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MinuteMan Project Management Software
MinuteMan Project Management Software is a comprehensive, easy to
learn, and inexpensive way to rapidly manage your projects. Use this
software to manage large or small projects with up to 1,000 tasks.
MinuteMan has three views for entering and viewing the schedule. In addition,
a Resource Tracking views shows how people's assignments and
identifies over-loads.
Follow the links below to see a detailed description of each view.
Outline View
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The Outline View is MinuteMan's primary data entry screen. A
spreadsheet-like approach to entering tasks allows the easy
definition of relationships between tasks, and shows "the whole
picture" in one view. On the left-hand side you create an outline
of your work (also referred to as a "Work Breakdown Structure").
In the area on the right you enter detail sub-tasks (the red and
blue-boxes). The top of the screen lists detail information
(dates, costs, etc.) for the currently highlighted task. The
"flow" of work is typically entered from left to right. Tasks can
be moved around, and links created between tasks, using
drag-and-drop techniques. The work-flow can be viewed in further
detail by switching to the PERT View. |
- Milestones are indicated as diamonds.
- Critical Path Tasks and Milestones are indicated in red.
- A Percent Complete Marker can be displayed for each Task or
Milestone.
- The outline can be indented to five levels.
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Workflow (PERT) Chart View
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MinuteMan
provides an industry-standard PERT-Chart View of the project. Key
information for each task or milestone is displayed in a box.
Dependency lines, or "links", are drawn between dependent tasks.
Complete editing capabilities are provided in this view:
adding/deleting/moving tasks, changing any task's data, editing
links, etc.
- Tasks are shown as rectangles and Milestones with clipped
corners.
- Critical Path Tasks and Milestones are indicated in red.
- A Percent Complete Marker can be displayed for each task or
milestone.
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Timeline (Gantt) Chart View
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A Timeline (or
Gantt-Chart) view of the project plots activities against a
calendar. Durations for each task are shown graphically on a
timescale ranging from hours to a year. Views can be provided of
tasks, resources, or resource usage by task.
- Critical Path Tasks and Milestones are indicated in red.
- A Percent Complete Marker can be displayed for each Task or
Milestone
- Timelines may be shown for tasks, resources, or
resource-usage-by-task. Tasks is shown above. See Resources for
more details.
Timelines for resources highlight any resources which are
over-committed. |
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Resource Tracking
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Graphical display
and/or text reports on assignments of people by name or job
category.
- List all tasks each individual is working on, and when
- Indicate over-allocation
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Generate Reports
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MinuteMan includes a
versatile Report Generator. Reports may be previewed on-screen,
printed, or sent to a text file to be included in a
word-processing document. Additionally, the overall Project
Schedule may be exported to a spreadsheet-compatible file; any
standard spreadsheet can then be used to create further schedule
reports, or be rolled up into other reports. A special
spread-sheet file format can be specified for direct import to
Microsoft project. Reports may be configured to include, at the
task, subproject, and overall-project level;
- Schedule Data and Percent Complete
- Predecessor Relationships
- Staffing Assignments
- Staffing Costs
- Expenditures
- Task-specific notes
A Task Filter allows reporting on selected groups of tasks
based on criteria such as;
- Critical Path
- Milestones
- Selected "Important" Tasks
- Progress; Completed, In Progress, Not Started
- Tasks with Headcount
- Tasks incurring expenditures
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Assign Resources
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addition to scheduling, MinuteMan can assign costs to tasks and
provide a graphical display of their usage. Two types of costs are
supported; People-costs and Expenditures.
People-costs can be assigned using individuals (Bill, Martha,
etc.) or job categories (Technician, Carpenter, Department
Manager, etc). Per-hour labor costs can be assigned for each. A
maximum limit can be set on the quantity available of each
resource; over usage is tracked and highlighted.
Expenditures can be used to identify major cash outlays
("license fee", "tooling charge", etc) or to track use of key
materials or components (need 50 Brochures in May, 500 in June,
etc.).
This provides an overall project cost or budget, as well as
identifying the when costs will occur.
 Percentage-Completion
can be tracked on a task-by-task basis, to get a sense of overall
project completion. An "earned value" is calculated for individual
tasks as well as the entire project.
Resource usage can be included in text reports using the Report
Generator, and can also be displayed graphically using the
TimeLine. Overall Usage is shown at left. Another view breaks out
usage on a per-task basis.
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Customize the Calendar
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The objective of
MinuteMan is to provide ease-of-use. A simple calendar system (in
units of 15-minute intervals) is
presented by default
- 7 day week with 5 workdays and Saturday/Sunday Non-Working
- 8 working Hours per day.
However, if you have more demanding needs, you can easily edit
the Calendar to accommodate them;
- Select any repetitive working and non-working days (i.e.
your 'non-working-days' can be Tuesday and Wednesday instead of
Saturday and Sunday.)
- Specify up to 3 working shifts, of varying duration, per
'standard' workday.
- Identify 100 holidays and/or days with non-standard work
shifts.
Similarly, MinuteMan uses "As Soon As Possible" calculations by
default. However, you can select any tasks as being handled on an
"As Late As Possible" basis (often used for expenditures).
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Use on a Network
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| MinuteMan
can be used in a networked environment by making use of
file-sharing. Put the commonly used project files on a central
file-server location in your network. Users must each have a copy
of MinuteMan on their PC or laptop. They can then access the
project files and work on them. Make sure your network
administration has periodic centralized backup procedures. |
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Print Charts Easily
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Project
Management Software has some unique printing requirements - some
of the charts can get quite large! To minimize the need for taping
many "standard" size sheets of paper to represent one larger
drawing, MinuteMan
- Supports printing of Timelines and Pert Charts on up to Size
C (22"x17") paper
- All Views (Pert, Timeline, and Work Outline) can be output
to Graphics Files. You can include these files into Word
Processor documents where you can shrink/stretch them as needed.
Even more important, you can then email the files to others who
can view them just using their own Word Processors. Many other
Project Management tools require that the recipient purchase
another copy of the tool just to view the charts.
- The schedule may also be exported to a file format
compatible with Microsoft Project or Spreadsheet programs.
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