FEATURED ARTICLE:

Incomplete tasks and the Zeigarnik Effect

Wikipedia says:

“The Zeigarnik effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones.

“Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik first studied the phenomenon after noticing that waiters seemed to remember orders only so long as the order was in the process of being served.”

Apparently you can game the Zeigarnik Effect for more effective studying, employ it to goose your direct marketing plan, or just consider it as one excellent explanation for the allure of multi-tasking.

In any case, it’s a fascinating idea and sure would account for why it feels so worthwhile to “close the loop” whenever you can.

Read more at: http://www.43folders.com/2005/09/incomplete_task.html

Accurately Projecting Costs: The Battle Continues

Journyx CEO Curt Finch weighs in again with another thoughtful business article, and this time it’s focused on accurate cost projections. The BusinessEdge presents the second in Curt’s 3 part series about How Corporate IT Departments Are Doing More With Less.

Get accurate at: http://www.journyx.com/rss/redir/bedge-finch2.html

Three Tips to Managing Across the Globe

So you’re managing people and projects around the world. It’s not easy, and it seems to be the norm these days. I’ve worked with global projects for the past 15 years, and here are three of my tips to making them successful.

#1 Define Clear, System-Based Milestones One of the biggest problems with global projects is knowing who depends on what piece. Sometimes pieces of the system are interrelated, without the project manager understanding how. If you and your project team define clear handoffs that are based on pieces of the system under development, you have a much better chance of knowing if you’re all on schedule or not.”

Learn more, o ye globetrotter, at: http://www.journyx.com/rss/redir/cworld-globetips.html

Are You Motivated By Challenge?

“Businesspeople are motivated to go to work each day by more than just the money they make. In fact, about four-fifths of senior executives and managers say it is the challenge that motivates them, followed by pride in their job and responsibility.

“Compensation is rated as the number four motivator, based on a nationwide survey of senior executives and managers conducted by NFI Research. However, these same executives and managers say that compensation is the number one motivator for those who work for them, followed by people they work with and pride in their jobs.”

Read more at: http://www2.darwinmag.com/read/feature/aug05_challenge.cfm

Team Assignments: Achievements vs. Activities

Around the Project Manager’s Control Tower, the distinction between activities and achievements is an important one. Activities are the means to an end, achievements are the desired end result. PMs who can drive projects from an achievement perspective versus an activity perspective have some notable advantages. Before listing these advantages, let’s make sure the differences between assigning activities and achievements are clear.

Example #1: Assignment to a Teenager
Activity: “Clean up your room!”
Achievement: “Put all of the empty soda cans in the trash can.”

With the first assignment, all we’ve done is tell the child to perform an activity: cleaning up the room. Odds are that the work will not live up to our standards when the child reports the task as finished. It’s even possible, though highly unlikely, that the child will do too much work, exceeding our standards. The key flaw in an activity assignment is that we do not create a clear performance expectation. As a result, we cannot gain commitment to the assignment, nor can we reasonably dole out consequences for good or bad performance. Aside from some vague and arguable expectations about what a “clean room” is, there is no performance standard to measure against.

Read more at: http://www.4pm.com/articles/achvsact.html

Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Deployment

“The deployment role is a role that is often overlooked much to the pain of the users. The actions of this role are the final step before being able to hand over the code to the users for their first real road test of the solution. It is the deployment person who can have the largest impact on the initial perception of the software for the people who are first trying it out.”

Read more at: http://www.developer.com/mgmt/article.php/3519186

After the fact: How to find out if your IT project made the grade

“Ask most IT managers why their organizations don’t regularly conduct postmortem reviews on completed IT projects, and the typical response is, ‘We’d like to, but we just don’t have the time or resources.’

“But that hasn’t stopped organizations such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Solo Cup Co. from regularly reviewing at least a portion of their completed IT projects. And while some of the reviews are done to see if a project met its anticipated objectives, many postmortems are conducted simply to determine what the project teams could have done better.”

Read more at: http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/project/story/0,10801,103104,00.html

Maintenance Contracts From Journyx

No one at Journyx ever likes to think about customers having problems with timesheet - we pride ourselves on making sure it is the easiest to use and most reliable time and expense application on planet earth. But just in case something goes wrong, just in case a customer comes across a place where they need help, Journyx keeps a well-trained cadre of support ninjas locked away in a dark room, ready to be unleashed at a moment’s notice to get things working right again.

The services of the support ninjas are available to everyone, even to our beloved “10 free” customers. But, since the care and feeding of support ninjas does impact our bottom line, we do have to prioritize their services. And one of the best ways to make sure you’re at the top of the line for the ninjas’ attention is to have a current maintenance contract with Journyx. With one of those on file you’ll be certain to be among the first to feel the power of the support ninjas should you ever need it.

Oh, and lest you think that the attention of the support ninjas is the only benefit you receive with a Journyx maintenance contract, allow me to note that paid maintenance customers also get free access to the latest patch level as well as any new minor releases. But wait, there’s more… you also receive a 50% discount on any new major releases you purchase. New major releases like the aforementioned timesheet 7.0.

You read that right… 50% off of timesheet 7.0 is yours if your have a maintenance contract with Journyx. And if you act fast and order or renew your maintenance contract now, I’d bet you a dollar that you’ll get that 50% discount, too.

Get covered at: http://www.journyx.com/rss/support/maintenancecontracts.html

Sports Stories: Looking for life lessons in the sports pages

“Some of the most practical management and leadership lessons come to us everyday. We may not regard them as such but they are presenting fundamentals in both personal and organizational development.

Where can you find these lessons? In the sports pages of your daily newspaper or on the screens of your favorite sports shows. Everyday you will find stories about athletes who push themselves to the limits to achieve stardom or just the opposite, athletes with plenty of raw talent but no brains, nor sense of restraint so they end up frittering their gifts away through drink, drugs or sheer laziness.

You will also find stories of coaches who set the right example for their teams by setting standards for athletics and teaching to those standards. And on the professional side you will see stories of owners who build organizations designed to put coaches and players first so that the team wins. And of course you will find stories of owners who care only about polishing their egos at the expense of everyone else. Taken together these stories provide valuable insights into character, motive, energy and commitment.”

Check the box score at: http://www.journyx.com/rss/redir/darwinmag-sports.html

Madness in the Method

“In Hamlet, Polonius comments on the behavior of the Prince of Denmark: ‘though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t.’ When I look at a lot of so-called project management methodologies, I am often tempted to invert Polonius’s view: ‘though this be methodology, yet there is madness in ‘t.’ As Chief Project Officer, the project management methodology in use is your responsibility. Is there madness in yours? How can you tell? Before I address those questions, let’s take a minute to review the key reasons behind using a consistent Project Management Methodology (PMM)…”

Learn more, Horatio, at: http://www.journyx.com/rss/redir/cpomadness.html

Our Best Timesheet Advice for Today:

Editor's Note on Timesheet Product Selection :

Evaluating the best timesheet product in the market will not be an easy job. There are numerous timesheet products ot timesheet software to chose from. Our suggestion is look first into your company's objectives - why do we need a timesheet? who are the users of the timesheet? what are the problems that the timesheet keeping system will solve? how much are we willing to spend to get the best time keeping product in the market today?
We hope that this website can you some perspective on this timesheet issue. We won't be recommending what timesheet software to buy and what not to buy. Our purpose will be to provide you with relevant timesheet news, information and data that might help you in your decision making process of whether you should buy a timesheet system or not. Or if you do decide to buy a time tracking application, what are the options available in the market today.
You can find the most useful timesheet resources above, study themn first and all the best to you!