Project Management

When you hire me to work on a documentation or Web development project, you’ll want to know how and what I’m doing. I provide a means by which you can accomplish this and, if you wish, to collaborate online with me on your project.

I use a Web tool to coordinate and manage your project online—ProjectFork. ProjectFork combines the functionality of the content management system with the application component to provide a complete picture to you of work I have accomlished on your project. You will be able to comment directly on the project tasks and milestones, retrieve and provide documents, and check the calendar. Most importantly, no one but those you assign to the project can find and read your project data.

You receive e-mail each time I modify your projec: ttasks, milestone, documents.

Project Access

You identify those individuals—managers, developers, administrators—who will receive notifications and participate online in the management of your project. I set up user accounts and profiles for them and send them notices, or “invitations,” to join the project.

Project Control

Client and company staff who have been associated, or linked, to a project see the Control Panel for that project when they logon (after their initial login, that is). The Control Panel shows all project Events and Tasks in distinct tables. The synopsis for events shows the:

• Project Name
• Event Title
• Start & End times for the event
• Creator, or Author, of the event

Tasks are the specific things that must be done in order to accomplish an associated Milestone. Only tasks are shown in the Control Panel synopsis; milestones may be seen under the Tasks heading of the main menu. The task synopsis shows the:

• Project name
• Name of the task
• Project Priority
• Task Deadline
• Progress Accomplished

Tasks & Milestones

You can see more information about each task and milestone, and edit them, by opening the Tasks area on the main menu. When you open a task (by clicking the name of the task), you will see:

• Who created the task
• Who has been assigned as primarily responsible for the task
• When the task was created
• The task deadline
• Progress accomplished on the task
• The priority of the task

If you have been assigned the proper authority, you can click Edit and modify the reportable elements of the task.

You can also add a Comment about the task to other team members. Click into the open text area, type your comment, and click the Save button above. Other team members can add responses to your comment.

Calendar

You can see the task and milestone deadlines and the scheduled events in the Calendar; open the Calendar from the main menu. You can display the project calendar by:

• Month
• Week
• Day

You can open a task or event in the calendar by clicking the title for that element. And, you can create a new event: click the date and complete the form that appears.

Document Management & Exchange

One of the greatest concerns of my clients involves the timely delivery of accurate documents. My concern is the same; after all, documentation is my field.

Every project we set up on our Web site includes a File Manager function. The beauty of this tool is that it functions using HTTP, or Internet, file transfer, not the File Transfer Protocol. This means that you can upload and download documents as quickly as your Internet connection allows. In fact, we can upload files at 2.2Kb per second and download files at an average of 11,734Kb per second. If your company uses a T1 line to connect with the Internet, your staff will not have to depend upon the much slower FTP to get and receive project documents.

You will simply open your project area on this Web site and click the File Manager option. All document folders are organized according to function so that you and your staff are able to quickly find and retrieve the files you need.

Team & Member Status

Project team members can add or update their individual status as needed. Additionally, the project manager can advise all members with this tool of the team’s status. These are displayed with each component of the project management tool.

Project Message Board

You and the staff members you assign to the project can communicate with me and the rest of your team using the message board set up for the project. Any team member can start a new topic or respond to an established topic using this capability.

Good, effective communications between the team and James River Technical Communications are essential to the success of your project, expecially Web site development.