Excel: Date to DOTW

Here is a quick tip / reference to how to calculate the day of the week from a date.

=CHOOSE(WEEKDAY(A1),"Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday","Friday","Saturday")

A handy tip !

Visio Mind Map

Today I have been investigating how to communicate a mind full of notes to my project team.  Previous companies have allowed the use of mind mapping software, either in house or on-line.  My current client is a bank and limits the use of the internet and does not allow users to download software of use various web site, especially web applications.  We are a heavy user of the Microsoft Office suite (with the exception of email) and I am limited.   

I am planning to present my current thoughts on the project approach, initial architecture design and implementation phases to my management.  I was going to create a mind map in Powerpoint, but discovered that Visio has a mind mapping template.  I have successfully created two linked mind map pages within one Visio file, which is really useful.  this was achieved by using the double-click behaviour of the shape within Visio. 

I may break down my project onto separate pages within the single file, which is much easier than using my usual mind mapping software with many files.  Does anyone else use this approach? 

One question I do have.... Can you attach some text to a box within the mind map and then print all of the text out as a document, rather than a mind map?  That would be really useful. 

Here are some simplified instructions for those how would like to try. 

1.  Open Visio and from the menu select "File -> New -> Choose Drawing Type..." 
2.  (Using Visio2003) Select Category -> "Brainstorming" and Template -> "Brainstorming Diagram" 
3.  Drag a Main Topic into the centre of your page and rename the text caption 
4.  Make sure you have the "Brainstorming" tool bar and then start adding sub tasks by highlighting the Main Topic and then clicking on the "Sub task" button in the tool bar. 
5.  Continue to add sub tasks to the Main topic, or even to the Sub-Tasks to make a hierarchical mind map. 

Enjoy! 

Project Management newsfeed

I have used a site called Planet Lotus for many years, keeping up with all of the blog articles relating to Lotus Notes.  This site is a valuable tool in today's busy world as it provides a collection, in date/time order, of all of the blog entries created by people in the Lotus Community.  It is a fantastic resource.

I am moving more into the Project Management world, I was looking for a similar resource.  It does not exist.  I am now trying (for free) to get a PM Community together and a collection of feeds to provide for all.

Here is the link.

I'd appreciate a mention to your PM's and hopefully I can grow this into a similar useful community site, just like Planet Lotus.

Pastures New

It is now time to pack up my desk for the second time in the same year.  This is quite strange for me, even through I am a contractor.  Usually I will stay with a company for a year or more, meaning that I never pack up my desk more than once.  This contract was originally for three months, but has lasted six, with two additional extensions.

Yesterday I handed in my notice and have managed to persuade my client to release me tomorrow.  This means I can start my new contract on Monday, giving me eight days of work between now and the new year at the new client.  These eight days should be sufficient to get my feet under the table, understand the project(s) and to get an overall picture of the situation.

The new client is a Bank.  This will bring some increased awareness of risks, issues, overall communication and (of course) Red Tape.  I have already been warned that there will be many hoops to go through and paper work to complete to "get things done".  The upside of this, is that the design phase of all projects becomes a very important and extended phase, with the view that once the solution and plans are accepted, the project is set in stone.  As the Project Manager, it will then be my task (or head!) to make sure they stay on time, to plan and within budget.

I cannot wait.  Exciting times ahead...

Roaming and ID Vault problems

I have been working on a project for the last 5 months to upgrade users to Notes 8.5.2 FP2 from v7.  In addition to this, we are moving people to the ID Vault and applying a Roaming policy.

Since I have been here we have noticed that the design of the solution is not fit for purpose for this company, but was fit for purpose for the "other" joint head office.  The solution was tested, but not tested enough and the scenarios of the varied working practices were not fully understood.

RSS to XML and FTP Update

Wow!  I actually did some coding in Lotusscript yesterday.  It was actually a pleasure, but not something I would like to do on a daily basis going forward.  It is always nice to dust off some old skills and prove that you can still achieve something worth while and in a timely manner.

Here is the new website.  PMBlogs

My tasks was to simulate Planet Lotus.  As far as I know, there is not a "Planet Project Management" and I would like to collect all of my PM blogs into a single webpage, updated hourly to see the latest blog entries.  I know I can use Google Reader, but there is something useful about having all of the blogs in a single list on a single page.

Prince2 eLearning

Seeing as I have been a Senior Developer / Team Leader / Project Manager for the last 5-6 years, I thought I would try to get a qualification.

In June 2011, I decided that I would set myself a four week target to get my Prince2 Foundation exam completed and then set a deadline of just three weeks after my summer holiday for the Practitioner exam.

I decided that I would study Monday through Thursday evenings for 1-2 hours per night, once I was home from work.  This worked well, as I could happily sit in the garden and enjoy the evening summer sun and read the Prince2 manual.

I found the reading fairly easy going, most of which was common sense with a few keywords, acronyms and then the additional procedures.

The foundation exam was fairly straight forward.  I had read the book and completed several practice exams.  In the end I received quite a high mark and was feeling confident that the self learning experience was working.

Last week, I took the more difficult Practitioner exam.  This was very tough, compared to the Foundation exam.  I have had quite a bit of practical experience using Prince2 in a couple of environments and for many projects, but the exam proved to be quite extensive and challenging.  All of the 23 of us who took the exam found it tough.

I am pleased to say that I passed with a much higher grade than anticipated.  There are no grades, as such, but just a simple 55% pass mark, which I passed very comfortably, achieving more than 80%.