Why should I use CV Projects?

To keep all of your projects and project information in one place, to have the basic techniques needed to successfully manage projects.  You’ll have a list of projects and performance indicators.  You no longer need separate and disconnected spreadsheets, making it much easier to start a project and get it organized.  You can search for risks, issues, changes, and lessons learned across all projects, very handy in planning a new project. 

For an individual project manager that usually roams from project to project, department to department, or company to company, you have a system to help run your projects available from anywhere, and access to your past projects.

For a manager of project managers, a department, or a PMO, you can quickly get the project inventory organized, and all of your project managers following the same simple, but effective process.  Plus easy access to project information for sponsors and managers.

Will you be flooding me with emails?

Nope.  We’ll only notify you of new features or big announcements, and when your membership is about to expire.

What kind of support is available?

We’re using a professional hosting service, so the hardware and software is supported by those industry-standard procedures.  For help with the system itself, it’s really pretty simple to use and you shouldn’t have any troubles.  And, each screen has detailed help, plus How-tos for tips on project management techniques not directly handled in this system. 

If you have any other questions, we provide email support.

What browsers do you support?

We recommend that you use one of the newer versions of the most popular browsers: Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5+, or Safari 4. These newer browsers contain many speed and security enhancements that will make your experience at the site the best it can be.

However, if for some reason you are unable to upgrade to the latest versions of these browsers, the site should still work properly (with minor formatting differences) for the following minimum versions: Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 2.0+, and Safari 3+.

Does it have scheduling capabilities?

Tools currently on the market do an excellent job with scheduling, and we could never do as well. CV Projects holds summary information about a project for value, cost, effort, and schedule, which can either be entered or imported. A history of all numbers and metrics is available and can be maintained within the system. Or, a scheduling tool, such as Microsoft Project can be used - specific instructions and downloadable templates for Microsoft Project are included to export the schedule data, then imported to CV Projects. Or, the data can be maintained in a spreadsheet and imported.

What’s all this Earned Value stuff?

Earned Value is a performance measurement technique to see if your project is on time and within budget at any point in the project. It can be confusing, and difficult to implement, unless you know a few tricks. We’ll show you how to set your project up for Earned Value, with specific instructions (easiest with Microsoft Project), and CV Projects will do the critical calculations and generate some easy-to-understand charts. Basically, you need to know how much work you plan to accomplish at a point in time, how much of that work you really accomplished, and how much effort it took. It’s not as difficult as everyone thinks. If there’s anything like a silver bullet in project management, Earned Value is the closest you’ll get.

Can I access project documents and deliverables?

You can link directly to documents, folders, or other systems or sites. For example, if you want to reference a scope document or a project management plan, it can be referenced from the project page. Documents are not uploaded to CV Projects.

Is my information secure?

The information is secured by the professional hosting service’s firewalls and security, the system uses SSL (Secure Socket Layers) for internet security, and the information is segregated within an organization. No one can view information for more than one company, unless they have an account for each company.

You should also be careful in the type of information you post in the system, and how descriptive it is. For example, if you have a severe performance issue with a person on your team, you might refrain from using specific names and details when you log the issue.

Can I limit who sees different projects, like by department?

Everyone can see all projects. If you really need to separate and limit access to projects, one group of users could be registered as one company, and another group as another company. However, you would not be able to see everything grouped together, as they remain completely separate.

What if I do projects for more than one company?

If you have done projects for multiple companies (such as an independent consultant or a consulting firm), you can keep all of your projects within your own membership account, so that you have a history of your all your own projects, and those would all be considered under your own company. Specifying a company when you register is optional, and even if not specified, a dummy company level is created for you and that segregates you from other companies – you just won’t see it.

You can also purchase an additional membership in another company and have multiple sets of projects, or, an organization administrator from another company can add you to their company. You don’t need to log in to two different companies – you can just switch between the two by clicking.

Can we have this system installed at our place of business?

Not at this time.  If you really need an installed solution, you should probably be considering one of the more comprehensive enterprise systems. 

Are there backups in case I lose information?

We’re using a professional hosting service, with all the backup and recovery needed.  If the system should crash, the recovery would be transparent, and everything would look normal and no information lost.  If you’ve deleted something accidentally, it’s gone – sorry.

What about the enterprise tools on the market?

The big, comprehensive tools can do more, but they are out of reach for an individual project manager or a small organization. They’re expensive and take much longer to put in to use - until requirements are defined, budget is approved, vendors are solicited, demos held, products evaluated, recommendations made, final selection and approval, purchase orders processed, configuration requirements and planning, software installed, consultants to configure and customize, training the staff, and not to mention the cultural change needed to make it effective.

You can start using CV Projects immediately.  No training is needed.  You’ll see results as soon as people start using it.

Don’t misunderstand – there are several very good, comprehensive integrated tools available, suited for a large-scale operation. While CV Projects may have a few unique features that the big tools don’t, the big tools are meant for a large-scale operation. CV Projects provides the basics needed to manage and organize projects, and to get started quickly.

Maybe you really do need one of the big tools.  So start small with CV Projects, and get an immediate benefit.  Then use it to understand your needs and processes, and move to the big tool when you’re ready.

What are some of the things a big tool does that CV Projects doesn’t?

Workflows and custom processes, resources and time-tracking, extensive configuration or customization, in-depth or ad-hoc reporting and charting.

But it doesn’t do blah, blah, blah…

Maybe not, but just getting organized with the basics of project management will make a huge improvement.

But I’m still not sure…

How long have you wanted something to keep all your projects together and organized?  How many times have you read about the big tools, but are still waiting for your company to get one?  How many times have you seen something you’d like to get for yourself, but it costs several thousand dollars, or $40 or $50 a month?

If money is really a problem, explain it to the sponsor on your next project, and include an extra $100 in the budget.  $200 if he wants access too.  And you'll have $10 left over for pizza.

No excuses this time – just get started!