The PlanMinder Manual - 01 Overview

This is one chapter from the manual. Access the full manual here.

Overview

The PlanMinder is a project planning tool that uses automatic scheduling to convert your plan into a gantt chart schedule. It uses the uncertainties in your time estimates to predict when activities will be done, and how likely it is that you will reach deadlines on time.

You create your plan as interdependent activities, connected to a milestone. Project team members report the work they do in The PlanMinder, and updates estimates as they learn more. The schedule is kept up to date with the automatic scheduler.

Use the report functionalities to explore the history and create project reports.

Logging in to The PlanMinder

When you start The PlanMinder you are met by a login screen. All your project data is stored in a database, and The PlanMinder needs information to access the database you are using.

You will find help on how to log in on this page here. If you need to set up a database, start by reading this article.

At the bottom of the login screen there is a button to start a demo version. This uses a local database with some project examples that you can play around with.

When setting up a new database for The PlanMinder, there are a few things to configure before you and your team start using it. There is a guide on what you should do here.

Main pages

The PlanMinder has eight main pages:

Home – This is an overview page that presents the most important information. An attention list, latest updates, a note pad and a calendar.

Report Time – Use this page to report work you do, and update status and estimates for activities you are working on.

Work Schedule – Calendar with holidays and vacations. Here you define when you are working, and when you are not available for scheduled project work.

Kairos – Kairos is an old Greek word for time as in opportune time. This is the project view where you define projects with activities and their relations.

Chronos – Chronos is the old Greek word for time as on a timeline. Here you can see the activities laid out as a Gantt chart, and when things are likely to be done. You can see milestones and deadlines, when people are working, and when they are available for new activities.

Priolist – This is where you set priorities between projects and individual milestones (prio points), and get an overview of the future on a project level.

Reports – Here you can find out what has happened in projects, and write and read project reports. You can also explore project data from both the recorded past and the planned future.

Settings – This is a page with a collection of tools for managing The PlanMinder. Here you can change passwords, create new users, and handle all customizable settings for The PlanMinder. This is also where you handle registration and license keys.

Main interactions

On all pages there are green round buttons in the top left corner. Some pages has two, others have four. From right to left these are:

Update: Read data from the database, including all changes made by other users. Also used to refresh data on a page.

Run Scheduler: Runs the automatic scheduler updating dates and probabilities. This may take a few seconds, and progress is indicated by dots in the middle of the top row.

Copy image to clipboard: Creates an image of the active graphical area in the clipboard. Paste in another document using Ctrl-v.

Print: Sends an image of the active graphical area to a printer. The copy and print buttons are only shown on pages with a graphical area that can be printed.

Sometimes the reload and the run scheduler buttons have a pulsing purple background. For the update button this signals that someone else has made changes that you should load. The run scheduler button pulses when you have made changes that will affect the schedule.

It is a good practice to press the reload button before making changes. Otherwise there is a small risk that you may overwrite changes made by someone else. Not all changes triggers the reload button to pulse, and it does not happen immediately.

Someone should run the scheduler every day, to make sure the schedule is up to date. Even if the button is not pulsing.

If the scheduler fails to schedule all tasks, a warning triangle will appear above the button. Click on the triangle to open a dialog with more information.

Right click: On most pages you can right-click on symbols or rows that represent an element in a plan to bring up the description overlay. This gives you access to the description, other details, and tools.

User classifications

There are three levels of user privileges. They decide what you as a user can do in The PlanMinder. Some buttons are grayed out and unavailable to you if you are not authorized use them. On the settings page you can see what privileges you have.

• Developer – You can be assigned to activities, and can report work. You can update status and estimates for activities that has been assigned to you.
• Manager – You can be assigned as project manager. You can edit projects assigned to you, and you can create new projects.
• Admin – You can edit all projects, create new users and have full access to all settings on the settings pages.

If you have none of the above privileges you are an observer. You can read reports and check the status of projects, but not change anything.

Being a manager or admin does not automatically make you a developer. To run the scheduler you need to have license keys matching the number of developers. You can read more about licensing here, and more about managing users here.