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Brian: How will using TPAssist 2007 with MM help someone keep on top of projects?
Brad: Effective Project Management, in my opinion has two distinct stages: Planning and Management. Project Management tools, like Microsoft Project, are great for creating the initial project plan and for capturing the process that will be used to deliver the project.
Unfortunately once past the planning stage, these tools can be cumbersome in relation to managing the project delivery for two reasons. Firstly, no project goes exactly to plan, there will always be changes and also new activities that weren't identified initially. The second reason is that projects need to be tracked. As well as knowing what has to be done, you also need to know what has been done so if something goes wrong you can quickly and efficiently
track down the root cause.TPAssist 2007 adds capabilities in both the "planning" and also the "Management" stage. These aspects will be explored further below.
In reference to the "planning" stage, MindManager is a great place to initially develop project plans. MindManager has most of the planning capabilities that you would expect, like dates, duration and resource allocation. However it is limited in the area of "Levelling", whereby task dates are automatically derived from duration and dependencies on other tasks (i.e. "Predecessors" in Microsoft Project terminology). TPAssist 2007 Levelling provides the means to create complex project plans of interdependent activities, whereby dates will move automatically when related activities and tasks are updated and completed.
TPAssist 2007 also addresses some of the challenges in the "Management" stage of project management. The tracking capability allows project managers to record progress, status and details associated with any project task. This tracking provides history for analysis as well as reporting. TPAssist automatically "journals" changes made to MindManager Resource Assignment so you have a history of where resources are added or removed from your project. The Tree Summarization capabilities of TPAssist provide the means to quickly find the tasks by due date proximity, priority, flags and also resource.
And finally, the "Publishing" capability of TPAssist 2007 can be used in all stages and allows
for fast and efficient dissemination of information to project team members and other stakeholders.Brian: When will TPAssist 2007 be available and how can someone order it?
Brad: The official launch date of TPAssist 2007 is the 1st of September. Anyone wishing to explore its capabilities can download it directly from www.tpassist.com/downloads and use it free for a period of 30 days.
Brian How will you price TPAssist 2007?
Brad:TPAssist 2007 will be available as a subscription or product license. The yearly subscription license is just less than US$40 and gives you access to all updates and new TPAssist product releases. The product license will be priced at just under US$100 and includes all updates to TPAssist 2007.
Brian: In summary- what are the key points and features of TPAssist 2007:
Brad: The mission of TPAssist is Time Utilization and Productivity Optimization Made Easy. The aim of TPAssist 2007 is to assist you achieving a sense of accomplishment on a daily, hourly or even minute-by-minute basis.
TPAssist 2007, an integrated solution using Mindjet® MindManager® and Microsoft® Office, leverages the power of mind maps to give you a flexible and effective productivity management tool.
TPAssist extends the power of MindManager, adding capabilities like automated task tree summarizing, structured journal management, brainstorming to task tree creation, powerful project team tracking, plus automated integration with Microsoft Outlook® and Microsoft Excel®.
Brad-thanks for the interview and I hope that all of you will have the opportunity to download TPAssist2007 and give it a try.
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