I just look back on my notes for everything. I bring all of my notes around with me. I like to divide things by people, mostly. Time and people. Im realizing right now that I dont put enough things in my calendar. I should have an appointment with everyone Im talking to and I should know when the next thing is. Meeting deadlines and flexibility in moving deadlines around. Reminders and alerts of these deadlines would also be useful. I like the network diagrams a lot. They show you how everything is interconnected. (quote 12) Gantt charts and cash flow. Its a table and it shows you for every week how much money youll be spending on every task.

Katherine Chad Roberto Leonardo

Do you find project visualization helpful? Graphs are typically made for the customer, but simplified. Just want to show the trend (minimummaximum only.) Yes. I dont really draw pictures, but I am a visual person. I use my multicolored markers. I divide my to-do list into a left and right column. Left means it is urgent and immediate, right means it is a task that is coming up. Yes. Its absolutely vital. Yep.

Randy Katherine

Chad Roberto Leonardo

Do you think these app prototypes could be useful to you? Randy Yes. Yes. I really like the structure. Its good; its flexible. Im not taking a class right now mainly because the day that I was going to sign up for a class, I could not even figure out what was available. The website for UWM is so poorly designed, and the link between SOIS and the classes is so difficult to figure out. What youre into is very smart, because its going to make it easier for everybody. To still be able to have a lot of human interaction, but manage things more efficiently. Yes, visualization is very useful. Im inclined to like the simpler model. There is less going on. Yeah. Thats whats boring about the project, you have to be looking at the diagram and you have to be looking at tables at the same time. I think its good. I like this one better (the shapes). Itll be interesting to see how the zoom and editing works with many different tasks.

Katherine Chad

Roberto Leonardo

Theme Content Table x

Sub-theme Calendar

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Examples e x Excel tables make visualizing data easier, for example, names and tasks labels) and to see commonalities amongst projects I organize my data with to-do lists and my calendar In Excel table you can really have just the tasks you need to perform, and a start date and end date, but its very difficult to correlate the different tasks together I tend to identify tasks in a very connected sequence graph such as with a workflow chart. Thats the best way to control, so youll know everything. Its easier to visualize the evolution of everything The visualization is basic because its easier to understand whats going on. Conceptually, I divide the tasks in my mind and then I put them down in a list, using Excel, or Word I like the network diagrams a lot. They show you how everything is interconnected I would like to view project progresses in a time view. Always editing new data in real-time. For example, viewing charts from a mobile device would be great to enlarge and shrink, and open details in depth. I would put it all in at the beginning. Right now I just use folders with peoples names in My Documents. I input data as I go. For the timeline, I put everything on the calendar at the beginning

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