In this September 29, 2009 issue:

Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview Rally Software to discuss their Agile project management tools for software development.  I sat down with Richard Leavitt, Executive VP Worldwide Marketing, and discussed the recent releases to the Rally's Agile project management software.

Rally is clearly leading the charge to bring Agile software development to the enterprise.  The majority of agile project management tools focus on the 3 levels of planning including release, iteration and daily activities.  Rally has taken enterprise agility to another level by supporting two additional levels of planning including the Product Vision and Roadmap planning.

Rally also "gets it" when it comes to implemeting Agile in enterprise environments.  Enterprise organizations still have other software tools like HP's Quality Center or 3rd party automated testing engines.  Rally has built connectors to integrate with industry tool leaders so Rally's dashboard can be used as the central hub for Agile project management reporting.  I'll be publishing an article shortly that details the interview.

In the meantime, check out the following RallyDev links:

Company Website:  http://www.rallydev.com

Excellent No Cost Agile PM Training http://www.rallydev.com/learn_agile/

Great Blog on Waterfall and Agile http://www.rallydev.com/agileblog/

Microsoft Project 2010 Previews

If you recently switch to the other Office 2010 products then you've already seen the Ribbon View.  It should be interesting to see how easy it is to use in MS Project.

Here is another useful preview.

I've been working with Matchware's MindView product and I am consistently impressed at how well the tool switches from a mind map view to a project schedule.  The product even includes an awesome timeline feature.

I no longer need to create a PowerPoint based milestone chart.  By using MindView, I can quickly switch to a timeline view my clients understand.  Here is the article I wrote for Projects@Work

I'm a big fan of Neal Whitten's straight talk advice. If you've had the opportunity to hear Neal speak, you'll notice how easily he puts project management problems in simple terms. He also provides practical solutions that just make sense. This book has over 38 chapters filled with relevant advice for the project manager seeking to apply lessons learned to critical projects. I particulary liked Neal's approach to lessons learned sessions and the guidance he provides about rolling planning. Each chapter has a ton of Q&As that further augment his chapters.

Get your copy at: Neal Whitten's No-Nonsense Advice For Successful Projects

Last week I did a "soft launch" of my latest MS Project tutorial - How Effectively Analyze and Report Project Status.  I'm proud to say I've gotten a lot of positive responses about the tutorial's project status report template and the Metrics in Minutes tool.

I've created the Metrics in Minutes tool to analyze project schedules and quickly develop reports and charts to provide objective metrics in my status reports.  All too often I see overly subjective status reports that lack and definitive metrics.  The problem is metrics collecting can take a lot of time and project managers don't always have that luxury.  Fortunately this tool will analyze your project schedule and develop all the meaningful metrics in less than 60 seconds.

You can learn more at:

MS Project Tutorial #3: How Effectively Analyze and Report Project Status

I hope you found this newsletter useful and feel free to contact me with your project management questions!

Thanks!

Andy Makar

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it