PROJECT PLANNING/MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW - SECTION SUMMARY

SECTION: Post Mortem

Copyright (c) 2000 Jim Salmons and Frank Castellucci
All Rights Reserved

Associated project: "Specification Writing for Web-based
		    Project Planning Software" (sXc ID: 24)

Project URL: http://sohodojo.com/techsig/project-planning-project.html

sXc Project detail: http://sourcexchange.com/ProjectDetail?projectID=24

Project coordination: SourceXchange

Sponsors: Opendesk.com and Collab.Net

Core Team: Jim Salmons and Frank Castellucci


1 Introduction

	This document aggregates the feature and underlying model analyses of
comparable products and services in the domain of the project specification
requirements. During the comparables analysis phase, nine product and service
offerings were examined.

1.1 Format and Key to Abbreviations

	Each of fourteen sections of the Comparables Analysis Data Capture
Outline has a Section Summary file such as this one. Section 1 of each data
collection form is an Introduction statement explaining the project and the
assessment. Section 16 is a reviewer profile. Since all data was produced by the
core project team members, section 16 does not have a summary section.
	
	In a Section Summary file, we aggregate the analysis data within each
subsection of the raw data collection forms. Each data point from the raw
assessment outlines is presented in the following alphabetical order and
prefixed with the following identifying abbreviations:
	
	EN - Enact Enterprise System 4.2 by Netmosphere/CriticalPath
	EP - eProject Express by eProject.com, Inc.
	FT - FastTrack Schedule 6.04 by AEC Software Inc.
	MP - ManagePro 4.0 by Performance Solutions Technology LLC
	MS - MS Project 2000 by Microsoft Corporation
	OD - Opendesk.com by HBE Software
	SF - SourceForge by SourceForge (VA Linux)
	WP - WebProject by Novient
	XC - X-Community by X Collaboration Software Corp.

	The aggregated section data in each Section Summary file is the last
section of the file. In addition to the aggregated data, each summary file has
an optional section for the capture of summary insights or comments.

1.2 Section Summary Insights and/or Comments


====== SECTION SUMMARY DATA ======


14 Post Mortem

14.1 Analysis and Reporting

** EN **
	None

** EP **
	None

** FT **
	None

** MP **
	While its facilities are more geared to Person/User performance
appraisal and development planning, these features can be used to equal
advantage for collecting Team Member effectiveness and 'lessons learned;
assessments, etc.

** MS **
	While the tools certainly have a plethora of devices to report on
"success/failure" aspects of a project, there is no explicit feature for
supporting post mortem.

** OD **
	None

** SF **
	None

** WP **
	WebProject supports the idea of post mortem analysis through continued
collaboration and use of the annotation features (Project Pinboard, Project
Discussion).

** XC **
	Roll your own. Not in the default conception, but could probably be
supported with extensions using Workspace typing and Notecard wrappers of
'add-in' tools.


14.2 Is there an interface to a 'reputation-building' rating system for
  team members? If so, is there a 'disputed assessment' system to
  resolve conflicting opinions.

** EN **
	Not in the default system.
	
	You can informally use the Task Note attribute as an issue management
system. But this should not be considered at full-featured subsystem.

** EP **
	None

** FT **
	None

** MP **
	Yes, definitely. As stated throughout in this assessment, ManagePro is
unusual in the extent to which it provides facilities for goal-directed,
performance-oriented management styles. While these features are most used in
the conventional 'employment-based' context of personnel appraisal and
development planning, there is no limitation in this regard. A team of peer
collaborators and various stakeholders could use these features in an 'Open Book
Management' model that would serve both reputation-building and applied skill
development mentoring functions.

** MS **
	Functionality not defined.

** OD **
	None

** SF **
	None

** WP **
	None

** XC **
	None


14.3 Reviewer Comments

** EN **
	None

** EP **
	None

** FT **
	None

** MP **
	The appraisal and development dimensions of ManagePro are unique in this
category of project/service offerings. The reputation building and mentoring
needs of self-organizing and self-managing teams/projects will likely be very
different than those covered by our current conceptions of 'employee appraisal'
and 'personnel development'. But the areas of overlap are there, especially when
we are looking an innovative product within the current offerings. ManagePro
should, therefore, be on the short list of 'look more closely here for
inspiration' as we wrestle with the forward-looking, learning-oriented
dimensions of project management.

** MS **
	A shame, given their reputation for a project management system that
this is still no-where on the product radar.

** OD **
	None

** SF **
	None

** WP **
	None

** XC **
	None


DOCUMENT HISTORY

Version 0.9 - Draft
Version 1.0 - Final
 
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