I need help coming up with a tight project management setup and I am counting on you readers to help me out.
I have recently started work for a new client who already has me managing 10 projects on their behalf. I have a great system using Outlook and OneNote 2007 for capturing pertinent information in one place but it is rapidly becoming clear that I also need a way to track many projects and also have the ability to see them all in an overview mode. Nothing has fallen through the cracks yet but it surely will if I don’t tighten up my tracking system.
What I am thinking might work best is to use MindManager for the project tracking. I have used MM for brainstorming and writing project creation but I have not used it for actual project tracking. I am thinking that if I create a MM map for each project I can then use ResultsManager to produce the appropriate Daily, Weekly, and perhaps Monthly reviews that will gather all the action items from each individual project and put them in a Dashboard for easy reference and updating. My main problem at this point is determining what the optimum structure for the project maps would be, along with the MM project directory structure that will make it easier to collect for the ResultsManager views.
The projects that will be tracked are complex and can easily require 50+ steps to completion. All of the actual steps are executed by someone(s) else and my job is to make sure they do the step when appropriate, that it completes on time with the schedule, and to perform technical supervision of their work. This means I need to be able to see at a glance what areas I need to focus on, especially at the beginning of the week, and to plan my schedule of meetings and tasks around what needs to be done.
I am open to any ideas you might have so shoot them into the comments and lets see what we can get done together. Thanks!
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