Ruminate December 2012

PowerPoint Presentation

^ KEEP CALM

AND

GET THINGS DONE

Ruminate The Best of

Xamun Blog +

Updates + Tips

No. 2: The Project Management Issue December 2012

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Xamun Project:

The most robust

project management

tool out there

Xamun Task

Boards:

Awesome threesome

for task management

Xamun CEO:

The Online Task Board

will set your project

free

Xamun Updates

Ruminate December 2012 | i

Headlines of the Month Xamun Project: The Most Robust Project Management Tool Out There

Xamun Task Boards

The Incredible Power of the Online Task Board

#6: Using the Ticket Board

#4: Converting Subtasks into Task Cards

#5: Importing Tasks via Templates

Xamun Tips

Inside Ruminate

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More From Blog.xamun.com 21

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From the Editor

Ruminate December 2012 | ii

Burns Puzon G&A Manager, Xamun

Breathe and use Xamun Project.

This is the key message of the second issue of Ruminate. And thats why the cover image was

inspired by Keep Calm and Carry On, a propaganda poster produced by the British government in

1939 during the beginning of the Second World War. This poster was intended to lift the morale of

the British public in the event of a Nazi invasion of the UK.

Project management is at the center of Ruminate December 2012, which features articles on the

topic or on our project management app called Xamun Project. At times, managers who run projects

get overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done. With Xamun Project, youre always

on top of your project deliverables. And the great thing about Xamun Project is, you run your project

as a team. This collaborative type of work coincides with the principles of agile software

development.

Its very challenging to run projects across a team of creative or knowledge workers, even more so

if the team is distributed across various locations. Since Xamun Project is cloud-based, it also enables

you to be at the helm of your project as if everyones in the same room.

Find us on

There are more dimensions to Xamun Project, which you will see in the

next couple of pages. I invite you to read on and see how project

management can be a breeze with Xamun Project. Happy reading!

PS: Also in this issue of Ruminate, were introducing a new section called More from

blog.xamun.com, which features even more articles from our blog.

Headlines of the Month

Ruminate December 2012 | 1

Xamun Project: The Most Robust

Project Management Tool

Out There

roject management is comprised of planning, organizing, securing,

Xamun Project is integrated with the rest of the apps in Xamun, making your project delivery as

tight-knit as possible and keeping project risks to a minimal. Xamun enables you to keep everyone in

the team to stay on the same page, make them aware of project responsibilities, and encourage

transparency and accountability.

The following areas in project management are covered by Xamun Project:

P managing, leading, and controlling resources to achieve certain goals. Its

not as easy as it sounds, and it gets extremely challenging for distributed

teams. Xamun Project was designed to help you manage your entire project

in a single place wherever you, your team or your clients are in the world.

Ruminate December 2012 | 2

Xamun Project: The Most Robust PM Tool Out There

Task Management

Xamun Project has three types of work boards for managing tasks. The Task Board for

general types of projects, and the Scrum Board and Kanban Board for software development

projects. Each board has specific features that will cater to different types of projects.

Time Tracking

Time Tracking is as important as accomplishing a task. By monitoring your teams

productivity, you will be able to track the progress of the task assigned to them. Inside Xamun,

the time tracking app is called the Xamun Timesheet. As a timesheet approver, you are able to

approve timesheet entries or remind employees with unfiled timesheets with a simple

messaging feature that can be accessed anywhere as long as you are connected to the web.

Ruminate December 2012 | 3

Xamun Project: The Most Robust PM Tool Out There

Social Collaboration

Businesses are quickly becoming social, be it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, having an

online presence is considered an edge. With Xamun, you can turn your business social by using

Xamun Community and Xamun Marketplace. Discuss your projects, post links, and attach files

as easy as using Facebook or Twitter. Xamun will automatically create your groups when you

post a project. All team members in that project will be able to throw ideas, post files, and

update project status.

Issue and Bug Management

Working to improve tasks for a better project results is also part of project management.

Xamun Helpdesk enables you to quickly address issues or bugs like what your support system

does. The catch is that you dont have to exit your app then log in to another app for this to

function. It also appears similarly like your Project Board making it easier to familiarize with.

Ruminate December 2012 | 4

Xamun Project: The Most Robust PM Tool Out There

Project Summary

In Xamun Project, identifying your whole project health is possible. Get a quick overview of

your project by using the Report tab. Report tab holds general project details such as the team

members, as well as a pie chart summarizing all tasks status and the project plan. You can

import this to a PDF that you can send or print out for a client.

Daily Status Monitoring

On your Xamun Project app, a Daily Status tab enables you to have a full view of which

project tasks are done for a particular day. Eliminate the process of going to-and-fro team

members to check status updates. In an Agile Setting, team leaders are able to perform daily

stand up meetings where impediments are identified.

Schedule Management

Xamun My Day is your daily task scheduler in Xamun. You can schedule daily tasks and

appointments, be it personal or project related, where you can set to share to other task assignees.

My Day is now integrated with Google Calendar and Windows Live Calendar.

Ruminate December 2012 | 5

Xamun Project: The Most Robust PM Tool Out There

Time Off Management

In doing a project, you cant ignore the work-life-balance that you and your team members

need. Manage your teams time-off requests anywhere you are. Time-Off Manager, a Xamun

applet allows you to approve/deny leaves of your team members that will enable you to plan

your project deliverables accordingly.

Ruminate December 2012 | 6

ave you ever tried getting something done that requires a concerted

effort from a bunch of people? Have you ever organized an event such as an

alumni homecoming for your high school class, a New Years party for your

club, or a fundraiser for your favorite cause? How about something in a

more formal setting, such as leading a team for a project at work?

The incredible power

of the ONLINE TASK BOARD

It sure is difficult. The challenge doesnt

come from the tasks at hand; most of the time

those are not the problem. You may even say it

would be so much easier if you did it all by

yourself, right? However, doing it all by

ourselves is very inefficient, after all the concept

of division of labor is supposed to be one of

the greatest social achievements that helped

human beings progress. So whats the cause of

this conflict? If its so easy for each member of

a team to do things separately and it only

makes sense that a team would be more

efficient of you split a set of tasks among its

members, then why does it become harder to

get things done when more people join a team?

In my experience, in order to resolve this

conflict, one must master the process of:

1. Breaking down the entire project into

smaller parts;

2. Distributing these smaller parts among

members of the team;

3. Monitoring the progress on who is

supposed to do what before you run out of

time; and

4. Re-planning if some original assumptions

change during the course of doing things.

Headlines of the Month

H