Journyx Project Management Blog

Hear ye! Hear ye! As of Monday, March 31 2008, Journyx will cease all support of Timesheet 5.6x. Moreover, Journyx will stop selling maintenance contacts for Timesheet 5.6x as of December 31,2007. So consider this your friendly warning to include some funding for a Timesheet upgrade in your budgets.

Maintenance contracts that are purchased after March 31 of this year will be prorated for the amount of coverage that would extend past the End Of Life date for Timesheet 5.6. After the EOL date, support for Timesheet 5.6 installations will not be available.

All that said, we’re ready, willing and able to help you update that dependable old Timesheet install to our latest and greatest masterpiece, Timesheet 7.1. 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.

Learn more about Timesheet 7.1:
http://www.journyx.com/rss/products/timesheet/71features.html

Contact the Journyx Sales Team to upgrade:
http://www.journyx.com/rss/redir/contactsales.html

In the traditional waterfall model of software development, the first phase of requirements analysis is also the most important one. This is the phase which involves gathering information about the customer’s needs and defining, in the clearest possible terms, the problem that the product is expected to solve.

This analysis includes understanding the customer’s business context and constraints, the functions the product must perform, the performance levels it must adhere to, and the external systems it must be compatible with. Techniques used to obtain this understanding include customer interviews, use cases, and “shopping lists” of software features. The results of the analysis are typically captured in a formal requirements specification, which serves as input to the next step.

Well, at least that’s the way it’s supposed to work theoretically. In reality, there are a number of problems with this theoretical model, and these can cause delays and knock-on errors in the rest of the process. This article discusses some of the more common problems that project managers experience during this phase, and suggests possible solutions.

Dodge the bullet at:
http://journyx.com/rss/redir/trepublic-fiveerrors.html

Courtesy of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Daylight Savings Time (DST) in the United States will begin three weeks earlier and end one week later than they did prior to this legislation.

This isn’t a concern as far as Journyx goes, since Timesheet gets its time information directly from the operating system of the server. However, you should be aware that you’ll likely need to take some sort of action regarding your servers, if for no other reason than to make sure that they - and by extension, Timesheet - aren’t behind by an hour come the second Sunday in March.

Since this isn’t truly a Journyx issue, we don’t have any specific support to offer you. But, helpful souls that we are, we’ve put together a page with links to the appropriate information for each of the server OSes that we support. So follow the link below to get started with mucking about with time in the name of saving energy.

Adjust your settings at:
http://journyx.com/rss/support/epa2005.html

Have you been a Journyx customer since 2003 or before? If so, we’d like to talk to you!

We are compiling the best user stories from Journyx customers and would like to hear how you’ve used Timesheet in your company. How has Timesheet helped you? By saving your company money? Does it help you plan your budgets better? Does it give you better understanding of your organizational of project costs? In other words, why have you stuck with us for so long?

Your story doesn’t have to be long - just a quick email to let us know how your company has evolved with Timesheet since you first started using it would be great.

So, tell us why you’ve been a loyal Journyx customer for so long - we’d love to hear! Drop us a line at stories@journyx.com and we promise not to blush.

Q: Here I am in my first day as an IT manager after a stellar career as an individual performer. What’s going to shock me?

A: One thing is that there is a lot more to be learned than you had anticipated. The gap between what you know and what you need to know is greater than you thought, and you will need to learn while doing. Another thing: IT people who are technical often assume that their technical knowledge is going to be enough — “I am the most expert of the tech experts and will use my technical judgment to deal with difficult problems.” Yes, but there will also be human problems where your technical talents are not the ones needed.

The other shock is how negative this all feels. The problems are those others couldn’t solve. Only the things that are broken come to you.

Get the answers you need to succeed at:
http://journyx.com/rss/redir/cworld-newit.html

The hotel industry is hot, and Marriott International Inc. is one of the industry giants anticipating continued profits this year. In the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Marriott posted a 9.4% year-to-year increase in its worldwide revenue per available room, or RevPAR — a commonly used performance metric in the lodging industry. And from 2006 to 2009, the company expects diluted earnings per share, excluding its synthetic-fuel business, to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 15% to 25%.

However, the Bethesda, Md.-based company’s technology budget for 2007 is lower than it was last year, according to Susan Zankman, senior vice president of information resources finance and management services at the $11.6 billion hotel chain. But that’s OK with Zankman and Howard Melnick, senior vice president of information resources application services. To them, investing more money in technology doesn’t necessarily ensure success. “It’s spending money in the right places,” Melnick says. “It’s having a tight lens on potential projects and seeing how they map to all the criteria. How does it impact the brand? Fit into the technology strategy? What is the financial impact?”

Read more at: Computerworld

The phrase “time is fleeting” has never had more relevance than it does in the 21st century as today’s “C-Suite” executives and their employees confront overwhelming demands on their time. In fact, time is every bit as critical as money. Yet, many companies are not accustomed to allocating and investing it with the same level of care as they would with more traditional assets.

Those executives “get it” that time must be managed, accounted for and invested in ways that maximize return. Yet, this is often easier said than done, as companies seldom possess the right processes and infrastructure to make the most of time resources. They often confuse the core business process of time-resource allocation with simple “timesheets” or “time management calendars.” This is as dangerous as confusing a simple check register with a company’s capital investment strategy.

To allocate and manage any resource, it must first be seen clearly and then tracked carefully. Time tracking should be a fundamental part of any business. Almost every business tracks time at some level  even if only for payroll. At the most basic level, some companies employ a simplistic, homegrown system that is based on spreadsheets.

Read more at: ProjectTimes

Over the years I have worked at many client sites and a variety of office layouts. On one project in particular, we had as many as 80 people in a project team, seated via an open plan arrangement. It was pretty difficult trying to stay focused in an environment like this. These days, the projects I’m on are typically smaller, but there are still a number of distractions which frequently interrupt my working groove. So what are some of the things we can do to minimise such interruptions and distractions?

Here’s my list of 18 ways to stay focused at work:

Read more at: DaveCheong.com

Golf balls run amok and ping around a warehouse in an amusing new DHL commercial. A distraught warehouse manager phones the shipping giant to reroute correspondence and packages, while a booming voice pledges that DHL has adopted a renewed focus on customer service — a promise that will extend clear down to IT personnel manning help desks and scrambling to provide technical support.

IT hiring figures are expected to dip slightly in the coming year, so you’ll be getting a flood of résumés for every job opening you have. From those, hiring executives will pluck people with the strongest combination of technical and business skills. For instance, knowing how to help a call center agent navigate malfunctioning pop-up screens will no longer be enough. Instead, DHL and other big companies want tech support staffs to prioritize and understand why jumping on a problem quickly is a mission-critical must.

Read more at: Computerworld

You know that new person who just took the cubicle down the aisle? The one who listens to his iPod and works out rhythms on his keyboard in the late afternoon? Yup, the one who is friends with the guy who wears neon-colored shirts so bright they burn holes in your retina. He’s also the one who works with the young lady in programming whose blouse reveals her tummy (flat, of course) and maybe has a tattoo on her upper shoulder.

Live with It
Sound familiar? Get used to it. Generation Next is here and will be with us until you and everyone you know retires. Before you say yikes, remember, these “kids” (the oldest of whom are in their mid to late 20s) are the offspring of the most self-centered, pampered and individualist generation the world has ever seen. Us—the Baby Boomers! [And hey, Gen Xers, you gals and guys in your 30s, get used to it; we thought the same of you, too. And besides: Nexters outnumber you—big time!]

Waves of research are beginning to flood in about this new generation as it makes its first forays into the workplace. First off, they are smart. Way smart. Tech savvy, too. They are intuitive with technology. Cell phones are to them what wind-up phones were to your grandparents’ generation. Consider these nuggets culled from the PBS’s Generation Next series: Google is a way of life, not simply a search engine. It is the source of information for many things global as well as local. Instant communications is a necessity; these folks are connected wirelessly 24/7. Empowerment is an expectation; I can be my own boss. Flexibility is an entitlement. That is, you conform to me, or I’m gone.

Read more at: CIO Magazine