Project Management?

[kinhunter]

I'm looking for some advice, and you smart folks (note, I did not say ladies, I know that there is a mixed group here) are the ones to come to...

I am the Assistant to the CEO of a non-profit, which includes being secretary to the top management group.   We are looking at a major renovation of our facility over the next few years.    At the moment we do not have a project manager, but will be hiring one in the future.   (The renovations are still in the early planning stages for now).

Currently the management group is coordinating what needs to happen at this point, and my CEO asked me to think about how to organize a way to track what needs to be done, by whom, targeted dates, etc.....        Once a project manager is hired, he/she will be knowledgeable about how to organize the project (and probably be used to working with a particular program, etc), but until then, it is up to me/us.

Any suggestions for me?    
Just design my own spreadsheet, and add to it as needed until someone else takes it over?  
Is there some simple program that would be helpful that wouldn't be difficult to learn?  (I am already overextended with my current tasks, so don't have lots of time to learn something, esp since the odds of my using it again in the near future are pretty slim).  BTW, I am a die-hard Word Perfect user, with minimal knowledge of Word, Access, etc. to do what I need to, but nothing fancy.....

Any suggestions for general categories we should be thinking of to include in the tracking of these early stages?

Sorry about the wordiness of the message...

Thanks for any help you can give.

Annie

[bethalize]

Hey, Annie.

If you can use Wordperfect, you can use Word. Everything is pretty much in the same place, apart from something you *really* need but can't find!

I don't know how you feel about this situation, but it strikes me that it could turn into one of those situations where boss things admin + expensive piece of software (no training) = big saving on consultant. If you were able to manage a project, why wouldn't you be out there, managing a project and getting paid the rates for it? Make sure you get whoever is in charge to write down your responsibilities, otherwise being proactive could take up all of your time.

Project management is like database design. People say they do it instinctively, but they generally follow one methodology or another.  Some listings of useful websites here.

I expect you will need gant charts (a bar chart showing planned activity against time). Activities on the left going down in order of time and left to right is duration. You can get specialist software to do this.

What is the scope of your involvement here? To run everything people often use a specialist program which coordinate people and resources and plots time as well.  This has a database end. These things need updating constantly, which is why you can use speciliast software. You can draw a bar chart easily, but if roofing runs over by three days and there are five things that can't start until the roofing is done, and three things that can't be done until those five things are done and so on ad infinitum, you have to update them all individually and that is a LOT of work. In a specialist program everything should adjust automatically without creating conflicts by double booking things.

Logistics, procurement, quality, risk, cost, legality, communications are all areas that come under 'project management'. There are all sorts of packages out there for this, but most are incredibly expensive. I found a review of SureTrak Project Manager 3.0 here and it also had this list of possible software:
Artemis Views
Cogentex Project Reporter
ELabor Enterprise Project
Innovie Team Center
Milestones Professional
Microsoft Project 2000
Web Project's Web Project
Welcom Open Plan
I think you can probably add Lotus Notes to that.
Have a look at this Google listing for more info on the software.

Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff

[kinhunter]

Bethalize..

Thanks for the reply.    I took an initial look at a few of the sites and will look more next week.  There is some helpful info there...

My involvement won't be very specific on the project once we get a project manager (which hopefully will be soon), and I am assuming he/she will get into the detail part of following through with quality, legalities, etc.         Bossie is not expecting me to be a project manager.  
   
My responsibility will be to help the management group with the tracking of the different aspects in the broad view.     The renovation piece plus other aspects that wouldn't be solely the project manager's responsibility.
e.g. keeping communication with users of our builidng (folks using our services, plus some space we have for tenants renting part of the building)
e.g. we have committees that may want/need input into some of the decisions at various times during the process and it is the management group's responsibility to prioritize what might be done, and give that to a project manager to work with...

Don't know if this makes sense or not...  

Annie

[bethalize]

Then you can expect to be writing a lot of letters and e-mail! As most professionals have their own preferences, you might as well hang on until you employ someone. and they can choose their own software. My only word of caution is to watch out for senior people dithering over hiring a project manager. New employees are not bagels: you can't just pick them up with the coffee, yet employers seem to think that you can order them off the shelf.
Anyway, I hope it all goes well for you.

Bethalize
Deskdemon Forum Board Staff