Video: How to resolve resource overallocations

This > video continues the > first video and shows how you structure your project plan in > PAVONElive, add links between tasks and assign resources to the project plan. Further, it gives an overview how you can resolve overallocations of resources in the project plan.

Video: How to manage new tasks, assignments and actual data

In this > video you can see how you can manage new tasks and assignments in a project. The video shows the project plan in > PAVONElive. Besides the usage of > PAVONElive you can use the functionality in an IBM Lotus Notes/Domino-based project management software (> PAVONE Project Management). In the project plan you can add tasks and resources to the tasks. Further, you see the tasks in a gantt diagram and the workload of the resources in an histogram.

Online Communities Landscape

On the > Media Digital blog I saw a new version of the > Online Communities Landscape (see below). The landscape was refreshed against the first version in 2007. The greatest country is > Facebook. Many of the communities are well-known. But some are new for me. And I’m never used games as > Farmville or > Happy Farm. I think in Germany some social networks such as > XING or StudiVZ have a greater relevance as shown on the map.

Riga Travel Report

From Friday until Monday I was in > Riga (> Latvia). Since I was five years ago in > Tallinn (> Estonia) it was interested to see how is Riga. The vacation started on Thursday evening when I drove by car from > Bad Oeynhausen to > Hamburg. After a short night we flew from > Hamburg Airport with an > Air Baltic plane to > Riga International Airport. The departure luggage area at the airport is very small. To get to our hotel > Monte Kristo in the Old Town we used a Baltic Taxi. Afterwards we did a short walkabout through the old town and entered to the brasserie > 13 Kresli to eat and drink something. In the evening we were in the > Alus arsenals restaurant. We were nearly the only guests, but the food was excellent. Afterwards we went to > Paddy Whelan’s pub to watch the last minutes of the soccer game Germany against Turkey. We celebrated the victory in the > DStyle club.

On Saturday we went to the > Livu Square,  > Esplanade, > Nativity Cathedral, the Old Town, on the obervation deck at St. Peter’s Church and finally to the Central Market. In the evening we were in a restaurant near the St. Peter’s Church (<forgot the name>) and afterwards we looked in some pubs and clubs (> Skyline Bar, > DStyle, > Scandal, Rockabilly which was near our hotel …).

On Sunday we drove by train to Majori (> Jurmala). It was impressive to see that nearly each railway car has its own conductor. The beach of Majori is very long, but unfortunately it has no seafront. In the city we ate something at My Life cafe. Back in Riga we went to the > Taverna Dzintara cels where we ate something. The food and atmosphere was good and better than on Saturday.

On Monday we visited the St. James’s Cathedral, but you have to pay an admission. Afterwards we went to the Three Brothers. Since the Skyline bar was closed we went to a restaurant (<forgot the name>) near the main train station and ate something. The food and service was excellent. Afterwards we drove by taxi to the airport and flew back to Hamburg. From there I drove by car to Bad Oeynhausen.

Recommondations:

• Our three bed room at Hotel Monte Kristo was large and quite. The hotel staff was friendly and the breakfast was good. So I can recommend the hotel.
• If you need a taxi you could use Baltic Taxi since the fare is fair (7 LVL from airport to our hotel). A friend used another taxi and paid 17 LVL.

Summarized the weekend trip was nice and Riga is a lovely city for travelling a few days there.

More pictures on my Flickr page: > Riga 2010

Workflow-Anwendungen mit XPages umsetzen

Wie auf der > Powersphere im September angekündigt, ist mittlerweile die Version 10 von > PAVONE Espresso Workflow freigegeben. Hauptneuerung ist die Realisierung mit XPages. Dadurch können einmal entwickelte Workflow-Anwendungen im Webbrowser und IBM Lotus Notes-Client ausgeführt werden.

Der im Screenshot zu sehende Workflow Materialbeschaffung wird standardmäßig ausgeliefert. Weitere Workflows können mit dem grafischen Modellierungstool PAVONE ProcessModeler erstellt werden.

Die Umsetzung erfolgte basierend auf dem > OneUI, um möglichst wenig Abhängigkeiten zu einem speziellen User Interface zu schaffen.

Die Version ist in deutscher und englischer Sprache verfügbar, umschaltbar in einer IBM Lotus Notes Anwendung.

Weitere Informationen gibt es hier:  > PAVONE Espresso Workflow mit XPages. Der Download ist übrigens kostenlos, bedarf nur einer Registrierung.

Daimlers CIO about the Microsoft Deal

On the german > Automotive IT website is an > interview with Daimlers CIO Dr. Michael Gorriz about the Microsoft deal. He explains that they calculate to get a positive Business Case in five years.

Gorriz: […] Wenn wir allein die IT-Kosten rechnen, gehen wir in einem Betrachtungszeitraum von fünf Jahren von einem positiven Business Case aus. Was wir nicht eingerechnet haben, sind Effizienzverluste durch den Wechsel auf eine neue Umgebung. Und die Effizienzgewinne, die der Wechsel auf eine schnellere und voll integrierte Umgebung mit sich bringt.

He explains that 10 % of all users (180.000) work intensive with documents. These users will save one or two minutes each day, since it is possible to find documents with the desktop search faster. Further users which use web conferences or other communication tools will save five minutes each day. These seven minutes each day means high savings in five years.

Gorriz: Wir haben Modellrechnungen gemacht und die Nutzer in verschiedene Klassen eingeteilt. Da gibt es eine Klasse von etwa 10 Prozent der Nutzer, die sehr intensiv mit Dokumenten umgehen. Und die sehr intensiv mit Onlinemedien und Onlineverfahren arbeiten.

Hier sparen wir mehrere Minuten: Weil die Kollegen beispielsweise mit Hilfe der Desktopsuche Dokumente schneller finden, rechnen wir mit ein bis zwei Minuten am Tag. Mit dem Aufbau von Webkonferenzen und der Nutzung anderer Communication-Werkzeuge rechnen wir noch einmal mit fünf Minuten pro Tag. Bei 180 000 Mitarbeitern auf fünf Jahre gerechnet addieren sich diese Minuten zu hohen Einsparungen.

He explains further that the users have to work with the Microsoft Outlook client (for e-mailing) and the IBM Lotus Notes client for the existing applications.

Gorriz: Zu einem Zeitpunkt X wechseln wir von Lotus auf Outlook. Und: wir werden weiterhin beide Clients auf dem Desktop haben. Sowohl Lotus-Notes als auch die Sharepoint-Oberfläche. Die bestehenden Notes-Applikationen werden wir weiterhin mit Lotus Notes nutzen können. Allerdings nicht mehr den Mail-Client, sondern nur noch die Notes-Applikationen.

Further, he explains that Daimler will not use the cloud offering from Microsoft for the Exchange usage.

AutomotiveIT: Aber es ist nicht Microsoft und deren Cloud-Angebot?

Gorriz: Nein.

Of course, I like Lotus Notes and I’m not working for Daimler, but the explanations are unconvincing for me. If you save at most seven minutes a day, means this that you can use this time for other useful work? Or are the setup costs for these work higher? Further, the users have to work with two different clients instead of using one client.