Project Management used to be something you found only in large organizations - they had the budget and resources to implement such a thing. But not anymore... With Microsoft Project Online, it's affordable for everyone, and user friendly too.

During the lunchinar, we'll discuss the basics of project management, and demonstrate some of the capabilities of Microsoft Project and Project Online. We'll show how managers and executives, project managers, and the folks working on the individual tasks can use these tools. You'll see how you can easily create and track your project work, and how to create reports to show future projections. We'll also touch on Project Sites, the SharePoint component that provides and extra workspace for things like Risks, Issues, Documents, Calendar, General Discussions, and much more.

So join us if your find yourself wanting quick, easy, answers to questions like:

• What's going on right now?
• What project are running late or over budget?
• When will I have the time and resources to start another project?
• Why, when, and how did this project get so off track??

Bob Coppedge and Patti Smerk (who heads up our new simplex-PM practice) and will be demonstrating these tools and techniques to show they can be used to help you gain better insight and manage your projects more effectively.

When:  Wednesday May 20th, from 11:30am-1pm (Eastern)

Where:  Stow Hampton Inn and Online

Cost:  Free!

RSVP:  Click here!

I decided I'm going to try to increase my reading non-IT books.  And I figured the best way would be to share with folks a book each month (yeah, we'll see how long this lasts).

I just finished Paris 1919:  Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret MacMillan.  Written back in 2003 it's an extremely detailed review of the process after World War I that led to the Treaty of Versailles.  This treaty was blamed (the author would argue against) for setting the stage for World War II.  At the very least it most certainly created rather arbitrarily defined countries and borders, especially in the Middle East.

It's an interesting read.  Especially at a time where it's easy to read the news today and wonder (whether you're left or right facing) "how could any politician do such stupid things?"  Read this book and you'll get a feeling for a good amount of the silliness, pettiness, ignorance and more that drove this process.

So you've finished creating the project schedule, congratulations! You're done and don't ever have to look at it again, right? Wrong!

(At the end of this article you'll see how to register for a free webinar on this topic later in May!)

Your project schedule is a constantly changing document. Changes occur all the time throughout the duration of a project. Tasks are added, removed, and reordered. They finish and start earlier and later. The resource assignments change. Issues happen.. And our schedules need to reflect that.

The project baseline is the starting point - this is where your original plan and intentions are stored. Think of this as "this is what we planned to do." After that, when the project has started and is in execution, changes to the project schedule need to be made. Think of this as "this is what we actually did." The value of capturing the actual information is in the variance analysis. Now you can show the variance in your original plan from what actually occurred. Also, when a schedule is updated with actual information, MS Project automatically adjust the future start and finish dates of all linked tasks. This ensures your resources always have the most up to date task information.

We've been saying for the past couple of years that Microsoft Lync Online was ultimately going to be a game changer when fully implemented.  And we pointed at Microsoft's acquisition of Skype as a critical component of that strategy.

And we waited.

And then...we waited some more.  Until now.  The rebranding of Lync (to Skype for Business) finally gives some meat to the process.  It's not fully in place yet (as this article explains), but I think the changes are on the way, and undeniable.

The following article excerpt, by Brian Riggs, originally appeared here: http://ubm.io/1PIMzOH

Skype for Business Online promises to be a game changer - not only for Microsoft, but also its partners, customers, and competitors.

As Microsoft begins to upgrade Lync Online users to Skype for Business Online this week, it is taking the first step in delivering a full-featured hosted UC service. And, make no mistake about it, this will be a game changer - for Microsoft and its partners, customers, and competitors.