“Threads” It is designed to help organisations to keep track of tasks and issues when running projects or operations.

It can be also used as a content or knowledge management system to store and disseminate information within your organisation.

“Threads” is designed with none-technical users in mind. It is intuitive to use, and requires virtually no training at all.

The application is delivered over the web, meaning that there is no software to install, and you can access it from any internet-connected PC.

The reason we call this application “Threads” because it resembles a threaded discussion forum. However this application has some differences from a typical discussion forum and those differences make it so suitable and flexible for information management purpose.

Each thread has various properties that are used for classification purpose and for providing a basic work-flow.

Every thread also has per person access permissions and e-mail notification.

As I mentioned Threads can be used:

• In project management as task and issue tracking tool
• For storing and disseminating information (as document or knowledge management system)
• For collaboration: internal discussions, announcements, and building a wiki-like content.

So let us have a look at the system in action…

“Do not make me think!” exclaim leading usability experts.

How do we make a project management application simple and easy to learn?
Make it look & behave like something familiar, something you’ve used before.
That’s where idea of threads came from.

We call it threads because it resembles a threaded discussion forum. It just happens that a list of forums coincide with a list of project, and threads have some additional properties, so they can be worked with as tasks, project issues or elements of content.

There are a number of good Project Management software packages, open source, and hosted solutions. But most of projects that small businesses run do not need that a complex information management, that is why most of people resort to managing a project issue list in an excel document, which is bounced around and updated, tasks are sent and reported on via e-mail.

Threads is the next logical step from an Excel table with project issues.

10 important things that will contribute to your web project success or failure.

Since 1999, Magic Web Solutions has worked on many web development projects.

No matter what the size of your company or your industry, however, there is one common aspect: your web development is a project and it is influenced by factors which mean it will succeed or fail.

Experience has taught us to identify those factors. Here we give you an insight into doing the right things and avoiding the pitfalls.

Things that help your web project succeed:

1. You have confidence in your knowledge of what your customers want - you will have done some research or will have received feedback from your customers; whatever you do, ensure that research is representative of your users. Do not make changes on a whim.

2. You have decided on a budget and that money is allocated - a budget tells the developer that you are serious about your web project and that they will be paid for their work.

3. The application is easy to use, intuitive and requires no learning. The business logic must be complex, but functionality should be usable and accessible to be more readily adopted by end users.

4. Somebody has done it before, you can learn from it and improve on it - how often do you hear: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.‘? It’s true of websites, too; but if you can genuinely improve on a model by making valid and relevant changes, go for it.

5. Your developers understand what you want - you’ve explained your business and how it works; you’ve expressed your ideas clearly and, importantly, you’ve let the developers get on with it and they have produced something for you to review.

Things that will definitely slow your web project down:

6. You constantly make unsubstantiated changes during the development phase and add new funcitonality - consequently, there are more iterations and changes each time and the developer’s list just keeps growing…

7. You are slow to respond - even a day’s delay on a web project has an impact; the cumulative effect can be to shift the deadline by a few weeks. It also gives the impression you are not taking the web project seriously.

8. You impose a deadline before writing a detailed specification - picking a launch date for a website is fine, but without a specification, no-one is going to guarantee your site will be ready.

9. Your specification was missing essential functionality - but it doesn’t matter, does it? The developers can add it in now, can’t they? Well, they can, but it does matter. The web project was planned and resources allocated according to the specification: change the specification and you are affecting the plan and resources. New entities and new relationship between entities will have the most impact.

10. If the web project in final specification requires more time than was planned - estimates are just that: estimates, approximations. If your web project is going to take longer, then it will decrease the productivity.

11. You have an unrealistic budget - unrealistic in terms of you want to achieve. A good developer will tell you what you can expect for your money, but you will get what you pay for.

Software usually falls into two categories: packaged (or proprietary), i.e. bought or downloaded ‘off-the-shelf’ or custom-made, that’s to say, custom-made.

If you only use standalone software (applications working locally on your computer) or have only a simple requirement, e.g. word processing, the proprietary option may be satisfactory for you; a good example would be Microsoft Office. But if you need an application that caters to the specific needs of your enterprise, you might find the custom-made option more suitable.

But why? And should you consider it for your business?
Packaged software will often include superfluous features that you don’t need for running your business, because it’s been made for many hundreds, possibly thousands of users. It’s a compromise.
Conversely, specific features your organisation really needs might not be included, and any requests to the software vendors will most likely go unheeded due to the large number of requests, often conflicting, from other clients. Worse still, you may have to change the way your business operates to use a packaged software, driving up costs and increasing inefficiencies.
And if many other businesses are using the same software, it may be difficult to gain any competitive advantage.

What if the packaged software fails to perform, where do you turn? You may be up against a faceless organisation, which doesn’t care so much about YOUR business as it does about the number of units it has shifted, directs you to inadequate FAQs or charges £1.50/min for support.
Working with a software development company on a custom-made application brings advantages.
There is a direct relationship, which can bring an understanding of your business AND understanding of your needs. A custom-made application is written to your requirements and fits in with your business.
The developers can be more responsive to your needs and thus changes can be made more quickly, allowing you to adapt more easily. You can control the pace of changes, rather than waiting for next release.

Furthermore, if the application is built to your requirements, you’ll save time and money when it comes to teaching your staff how to use it. An application developed according to your own specification will probably require much less configuration work (if any) and much less training. It’s replicating your existing business process(es) and should be intuitive to your staff (if it’s not, you’ve probably gone wrong somewhere).

A good custom application can also bring efficiencies by automating manual tasks and a good developer can even point out further efficiencies to be gained.
Custom-made software was once the preserve of large companies, but the cost of developing custom-made applications has fallen because of robust application frameworks, a vast array of off-the-shelf modules and rapid development tools, putting it within reach of SMEs.
Of course, there are still some considerations you need to be aware of:
—A good developer will not have a problem with letting you have the source code, so that you retain independence and control over your software should the relationship go sour.
—A custom-made application IS a serious investment and one not to be taken lightly, thus you should carry out a cost-benefit analysis before embarking on a project.
—As with all industries, there are incompetent or unprofessional developers out there, so make sure you see examples of the developers’ work, get references and follow them up.
In summary, there are many sound reasons why you should seriously consider investing in a custom-made solution.

Whether you want to work remotely for convenience (avoiding long commutes) or for necessity (you are a salesman on the move), at some point you will need to organise access to your data and systems, which is stored at your computer at work. There are several options for organising remote work.

First option: Remotely access to your computer at work/home.

On the move, from home, off working hours (other cases) you need to connect/access your computer at work or home where all your data related to your work is stored. Depending on the situation you might use a netbook or a hand-held device, or a full-sized computer belonging to somebody else (in the library).

You have a couple of alternatives here:

Operating systems have a build-in facility for remote connection. Remote Desktop Services, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows (both server and client versions) that allows a user to access applications and data on a remote computer over a network and the Internet.

There are alternative software packages that allow you to do the same as windows remote desktop, and you can find them by searching Google or Download.com

With windows remote desktop connection, you do not have to pay anything, but should have enough technical skills to configure the remote connection initially, and do it securely. If any problems occur, you are also left alone for troubleshooting.

There are services on the Internet that solve the above problems by making remote access programs more usable, taking care of user security and authentication.

The most popular services we are aware of are PCanyware and Gotomyps. To setup a remote access you need to register with them, download a small program and install it on your (host) PC. Then you can access your computer from anywhere using an Internet browser.

Second option: keep your data with you.

If you just need to access some files, consider copying all your critical data onto a removable storage (usb flash card). You might have plenty of files, and a large amount of data to move, but there are some clever programs that help you to synchronise data, thus speeding up the process by avoiding copying files that have not been changed. The one I use is called GoodSync. A few years back, I have tried a few programs of that sort, and GoodSync appeared to be the fastest and most reliable.

There are additional benefits of using this approach: you can work offline, and you maintain a backup copy of all your important data.

You can also sync files with a remotely located server. You will have to have an Internet access for that, but you do not have to carry files with you in that case. It also might be a pretty reliable option as an “off-site” backup / data storage. This is a paid for option, but it usually does not cost much, and most of providers offer a free basic account. There are two types of services: one more oriented to data synchronisation, and allows to browse your data via browser, the same way your brows your local folders. Dropbox, and Box.net are good examples of that.

Another type of services is more oriented towards backups - for example mozy.

I carry all my data on a usb flash drive, and sync to a remote server / service. So if my notebook is stolen together with a flash drive, at least I will be able to recover my data.

Whether you have your data on your computer, or on a removable storage, you have to think about security. Operating systems offer some basic protection, in form of data encryption, but it is better to use a specialised software for this. Truecrypt is a very popular option.

There is also an option for “hardware encryption”, where your files are encrypted within the storage, rather then by a software. This option is more expensive, but easier to use, and normally faster.

You will have your data with you, but not all the software and systems that you can access at work. Although some software packages can run from USB drives, there are only a few of them.

This moves us to a third option:

Third option: use online services and software to do your work.

If you are Internet-connected consider using online/social collaboration software - keep your stuff there instead of a hard-drive. There are many specific, and general (Google Apps) services, that can help you to do more or less everything that can be done by using a desktop software. But this is a topic for my next post.