Resources

The PlanMinder is a self hosted service

It would be presumptuous to start our relationship by asking you to trust us with what could be your most sensitive business secrets, your plans for the future. That is why The PlanMinder is implemented as a self hosted service.

Setting up a droplet server on DigitalOcean

Step by step guide to set up a PostgreSQL server for The PlanMinder. A droplet is a cloud based virtual server. On the DigitalOcean marketplace you will find a 1-Click application called ThePlanMinder PostgreSQL. It enables you to have a server up and running in a few minutes.

Setting up a managed database on AWS

Step by step guide to set up a managed PostgreSQL instance for The PlanMinder on AWS. The Amazon RDS service has a 12 month Free Tier for new users. Amazon RDS runs on the same highly reliable infrastructure used by other Amazon Web Services, and can be scaled up for better performance or higher reliability.

How to Prepare Your PostgreSQL Database server

These instructions assumes that you have a PostgreSQL server to use for The PlanMinder. If not, go to postgresql.org to find software and instructions. The procedure is different for different operating systems and server setups, so we are not going to try to keep up with all variations here. There are instructions on postgresql.org, and many tutorials to google on the internet.

Setting up The PlanMinder for your organization

Before you start using The PlanMinder you need to think through how you will be using it, and set it up accordingly. This guide assumes that you are logged in as a user with Administrator rights (not as a Service user). Otherwise see the Users section on how to create one and do that first.

10 Steps to Create a Project Plan

This step by step guide describes how to create a project plan in The PlanMinder. This first numbered part focuses on what buttons to press. The example section describes more of the general methodology and how to think when creating a project using this framework.

Help

This is where you find help for The PlanMinder. Pressing the (?) button in The PlanMinder will open a relevant section of this page in a web browser.

Help - Login

Help for the login screen of The PlanMinder. How to log in and how to start the demo.

The PlanMinder Online

Access The PlanMinder from a mobile device with a touch friendly user interface; That is what The PlanMinder Online is for. It is a web based user interface that acts as a gateway to your database when you are not able to use the full application.

Is The PlanMinder the Tool for You?

You might have noticed that there are quite a few project planning and project managing tools to choose from. Different tools matches different needs from different projects and organizations at different levels. To help you save time in your search for the ultimate tool for you, here are a few points to see if The PlanMinder is for you.

Features for Project Planning

In The PlanMinder your project plan describes what you will do, and in what order. Not when it will be done. You divide your project into activities, and draw lines to indicate that an activity is dependent on the result of another. You can add milestones and risks to your plan, and connect everything to one or more milestones designated as a prio point. This information is independent of the schedule, and will change much less frequently.

Continuous Project Planning

Continuous Project Planning is a set of core concepts to handle some of the inherent difficulties associated with planning and managing projects. Humans are inherently bad at predicting how long things will take to do. There are many interesting reasons to why. One is that evolution has made us optimists, because it has in evolutionary times been better to try and fail, than certainly fail by not trying. Our optimism and willingness to please results in projects generally taking more time than we originally thought. Even if we would manage to equally wrong in both directions, so that half the tasks takes half the time, and half takes double the time, the average is more than originally anticipated.

The Art of Estimating Time

Estimating time for a task in a project, and for a whole project, is not easy. Projects regularly tends to take more time than expected. In this article I will point out some things that can improve your estimations. And a way to deal with the remaining uncertainty.

Why % Complete is such a bad metric

Reflections on common project report practices. Percent Complete is a common metric on standard project report templates. Either for the project as a whole, or for individual milestones. I will explain why this is a bad metric. RAG- or traffic light status with a red, amber or green color signal is also commonly used on project reports to signal if a project or milestone is on time and budget or not. While simple, this system also has issues. We will discuss how to do better.

Planning Embedded Systems Development Projects

Embedded systems development is one example of multidisciplinary projects that requires many experts at different stages of the project. As a project manager you need a plan to coordinate their efforts. Developing new things mean there is uncertainty. You do not know how long things will take, and you do not know what problems you will encounter. Things will change all the time. As they should. You do want to be agile, right?

Continuous project planning through automation: A new approach to project planning

22 February 2021

The PlanMinder is a new way to handle project plans. It uses automatic scheduling to keep the plans up to date at all times. And it tracks uncertainties calculating how likely it is that you will meet your deadlines. The goal is to have better plans with less work.