Lydon Solutions

Construction Project Management Software Solutions

construction project management

Connect A SharePoint Calendar with Outlook

Tips from the Field |

Here’s how you can create a project calendar in SharePoint, connect it with Outlook and share it with your team to keep everyone in sync.

The SharePoint Calendar App can be added to any SharePoint site. It behaves much the same as an Outlook Calendar and can be customized as needed.

A handy feature of a SharePoint calendar is the ability to connect it to Outlook. This functionality allows a user to add the SharePoint Calendar to their personal Outlook Calendar view. Events can then be updated bi-directionally from Outlook to SharePoint and vice versa. This is a great way to easily get your entire project team working off the same schedule.

Follow the steps below to get your SharePoint Calendar connected to Outlook.

Step One – Connect Your SharePoint Calendar App to Outlook

1.       Navigate to a SharePoint Calendar.

2.       Click the Calendar tab in the Ribbon.

3.       Click the Connect to Outlook button in the Ribbon.

4.       A browser dialogue box will appear. Allow the website to open a program on your computer.

5.      Select “Yes” when prompted to Connect this SharePoint Calendar to Outlook

6.     If your SharePoint is externally hosted, you may be asked to log in.

Step Two – Open Your SharePoint Calendar in Outlook

7.     Go to Outlook and navigate to your calendar view.

8.    Under My Calendars in Outlook you will see the new SharePoint Calendar.  Check the box next to it to add it to your calendar view.

That’s it. You can now view and update your SharePoint calendar in Outlook. Any changes made to the calendar on SharePoint or by other team members in Outlook will be shared with everyone.

There are a ton of other useful ways to extend the SharePoint Calendar, including adding interactive popup windows, linking it to forms or workflows, or creating responsive mobile calendars. Contact us for a free consultation to see what is possible.

Want more tips and tricks for construction project management professionals?

Our new Tips from the Field series features handy information for construction project managers. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest tips and tricks delivered directly your inbox each month.

And be sure to check out our previous tip to learn how to add a text box to a SharePoint page.

Takeaways from CMAA National Conference & Trade Show 2016

Events |

We had a great and productive CMAA Conference this year, including announcing our new Construction Viz solution at the event. Here are some insights we took home from the show.

Lydon Solutions was proud to be a bronze-level sponsor at the annual CMAA National Conference & Trade Show held Oct. 9-11th in San Diego. As always, our team had a great time chatting with our colleagues in construction program management. This year’s event was extra special for us because we unveiled Construction Viz, our new subscription-based construction project management solution.

2016 CMAA Conference - Construction Viz Announcement

Below are a few of our takeaways from the three-day conference:

1.       Organizations are wrestling with how to replace Primavera Contract Manager

The industry is facing the impending end of life for Primavera Contract Manager. Oracle is directing its clients to SKIRE Unifier. Many companies we spoke with, however, are weighing their options before making the move.

2.       User experience matters

Companies like Apple and Google on the consumer side and leading SaaS vendors in other industries, have raised the bar for user experience by providing streamlined and intuitive user interfaces.

So, it is no surprise that CMAA attendees we spoke with expect that same ease of use in their construction program management tools. They are tired of complex and convoluted software platforms. They want simple and intuitive interfaces. They don’t want to read a bunch of manuals or attend multiple training sessions.

3.       Users don’t want a one-size-fits-all platform

Related to the above, a lack of flexibility in many Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) was one of the biggest gripes we heard from users this year. In fact, we have heard this issued raised for several years running.

This complaint makes a lot of sense. After all, companies have different processes. Each project has its own set of requirements. Project teams and their individual members have their own workflows and ways of doing business.

Yet many PMIS platforms are not flexible enough to accommodate this reality.

4.       Mobile-first is a necessity for construction project management

Users want mobile-first tools that enable them to be productive in the field or away from their desk, with or without an internet connection. This isn’t just about convenience. Today’s fast-paced, competitive business environment makes this a necessity.

5.       Construction Viz really is project management perfected

The above observations mostly fall in the “industry challenge” column. Which is why it was so gratifying to announce Construction Viz at the CMAA this year.

Construction Viz builds on our award-winning Construction Project Management Portal powered by the industry-leading Microsoft SharePoint. Our portal is used by leading construction and utility companies to manage their multi-billion dollar projects. We believe our Construction Project Management Portal is the most flexible and extensible PMIS solution available.

Construction Viz takes everything we learned deploying our portal and makes it available as an affordable, subscription-based hosted solution. The Construction Viz platform is as flexible as project teams need it to be, offering customizable pages, forms, dashboards, reports, workflows and more. Since it is based on SharePoint, users can dive in and get to work right away without a steep learning curve.

Companies looking for a better way to manage their projects can start with the turnkey Construction Viz today and be confident that the underlying framework is scalable and flexible to keep pace with their changing business needs. Users can even seamlessly migrate from Construction Viz to our fully customized Construction Project Management Portal in the future.

6.       Construction Viz and SharePoint: the perfect PMIS solution with full mobile-first support

Most everyone is familiar with SharePoint, but not necessarily as an ideal construction PMIS solution. What blew folks away, however, was how we have mobilized the SharePoint experience with Construction Viz.

Construction Viz is fully responsive so users can access and update their project data on virtually any mobile device.  That means dashboards, reports and forms are always at the project team’s fingertips. Robust off-line support enables team members to be as productive in the field as they are in the office.
The mobile capabilities of Construction Viz we showed off to attendees really blew them away – and it is always fun to see someone’s eyes light up when they realize the benefit this functionality would provide them and their team.

Want to perfect your construction project management?

We loved showing off Construction Viz to everyone who stopped by our booth and presentation at the CMAA conference this year.

Not able to see our CMAA demo? Contact us today for a free consultation and demo to see what Construction Viz can do for your organization.

Why You Should Document “As Is” Processes

How-To |

How you do business today – your “as is” process – is just as important as how you would like to do business in the future when gathering requirements for a new construction Project Management Information System.

You may be tempted to focus on how you would like to do business going forward when putting together requirements for a new Project Management Information System (PMIS). Resist this temptation. You will design and deploy a better PMIS by capturing the best practices from your existing business processes. And you will improve user adoption, simplify training, and avoid business disruptions.

Capture Current Business Processes with “As Is” Requirements Gathering

Collecting detailed requirements should be a two-part process:

  1. First document how groups in your organization currently do business. These are “as is” requirements.
  2. Next understand how they would like to do business going forward.  These are “to be” requirements.

Documenting the “as is” process first enables you to understand what worked and what didn’t work. You can then apply the current best practices to make your “to be” processes better.

Tips for gathering “as is” requirements

  1. Not every process needs to be replaced: “As is” processes should be the starting point for any potential “to be” processes. But don’t assume that every “as is” process needs to be replaced by the new system. Take the time to understand the effort and investment involved with the existing process. Document the benefit and ROI for any new process.
  2. There is no “standard process”: Every company, project, and person does things differently. So make sure to include a representative sample of stakeholders in your requirements gathering team and focus groups.
  3. Don’t judge what came before: Avoid being judgmental when documenting existing processes. Business processes often evolve as the best way forward based on various past circumstances and constraints (e.g. limited budgets, tools, or available technology). Focus on understanding the current process.
  4. Mind the gaps: Related to #3 above, current processes and systems often have gaps filled by manual or undocumented steps. This is because information workers will turn to other tools to get their job done when they encounter holes in an existing process. For example, Excel spreadsheets passed around via email frequently become an undocumented part of the project management process. Your “as is” requirements should capture all of these undocumented and manual steps.
  5. Requirements take time and should be comprehensive:  There are no shortcuts to requirements gathering. Listen to each set of stakeholders. Take the time to learn how the PMIS system will be used across your organization. Understand all the interactions with other groups and their processes.  Your final design will be better if you capture this information.
  6. Don’t confuse the system with the business processes:  When documenting an “as is” requirement, be sure to capture how work is actually done with or without a system. Don’t simply capture the steps involved in using whatever system is currently in use.
  7. Beware of reengineering: When asked about how they do business today, users often want to tell you about how they would ideally like to do business in the future. Don’t substitute a wish list for actual processes. Change sounds great on paper, but implementing it can take significant time and resources. Often these reengineered or idealized processes don’t have buy-in from other groups. Your new PMIS will face resistance if it rolls out with processes that are way off from how users actually get their work done. So be careful when you hear “tomorrow we are going to be doing it this way” or “we are in the process of changing over to this.” Focus on documenting how groups do business today.
  8. Manage requirements gathering as a project:  Requirements gathering is just like any other project. You need to set a scope, schedule, and budget. This will keep everyone – you, your stakeholders, your developer, the IT group, and executive management – engaged and accountable for the finished product.
  9. Gather requirements with standardized templates: Create standardized collection templates for both the “as is” and “to be” processes.  This will help you ask the right questions. It will also ensure a consistent format and accelerate the collection process.  Having all of this documented can also help down the road if there are questions about what should be in or out of scope for the project.
  10. They’re ALIVE!   Remember that your requirements documents are living documents. Keep versions, update regularly, and refer back to them often.

If you keep the above in mind while capturing your “as is” and “to be” requirements, you will be well on your way to implementing a successful PMIS for your organization.

Are you considering a new Project Management Information System?

Be sure to read our previous posts with more tips and advice on requirements gathering:

10 Tips for a Successful Project Management Information System Implementation

Requirements Gathering for a Project Management Information System

Gathering Detailed Requirements Via Use Cases

And we’re here to help if you need it. Lydon Solutions has years of expertise compiling detailed requirements for construction software projects.  Get a free consultation to learn more.

How to add a text box to a SharePoint page

Tips from the Field |

Here’s how you can use the Content Editor web part to include a text message on your project web pages in SharePoint.

If you’ve ever created a new project web page in SharePoint, you probably wanted to include some kind of text box for your team. This is a great way to present useful information like project scope, contact or support details, or even a training message to help team members use the site

The first idea that may come to your mind is to simply type directly into a SharePoint zone on a page directly like this:

There is nothing wrong with the above. But you can get more flexible results using the Content Editor web part.

The Content Editor web part offers the following advantages:

·       Flexibility – You can move the web part to any zone on a page without having to copy and paste your text. Plus, you won’t get broken URLs if you include them in the Content Editor web part.

·       One-click visibility control – You can hide the text contained in the Content Editor web part with a click. This can come in handy if you want to show a reminder message on certain days only – or if you want to prepare but not publish the content right away.

·       Audience targeting – You are able to target the Content Editor web part by permission group. So messages can be displayed only to specific project teams based on permissions.

·       Consistency –  You can keep all your pages looking consistent by using standard web part titles.

How to add a Content Editor web part in SharePoint

You can add the Content Editor web part to your SharePoint page in a few clicks:

Add the Content Editor web part

1.       Click Edit from the Page ribbon.

2.       Click on the zone where you would like to add the text.

3.       Click on Insert. Then click on the Web Part icon in the ribbon.

4.        Under Categories, select Media and Content. Then select Content Editor under Parts (don’t see Content Editor? Get instructions to enable it below). Click Add.

You should now see the Content Editor web part in the zone you selected.

Edit the Content Editor web part

1.       To edit the Content Editor, click on the upside down triangle on the right and select Edit Web Part.

2.        Enter your text into the Content Editor web part.

3.       You can customize the Content Editor under Appearance, including changing the title and specifying the height and width of the web part.

4.       If you want to remove the title of the web part entirely, click Appearance and change the Chrome Type to None.

5.       When you are done, click OK in the Content Editor web part and save the page

There you have it.  You built your own flexible web part for text entry that can be placed anywhere on the site page.

Content Editor web part is missing from your SharePoint?

Don’t see the Content Editor web part as an option in your ribbon? Microsoft released an update last year that disables certain web parts by default in Office 365 and SharePoint online. To restore the Content Editor web part, you or your SharePoint admin will need to turn the scripting capabilities back on for your site.

You can find instruction to do so here. After you enable scripting and refresh your site, you can continue where you left off above.

Want more tips and tricks for construction project management professionals?

Our new ‘Tips from the Field’ series features time-saving information for construction project managers. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest tips and tricks delivered directly your inbox each month.

And be sure to check out our previous tip to learn how to import data from Excel into SharePoint.

Bots and Project Management Information Systems (PMIS)

Reviews |

How bots and machine learning could impact construction project management 

Bots are a hot topic right now. Tech giants from Google, Facebook and Microsoft and automakers like Toyota are betting big on bots as a critical cutting-edge technology. And they aren’t alone. Thought leaders and entrepreneurs in virtually every industry and sector are exploring bot technology.

If you haven’t been following the hype, a bot is an application of artificial intelligence.  Basically, it is a computer program that fetches and analyzes data.  Some of these bots use machine learning to spot patterns or understand how humans perform tasks and then mimic – and enhance – that behavior.

We’re already starting to see some of these bots popping up for ordering food, booking flights, or as general personal digital assistants. Most of us see these innovations and say “wow, that’s pretty cool” and move on.  But, this is a much bigger transformative technology that is evolving that will reinvent the workplace and re-define the way people work – for better or worse.

Let’s have some fun thinking about the possibilities bot technology could create for business in general and construction project management in particular.

Why I’m All in On The Bot Bandwagon

Here’s why: we’re all being asked to do more with less to stay competitive in business today. At the same time, we must keep quality high. I believe bots and machine learning will help all of us be more agile, efficient and consistent.

Businesses have transitioned to the internet and for that matter the “cloud.”  So all of your data to manage and operate a business is created and transacted online.  Now imagine if we could apply bot technology to the various aspects of our business – finance, accounting, manufacturing, management, etc. – and program the bots to learn from our best practices. They could use machine learning to understand how we work, analyze problems, make decisions, and ultimately get things done.  So in a way they would become an extension of you – allowing everyone in your company to do more with an army of virtual assistants.

Take it a step further. What if you could buy bots that had “learned” from the masters like Warren Buffet for financial investing, or Bill Gates for technology leadership, and so on.  Now your company is drawing on the best of the best in the industry.

Construction Project Management Bots

Now let’s apply this to construction. Bots could transform the way we manage projects. As everyone knows, there are way too many data points to consider when managing a construction project.  There is not enough time in the day or resources to monitor all of them and their interrelationships.
But what if you were able to set up bots that could analyze all of your project data to spot patterns, find anomalies and make correlations. The bots could crunch mountains of data for you, aiding in your decision making and even taking corrective action.

For example, say you have a project risk that is added to your risk register.  That risk could have an impact to your schedule, cost forecast, contingency, scope, change management, and ultimately team communication.

What if a bot could perform multiple scenarios in real time and suggest the best mitigation plan based on your company’s priorities and best practices?  Bots could do all of the detailed analysis across scope, schedule, and budget and surface that information into a mobile device while you walked to over to the planning meeting.

Or consider scheduling. So many factors go into keeping your projects on time and on budget. Imagine if your team was assisted by a scheduling bot that was trained to understand scheduling concepts like schedule crashing and critical path. The bot could generate actionable reports, perform TIAs and make recommendations. You and your team could then make better, more informed decisions based the most accurate data analysis possible.

This all sounds great, but how do we get there?

I hope your mind is racing with some of the questions that will have to be answered like:

  • How could bots be assimilated into a PMIS to collect all of your data and analyze it?
  • What would the new role of a project team be?  Will the focus change from reporting and analysis to data collection and decision-making?
  • Can you teach a bot to learn all of the work experiences one would encounter?
  • How will bots and people work together in the workplace of the future?  Are there qualitative synergies that only occur when humans analyze data together?
  • What is the role of the PM?  Will they perform a QA/QC to the bot or act as a tie breaker?
  • Who does a PM blame when a bad decision is made?

Let me know your thoughts

I believe we all have much to gain in a future where bots are helping accelerate tedious or time-consuming business tasks. But there is understandably a lot of debate about the pros and cons of AI technology. Some fear the dystopian implications of machines becoming too intelligent or self-aware (the singularity).

What do you think? I’d welcome hearing your thoughts in the comments below.

Mobile Dashboards for Construction Project Management

Company News |

We have good news for construction project managers. You can now easily provide real-time dashboards and KPIs to your team – no matter what OS or device they use.

We are big believers in the power of dashboards for construction project management. Our award-winning Construction Program Management Portal is built around robust custom dashboards. Construction projects are complex, with lots of moving parts and dependencies. Dashboards offer stakeholders a visual summary of a project’s status at a glance. And of course, more detailed information is always only a click away in our portal.

But wouldn’t it be great if your team could access these dashboards from anywhere on any device? We agree. Which is why we are very excited to offer construction project managers an even more powerful way to deploy dashboards.

Enterprise Mobile Construction Project Management Dashboards with Microsoft Data Zen

Lydon-Solutions-Construction-Project-Management-Dashboard-Example
Easily provide real-time dashboards and KPIs to your team with the Lydon Solutions Project Management Information System

Lydon Solutions now provides enterprise level dashboard and KPI reporting using Microsoft Data Zen. Now you can easily provide your team with interactive dashboards that show real-time KPIs in a visual and easy-to-understand format.

Your users can interact with these reports regardless of the device or operating system they use. That means mobile users see the same information as team members back in the office.

Best of all, no special coding is required. You can build and deploy these dashboards yourself. Data Zen makes it simple to combine information from virtually any system you use (including SharePoint).

With the Lydon Solutions Project Management Information System (PMIS) and Data Zen, you now have several powerful new capabilities, including:

  • Interactive charts – Display data in robust graphs, charts, tables, maps, and KPIs. Quickly drill down to more detailed information.
  • Real-Time Reporting – Build robust dashboards using real-time information from all your data sources. No custom coding required.
  • Support for multiple platforms and devices – Use your preferred device. Data Zen supports iOS, Android, and Windows phones, tablets, and laptops.
  • Better team Collaboration – Share KPIs and dashboards in real-time. Collaborate with team members using integrated instant messaging.
  • Dashboards on an enterprise scale – Deploy your dashboards across your entire organization and leverages SQL server and Active Directory for permissions.

Lydon Solutions continues to push the envelope of what is possible in managing your construction projects. Thought you knew SharePoint? Guess again. Contact us for a free consultation.