TPAssist First Steps Webinar Featured on Mindjet Vignette

The Mindjet customer pages contain a short piece on how I use MindManager and also include background and details on our First Steps webinar.

Scroll through the Mindjet Vignettes here.

The Vignette includes a link to the map used in the process.

TPAssist 2007 Q&A - Gyronix Results Manager

Question:

I'd be interested to hear if you have a case as to why I should buy tpassist and not result manager, for the purpose of task management, using mindmanager, and outlook.

Answer:

In comparing TPAssist 2007 and Gyronix Results Manager, it is true to say that they share some functionality and in parts can be used to the implement productivity enabling methodologies, however since they also provide different functionality it may be more worth while reviewing both and seeing where the unique capabilities of each can be of use.

If we were to look for specifics, we would suggest the main functional comparison is with-in TPAssist 2007's Tree Summarisation capability. In Gyronix's own words, "ResultsManager from Gyronix scans all your project maps and generates insightful dashboards, helping you to take action and manage priorities." This is similar to the Tree Summarising feature of TPAssist 2007.

Outside that, TPAssist 2007 is more oriented towards working within and tightly integrated with your task mind maps rather than just from a bird-eye view.

You can see the Tree Summarisation feature in action towards the later stage of the Feature 1 video. Or read about it in the bottom half of the Feature outline page.


We will be demonstrating these capabilities in our "First Steps" web seminar. The video of the seminar is due to be released at the end of November. See our home page for details.

(FOOTNOTE - this Q&A is based on a response to a customer question directed to our support email).

TPAssist 2007 Q&A - GTD (Getting Things Done from David Allen)

Question:

The CEO of the company is using GTD (Getting Things Done from David Allen) in conjunction with MindManager 7.0.

If your product is installed are there any known software or operational conflicts with the above packages all working together?

Answer:

TPAssist 2007 lends its self very well to the GTD methodology. We have tested our Add-in alongside the GTD Outlook add-in from NetCentrics and it works well. The TPAssist 2007 "7 Day Horizon" summarisation report provides a 7 day view of outstanding activities and can be used successfully in conjunction with GTD methodology and other tools.

We will be demonstrating these capabilities in our "First Steps" web seminar. The video of the seminar is due to be released at the end of November. See our home page for details.


(FOOTNOTE - this Q&A is based on a response to a customer question directed to our support email).

TPAssist 2007 Feature in Focus: Levelling (complex project plan task interdependancies)

Levelling is the term TPAssist uses to define automatic calculation and assignment of topic task Start Date and Due Date. Levelling provides the means to create complex project plans of interdependent activities, whereby dates will move automatically when related activities and tasks are updated and completed.


Simple Task levelling

Levelling is controlled at a topic level. You can turn it on, off or choose to inherit the levelling settings from parent topics. Once turned on, the "Levelling function" is used to determine how Start and Due dates will be managed.

The levelling functions used by TPAssist are:

• Finish-to-Start (FS): Topics start after the completion of the previous topic. This is the DEFAULT choice.


• Start-to-Start (SS): Topics start and end together, alignment is based on the earliest start date in the topic group.


• Finish-to-Finish (FF): Topics start and end together, alignment is based on latest Due Date of topics in the group.


• Start-To-Finish (SF): Take the Due Date of the last topic in the group and track back each topic in the group so all topics finish by that Due Date.

Relationships and task interdependancy

Levelling also recognises topic relationship. Relationship can be used to adjust the start and/or end dates of dependant tasks. Relationships dependency follows the arrow (i.e. the starting point is the reference topic and where the arrow finishes is the dependant topic).

Relationship Callout Code Details:

• FS or BLANK (Finish-to-Start): The dependant topic should not start until after the reference topic completes.


• SS (Start-to-Start): The dependant topic should start at the same time as reference topic.


• FF (Finish-to-Finish): The dependant topic should complete before or at the same time as the reference topic


• SF (Start-To-Finish): The dependant topic should finish before the reference topic starts.

In addition to controlling the function of the relationship, duration can be added to the Callout topic to define the time between dependant topic and reference topic.

The other options with regards to levelling are as follows:

• Apply to sublevels: Apply levelling to this number of levels. Zero (0) indicates no limit. If the checkbox is unchecked, the property will be inherited from the topics above.


• Hours in Day: Specify the number of hours in a working day. This value is used to calculate appropriate dates span when Duration is specified.


• Weekends: Specify how Weekends (Saturday and Sunday) are managed when levelling topics. (Auto - Use the weekends if the topic Start Date is either a Saturday or Sunday; Weekdays - Only use weekdays, even if Start Date is either a Saturday or Sunday; Weekends Also - Use weekends (if needed).


• Continue Date: Instructs levelling to continue the date from one Levelling group to another. When turned off, levelling will start from today's date.

For further information on configuring levelling, see the TPAssist 2007 Help and the User Reference, TPAssist Console, Topic Tab.

TPAssist 2007 Key Feature 6: 1 Integrated with Microsoft Excel® for publication of Work Breakdown & other Project Management reports.

TPAssist 2007 facilitates effective publishing of your project plans through a series of pre- formatted Microsoft Excel® spreadsheets. [See the Demo]

Communicate work breakdown: Accessed through the Publish tab of the TPAssist Console, the publish to Excel capability draws on several built- in templates to display Work Breakdown Structures (WBS), team To- Do lists, a Resource Planner/Schedule and project Gantt Chart.

• Published Results spread across worksheets: The Excel file produced includes a number of worksheets. These correspond to the options chosen.

• Overview Worksheet (Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)): The Overview worksheet provides the Work Breakdown Structures (WBS). It draws on map properties and topic details.
  
  Gantt Worksheet: The Gantt worksheet provides a high- level overview of the dates on which tasks will be performed.
  

• Resource Worksheet: The Resource Worksheet provides a high- level overview of resource usage and contention.

Project Notes Worksheet: The Project Notes worksheet summarises "Project Notes" as used with- in topic notes.



ToDo Worksheet: The ToDo worksheets breakdown specific tasks by owner.

Communicate status: A simple variation on the publishing format provides you with the ability to issue status information and publish it to a easily distributable format.

Share your project issues list with non Mind Map users: Another simple variation on the publishing format provides you with the ability to maintain an issue list with-in your map and publish it to a easily distributable format.

Summarise your estimates: TPAssist 2007 adds the ability to capture resource costs and then publish the resulting plans into a "quote" style spreadsheet.

TPAssist 2007 Key Feature 5: Automated Task, Calendar & E-mail integration with Microsoft Outlook®

TPAssist 2007 provides integration between mind map topics and Outlook Tasks and Appointments. In addition, Outlook Items can be linked to mind map topics. [See the Demo]

Synchronise your map topics: TPAssist 2007 Outlook Integration synchronises information between your mind map topics and Outlook Task and Appointment items. In addition to leveraging the powerful task and reminder capabilities of Outlook, TPAssist 2007 Outlook Integration, provides the means to get instance access to your current activities outside of MindManager.

• Outlook Integration is managed via Journal Tab: The Outlook Integration is managed via the "Journal Tab" of the TPAssist Console. The TPAssist Console is a comprehensive path to all TPAssist features. The Journal Tab shown here is used to capture task status details and your task activities.


• Outlook Integration is default via Document Properties: Outlook Integration is enabled on a per topic basis, although it can be enabled by default for all mind map topics by changing the TPAssist Document properties.


• Outlook Integration is automatic: By selecting "Auto" we have instructed TPAssist to automatically manage creation and synchronisation of the an Outlook Task Item.
  Whilst the default is to use Outlook Tasks, we could as easily choose to use an Outlook Appointment to block out a few hours in our diary or just create a reminder.
  Once setup, TPAssist adds a map marker to the Topic so we know there is a linked Outlook Task item.


• Outlook Items contain a summary of the mind map topic details: The Outlook Items created by TPAssist will contain the same task details as the original mind map topic, plus the item notes area will contain a summary of the topic details.

Open your mind map topics from Outlook: Outlook Task and Appointment items created by TPAssist 2007 can be used to "jump" directly into your mind maps.

• TPAssist Integrated Linkage Module: Once a topic has been configured to integrate with Outlook, the Outlook item can be used to "jump" back to your mind map.
  Simply find the item in Outlook and then launch the "TPAssist Integrated Linkage Module". This is achieved either from the Standard Toolbar in the Outlook item folder or from the Item's own toolbar.


• Outlook changes are synchronised during the "jump": During the "jump", TPAssist 2007 will automatically read the Outlook Item and then update the mind map topic's task details if needed.

Manage your e-mails via your mind map: TPAssist 2007 provides the means to track your e-mails, appointments, notes, tasks etc with-in your mind map. This integration not only automatically creates journal entries it also allows you to open the item again from with-in your mind maps.

• Select the map topic and "Journal" any Outlook item: The first step in linking your other Outlook Items to a mind map topic, is to pick the topic. Once selected, we switch to Outlook and select the items we would like to link. If required we can use the SHIFT and/or CTRL keys to select multiple items. Then we launch the "TPAssist Integrated Linkage Module".


• Linked items are added to Journal: A summary of the Outlook item details are included in the mind map topic's notes as well as in the Journal tree.
  The journal entry will include various details including the date details of the linked item.


• Re-open linked items via the Topic Tab: Outlook Items linked in this way can be re-opened from with-in the mind map using TPAssist's Topic Tab and the "Linked Items" tool.

Create tasks from your e-mail: TPAssist 2007 also offers the ability to auto-create mind map topics directly from your e- mails, appointments, notes, tasks etc.

• Select the map topic and "Journal" any Outlook item: The first step in using Outlook items to create new mind map topics is the select a parent mind map topic. Once selected, we switch to Outlook and select the items we would like use as the topic title and also linkage. If required we can use the SHIFT and/or CTRL keys to select multiple items. Then we launch the "TPAssist Integrated Linkage Module".


• New Topic is created and linked items are added to Journal: As well as the new topic being created, a summary of the Outlook item details are included in the mind map topic's notes as well as in the Journal tree. The journal entry will include various details including the date details of the linked item.
  
  

TPAssist Key Feature 4: Powerful project team tracking.

TPAssist 2007 is a powerful tool for project management. In addition to the task status roll-up capabilities, TPAssist is designed to make team management that much easier. [See the Demo]



Manage complex projects: TPAssist 2007 is not limited in it's application. It can be used to manage simple groups of tasks or very complex projects.





Track and present task status changes: TPAssist provides a Task Status capability that can be used to record and track status for any topic and also the overall map. Changes to status can be painlessly duplicated from topic to map to parent map.





Managed Project Information: Through TPAssist's semi- structured notes capability, information can be easily embedded in your project maps and then exposed via the Excel based publishing tool.






Level dates of interdependent tasks automatically: TPAssist 2007 Levelling provides the means to create complex project plans of interdependent activities, whereby dates will move automatically when related activities and tasks are updated and completed.







Use Task Resource to track team members: TPAssist automatically journals changes made to MindManager Resource Assignment so you have a history of where resources are added or removed from your project.






Resource Filtering in Tree Summarisation: The TPAssist 2007 task tree summary capability has a "Resource Filter" which can be used to manage tasks assigned to one or more individuals.