Journyx Project Management Blog

Effective Friday, February 10th, 2006, Journyx will no longer offer maintenance contract renewals for Timesheet 4.6x. Customers with maintenance contracts for Timesheet 4.6 purchased before this date will continue to receive full Timesheet support until the end of their contract period. After the customer’s maintenance contract expires, support for the Timesheet 4.6 installation will not be available.

But fear not, my friends. We’re ready, willing and able to help you update that dependable old Timesheet install to our latest and greatest masterpiece, Timesheet 7.0. Visit the Journyx site to find out more about the latest version of Timesheet or to contact our Sales Team to get started on the road to upgrade nirvana.

See the complete announcement at:
http://www.journyx.com/rss/support/eol46.html

A new year brings new challenges, and the Professional Services team at Journyx is always standing by to help you meet those challenges head-on. So whether you have a new process that you need to integrate with Timesheet or just need to clean up your installation with a ProUpdate Reconfiguration Package, don’t hesitate to drop us a line. We’re dedicated to working with you to make your installation of Timesheet the most useful, most integrated and most valuable piece of software in your organization.

Check out the tools available at:
http://www.journyx.com/rss/support/proserv/

• How can I safely remove data for previous years from my production database?
• How do I make the transition to the new year with Accountlink if I close out my QuickBooks file annually?

Get these great tips and more at:
http://www.journyx.com/rss/support/tips/

Governance has become a critical element of effective IT management. While it’s clear that well-defined practices and mature processes deliver many benefits to an IT organization, it’s less clear how an organization achieves mature IT governance processes. Without a well-defined IT governance implementation plan, many organizations become overwhelmed by the complexity of implementing new IT governance practices, tools and processes. The implementation project slows down, results are slow to materialize, and participants may become frustrated and discouraged with the lack of progress. Ultimately, many governance initiatives fail.

There is another way to approach an IT governance project, however. By taking a phased approach, organizations can tackle small steps successively – and far more successfully. Within each phase, the IT organization can choose to focus on specific goals that will deliver the highest value for the least amount of effort, while moving the organization further along the path to mature IT governance processes.

Set sail at:
http://www.journyx.com/rss/redir/cworld-chartcourse.html

Managers, executives and probably even some CLOs have long viewed project management as a tactical, operational endeavor, with which they have had mixed success. But a quiet revolution has been taking place over the past decade that has propelled project management to the top of many CEO’s agendas. The reason is simple: Strategic objectives are realized through projects. If we can’t do projects well, we won’t meet our goals.

This is why many organizations have pushed the project management envelope to adapt new ways of executing projects. One such cutting-edge business practice is adaptive project management, a term that describes a number of alternative management techniques specifically aimed at helping project teams deliver intended results on time. These techniques include agile project management, integrated project teams and heavyweight project management.

These relatively new practices alter the makeup and roles of traditional project teams in an attempt to improve efficiency and deliver results quicker and more cost-effectively. Although each of these techniques has the ability to deliver impressive results, they also present a challenge to CLOs who must identify and develop programs to provide project managers, team members and the executives who guide them with the requisite skills needed to maximize their use.

Learn how to modify your approach at:
http://www.journyx.com/rss/redir/clo-adapt.html

Project management as a science and art is undergoing key transformations as a result of countless stories of failed projects, cost overruns, and canceling that project that took 2 years of your employee´s lives.

Needless to say, these scenarios not only cost money, time, and lost opportunities, but also have a longer term impact on the overall morale of a workforce.

Though there is no panacea to these inevitable outcomes, it´s important to take a look back on the cornerstones that define effective and success-prone project management.

Ultimately project management like most disciplines, requires just that-discipline. This discipline of mindset far outweighs any single tool, or management fad with a catchy name. The PMBOK or The Project Management Body of Knowledge is a good reference guide to begin, refocus, or sharpen your project management mindset.

Read more at:
http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/expertarticles/wpn-62-20051216TheProjectManagementMindset.html

Corporate IT is being drawn to the concept of software delivered as a service and its promise of less maintenance and lower operational costs. Vendors are responding with innovations and commitments to offer the model of hosted application services.
Advertisement:

Software-as-a-service is a model of delivering software over the Internet, eliminating the need for companies to buy, build, manage and maintain infrastructure and applications. The concept has its roots in the application service provider (ASP) revolution that fizzled in the late 1990s, but it is now white-hot with its promised IT benefits and is putting pressure on vendors of traditional shrink-wrapped software.

Read more at: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/121205-saas.html?page=1

Change is now the only constant in most corporate IT shops. Not only do today’s technology leaders make systems-related decisions that affect thousands of users, but they also must react quickly to market shifts and hustle to appease zealous CEOs bent on getting ahead in fast-paced industries.

High on the stress list are mergers and acquisitions. When organizations blend, some IT staffers work overtime to absorb and accommodate entire organizations, while other technology workers strive to adjust quickly to the foreign ways of new parent companies.

Growth without acquisition is painful as well. Many business development departments now regularly demand new technologies to help move companies forward.

Read more at:
http://www.computerworld.com/managementtopics/management/project/story/0,10801,106904,00.html

The field of Project Scheduling has undergone a history of growth and evolution brought on, in no small way, by methodological and technological changes. Yet, the profession’s self-view has not kept pace with its increasingly prominent and diverse role in project management. As a result, it now lacks sufficient labels to describe the many different functions performed by the professional project scheduler. The term “scheduling” does not adequately describe the suite of products and services performed by an array of project management professionals whose only common thread is the project schedule. A complete set of definitions of roles and responsibilities is needed.

Looking forward, further radical changes in the profession are just around the corner. The encompassing field of project management, of which scheduling is a central part, is moving away from Newtonian structures to management models more aligned with chaos theory. As this transition occurs, the role of the project scheduler will give way to a new position — project facilitator. While the end goal may be the same - to assist the project manager in driving the project - the methodologies, technologies, and philosophies will be much different. Scheduling, as both a profession, is about to undergo a complete makeover.

Read more at: http://www.pmforum.org/library/papers/2005/1112papers.htm#01

When workforce management software maker Journyx released the latest version of its flagship product Timesheet, it was the first time it had outsourced beta testing to engineers in the Ukraine. Despite language barriers, the latest round of testing proved much more efficient than previous testing in India.

“This is the first time we’ve done a major release with all outsourced testing, and I’m pretty happy with what we’ve gotten for the money,” said Journyx CEO Curt Finch, whose Austin, Texas-based company provides Web-based project management software that helps companies track employees’ time and expenses for projects.

Outsourcing jobs overseas is a commonly accepted business practice in the U.S. Approximately 3.4 million jobs will move offshore by 2015, according to Forrester Research Inc.

According to Boston-based AMR Research Inc., about 38% of companies with revenue of less than $1 billion have hired offshore consultants at some point to help re-engineer business processes. That is a slightly higher percentage than companies with revenue above $1 billion (35%).

Read more at: http://searchsmb.techtarget.com/tip/1,289483,sid44_gci1153514,00.html