Recent Posts by Bruce P. Henry

Topic: help topics / Getting Started Videos

Here are some short videos to help you get up and running with LiquidPlanner:

Topic: general questions & discussion / Pricing

Just to follow up and close this thread…

We are officially out of Beta! We exited beta on June 11th actually a bit ahead of our original schedule.

Topic: help topics / Mark Done

Mark Done

The “mark done” checkbox on the work tab of the details pane sets whether or not the task, project, or category is “done”.

Mark Done for Tasks

When you mark a task done, LiquidPlanner will try to estimate how much work the task actually took. If automatic tracking has kicked in on the task, that effort will be placed in the progress field where you can edit it if it is not correct.

If there is no automatic tracking progress then the expected amount of work will be placed in the progress field for you to confirm and update.

Once you click save the task will be filtered out of active items views and automatic tracking will start on the highest priority item in your projects view.

Mark Done for Projects and Categories

When marking done for a category or project all of the tasks in the category or project will be marked as done. At the task level the behavior is the same as above, but you do not get the chance to edit the progress on the individual tasks.

Topic: feature ideas & requests / List of Common Work Items

Here you go…

Sample Party Plan

Topic: feature ideas & requests / List of Common Work Items

I will attach one to this in and hour or two.

Please stand by. :-)

Topic: feature ideas & requests / Move Over Microsoft Project

Thanks for the feedback!

We plan on changing some of the terminology in LiquidPlanner in the “not too distant future”. Workitem -> Task is one of the changes we’ll be making.

We attempted to stay as close to familiar project management applications as we could without compromising our basic goal of capturing uncertainty in estimation by supporting estimation in ranges. We have no intention at this time of supporting MS Project’s full (and confusing) selection of dependencies. We find them not particularly useful on most projects, and incredibly hard to use correctly for the average user.

Many of our competitors have essentially implemented “MS Project on the web”. We have no intention of following that path. LiquidPlanner is designed from the ground up to be fundamentally different from MS Project and its imitators. The point of our software is not to produce great Gantt charts but rather to produce great project results.

Please keep the suggestions coming!

Topic: feature ideas & requests / List of Common Work Items

You can build a set of tasks in Excel and then import that list.

It sounds simplistic, but I’ve used it a bunch with several of our customers and it works really well.

To read through the instructions take a look here

Topic: general questions & discussion / tracking & estimation

I suspect that this is not the first task in your project. The uncertainty in the end of the preceding tasks will create uncertainty in the start of the tasks that follow. Those uncertainties compound so while the uncertainty in the effort for any given task may be small the uncertainty in the end date could still be quite large because of the uncertainty inherited from the tasks that come before it.

I wonder if I could say uncertainty a few more times? :-)

Topic: general questions & discussion / Project Start Date

We currently don’t have a notion of “start date” in LiquidPlanner. The easiest way to do this is to edit your work items to update the remaining days for each task to reflect the current values.

The idea behind this is that while project needs to know what the start date was so it can take its static data schedule it out (like in a Gantt chart), LiquidPlanner is designed to be used by the entire team to communicate status and progress with each other. By having your team update what work has been done and how much remains you get a “living schedule” that reflects current reality rather than a snapshot of a moment in time.

Topic: help topics / Virtual Members

@ MXWest – First off, a disclaimer; This discussion is in no way legally binding and is superseded by our Terms of Service.

With that out of the way, we have no intention of charging for virtual users at this time. However, depending upon how we see people using them we may change our minds at a later date. I’m not trying to dodge the issue, but I want to make sure that you understand that this discussion isn’t a promise to never charge for virtual users.

As long as the person doesn’t need to login just set them up as virtual and you’re off to the races.

Topic: announcements / Getting Started Videos

Here are some short videos to help you get up and running with LiquidPlanner:

Topic: feature ideas & requests / parallel tasks

@ DJB – Yup. We really need to get the dependencies code tested and released. We’re working on it right now.

@ KayakFun – Ah! Now I see what you’re trying to do. I think you’ve hit on the crux of the issue which is duration is not the same as effort. There’s a “cheating option” that you can use.

Build a sub-project called “Get Parts”. Into it put four tasks

1. get hood 0-0 days
2. get bumper 0-0 days
3. get grill 0-0 days
4. get all parts 3-10 days

By putting in zero effort tasks you will remember to do them all and be able to attach notes and URLs and emails and stuff to each one individually. The effort and duration are then entirely determined by the “get all parts” task. The “Get Parts” sub-project won’t be done until all of them are done.

I know it is a bit of a hack. But it does capture the essence of what it is I think you’re trying to do. In the end I think this plan accurately reflects how you think the schedule will play out and helps you remember and organize the tasks and the information associated with those tasks.

I’m currently thinking over how the explicit dependencies features would interact with this and how duration relates to effort. I’m concerned that most users would be confused by the difference between duration and effort. Adding support for both concepts could really make the product much more complicated and harder to use.

Let me know what you think.

Topic: general questions & discussion / Projects with Duplicate Workitems

@ idyll

Note that you can also Export one of your existing LiquidPlanner projects and then import it back into LiquidPlanner multiple times to quickly create copies of an existing project. Take a look at Melinda’s excellent Importing Data help topic for more info.

We obviously need a help topic on exporting data, but until we get one written, you can get to the export option on the advanced actions selection of the actions menu:

Topic: feature ideas & requests / holiday

We have holiday and vacation support on our backlog of features. I can’t say exactly when we will get to it, but until then you can try this:

Build a task with a fixed time estimate (e.g. 5-5 days if you’re planning a week in the tropics) and then place a delay until date on the task (see schedule options help topic) for the start of your vacation.

You can then place it in the priority list “roughly” between the tasks that will get done before your vacation and the ones that will get pushed until after your vacation. While this will introduce some slack time on the schedule, you may just want that slack to wrap things up before going on vacation or to get a head start on the things scheduled for after your vacation.

If it is critical that certain tasks be done before your vacation, you can always place a promise date of the beginning of your vacation on those tasks. That way you’ll get alerted ahead of time if it looks like they may slip.

Hope that helps!

Topic: feature ideas & requests / parallel tasks

@ KayakFun

I just want to check to make sure I understand the issue fully.

Tasks A, B, C, D, and E are all assigned to the same person?

If they are assigned to the same person (e.g. you) then the amount of time it will take to complete all three should be (roughly) the same whether performed in parallel or serially. If this is the case then the priority order you’ve got is just fine and should be accurately predicting the end date for the total project even if the end dates for some of the intermediate steps are not exactly what you would like to see.

I think that while you could do them in parallel, by skipping back and forth from one task to another, you will discover that it is best practice to knock them out serially (see my article on the perils of multi-tasking). In reality those tasks have an implied dependency because they all depend upon the time of the same person (in this case you).

Topic: feature ideas & requests / APIs and integration?

We have APIs on our backlog. We’re working right now to figure out exactly what we want to expose in the API and how (as well as pesky little things like documentation). We intend to publish an API in the near future but we’d like to get a little more feedback from our users about the features they want in the product before we build out the API. Once people start building on top of an API it is much more work to make modifications while maintaining backwards compatibility.

Topic: help topics / Prioritizing Projects & Tasks

Prioritizing Projects & Tasks

When looking at the projects view in LiquidPlanner the list of projects that you see are in priority order. (The order in the category view doesn’t affect schedule or priority at all.)

The projects at the top of the list are prioritized ahead of the projects farther down the list. But this really only matters if the projects share resources.

For example, if there are two projects (call them “Party” and “Clean Out Garage”) and they share no resources, then each of them is the top priority for their respective resources (Albert and Betty). So they both get scheduled ASAP and changing the order of the two projects has no effect on the schedule.

Here’s what the schedule looks like to start with…

Now I’ll drag and drop the “Party” project below the “Clean Out Garage” project.

You can see the while the order in the list has changed, the schedules for each project have not. This is because Albert is the only person working on the party, while Betty is the only person working on cleaning out the garage. The projects have no resources in common.

Now let’s say (realistically) that Albert knows that after the party he’s going to be hung-over like a sailor after a three day leave in Bangkok. So Betty graciously agrees to take over the “Clean up after Party” sub-project.

I’ve re-assigned the tasks to Betty and now the Party project looks like this…

Now when we change the priority of the two projects we see that the schedule changes significantly. That’s because Betty can’t be double-booked and LiquidPlanner knows it. So when the garage is highest priority her party work gets pushed out.

When the party is highest priority the garage work gets pushed out.

Poor Betty, always cleaning. But at least she isn’t hung-over like Albert.

See also:
Projects & Categories

Topic: help topics / Trash Tab

Trash Tab

Deleting a task is simple. From the “actions” button of any tab (except for “trash”), select [delete selection]. The system will pop a dialogue box to ask if you’re sure. Click [okay] and voila! – your task magically disappears. Click the “trash” tab to see where it went.

Any “trashed” workitem can be recovered by locating the item under the “trash” tab and clicking [undelete] in the far right column. The item and any attachments will be restored with the same category, project and owner as when it was deleted and it will appear in the exact same place in your space as when you got rid of it.

Note: to access any document attached to a “trashed” task you have to recover the task before you can open the attachment.

To empty your trash, go to the “trash” tab and click “empty trash.”

Topic: help topics / Analyze Tab (Reports)

Analyze Tab

The Analyze Tab gives you all kinds of handy-dandy reports, which you can choose from the drop down menu labeled “report.”

These include such esoteric wonders as…

The Calendar Days of Work report, which lets you see how heavily loaded you team is and adjusts for their availability (in case someone on your team is only part-time).

The Past Work by Person report shows the amount of work each member in the space has reported (green) and how much is assumed (orange), especially useful for showing at-a-glance where (assumed) work needs to be updated.

Topic: help topics / Schedule Tab

Update 8/13/08 – Note that the schedule and estimate tabs were merged into one: the “plan” tab. Read more about the change here.

Schedule Tab

View your schedule in calendar form in the Schedule tab. Customize the view by switching between “projects” mode and “categories” mode or by filtering your calendar view based on task owner, status, alerts, or a specific time frame (e.g. week, months). You can tell which filters are active because they are highlighted orange.

The colored schedule bars indicate the time period that a task or project will be worked on. The gradient block within the schedule bar represents the range of possible completion dates, with the “E” marking the expected completion date. Hover your mouse over this gradient to see the date range in text format. The end of the schedule bar shows when you can be 98% confident the task will be completed.

LiquidPlanner builds your project schedule based on the order of your projects and the order of tasks within those projects.

The highest project in the list will be scheduled first, the lowest project will be scheduled last. The highest ordered task in a project will be scheduled first, the lowest ordered task will be scheduled last. Drag and drop projects and tasks to modify their place in the schedule.

Hints for Scheduling in LiquidPlanner

An owner can only have one task assigned to them each day (unless the task duration is less than one day), and a task cannot be assigned to more than one person. Break down tasks into the smallest possible pieces to further reduce uncertainty.

Read our whitepaper: Why Multi-tasking Is Bad, Bad, Bad

Topic: help topics / Estimate Tab

Update 8/13/08 – Note that the schedule and estimate tabs were merged into one: the “plan” tab. Read more about the change here.

Estimate Tab

The “estimate” tab essentially shows the numbers behind your schedule, somewhat like a numerical translation of the Gantt chart you see in the “schedule” view. It is the first view you’ll see when you open your project space. The “estimate” view can be ordered any number of ways using filters and customized columns .

Provided you have created several tasks and entered an estimate for each, your estimate tab will look something like this:

Most columns are self-explanatory but a few many not be…

The “remaining” column reflects a range of expected completion dates, with the lower number being less likely and the higher number being very likely.

“E days” indicates the expected number of days a task will take given a 50% probability of completion. “E finish” is that probability expressed as an actual date.

Setting a “promise date” will cause LiquidPlanner to schedule the promised task as the first priority and prompt an alert if it appears the item is in jeopardy of not being completed on time.

Setting a “delay until” date will prevent anything listed lower in priority than the delayed task from being scheduled until the delayed task begins. A task begins when work is recorded against it.

“Total done” is the amount of work recorded against an item and automatically tracked work combined. The “total done” is deducted from the estimate to give you the expected finish date.

Learn more about creating and editing estimates in our forum topic on the work detail pane.
Click here to learn more about automatic tracking.

Topic: help topics / Virtual Members

Virtual Members

Virtual members are somewhat like placeholders for actual members. Virtual resources cannot log in, and no email messages can be sent to them. Their main purpose is to allow a workspace owner to model work for employees that are yet to be hired or to determine the number of resources needed for a project.

To invite a virtual member to your space, click the members button (looks like two little people. Then click “invite virtual member” and assign the position a meaningful use name, for example “TBD – Developer” or “Position 1042.” Once you’ve created the virtual member, you can also set availability and begin assigning workitems to that resource.

Since many virtual members will eventually be replaced with actual members, we’ve included an option to invite an actual member to replace a virtual member.

Topic: help topics / Space Settings

Space Settings

The space settings button appears at the top of every screen and looks like this:

This is where you’ll find all the nitty-gritty details about your space, including how many members and tasks there are, how many items have been “trashed,” and how many links and documents have been uploaded.

Among multiple other details you can view here, you can see how much storage you have remaining, shown below as 46.6 MB / 2 GB. Note that if you are approaching the limit we can increase the available space so you never run out! Contact support@liquidplanner.com and we can adjust the size limit of your space.

“Space settings” contains several handy management tools for your workspace. Select the box to enable all space members the ability to send invitations (the default is that only the owner can send invites). This is also where you’ll need to authorize LiquidPlanner permission to look at your space, should the need ever arise.

Wondering how to add a description of the workspace? Click “edit space settings.” Here you can summarize the purpose of the workspace as well as change the name of your space.

Topic: help topics / Scheduling Options

Schedule Options

The scheduling tab in the details pane allows you to set two important dates; a ‘promise by’ date and a ‘delay until’ date. Each of these fields can be set on a project and/or task.

You can also opt to put a project “on hold,” perhaps because the budget isn’t approved, resources haven’t been hired, or you are not ready to schedule the work.

promise by

If you have a date by which a something must be completed you can set this date in the “promise by” field of the scheduling tab.

The “promise by” date is shown on the schedule tab by a black diamond.

If the range of end dates for the project overlaps or comes after the promise by date, LiquidPlanner will automatically flag the project as needs attention () or at risk () depending upon how late it looks like it will be.

delay until

If you wish to delay the start of a something until after a certain date, the “delay until” field is for you.

The “delay until” date is shown on the schedule tab by two triangles.

When this field is set the schedule will start at the latter of the “delay until” date or the end of the owner’s preceding task.

on hold

You can put any item on hold, including tasklists, project folders, and individual tasks.

Checking “on hold” will put the entire project on hold, so it looks like this in the schedule view:

With LiquidPlanner, you also have the option to set dependencies between tasks.

Topic: faq / How do I upload a photo to my user profile?

How do I upload a photo to my user profile?

To upload a photo, or avatar, to your user profile, click “my profile” on your dashboard, then select “edit.” You can then browse for the photo you want to upload.

Don’t forget to update your profile once you’ve made changes!