Below the Line

Toodledo and tailored, too*

I've started using Toodledo and I thought it was worth at least a mention as a useful account management and project management tool.

Toodledo is an online task manager which enables users to keep track of tasks and assign tasks to other team members. In terms of agency life, the useful features include:

• A timer feature which can help your team when it comes time to fill out timesheets or draft invoices
• The ability to estimate how long the task will take (read: no timesheet padding)
• A scheduling feature, so that team members can find the most appropriate tasks to work on based on the task priority, estimated time to complete the task and how long they have available to work on a task (e.g. "I am free for the next two hours - what should I work on?")

There is also an iPhone app which syncs with the data stored on the web so you can assign tasks or update their status on the go.

If used consistently by the entire team, this could significantly reduce the amount of time that the account management and/or project management team spend on updating status reports.It could also be a useful bug-tracking tool for web builds (though it's certainly not the most robust tool out there for this application).

In terms of "cons", I was originally interested in syncing the tasks with my Outlook task list, but Toodledo's web site says that there have been some problems with these tasks disappearing and that they cannot be responsible for third-party applications misbehaving. As I can't risk my tasks going MIA, I'm not able to use this feature.

Toodledo does have its limitations, but you can set up job folders and tailor the way the tasks appear on the screen. All in all, if you are looking for a way to consolidate tasks across your team, Toodledo is a worthwhile tool.

A pro subscription costs $14.95 per person per year and the iPhone app is currently $2.99.

For a comparison of Toodledo with Remember the Milk, another online task manager, check out this post at Web2andMore.net.

*Bonus points if you can figure out the famous U.S. campaign song to which this blog post title refers. (Hint: It established the power of signing as a campaign device.) Leave a comment if you know it and I'll give you a shout out on Twitter.

Project Management Tools

I recently evaluated the free version Basecamp as a project management tool for a web site launch I'm working on.

Here are some thoughts on how it stacks up against Microsoft Project.

Pros
+ Good snapshot of milestones on the calendar; plus it can send reminders automatically 48 hours before the milestone
+ Milestones link to iCalendar so if anyone uses it, they can set it up to have the milestones automatically populate their own calendar
+ Easy to read to do lists for each person
+ Good drag and drop functionality
+ Fairly easy to set up and learn to use
+ Can set up To Do list templates that can be used for each month’s ongoing tasks

Cons
- Only one person can be assigned to a task or a milestone
- You can’t link tasks together
- You can’t include durations for tasks or milestones
- Only milestones have due dates. Tasks are just lists
- You have to put action items as either a Task or a Milestone – they can’t be both. That means, people have to look at all tasks and milestones to get a sense of what they need to do. Or, you can list everything as a Task (but no dates attached) or a milestone (but this could create an extremely messy calendar)

In the end, we decided to stick with Microsoft Project for critical path tasks and use an existing project wiki for general task lists. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has experience with these or other project management tools.

Account Management Basics - Project Debrief

At the end of a quarterly or other major project, it is useful to conduct an internal Project Debrief (also called a Post Mortem).

1. Successes: What did we accomplish? Did we meet our goals? What activities or tactics worked well for us?
2. Challenges: What difficulties did we encounter?  How did we resolve them or workaround them? Were all issues resolved in a timely manner?
3. Weaknesses: In what areas was our performance less than satisfactory? What aspects of team functioning need improvement?
4. Plans: What are the plans for improvement?
5. Process:

·         Was the process clear to the entire team at the outset?

·         Were the responsibilities clear?

·         How well was the team able to respond to requests?

·         How well did the team work together? Were they responsive and flexible?

·         Was the process effective?

6. Questions to consider:

·         Were there organizational obstacles that made it difficult or impossible to conduct any part of the process?

·         Did you have the right information and tools to do the job well?

·         Were communications adequate in all activities?

·         Did the project meet all original scheduled milestones/deadlines?

·         Did the project receive all the necessary approvals to proceed in a timely fashion?

·         Was the project staffed appropriately?

·         Was quality of the deliverable adequate?

·         What have we learned from this project?

·         Has all the documentation been completed and saved?