Occasionally we write blog posts where multiple people contribute. Since our idea of having a gladiator arena where contributors would fight to the death to win total authorship wasn’t approved by HR, this was the compromise.
Julia Bergman, a Web 2.0 evangelist and information literacy coach, thoroughly shares this idea. As a part of her course, she educates business people on how they can improve their project management practices and processes with innovative technologies. Her course is based on the principles of collaborative learning. Attendees learn how to use Web 2.0 tools though constant interactions via these tools. However, even such projects need tight supervision and guidance.
Learn how Julia manages to supervise multiple learning projects at a time and organize smooth collaboration across several student groups.
News
5 min read
Customer's Tip of the Day: Think Globally, Plan for Tomorrow
Planning accurately, estimating task duration and keeping it close to reality – these aren’t easy things to do. And now imagine this is happening in a start-up where you do things that you have never done before (or even no one in the world has)!
Today, Chris Rider, project manager at the fast-moving chemistry startup Terramera, shares how his team has enhanced its planning with the help of Wrike’s interactive timeline.Planning accurately, estimating task duration and keeping it close to reality – these aren’t easy things to do. And now imagine this is happening in a start-up where you do things that you have never done before (or even no one in the world has)!
Today, Chris Rider, project manager at the fast-moving chemistry startup Terramera, shares how his team has enhanced its project planning with the help of Wrike’s interactive timeline.
Customer’s background
Terramera is a start-up committed to preserving Earth for the future generations. They develop safe, highly effective alternatives to traditional chemical pesticides, targeting the world’s most troublesome pests. Their product is absolutely harmless for the environment and humans. And we want to thank these guys for making Earth a better place for all of us!
Terramera’s tip
Chris Rider suggests not going into very detailed planning in advance. If you can’t precisely estimate the task duration, especially when it’s a brand new activity for the team, you may end up with delays and overlaps.
Instead, he suggests splitting the project into stages, defining the goals for each of them and then setting due dates for the main tasks and milestones only. According to Terramera’s experience, this is a great starting point, and you can adjust the schedule when necessary.
To make sure the major deadlines are intact, regardless of adjustments, you can create date constraints between project stages. This works great when you’re waiting for a client’s feedback. You can’t plan in advance if he or she suggests a couple of minor corrections, or even a radical makeover. In this case, a date constraint between the milestone and the dependent task on the timeline makes sure there’s enough time to deal with the situation. Even if your client gives you a dozen more ideas to improve the product, you’ll still have time to implement them.
“As we start working on some stage of a project, we get a clearer picture of what needs to be done,” Chris says, “Then we keep making our schedule more detailed and accurate. This way, the deadlines become more realistic, since they are based on the actual circumstances and not on the outdated suggestions.” The team regularly creates smaller tasks and moves the existing ones on the timeline if they take more or less time than expected. Then Terramera’s team runs periodic meetings to discuss the schedule changes and keep everyone in the loop. The team also can easily track them, as well as monitor new tasks in the Activity Stream.
Those of you who work in IT may notice that this workflow is similar to agile development methods. In this management concept, before developing the product, the team also splits the workload into iterations and then plans each iteration more thoroughly.
Wrike’s flexibility works great for agile methods. Unlike the spreadsheets that Terramera previously used, project planning on the timeline provides all team members with an instant access to the up-to-date project picture. The system also sends them instant notifications if the tasks are rescheduled. With realistic deadlines, the team has become more organized and gets things done in time. According to Chris, such an approach makes his team more flexible and efficient in achieving their pre-set goals.
If you want to learn more about Terramera’s story of overcoming start-up challenges in project management, watch our videocast with Chris Rider:
“Before Wrike, we were often finding ourselves doing unexpected work at the last minute. Using Wrike, we have greatly improved our planning, which means that when the time comes for work to be due, the team has already done most of the work. This means we can now work much more proactively and effectively.”
Chris Rider, project manager at Terramera
News
3 min read
Saving Time with Wrike's API: Distribion's Experience of Integrating Wrike with Accounting App
Many restaurants let you choose the mix of ingredients you want to get in your sandwich, so that the snack perfectly suits your taste. The same is true for project management software. The more freedom you have to combine it with other business apps you use, the better it suits your workflow.
One of our clients, Distribion, Inc., sets a successful example of how to integrate Wrike with other tools your team is already using, such as accounting and ticket management systems, with the help of API. Many restaurants let you choose the mix of ingredients you want to get in your sandwich, so that the snack perfectly suits your taste. The same is true for project management software. The more freedom you have to combine it with other business apps you use, the better it suits your workflow.
One of our clients, Distribion, Inc., sets a successful example of how to integrate Wrike with other tools your team is already using, such as accounting and ticket management systems, with the help of API.
Pulling time logs from Wrike into the accounting app
Distribion captures project revenue on a time allocation basis. That’s why it’s highly important to know the exact number of hours spent on a certain task or project. Previously, employees had to enter time in both Wrike and their accounting system separately. That was very inconvenient and time-consuming.
The integration with Wrike’s time-tracker was a simple solution that freed them from the load of such double work. Thanks to hourly API calls, all time logs a user makes in Wrike automatically get into the accounting system. And that is it! The data is ready for further processing.
Syncing project names between the apps
Distribion’s accounting app automatically generates a number for every invoice that may consist of payments for several tasks. So for correct billing, it is crucial to see what tasks are related to each invoice’s number. That’s easy with Wrike! The team just puts an invoice number into a folder’s name so all tasks in this folder get this appropriate tag. You can also find useful information in the Wrike invoicing guide.
“Our folder structure defines what phase of development a task is in, what the task type is (defect, feature, etc.) and what particular job it’s included in,” says Michael Noblitt, VP of Operations at Distribion, Inc. This lets everyone on the team find the tasks that they need in mere seconds.
Converting tickets into tasks automatically
Distribion felt that the integration with the accounting app brought great improvements, so the team decided to bridge their ticket management app with Wrike, as well. Now when a client puts a ticket in, an e-mail is instantly sent to Wrike. Once Wrike receives it, it automatically converts the message into a new task. Thus, the team knows that no action item will be lost in the depth of their ticket management app, and it can put it on their schedule immediately.
Evaluating Distribion’s overall experience with the integration, Michael Noblitt concludes:
“Wrike’s API’s are well-designed and thoroughly documented. Our integration with Wrike has led to significant project cost reductions and enhanced transparency, giving us an ROI in less than 3 months.”
How do you use Wrike’s API potential? What particular tools did you plug into Wrike?
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