Here is the description of the process:
1. Plan
2. Capture clocking information using SMS, terminals or web
3. Report
4. Analyze

That is it! Don’t be mistaken. The most difficult job in this list is to print or export report because most of other steps are handled by QL Time. Forget long working hours, spent to calculate actual working hours and salary calculations. That is not all. You have an ability to try full QL Time functionality absolutely free of cost. Or learn more.

Normally Alarms functionalities lets you create multiple alerts that can wake you up or remind you when it’s time to do something.

So what to do, if you are responsible for or have to keep track of events related to other people? What to do, if you are obligated to take some actions depending on different event reasons which are related to yourself or your employees, government institutions or even customers? For example, according to national laws you have to pay vacation money x number of days before the start of vacation period; or according to agreement with one of your customer’s, you have to organize training classes every quarter. Missing due time may cause financial losses as well as other people disappointment.

Again, it is easy to forget things when we have such a huge flow of information to follow. So there are simple steps to follow in order to help yourself:

1. Create event reasons list.
2. Set the alarms. Event Alarms can be set to trigger before/after event start, before/after event end.
3. Plan and get notifications.

QL Time Alarms interface is plain and attractive, and there are no trouble figuring out how to use it. Just follow steps mentioned above:

1. Create an event reasons list:

2. Set the alarms:

3. Get the notifications:

Alarms pop up on QL Time start-up, so you will never miss it. Alarms only pop up if they are unhandled. But also hyperlink of Event Alarm window will be displayed at the bottom of the QL Time window.

It is then possible to set it as handled, meaning that event was taken care of, and set a comment.

So the alarms and notifications are very helpful and convenient functionality and will help you to do duties in time, which is very important for being trusted by your customer and their customers. Doing things in time has also economical meaning internally and externally (especially when we are talking about liabilities to government institutions-schedule for paying taxes).

Overall, we think this is a great functionality; it’s simple and flexible way to help ourselves in daily routines, and be confident and secure at the end of work day!

1. Create employees database. Add all information about all employees to this database. Add the information as soon as new employee is hired. Skills must be categorized. Move the skills under categories. E.g. B.A. and B.S. can be called just Bachelor Degree.
2. When creating task, describe what skills are required for assigned person. Think about categories of tasks we agreed on step 1.
3. Search for people in you database who has the skills that are necessary for the task.
4. Assign the person.

Example from QL Task:
1. Add employees and their skills information to the database

2. Add required skills for the task

3. You will get a list of people who has required skills

What is one of the trickiest parts when we plan future tasks or projects? We need to provide real time usage forecasts.. Time is very expensive and it is a must to plan time effectively. You would ask: but how? If you use only sheet of paper and a pen, then it will be a bit complicated but we live in XXI century so it shouldn’t be problem at all!
The first thing that you can do is to base your plans on historical experience. Just record the time you need for specific tasks. In future you will be able to review it and make right decisions. The time will be managed effectively.

The question is what are the ways to record time?

Answer:

Write down the time when you start and finish working on task
or
Capture data using different devices that suits your needs: terminals, PC, SMS

Imagine that we have 3 situations:

CASE 1
There is a chair factory and many employees are working on different tasks. Each employee starts work not at same time. Before starting to work on their tasks they clock in on the task (just swipe their personal card on the terminal which is mounted on the wall). When the working day finishes employee clocks out (swipe card again), next day the situation is the same. When the task is finished, employee marks this task/project finished. All data is easily calculated by software. Manager has historical time consumption on task/project data.

CASE 2
Here we have a bit different situation: growing company, small office and not a big budget. There is no need for additional investment, no need to buy and mount terminals on the wall. The same functions can be handled by any computer, connected to the internet. Employee comes to his/her office, turns on the computer and clocks in before starting to work on task, clocks out when finishes it or pauses working on it. That’s all, manager exactly knows how much time was required for each task.

View VIDEO about time registration ONLINE

 CASE 3
The tasks of construction company is usually in the open air, that means no terminals, no PC. Remember that everybody has phones and that is enough! Only one simple SMS and the employee is clocked in or out on the task. It’s not necessary to have smartphones or any other sophisticated phone with additional applications. It can be any old phone with SMS feature. Easy, right? No matter that device is used, data is captured and calculated in the same way, same quality.

View VIDEO about time registration via SMS

Read more about time registration or View VIDEO

Meetings

Meetings are important not only for project manager to gather and send the information, it is important for the whole team as an opportunity to discuss the situation and progress, identify problems, choose the best solutions, it should focus on the progress.

• Meetings should regular (preferably on the same week day and time)
• Participants must be informed about the meeting in advance
• Prepare the agenda in advance
• Prepare necessary documentation to show for everyone (flipcharts, projectors, printed documents)
• Strictly follow the agenda, respect the time
• Spread minutes on the same day to everybody. It will help to remember the decisions.

Measure the progress

To know the progress, you have to measure it all the time. It will help to identify weakest points in time and not to fail all project. The easiest way is to evaluate the progress by percents.

It‘s better to think about completed tasks. Otherwise, you may face 80% syndrome. It happens when the person is too optimistic and in conclusion the evaluation of the progress is not adequacy. Tasks will be your checkpoints, measuring the progress of all project. Another option is to set and measure stages. Stages consist of tasks as well. The factor will be completed tasks.

Tasks can have different stages:

QL Task View

Reports

Measuring the progress should not be just a guess. Every person in a team who is responsible for any task should fill the reports and estimate required time, record the amount of time they spent on the task and of course the progress. If you prefer paper based reports, these reports should be submitted at agreed periods. The best decision is to prepare:

There are also various software solutions. The advantage of task d project management software is that you can measure the progress of tasks and project in any time using any device (PC, phone, terminals) because data is sent to the database at the time of filling the information. It helps to minimize bureaucracy and save time because it is possible to export and print these reports.

QL Task View

Changes?

Project manager should always know what is happening at the moment and be able to make good decisions in time. We are living in changing world and environment could bring us unexpected situations that were not listed in your plan. What to do? – Do not panic and be flexible.  Any change will have an effect on scope, schedule or costs:

1. Problem is identified and reported
2. Analyse the new situation
3. Identify alternatives for solving the problem, adapting the project to the situation. Discuss with it qualified people.
4. Estimate the result of this change to the project (cost, schedule and scope)
5. Identify risk
6. Make the decision
7. Inform the team about the changes

Stakeholders. First of all it’s important to identify stakeholders, their expectations, result of not involvement and implications for the project.

Market (or Primary) Stakeholders – usually internal stakeholders, are those that engage in economic transactions with the business. (For example stockholders, customers, suppliers, creditors, and employees).
Non-Market (or Secondary) Stakeholders – usually external stakeholders, are those who – although they do not engage in direct economic exchange with the business – are affected by or can affect its actions. (For example the general public, communities, activist groups, business support groups, and the media).

It is advised to write everything in the table. This will help you to understand Sometimes the attitude to the project is not as a project manager expected. There are 4 stages of reaction:

The most important thing is to involve people in your project talk with them and listen. Show all benefits stakeholders will get after implementing the project. If stakeholders are against the project, the best strategy would be to involve stakeholders in the project and ask their oppinion, make some changes. By this they will know that their opinion is important and feel that they are implementators by themselves.

Team is the key for success, so each member should agree to the project goal and realy work as a team. Agreement sould be natural and team members should realy believe in everything they are doing. Don‘t be afraid of different oppinions, the truth can be revealed only in discussions. However, make sure that everybody knows their tasks. Motivation is a must. There are many motivation theories but the most imortant rule – be creative, identify what is most important for your team and offer it! You will need creativity to build a a strong team:
1. Gather the team
2. Drawing the same project goal for the team
3. Let people feel that they are important part of the project, involve them into decision making process
4. Offer non formal activities to make your team stronger. Hawthorn experiments in 1924 showed that non formal environment is even more important than formal environment.

Communication. There is no doubt that effective communication has very important place in the project.
People remember:

The most effective way is to show and tell directly. If the information is important, better to write it down. 70-80% of success depends on how you say something and only 20-30% depends on what you say. Prepere not only the strong arguments but strong presentation as well.

If you want to try project management in reality, you can download QL Task for free or try QL Project demo (beta) online.

Organizing should include:

Resources. Describe tasks clearly, deadlines and provide the information about project implementation to your team. Arrange regular team and face to face meetings for updates. Keep in touch with all members and create the network for them to communicate with each other. It could be difficult to do it unless you use specific software or any other modern tool. It helps you to save the time and makes coordination quite easy.

Here is an example how it is handled by QL Task:

QL Task View

When a task is created and described, it’s neccessary to set the deadline and make this information accessible for your team members. Automaticaly the information is spreaded by the most convenient ways: online, email, sms, terminals. It is also very convenient for monitoring tasks, identifying problems.

But don’t forget to motivate the team and communicate to related persons. Not only your team but everyone who is affected by the project!

Organizing activities. The most important thing is to follow the plan you prepared on the first project stage. Make sure that tasks are handled in right order, in time by the right people. Work schedule should be the same as in your prepared Gantt chart. For this you have constantly track time for every task and react adequate to any unexpected change.

Activity schedules. It is necessary to concentrate on not more than two or three tasks at a time. In this way you can really control the project.

Documentation. Filling documents is quite dry but not least important activity. Make sure that documents are filled correctly, meet all deadlines. All discussions and agreements must de documented to avoid misunerstanding and interpretations.

If you want to try project management in reality, you can download QL Task for free or try QL Project demo (beta) online.

• Consistent: complete the task and only then start the new task.
• Total or partial collate: tasks are started at the same time or after preferred time period (start the second task after 30% completed first task)
• Distance between not equal time periods: wait after the first task is completed (If you want to build walls, you have to wait until the foundation will be dry).

Also there are 3 kinds of time reserve:

• Total time reserve
• Free time reserve
• Negative time reserve

Ways to reduce terms:

• Change tasks relations;
• At the same time implement few tasks;
• Increase work hours or apply shift work;
• Reduce work amount;
• Increase productivity;
• Higher requirements for effectivity.

 Project plan schedules.

There are 2 ways for creating schedules:

• Cause and effect relations plan
• Gantt chart.

Both ways can be based on primary (choose project start date, list all tasks and get the earliest possible project end date) or backwards (choose the project end date and list all the tasks, then you will get project start date) calculations.
Primary calculation: ES + duration = EF
Backward calculation: LF – duration = LS

• ES- early start
• LS-late start
• LF-late finish
• EF-early finish

Cause and effect relations plan.

Arrows are connecting start and end dates.

Example:

Gantt Chart.

Gantt Chart is probably the most popular way to create schedule, graphically show relations. Learn Gantt charts by examples:

1. Task 1 and 2 are independent.

Gannt Chart – QL Project Demo View

2. Task 3 can be started only after Task 2 is completed.

Gannt Chart – QL Project Demo View

3. There should be 2,5 days gap between tasks 3 and 4.

Gannt Chart – QL Project Demo View

If you want to try project management in reality, you can download QL Task for free or try QL Project demo (beta) online.

MT 650 has a lot of technical improvements such as greater speed but the biggest advantage for customers is bigger touch-screen comparing to MR 650. MT 650 has 5.7″ TFT – LCD VGA (480 X 640) color. It will be more convenient for users to use Quantumleap personnel planning, time registration and task management solutions on this new terminal.

MR650 terminals will be fully supported as well.

 To plan the project is the first and probably one of the most important steps because it is the background for successful project. In this part project manager has to set up the objective, create the schedule, estimate resources and set the rules for further steps. The most popular way to schedule the project is drawing Gantt chart. It gives the opportunity to create schedule, plan resources and draw critical path in the same chart.

QL Project Demo View

After finishing these steps you can start organizing, leading and controlling. It requires to follow the plan and monitor the implementation of the tasks. It could be a quite tricky part but nowadays appropriate software helps to handle these processes in an easy way, no additional knowledge is necessary. For this reason Quantumleap launched QL Project.  Project management software helps to succeed in project management.

If you want to try project management in reality, you can download QL Task for free or try QL Project demo (beta) online.