MindManager is great for managing "Agile" projects
November 30, 2018
MindManager is great for managing "Agile" projects
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with MindManager
At my location, Mindmanager is used only in the engineering department to manage engineering projects. As far as I know no other departments are using this software. I believe other locations use it but I don't know for what purpose or to what extent. The business problem it addresses is the setup, control and monitoring of project activities. Mindmanager is the tool that provides an easy and efficient way to manage short and medium range "agile" type projects while at the same time serves as a repository of key project related information.
- Process Mapping
- Problem Solving
- Task and Project Management
- Project Planning
- Easy to setup project templates with the typical steps or activities required, including typical responsibilities and activity duration.
- Very flexible and easy to use. Adding, eliminating and modifying activities is a breeze.
- Completed projects contain links to as much key information as required related to the project. This facilitates project evaluation at completion and auditing.
- When I create a project template that includes links to other template files, for example published review check off lists, there is a manual process required to open the template, save it in another location and re-link the final file. I wish there was an automatic way of doing this.
- I wish there was a way to make changes to the relationship between activities through the Gantt chart.
1 to 10
- Saves time, by allowing setting up projects quickly from established templates, by allowing quick changes on activities and by allowing the user to easily spot timing issues during all phases of the project.
- Saves money, by reducing the need to react to unexpected situations or unforeseen issues. Unplanned reactive actions result on higher resource utilization compared to proactive actions.
- Improved greatly the access to information. Documents that are considered the backbone of the project, SOPs, for example are linked in the templates. So user's can access them quickly. New documentation that is generated can easily be linked. Both of this actions are critical during ISO 9001 and similar audits.
Before using MindManager we would rely on memory or simpler aids to start and keep track of projects or similar activities. Relying on memory or too simple aids to keep track of projects resulted on non-uniform results across the team. Some people are better than others to keep track of the tasks they need to do. The degree of experience also plays an important role. By using MindManager, we as a team, have established templates by visually looking at the necessary activities' required from beginning to end. Once the templates are used to reflect real projects, it is easy to see timing issues and it is easy for to monitor progress. The Gantt chart is an example of an invaluable visual aid, it shows in real time in an objective manner, where at the project we really are.
Crude project management through Excel was one prove too hard to keep up, on the other side of the spectrum, Microsoft Project Management was too formal and cumbersome for the type of agile project we are constantly dealing with.