Friday, January 02, 2009
image source: raebrune
Back in January, we talked about how the Configuration Management features of GrandView allow you to collaborate with customers through the process of document creation, review, and approval. Now we've extended that concept to tracking your tangible deliverables as well.
Often times, documentation is just one component of the final product for a project. Many RoviSys projects also require building some form of equipment as part of the end result. We may require parts from multiple vendors, or may ourselves be a midpoint in the final chain to delivering some part to a customer. Keeping track of assembled parts, and knowing where they are in the process of shipment to the customer, can be very confusing if you don't have a system in place to record it easily.
Enter the newest addition to GrandView Configuration Management: Equipment and Shipment Tracking. Similar to documentation, equipment (parts) can be entered manually from the Equipment tab. But there's another, perhaps more familiar interface for creating parts as well -- purchase orders! To save you time entering all parts from purchase orders, GrandView automatically displays your existing purchase order parts as equipment! Once parts are received in the Receiving area of GrandView, ideally by your company's receiving manager, they can be shipped to any customer site. Tracking your shipments in the Project Status area of GrandView means your team can locate equipment with a single glance at the equipment view and never again have to wonder "Where's my equipment?"!
Jeromie L. Walters
GrandView Business Solutions Developer
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The .NET Framework 2.0 contains a vast set of features that GrandView developers take advantage of daily. While it provides everything we need to make GrandView a rich suite of project management tools, newer releases provide an even greater amount of functionality and flexibility that we would like to leverage.
In version 3.0, four new technologies are introduced:
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is Microsoft's new user interface subsystem. In addition to supporting hardware acceleration, it can elegantly combine many types of media (including 2 and 3D graphics, animations, audio, and video) into a single client or web application.
- Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) unifies the way applications can communicate and interact, even across networks.
- Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) provides a framework for defining, executing, and managing workflows.
- Windows CardSpace enables people to more easily and securely maintain a series of digital identities without having to remember different sets of usernames and passwords.
Introduced in version 3.5 are a variety of Language Features:
- Language Integrated Query (LINQ) allows for the rapid development of on-the-fly, in-code queries to SQL Server, XML Documents, or other objects.
- With Extension Methods, developers can quickly add custom functionality to their current code, or even modify the .NET Framework's Runtime Library.
- Anonymous Types, Automatic Properties, Object/ List Initializers, and Lambda Expressions simplify development: they limit the amount of redundant or complex code developers need to write, and lets them focus on what's really important - developing new and exciting features for our GrandView users!
- In addition, support for AJAX is now built-in, in the form of ASP.NET AJAX, opening the door for more dynamic web experiences.
GrandView is currently implemented using the .NET Framework 2.0, but shifting to .NET 3.x would require almost no effort or development downtime, as the newer versions are backward compatible.
We are always looking ahead to new and useful technologies that can help make GrandView a more complete and robust project management solution!
Mark Carpenter
GrandView Business Solutions Developer
Friday, November 21, 2008
We've discussed the value of capturing the knowledge of your employees. Now let's take a closer look at the training features of GrandView that can help you make it a reality. GrandView can be used as a Learning Management System to incorporate e-learning as well as instructor-led training capabilities. Some of the key features are Curriculum/Course Setup, Course Assignments, Course Notifications, Course Content Delivery, and Performance Tracking.
GrandView's Curriculum/Course Setup features allow the content management of curriculums and courses. A curriculum coordinator configures the necessary courses for a specific curriculum and assigns teachers who are selected as subject matter experts. Teachers build a learning path of course materials and can generate an automated test to be used as an assessment of whether or not students have mastered the course material. 
Course Assignment, Notification, and Delivery features work hand-in-hand. Students can be scheduled or can even schedule themselves via a Course Catalog once curriculums and courses are developed and released. Assignment to courses are treated as tasks so they have due dates and can also have reminders attached to them. GrandView tasks are integrated into a user dashboard for notification and quick access to task information. Courses are delivered easily as the student follows the pre-defined learning path of course materials en route to taking an electronic test for assessment.
Finally, Performance Tracking features allow students and supervisors alike to view training history and status. Students can track their own training courses on a Student Status view and supervisors have the ability to track their employees' training performance with detailed reporting capabilities.
All in all, the GrandView Training module provides the key basic features required in a Learning Management System so that a growing organization can accomplish its training goals.
Chris Engelmann, GrandView Product Manager
Monday, November 10, 2008
Everyone has a certain way of doing things. Sometimes the methods we adopt, albeit unintentional, make our lives more difficult. We get into patterns of doing something a given way just because it "needs to get done" or worse, because "that's the way it's always been done before." Even though they're cumbersome burdens, we call these tasks necessary evils and allow the abuse to continue.
One of the very reasons GrandView was developed was to eliminate many "necessary evils" in the early days of RoviSys, such as mountains of spreadsheets used to keep track of sales and project data. Even though we've streamlined our process and simplified our tasks greatly, we realize that our process doesn't exactly work for everyone. Some companies may need additional timesheet information or require additional import tools to get custom data into GrandView; and of course they'll need a new page to be able to view that custom data as well. Others may want quick access to a specific feature, such as Expenses, from every project instead of being limited to just a top-level Expenses tab.
So how do we allow customers to simplify their process without changing it for everyone? Easily - with a new architecture we refer to as GrandView Customizations. Customizations allow us to implement features that are specific to a single customer. We can create a custom import, copy features to multiple locations, add custom data to existing pages, or replace an existing feature with something completely different! We can even add external web pages in case a company decides they need access to a web search engine or another useful Internet tool from within GrandView.
Give us a call today to see how GrandView can be used to simplify YOUR process!
Jeromie Walters
GrandView Business Solutions Developer
Friday, October 24, 2008
Introduced in ASP.NET 2.0 (released Nov. 7, 2005), Master Pages provides a template-based approach to web page design. Master Pages is the next generation to templates.
Templates
Traditional DreamWeaver or FrontPage web templates (.dwt files) provide a framework of HTML that is common to every page using a particular template on a web site; headers, footers or navigation menus. This allows the web author to easily insert new content into placeholder sections (Editable Regions) within the template when designing a new page. The authoring tools detect when a template is changed and prompt the author to modify all pages based on that template. The advantage of using a template-based web site is that changes to the template are propagated to all pages using that template. However, ALL of those changed pages still need released to the live web site. Also, it's easy to inadvertently change an uneditable region on a template-based page which would get overwritten the next time the template is applied.
Master Pages
Similar to using an editable region placeholder in a template, Master Pages (.master files) use a ContentPlaceHolder control. HTML or controls are then placed in this region when authoring a new page:
<asp:Content id="content1" runat="server" contentplaceholderid="content">Testing -- new content goes here</asp:Content>
Unlike with templates, default content can be included in the Master Page within the ContentPlaceHolder control. This can be useful if a default navigation menu is typically used, but may need to change for certain pages. Also unlike templates, the new page based on a Master Page is rendered in the browser at run-time, not during design of the page. So when the Master Page is changed, only the .master file needs released to the live web site.
Stay tuned for Master Pages Part 2 where we'll talk about nesting and image paths...
David Heater, P.E.
GrandView Business Solutions Developer
Friday, October 10, 2008
The Project Management Institute defines a project as "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result" (PMBOK guide, 3rd ed.). Because of the temporal nature of projects, it's important to ensure effective collaboration quickly and consistently through a project. GrandView helps you do that by integrating all of the necessary project-related communications. Some of the highlights include:
- Project Status Logs - This is a project-specific message log where all communications about the project take place. Important decisions are logged and acknowledgement by the team is required. This not only serves as a permanent record of the project's history, but also allows new project team members to get up to speed quickly.
- Project Schedule - A simple scheduling tool for outlining the major milestones of the project. Fully integrated into the GrandView Dashboard.
- Project Files - A secure and unlimited-sized directory of files specific to the project. Files can be shared, commented on, and even attached to Status Logs.
And GrandView doesn't just enable collaboration between employee team members, every customer team member has a unique login and can interact on the project. Try to do that with e-mail!
And we're not done yet. The GrandView Team is always investigating new ways to make project collaboration easy, effective, and efficient. We're consumed with finding new ways to document everything (and we do mean everything) that pertains to a project. What can we say? We live and breath this stuff!
Bryan DeBois, GrandView Business Solutions Senior Developer
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Project Task Analysis feature in GrandView (discussed here in November 2007) allows project managers to enter the start/end dates as well as hours estimates and adjustments of chargeable tasks that employees see in their TimeSheet. As employees enter their time and project managers make necessary adjustments to tasks, an accurate status of a project is portrayed. However, there are project and resource loading views that can allow you to realize the full capability of project task analysis outside of just an individual project. These views summarize the project task hours remaining into a monthly forecast per project (project loading) and per employee (resource loading). The accuracy of the summarized information depends heavily on how fined-grained the tasks are defined, the consistent use of project task analysis across projects, and the frequency that the project task and TimeSheet data (actual hours) is updated. Accurate project and resource loading in GrandView can have many benefits.
The project loading view (see below) shows each project that has hours remaining and is not complete. The hours remaining are forecasted 12 months into the future. Alarming in the form of red text is shown for a project with any overdue or overrun tasks. This information shows project completion status and can easily identify projects that are in trouble. Another benefit from the monthly forecast data is the backlog of the work ahead for the company. 
Similar to the project loading, the resource loading view (see below) shows an employee's hours remaining forecasted out 12 months. All employees are listed to identify those that are under- or over-utilized. This view can also be used as a resource management tool allowing the company to make informed staffing and hiring decisions. 
Chris Engelmann, GrandView Business Solutions Manager
Friday, September 19, 2008
In the previous Project Management Challenges post, we described 8 common challenges contributing to project failure. The following are a couple more potential pitfalls to avoid.
Limited access to project files and information
When work descriptions, schedules and other documents are inconvenient to access or hoarded, project management requirements go up and productivity goes down.
Wasted efforts
There can be many reasons results are not achieved or a team pursues unproductive activities. Real-time project tracking and open communications help maintain progress.
Too many project meetings
Without effective communication systems, teams must resort to a large number of productivity-sapping meetings.
Employee turnover
Miscommunication, uncertain responsibilities and low productivity lead to the defection of valuable team members.
High learning curve for new employees
When key project details are stored in the head of someone no longer on the team or is otherwise difficult to access, new staff takes much longer to be effective.
Lack of accountability
When people are uncertain about their responsibilities or can hide from them, tasks fall through the cracks and work goes undone.
We all know that project failure is expensive. Of course, there's much more to project success than simply making sure the items described here don't happen. But if you're using a system like GrandView that ensures good communication, knowledge sharing, and accountability, it's much more likely they won't happen - freeing you up to focus on your business details that really matter.
Thomas Dormo
GrandView Business Solutions Director
Friday, August 29, 2008
AJAX was a term coined in 2005 to refer to a method of programming web pages that had been in use for many years. It involves a combination of several browser technologies (most notably JavaScript and XmlHttpRequest) to allow asynchronous calls from a web page back to the server. This allows a much more intuitive user interface, as the web page can appear more responsive and the user does not see the entire page "flash" as it is reloaded from the server.
GrandView has taken advantage of AJAX technologies since back when it was referred to as "Remote Scripting." However, developing web pages that can update asynchronously can be challenging and time-consuming. Throughout the years, we have not looked to recreate our entire application as an AJAX application, but instead looked to integrate asynchronous calls at key places in GrandView. Nowadays, we use a suite of AJAX controls from
Telerik to accelerate development, and provide a consistent user experience.
So where is AJAX used in GrandView? You might be surprised to find out where. After all, AJAX is a technology that's designed to be completely invisible when it's working correctly! Here are some examples:
| The Dashboard |
Timesheet |
Project Dropdown |
 |
 |
 |
Of course, technologies like AJAX do not
inherently make a better user experience. It's up to your trusted GrandView developers to use this and all the tools available to us to create the best application we can!
Bryan DeBois
GrandView Business Solutions Senior Developer
Friday, August 15, 2008
GrandView was originally developed for RoviSys to manage its projects more effectively. Good project management relies on good communications among team members. GrandView provides a common place where team members can post project status updates, maintain conference call notes and exchange files. There's no longer a need to clutter up your email and worry about how long you need to keep those files.
All of this customer information and communication is stored permanently, providing an unmatched mechanism for searching and storage of critical project parameters. Need to find a project you've done in the past involving Brand X? Just use the status log or project search in the Sidebar to find it. 
Financial information, such as hours, expenses, purchases and invoices, can all be viewed instantly by the project manager. Project task analysis can be used to see how the project is progressing based on estimated hours. Milestones and tasks can also be scheduled and viewed by team members to see how each task is progressing. Project information is seamlessly integrated into the Dashboard for easy access across projects.
GrandView Project Management features have helped RoviSys maintain an edge on our competitors by providing us with a solid framework to more efficiently run our projects, and ... it can do the same for you!
David Heater, GrandView Business Solutions Developer