Custom Software

PMP Design has released a new web based project management application designed specifically to aid project based consulting organisations to keep track of;

Contacts;
Resources;
Tasks;
IT Support Issues;
Timesheets; and
Invoicing.

The system is web based which means that it can be used on any networked computer in your organisation without installing software on each computer.

Application areas

This system is specifically designed to function in the following organisational areas

Address book;
Management of personnel, tasks assigned, status of each task, hours / ancillary costs etc for projects;
Tasks / Issues applicable to the organisation as a whole, especially IT Support issues; and
Individual timesheets

The system is designed around a central database with which each component interacts (i.e. each object in the database is related to all others either directly or indirectly).

The system architecture is represented by the following diagram, which shows the main data objects of the project management system.

Diagram of System

Address Book

The address book is composed of personnel and organisation details and can be searched to find email address, telephone numbers or addresses etc.

This is available to all users (only certain roles can edit the details) and provides a centralised repository for all contact details, of both internal personnel and of clients.

Task Management

This part of the system allows all personnel to access centralised details of tasks assigned.

Tasks can be assigned by anyone, to anyone and are used as an aid to tracking what particular aspects of a project anyone is working on plus a range of other situations where it is useful to keep a record of events.

There are a number of types of task, to allow for a range of situations. Current task types are:

Project specific;
Telephone (or other contact);
IT support;
Journal; and
Reminder (personal).

The most used type of task is generally the project specific task, which allows personnel involved in a specific project to communicate requirements, track who is responsible for completion of the task, when it is required by, whether it has been completed, when and by whom.

Tasks not marked as completed (by the assigned user) after the required completion date can be automatically escalated to that person's manager or superior for further action.

Tasks are assigned priority levels when raised. This priority level intrinsically assigns the task a completion date if it is not specified.

When completing a task, the user can specify that the system automatically create a timesheet entry based on the resources consumed during the task. This saves time by not having to perform two separate tasks and also improves system integrity by reducing the likelihood of incorrect timesheet entry.

Project Management

The project management and reporting functions of the system allow certain users (for example roles of project manager and project director) to create and manage individual projects.

The system works in such a way that each individual project can be used as a major cost centre to track all resources consumed during the projects lifetime.

The Project Director can assign personnel to the project, create unlimited numbers of sub cost centres and then determine which person will perform work in each sub cost centre.
Finally, each user can be allocated a separate charge out rate for each sub cost centre.

This charge out rate is also allocated to a time period, this allows for changes in charge out rate over the lifetime of the project eg for promotions or change of salary etc.

Once the project is created, the Project Manager then has the same rights as the Project Director to add other personnel, functions, charge out rates and view reports.

This matrix of user / cost centre and charge rate is used by the timesheet system and, if required, an invoicing system to work out exactly what should be charged to a client.

Within each project, the sub cost centre is not specific to hours. It can equally well be used to track any other resource usage to whatever granularity is desired. For instance it is possible to track hotel charges or mileage involved in site visits at the high end of the scale right down to number of sheets of paper printed or pencils used during the project if desired.

Reports are available showing all details of the project including personnel involved, their functions (sub cost centre), charge out rates, tasks assigned including current status, budget (resources used plus costs) and timesheets raised against each sub cost centre of the project.

The screenshot above shows the tabular layout of each function within the project management module.

There are six tabs;

Projects
Personnel
Chargeout rates
Tasks
Budget
Timesheets

Clicking on these tabs provides the following information or functions.

Tab	Function / Information
Projects	Allows user to modify the project. For example add users and cost centres or change chargeout rates.
Personnel	Shows the personnel involved in the project and their primary role
Chargeout rates	Shows the chargeout rates for each personnel member for each cost centre they are assigned chargeout rates for
Tasks	Shows a list of all tasks raised against this project plus the current completion status of the task, who created it, who it is assigned to and its priority.
Budget	Shows the costs raised during the project lifetime plus the invoiced amounts sent and outstanding.
Timesheets	Shows all the timesheet entries against this project including personnel, cost centre, quantity, chargable amount and whether the timesheet has been sent to invoicing system.

Individual Timesheets

Each person can track his or her time (and any other resource usage as dictated by the project manager) on a daily basis.

The interface for data entry is very simple and should only take a few seconds per entry. Additionally, it is available at any time the user is connected to the computer network to enter data directly into the central database rather than having to record details on paper or other disconnected systems. This reduces workload by not having to duplicate tasks.

As mentioned above in project management, the timesheet is capable of recording not just hours spent on a project, but also any number of defined sub cost centres. The combination of timesheet entry date, user, sub cost centre assigned to and charge out rate on the date allow a date specific cost to be allocated.

The diagram below represents a simplified view of how the database stores the project data.

schematic of project data storage

For this example, the project, a major cost centre, has five user defined sub cost centres.
User 1 and User 3 are assigned as working in a user defined sub cost centre called 'Design'. For the sake of clarity, the charge out rates are only shown diagrammatically for one date range, let's say from 1st June 2006 onwards.
User 2 is not assigned to this sub cost centre.

If the charge out rate for User 3 was increased to $95 per hour from 1 August 2006, then;

When User 1 or User 3 enter a timesheet for design work from 1st June onwards:
User 1 would be charged out at $50 per hour.
When User 3 enters details for work completed between 1 June and 31 July, they would be charged at $85 per hour and any work after that would be charged at $95 per hour.

PMP design - Timesheet Interface - Click for larger image.

The user enters via the timesheet interface; the number of hours worked, selects project and function they performed the work for (only projects and functions they are assigned to are shown in the timesheet interface). Optionally they can enter a comment indicating perhaps the exact nature of the work. The interface uses the date of entry to calculate from the charge out rate matrix the actual cost of the work (resources used x charge out rate) and then stores the following information:

User;
Project;
Function;
Date (of the entry);
Qty (of resource consumed);
Actual dollar amount; and
User comment.

From this information, it is possible to generate reports on almost any aspect of the business.

Security

This function allows management of users and organisation details which form the address book as well as identifying project clients and personnel. Additionally, there are functions for managing the roles that personnel with logins to the system are assigned, for individual users to change their contact details etc and also recover or change their passwords.

Organisations can also opt to use an existing network structure to provide login authentication.

Supporting infrastructure required

The infrastructure required to support this system is

A server running Internet Information Services (IIS) which is a standard web server shipping with Windows Server versions;
SQL Server 2000 or 2005;
A network connecting server and users; and
A recent web browser (for example Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox).

Other databases are available.

To find out more about how PMP Design can help you, or to arrange a demonstration, contact us for a free and confidential discussion.