So I was filling out a resource calendar today, you know, so my bosses can have a good idea of what I am doing day in and day out. As I was plugging in dates of completion, hours to work on specific days and secondary dates as a result of the working days and "primary" dates of completion, and it hit me...Is there a better way to track all of this information on one program? I mean, this project, (and most training projects) just aren't big enough to track in Microsoft Project on their own. Personally, I use Excel to track most of this stuff, but it isn't intuitive and it isn't great to look at. So, here are my needs, and some ideas.
Calendar - I prefer a timeline because it lets me see how the different objectives relate spacially. Right now I am just running with a column in excel by having that spacial recognition, I can see better what may be required when. It is also really useful for adding in those regular "pulse check" meetings. Finally, once a good calendar is built, it would be nice to plug it into my PC or phone so I always have access to it.
Deliverables and Resource Hours - I like to know exactly how many hours I have for each deliverable or deployment session. After reviewing the calendar with all it's dates, I can build in the amount of hours for each deliverable and plan my work out. I like to know which part of the project I am working on every day so I can provide some detail in my billing. Some customers need that detail, some don't, either way, I provide it.
Continuity - From the intro meeting, through the three D's (Discovery, Development and Deployment) I want to be able to take my materials and build with as little duplication of effort as possible. Here is what I mean. I have a worksheet in my Excel file for Discovery Notes. From those discovery notes, I take information and build a Matrix. The Matrix is developed in a way that I can pull data directly from it into the Discovery Findings and Kronos Training Plan document.