As a techie-project manager, I am constantly looking for a product information organizer software tool that will escalate my information management skills. Many of my associates who knows me, knows that my favorite tools are information organizer.
Noticed the best information organizer tools are mindmapping software programs.
Recently, I discovered a new mindmapping software tool called Topicscape 1.0. It has a 3d-look that reminds me of a video racing game where you can get a grand view of the entire mindmap process from a high-level top view coverage. The navigation of the program is quite simple to use. If you can use a Microsoft Word or any mindmapping software, you can use Topicscape. … It is that easy.
Professionally, this Chief Architect has a tendency to develop and manage maps with hundreds or thousands of subtopics. Compared to the 2d-mind map from tools like Mindjet’s Mind Manager, I felt a joy from having an information management tool like Topicscape. One of my favorite features is its Zoom-In function that enables its users to go through its numerious level of details.
Another cool feature of Topicscape is that it can transform two-dimensional mind map to ae 3d mind map. It does a great job in reducing redundancy and saves time.
Summary
Tested Topicscape on a Win XP Professional desktop with 2.0 Ghz and 2 Gig of RAM.. Rated my experience with Topicscape, as a four out of five stars. Believe it is a great buy for project manager who needs a three dimensional view of the big picture. The price is currently discounted under $100 usd.
This Chief Architect highly recommends this product information organizer software tool that I can recommend very highly. In future article, will talk about how it works well in any strategic collaboration settings.
View the following video. It demonstrates some of the easy navigational functions of this great software:
One more note, here is a good 3d mindmapping software review that this Chief Architect recommends as good reading.
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My favorite Project Management tool is Microsoft Project. Coming second is eProject.
eProject is a web driven project management system where all the user need is a brower. We tested the eProject with a iE Explorer 6.0
Lets get to the features. Loves its contact manager. It is not fancy but practical and simple. It s timesheets feature is great. Beside the basic manual entry. data can be exported to this feature throught your accounting software.
Since it is a browser-driven system, there is nothing to install. Reviewed the help/support section of eProject. After 5 mins of reading, I got it running.
In my opinion, eProject best feature is the check–in, check–out process of document management. This allows you to keep control over documents by setting restrictions, version numbers and even see if a document’s final draft has been edited. It also has a history log. This feature also allow the user to sort documents by version number. Its navigation is smooth and easy. Other ease of use are setting permissions and restrictions. eProject users should never have to worry about someone overwriting or deleting a document that they shouldn’t have access to.
Will touch more on eProject other features: resource management feature and reporting generation.
— More to come —
Your comment is appreciated.
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As a project manager, my basic responsibilities are:
- Estimating timelines and costlines;
- Planning the tactical protocols for each objective; and
- Planning the standard operating protocols for managing the strategical situations.
During my initial stage of being a project manager, needed a tool that enables me to organize and track tasks and resources in order to keep projects on time and within budget. Was force-feeded to use Microsoft Project 2000.
After 1 hr of reading the manual, was able to use Microsoft Project 2000 to perform the following:
- Planned a project- and build in cost savings and efficiencies;
- Made optimum use of time, people and resources;
- Created effective Gantt, PERT and Resources charts;
- Tracked and analyzed my team’s progress;
- Gauged the impact of variables and “what-if” scenarios;
- Built reports for follow-up;
- Managed resources by linking and joining projects;
- Saved time by creating macros and importing files; and
- Took advantage of MS Project’s Internet capabilities.
Thought it was pretty good program. Only used it when clients requested it.
Recently, bumped into Microsoft Project 2007. Started to play with it.
With MS Office Project 2007, I can do the same thing as before, but with more features.
… Now able to understand the schedule with features such as Task Drivers for tracing the source of issues. Also able to test what-if scenarios with Multiple Level Undo and Visual Cell Highlighting for automatically shading the tasks affected by a change.
MS Project 2007 has a Project Guide that assist the user in mastering the process quickly. It also provide a step-by-step guide to help the user to set up the project, track its progress and report project information.
Love Microsoft Project 2007. Recommends it. You can test-drive Microsoft Project 2007 by going to this Microsoft point.
In future articles, will continue the discussion on Microsoft Project and other Microsoft Project tools.
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