2. 2
Background
• 2004—major customer complaint
• 2006—major manufacturing issue
• Local technical resources added ~2005
– Analytical lab, statistical consulting, manufacturing technology
• Lots of capabilities, and lots of work—needed tool to help
drive…
– Project management
– Collaboration
– Knowledge retention
• But not just a lab system….drive for total integration
3. 3
What were our options?
• Lotus Notes (DB, Team Room, EC Tools…)
– No searching, rigid, hidden, minimal standards
• LIMS, i.e. GALIMS—3M solution
– Lab projects only
• Knowledge management
– Managing help desks
• Project management
– Too rigid, management focused, hour counting
• Collaboration tools
– Too loose, less structure
• Develop it ourselves?
• Chose P-Wave’s LabCore product
– Good mix of collaboration tools and content management
– Extendable to our needs
4. 4
Guiding Design Principles
Project Worker-Focused Toolsets
Project Package
Collaboration
Customized
Workflows
and Content
Standard look
and feel
My Projects Status and Rollup Knowledge Archive
5. 5
Insight Project Management System
High level view
• My projects
• My Tasks
• My Templates
• All Projects
• Admin
• Search
• Settings
Individual project view
• Details
• Tasks
• Discussion
• Files
• Reports
6. 6
Going from Pain to Solutions
Pain
• Scattered Information
Solutions
• One-stop shop
8. 8
Going from Pain to Solutions
Pain
• Scattered Information
• Tedious inclusion of project info
Solutions
• One-stop shop
• Multiple entry routes, even hosting the
editor
9. 9
Tedious inclusion of project info
User pain: It’s just not convenient to add information to a project site
Solution: Multiple ways to add information
Files attached within
the system
Files attached using normal
“share drive” function
Integrated MSWord-like
Report writer
Simple informal info
entry points
Send E-mail and
attachments to a project*
Integrated MSExcel-like
tables*
Project Manager
10. 10
Going from Pain to Solutions
Pain
• Scattered Information
• Tedious inclusion of project info
• Unclear “to do” lists
Solutions
• One-stop shop
• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor
• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization
11. 11
Unclear “to do” lists
User pain: People’s to-do lists and priorities not easily viewable
Solution: “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization
• User customizable grouping,
filtering*, and order
• Visual indicators for timing
• Export to Excel
• Prioritization tool
• Break a project up into its
pieces, assign people and
timing
• Each task has its own mini-
workspace
• Gantt display option*
• Group and filter* by user-
defined scenarios
• Customizable reports*
P=fImportance,Timing,Feasibility,Scope( )
12. 12
Going from Pain to Solutions
Pain
• Scattered Information
• Tedious inclusion of project info
• Unclear “to do” lists
• Manual status roll-ups
Solutions
• One-stop shop
• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor
• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization
• Built-in contents, automated roll-ups
13. 13
Manual status roll-ups
User pain: It’s manual work to get and communicate project status
Solution: Add it to the project foundation,and then roll it up
Hopper *
Ideas* and Submitted Projects
My Dashboard *
Select fields, groups* for display
i.e. timing, status, percent
complete, $ value…
“Mega
Dashboard” *
Higher level look
across business
Launch by business* or
project lead
Auto Roll-up*
Prompting Mechanism*
14. 14
Going from Pain to Solutions
Pain
• Scattered Information
• Tedious inclusion of project info
• Unclear “to do” lists
• Manual status roll-ups
• Multiple documentation methods
and standards
Solutions
• One-stop shop
• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor
• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization
• Built-in contents, automated roll-ups
• Customized project templates, but
standard foundation
15. 15
Multiple documentation methods and standards
User pain: Each project type has its own “MO”
Solution: Customized project templates, but standard foundation
• Ready to populate
•Content and Layout* that fits
the need
• Still uses common look, feel,
fields
• Customized report templates
will be available as well*
16. 16
Going from Pain to Solutions
Pain
• Scattered Information
• Tedious inclusion of project info
• Unclear “to do” lists
• Manual status roll-ups
• Multiple documentation methods and
standards
• Multiple project repositories without
hierarchies and relationships
Solutions
• One-stop shop
• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor
• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization
• Built-in contents, automated roll-ups
• Customized project templates, but standard
foundation
• Project-within-a-project and project
linking
17. 17
Multiple project repositories without hierarchies
User pain: A single project might have its pieces in several places
Solution: Create project-within-a-project and project linking
• Support multiple
levels of project
hierarchy*
• Projects can be
related—find one, find
many
18. 18
Going from Pain to Solutions
Pain
• Scattered Information
• Tedious inclusion of project info
• Unclear “to do” lists
• Manual status roll-ups
• Multiple documentation methods and
standards
• Multiple project repositories without
hierarchies and relationships
• Lost project knowledge, reinvention
Solutions
• One-stop shop
• Multiple entry routes, even hosting editor
• “My Lists”, reporting, and prioritization
• Built-in contents, automated roll-ups
• Customized project templates, but standard
foundation
• Project-within-a-project and project linking
• Drive for tools that users like,
searchability
19. 19
Lost project knowledge, reinvention
User pain: Work was done before, but no traces remain reinvent it
Solution: Drive for tools that users embrace, searchability
• Google-like, fully indexed
• New search story currently
in development: input fields,
output fields, reporting, saved
searches.
• Validate user stories
• Feedback sessions
• 442 tickets entered –mostly
user difficulties. PWave very
responsive to fix them
20. 20
Overall Results
• ~250 lab projects in 1st
7 months!
• Not being done 2 years ago
• Positive user feedback on system
• Real productivity and performance benefits
• Utilizing archived knowledge
• Expanding usage to other project types
