Project Canvas Blog

Project Canvas is a visual project tool to have everyone involved in the project engaged and understand the project. See more and try Project Canvas at projectcanvas.dk.

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5 tips for choosing project management software

Are you in the process of choosing suitable project management software for your firm? If yes, then it means that your company is growing. Congratulations!  With the right choice you will be able to increase efficiency and improve your results even more. Here are five tips from Project Canvas on what to consider, when choosing a project management software.

1.       Reflect on your current situation.

What do you currently use to manage projects? What is good about the tools and what is not so good?

According to a report by Software Advice, approximately every second small business (46%) uses manual methods to manage their projects, such as spreadsheets, email, pen or paper.

Nine percent of the businesses, which indicated using non-project management software such as Microsoft Outlook and time tracking applications, admit that it does not fully address their needs.

Picture 1. Project management methods used by small businesses, prospective software buyers. Report Project Management Software. Small Business Buyer Review. 2014 Software Advice

2. Think of goals and gaps.

Why have you thought of acquiring a project management software in the first place? Which goals do you hope to achieve by using it? Once you got this answer,  think of the functionality gaps that you are experiencing with your current way of handling your projects.  To which phase do these gaps relate to? The initial or implementation one?

In the initial phase, expectation management, having a project overview and kick-start, as well as attracting the team and stakeholders on board are essential. In the execution phase, the communication among the team members as well as task and time management are important.

The best way to do it is to engage your team in the discussion and the decision making process. Compile a list of must-have and good-to-have features for your software. The list will guide you to the right choice.

According to the survey by Software Advice, 40% of the businesses looking for a project management tools are seeking to improve efficiency and accuracy in their work processes. The graph below might give you some hints on what other aspects might play a crucial role in their selection process.

 Picture 2.Top reasons for software purchases. Software Advice.

3. Compile the list of options. After you have accomplished the above, make the list of the software available on the market. Rate the software according to your self-made requirements list from the tip two. 

 4.       Make sure to give the power of decision making to those who are going to use the system.

 It is not only you who is going to use the system. It is the team. If the software will be too complicated or your team is not willing to use it properly, your efforts will be in vain.

Finn Svenning, Danish project management consultant says on his blog: ‘Projects are complex and are becoming more and more complicated. One way to solve this challenge for a project manager is to use sophisticated tools and try to grasp and manage complexity. Another way is to empower people with the knowledge that will allow them navigating through and coping with complexity". 

Your software should help you in empowering people.

 Make sure the software matches your organization’s corporate culture and the set of skills. It has to be easy to start working with. Many small businesses prefer cloud-based solutions, as they are easy to grasp and allow users accessing their projects from anywhere in the world. Keep in mind as well, that the solution should reflect the future growth of your company and hence have the opportunity to upgrade according to the scale.

5.       Do not get distracted from the actual leadership.

Lastly, make sure that the chosen software helps you to stay or become a true leader.

Susanne Madsen, a leading project management coach, says that one of the most often project management mistakes is managing tasks at the expense of leading people.

She shares her own story on her blog. Her career changed the moment when she realized that project management does not have to be stressful.  She took a step back, started doing fewer tasks, delegating more, and the magic things started happening. New ideas and insights appeared, more time for communicating and engaging with stakeholders and the team was found, valuable feedback started coming in.

Let the same happen with your team after you have chosen the best suitable project management software.

Nurture and develop your leadership skills to be a great project manager. You might like going through this list of inspiring talks for project managers.

Any tips that you would add? Please share your thoughts in the comments below or in our LinkedIn group Project Canvas Pros.

Yours, Olga

Digital Marketer, Project Canvas

olga(at)projectcanvas.dk

Project Canvas online version is so far free of charge.

You can also download the Canvas to use it offline.

Would you like to have Canvases in good quality for your organization and want to save the hassle with the printing office? Two clicks here and we will take care of it for you. 

Do you need help in introducing Project Canvas in your organization? Let us arrange a Project Canvas workshop for you.

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Season's Greetings from Project Canvas. See you next year!

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Interactive guide to a great project kickstart

How many times have you realised that not everybody in your team understands the project goals and her role in it? Have you ever had trouble with getting stakeholders on board? Do results often have nothing to do with the initial expectations? I tell you what – you are not alone!

Susanne Madsen, a project management coach and the author of the Project Management Coaching Workbook says: "We don’t need more managers; we need leaders".

While only 9% of high performing businesses indicate that technical project management skills are important for successful project management, and 9% value high strategic and business management skills, 81% vote for the utmost importance of project management.

It is natural that some of us are better communicators than others and can easily inspire people and get supporters on board. Presenting information clearly is one of the key project management skills.

I have prepared this interactive guide around Project Canvas for project managers, team leaders, facilitators and coaches. Use it to excel at kick-starting your projects. I really believe it will help you in involving people and making sure that everyone is focused on the desired outcome! 

Hover with your mouse over the Canvas and play around with each icon.

The guide will unveil tips for filling each field in the Canvas, links to case studies, videos and other useful information. Pay attention to the numbers to make sure that you and your team fill the Canvas in the best possible way.

Happy playing with Project Canvas!

Just click the picture to go to the guide.

Yours, Olga

Digital Marketer, Project Canvas

olga(at)projectcanvas.dk

 Project Canvas Pros LinkedIn community .

Project Canvas online version is so far free of charge.

You can also download the Canvas to use it offline.

Would you like to have Canvases in good quality for your organization and want to save the hassle with the printing office? Two clicks here and we will take care of it for you. 

Do you need help in introducing Project Canvas in your organization? Let us arrange a Project Canvas workshop for you.

[projectcanvasdk]

The collaboration and other cool new features in Project Canvas!

That's right, now we've got a collaboration feature in our app! It took a while, but now it's here.

What that really means is, that now you can share your project to others and work on it at the same time from different devices. Just the way it was always meant to be!

Project Canvas is a collaborative tool by definition, so this is a big step for us! It really pushes the online version to a whole different level of usefulness, on par with its physical ancestor.

We have been working on this for quite some time and now you can finally use it and let us know how you like it.

Let's have a look at how it works.

When you access Project Canvas App and load your canvas (after you have registered and logged in), notice a little "share" icon next to the project name.

Underneath, you can see the overview of people who have access to the project and you can control it.

After you click the "Add" button, a notification email is sent to the person, informing them about the newly shared project with them.

To access the project, they have to create an account (or log in to their existing one) using the same email address they received the notification to.

Great! Now you should be set up and ready to collaborate on the Project Canvas together even if you are on a different continent! :)

THE OTHER STUFF

Those of you who use Project Canvas on a daily basis have noticed that the collaboration isn't the only new thing in the app. We have added a bit more options to the items.

The two most requested being:

the ability to add the description to items

and variable colors of the items

Adding description, once again, really pushes the usefulness of Project Canvas as it provides you with the ability to store all the necessary details that are related to the item without taking up all the space. 

Now you can just write a few keywords on the note and expand on it in the description.

And of course it's also really useful for those of us, who are just a bit more talkative and need that little extra space to explain themselves :)

Adding colors to the items (or "sticky notes") is an obvious improvement for everyone who likes to color-code their work.

Be it priority, time, risks, persons, or anything else that the color relates to, it's a great way to get more information from the content, without even reading anything.

Besides that, we have given the Project Canvas an overall visual facelift, which makes it resemble the original physical version a bit more and will hopefully feel a bit more familiar for the people who worked with it on our workshops.

We find useful (and nice) especially the icons representing the elements.

There are many more small changes (most obviously the logo is moved to the center) that we hope you will find useful, but the last thing worth mentioning is the fact, that there's been some work on the speed optimization and that resulted in about 40% faster loading times! :)

NEXT UP

Next up on our list are comments and PDF export, so, stay tuned :)

As always, please let us know if you encounter any issues with the app to at the Project Canvas Pros LinkedIn group (or use the little question mark in the bottom right corner inside the app).

If you have suggestions, please use our Uservoice profile.

Thank you for using Project Canvas!

Yours,

Martin Vyrostko Developer at Project Canvas

Project Canvas online version is so far free of charge.

You can also download the Canvas to use it offline.

Would you like to have Canvases in good quality for your organization and want to save the hassle with the printing office? Two clicks here and we will take care of it for you. 

Do you need help in introducing Project Canvas in your organization? Let us arrange a Project Canvas workshop for you.

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6 motivational talks each project manager should watch

First of all, we at Project Canvas would like to thank everyone who provided us with awesome suggestions of motivational and inspiring talks for project managers. We have enjoyed watching through all the videos and are now quite motivated and inspired ourselves :).

So here are the 6 talks we chose and truly believe they will inspire you too.

1. How to start a movement (3 minutes). Derek Siver, founder of CD Bays, with the help of a funny footage and humor demonstrates how movements really start. If you feel like you are struggling alone, this is a must watch video. See more from Derek on the TED website.

  2. Why work doesn’t happen at work? (15 minutes) Jason Fried, co-founder of Basecamp, former 37 signals, reveals the blunt truth about the nature of work that every people manager should know. Office is not the place where work is done. But what is the place? Watch the video with helpful tips from Jason Fried.  

  3. How great leaders inspire action (18 minutes). The third most viewed TED talk by Simon Sinek, a writer on leadership. Simon talks about his concept on the ‘golden circle’ and the question  ‘why’, which should be asked at the very beginning of every project and company.  

  4. Six keys to leading positive change (17 minutes). Rosabeth Moss Kanter, professor of business at Harvard Business School, equips the listeners with simple and effective leadership tools, from the power of being there for your team to the power of voice. This inspiring speech will motivate you to take action and be the change agent in the world.

5. Dare to disagree (13 minutes). Margaret Heffernan, former CEO of 5 companies, talks about the power of conflict and warns that conflict avoidance has led many organizations and leaders astray. Daring to break the silence inspires people around to do their best thinking.

  6. It's Always the Leader (3 minutes). This animated talk by Ken Blanchard, American author and management expert, is about the key role of leadership. It is the leader who drives the change in any organization and on whom the business success depends.

Do you agree with the speekers? Is there anything else, which isn’t covered, but is a great motivation tool for any leader at work?

Are there other awesome videos out there? Post your suggestions in the comments below.

Yours, Olga

Digital Marketer, Project Canvas

olga(at)projectcanvas.dk

Project Canvas makes everyone an excellent project manager. Have you tried Project Canvas? It’s free online! 

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How Hyper Island builds its client communication using Project Canvas

Let us introduce to you Hyper Island. Hyper Island is an international educational company specializing in learning experiences and coaching using digital technology. The company develops its courses and programs together with industry leaders and equips professionals to bring change and be in a constant learning mode throughout their career.

How does Hyper Island use Project Canvas for communicating with their clients? 

We talked to Hazel Swayne, Global Partnership Director at Hyper Island based in New York about it.

- How did you start using Project Canvas?

- I’ve come across Project Canvas by chance. Approximately half a year ago our designer Sarah posted a link on Project Canvas in our Facebook private group. She said: “It is a great project tool to use”. I tend to be very curious about these things. Project Canvas caught my attention, and I decided to try it out with a client.

- How did it go?

- I use Project Canvas mainly for two things: first, for an alignment with my clients, and secondly, for bringing clarity in what we need to do.

When working with clients, it is crucial to measure, how serious they are about the project. It is easy to call and ask Hyper Island to prepare a proposal for developing a class, workshop or a course. But often the client is not sure what they really want.

There are many unorganized ideas, and no structure overview. So, I’ve started asking them to fill in Project Canvas.  Sometimes we do it together, and sometimes they do it on their own. As a result Project Canvas makes it real, for both sides.

Project Canvas also helps keeping focus on what is important. It asks all the right questions. For example, right now we are working on a very complex project that is going to last for 6 months - which is very unusual to us, because normally the classes that we develop take only 6 days. So, we are actually building a program. And when we’ve sent Project Canvas to the clients, we inspired them to fill it out and also hold their own internal brainstorming session. It worked very well.   

- We heard that you have used Project Canvas in communication with Coca Cola.

-  Yes, that is true. Coca Cola hired Hyper Island to conduct a training session. A part of the training was to manage a project. So, we recommended to use Project Canvas for those projects. As far as I know they were really happy using it, because it is a very simple and intuitive tool. No one ever said “I don’t get it”.  

- What do you like about Project Canvas the most?

- Project Canvas helps accomplishing tasks and visualizing. It is a very neat tool. Your clients are more open with you. You become a team. I think it is very important for successful projects.

Yulia Tchernaya,

Marketing Coordinator and Facilitator

at Project Canvas

[email protected]

Start using Project Canvas right now. It's free online! Or order the physical version of the Project Canvas Kickstart Pack.

Need assistance in introducing Project Canvas in your organization? Let us arrange a Project Canvas workshop for you.

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Project Canvas has been called Columbus’s egg

We are so happy to see that Project Canvas simplifies lives and makes more and more project management professionals happy. Finn Svenning, a successful Danish project manager and blogger has called the tool a Columbus’s egg in his blog. 

He writes: ‘Projects are complex and are becoming more and more complicated. One way to solve this challenge for a project manager is to use sophisticated tools and try to grasp and manage complexity. Another way is to empower people with the knowledge that will allow them navigating through and coping with complexity. Project Canvas helps a project team to get a quick overview and understanding in the beginning of a new project’.

Read the full review in Danish on Finn’s blog.

Start using Project Canvas right now. It’s free online! Or order the physical version of the Project Canvas Kickstart Pack.

Would you like to introduce Project Canvas in your organization? Let us arrange a Project Canvas workshop for you.

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See what is new in Project Canvas online app

During the last two months, there has been a lot of activity on the Project Canvas development. Our online app got some new features, a lot of small bugs were fixed and the website got a face-lift. While the changes in the app are mostly under the hood, these are some of the things that you could actually see changing:

now you can log in and sign up faster, using your social media account on Facebook or LinkedIn;

now you can pick your milestones’ and actions’ deadlines using a calendar

When you press ‘delete’ button, we double check, whether this wasn’t by mistake. Like this:

Lovers of the offline Project Canvas version will be happy with this one. We added the descriptions of each element in the canvas. They will prompt you and your team in the process of filling out the canvas.

And we implemented various small design changes, like different buttons, effects on popups and so on.

In the near future, our development plans are along the lines of this:

sharing & collaboration with others (coming really soon!)

zooming functionality - this one is big! It’s going to be especially useful for the timeline milestones/actions. The online canvas will basically become as a widespread sheet, similar to excel. So you will not be limited by its size to manage or present you project, how ever big they can get.

smart solution of displaying the hidden items so you don’t have to scroll. Just wait and see!

integration with other services: Google Drive, Podio, etc.

export functionality (PDF, etc..)

more properties on items: status/progress on actions, color labeling, etc.

Which features would you like to have added in Project Canvas? Add your ideas here, in the app itself or in our LinkedIn Group Project Canvas Pros.

It has been fun working on the Project Canvas and it’s exciting to see more of you using the Canvas. It really pushes us to keep updating!

Thanks for using Project Canvas, if you have any feedback and or bug report, please get back to us!

Yours,

Martin Vyrostko Developer at Project Canvas

Project Canvas online version is so far free of charge. You can also order the physical version of the Project Canvas  within the Kickstart Pack.

Do you need help in introducing Project Canvas in your organization? Let us arrange a Project Canvas workshop for you.

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Three simple online tools to boost your project management in no time

How to be more productive in managing new and accomplishing already started projects? Here are three project management apps that I use, which take no time to learn. They have boosted my operational efficiency by 100%. These tools make project management easy.

Trello

Trello really saved my life when I was recently working with a web-designer on a rather complicated website for my PR-consultancy business. Trello is a simple task sorting system, which will make both a project manager and other team members happy.

In Trello you can start a Board for each particular project and create cards for each task. The To Do cards are placed in one column. The tool offers two more columns: Doing and Done, but you can create as many columns as you prefer to organize your work.

Personally for me this app is great as I can always see the progress of the work, and add new tasks on the go, without distracting my web-designer or web-developer. And it’s so rewarding to see how much you and your team have accomplished, while moving the task card from the Doing column to Done. No task is ever being lost or forgotten.

Project Canvas

Project Canvas is an excellent project management app, which allows all the team members to get a project overview and keep everyone on the same page throughout its implementation from the very beginning.

It is basically made as a large offline or an online canvas, which is divided into several sections, placed in a convenient and logical order: Purpose, Scope, Success Criteria, Outcome, Team, Stakeholders, Users, Resources, Constraints, Risks, Milestones and Actions. The tool was inspired by the popular Business Model Canvas.

You can involve your team members in setting the milestones of your project and define the actions, which will lead you to the reached milestones. The current free online version of this project managment tool allows you to set responsible people and deadlines for each action, so that the purpose is accomplished in due time.

First time I used Project Canvas was in the offline form. The Project Canvas helped me to see my team’s progress as we were  ticking off the reached milestones and actions. When we saw that some actions could be done earlier, and some only accomplished later, we just moved them around, still having the whole picture of the project and its progress in front of us.

There is an opinion that Project Canvas makes anyone a great project manager and works best for groups of 4 to 8 members. I would be happy to get your opinion on this.

Podio

Podio reminds me of an easy-to-organize office space. Each employee has an account and can run separate projects, assign task to other employees, set deadlines, manage the calendar, upload and share files, and fulfill other essential project management activities.

The system allows a lot of freedom for customization. And this makes it both an easy tool for those who just quickly want to increase their teamwork productivity, and a helpful one for those who want to organize all their office operations online.

Let’s say you have a project Conference. You can start a New Organization and add all the people who are connected with the project. After that let your team members, responsible for particular areas connected with the project, create sub-projects, such as Speaker Support, Marketing, Administration, Participants Liason, Media Relations and so on.

There is an activity board showing what is going on in your projects, and a comment function, which both add a social touch to the tool and make you feel like you are using a social network.

If you use one or some of these tools or know someone who does, I would be happy to have your impression in the comments to the post or to my e-mail at olga (at) projectcanvas.dk and feature most interesting project management cases in this blog.

Which other simple project management tools do you know and use? Please share your experience with us.

Yours, Olga

Digital Marketer, Project Canvas

olga(at)projectcanvas.dk

[projectcanvasdk]

Doing these four things? Then you are a great project manager

Some people think that good PROJECT MANAGERS are hard enough to find. And great project managers are even more rare. Do these four things and you will be a great project manager!

Successful project managers regard what they do as a career and not a job. For them every project is just another exciting challenge.

The secret is simple: focus on doing what you like. One can say, easier said than done. True. Sometimes we have to do the job because it needs to be done, and not because it makes you happy. Still, you can always focus on a good part, for example, on the wonderful people you are so lucky to work with!

Be a good communicator

A successful project manager knows well when and to whom to communicate. The ability to connect with people at all levels is as crucial as being able to build a strong team and set positive tones. Project leadership is also about clearly communicating the responsibility, goals, performance, expectations and feedback.

Develop the ability to prioritise and delegate tasks

Success in prioritising depends a lot on creating a good project overview. Project Canvas, for instance, is created in order to provide professional overview of your projects. You are welcome to give it a try! When this is done, it’s time to think how much you allow other people to participate. Trust is an essential element in the project team relations. Being able to delegate tasks is a demonstration of your trust in other members of the project team. Individuals who do not trust other people often fail as managers.   

Do not be afraid to work under pressure

We live and work in the ever-changing world. In perfect conditions, projects would be delivered on time, with no problems or obstacles, and within the budget. Unfortunately, this kind of a situation is more an exception than a rule. A good project manager will always be efficient in a stressful situation, staying optimistic and determined. He or she will find a creative way to solve the problem, keeping in mind that risks are not only threats, but often opportunities.

We believe that with Project Canvas everybody can deliver successful projects. Therefore we aim Project Canvas to be available to every individual and project team worldwide. Nonetheless, having a great project management tool is not enough. It is also important to develop a particular set of personal and professional qualities and never stop working on them.   

  Yulia Tchernaya

Marketing Coordinator and Product developer at Project Canvas

 yulia(at)projectcanvas.dk

[projectcanvasdk]

Project Management Events in Fall 2014

Hi there. We are back again.

The summer is almost over and many of us flock back to the offices. I hope with our blog we will help you gain the momentum and start moving the mountains right away after the relaxing time. Let us start with planning!

Project Canvas has compiled this list of project management events happening in the fall 2014 that can boost your career, motivate and equip you with newest methods, tools and contacts in project management. Just browse through the list to pick for yourself. I would be happy if you add other relevant project management events happening in 2014 in the comment section.

September 15-16, 2014. Prague, Czech Republic

Agile Prague 2014

A two-day event with two parallel programs. Experience agile and scrum through role games, workshops, discussions and cases, the later mostly from the Czech Republic. Listen to the talks of the Managers, product owners and Scrum Masters from all over the world.

September 18, 2014. Coventry, the UK.

APM Education Forum 2014

The forum will welcome representatives of the corporate and academic communities and the Association for Project Management into the discussion of the current state of project management in education and the its future support by APM. The forum’s main theme will be competence. 

September 22-24, 2014. Berlin, Germany

Global Scrum Gathering Berlin 2014

The global meeting for scrum and agile professionals. Learn more here and check the program here.

September 25, 2014. Stockholm, Sweden

Agile People

The international conference is focused on agile IT, management and HR and will create a learning and networking opportunity for those who want to be their best in the constantly changing world.

September 25-26, 2014. Toronto, Canada

Redefining the PMO Workshop Series (Toronto)

An event consisting of 4 workshops in two days on business-driven PMO success, agile management, protfolio execution and redefining PMO. The number of seats is limited.

 September 25, 2014. London, the UK.

APM Women in PM SIG, 21st Anniversary, London

Prominent business women and project managers witll share their insight into successfull project management career for women, as well as future role of women in the area.

September 29-30, 2014. Prague, Czech Republic

PMI SeminarsWorld Prague

Get inspiration and new tools to put immediately in your everyday practice from these small-group seminars conducted by international experts.

September 29-October 1, 2014. Rotterdam, The Netherlands

IPMA World Congress 2014

The congress’ theme “Innovation through Dialogue” is going to be delivered by more than 120 speakers in three days. The presentations will concern project, portfolio and program management.

October 8-9, 2014. London, the UK

Agile – The Next Frontier. Agile business conference

Project management professionals in private and public sectors will share their experience with organisational change with agile approach. Aimed at CEOs, CIOs, Heads of IT, Project, Product and Programme Managers, Change Leaders, Business Analysts, Team Leaders, Procurement specialists interested in enterprise Agile.

October 16-17, 2014. Scottsdale, AZ, the USA.

Redefining the PMO Workshop Series

The same two day event filled with 4 workshops on agile project management as the one on September 25-26, in Toronto, Canada.

October 20-22, 2014. Milano, Italy

ICEC 2014 World Congress

The congress is going to envisage aspects of total cost management in during crises. Organised by the International Project Management Association (IPMA), International Cost Engineering Council (ICEC), on behalf of the Italian Association for Total Cost Management (AICE).

October 21-22, 2014. Sydney, Australia

Regional Scrum Gathering Australia 2014

Organised for the second time in a row, after its initial success, the event is aimed to appeal to big and small stakeholder of agile management.

October 26-28, 2014. Phoenix, Arizona

PMI Global Congress 2014

The large-scale event will include a busy program full of more than 160 educational sessions aimed at boosting a project manager’s career, an exhibition, the PMI Professional Award Ceremony and of course lots of networking.

October 28-29, 2014. Nuremberg, Germany

PM Forum 2014

One of the most significant events in European project management, organised by the German Project Management Association (GPM).Will run in 8 parallel progarms on  project management, agile project management, professional project portfolio management (PPM), international, change, large-scale projects, soft skills and risk management. The speakers represent well-know corporate brands.

November 17, 2014. Munich, Germany

PM-Summit 2014

Take you performance on a new level with the series of workshops on new methodologies and soft skills, as well as share your experience with peers and attend the summit’s exhibition.

November 13, 2014. London

Synergy 2014

The topic of this UK government supported event is "Project Management – What’s new, what’s old and what works". It will unite project management professionals, researchers, the government and NGOs for discussing project management on national and international scale.

November 16-19, 2014. Miami Beach, Florida, the US

PMO Symposium 2014

During the symposium latest project management research will be presented and strategic approach to delivering projects will be discussed. The event presents networking opportunities with other professionals, including opinion leaders from around the world.

November 29-30, 2014. Beijing, China

Asia Pacific Congress on Project Management

The participants’ geography will cover all Asian Pacific countries, as well as the US, Peru, Chile, Mexico and others. The event will offer educational and networking opprotunities, as well as a nice cultural program.

 Here are also some links for you if you like to research deeper into the world of project management events:

http://ipma.ch/resources/events/

http://www.apm.org.uk/events

  Yours, Olga Belorusova

Digital Marketing for Project Canvas

olga(at)projectcanvas.dk

Start using Project Canvas right now. It’s free online! Or order the physical version of the Project Canvas Kickstart Pack.

Need help in introducing Project Canvas in your organization? Let us arrange a Project Canvas workshop for you.

[projectcanvasdk]

Simplifying Project Management at DRIVR

With all the positive feedback surrounding our recent launch, the team at Project Canvas is motivated more than ever. In the first week, we were featured on Oresund startups webpage and were also retweeted by famous folks at Twitter including June Jewell, a prominent author.

We stopped by Drivr last week and were filled in on their future plans of launching in Copenhagen and their aim to create a cheaper alternative to the expensive taxi booking systems for the drivers and car owners. Together we worked to analyze different ways Project Canvas can be used assist to them plan for these goals. The elaborate brainstorming session that followed proved to be mutually beneficial.

At the end of it, this is what they remarked about Project Canvas:

“Project Canvas is really helpful in providing a bigger picture of the entire project, giving everyone a comprehensive overview of the milestones and challenges that we face during the course of projects. This can be a useful tool for the business development teams and can also expedite and improve collaborative working.”

You too can simplify projects at your workplace. All it takes is start using the tool for free online or order Project Canvas Kickstart Pack.

Want to learn more? What this short video. 

Need help in getting the whole team ace Project Canvas? Contact us about arranging a workshop.

[projectcanvasdk]

*Drumroll, please*…Project Canvas gets funding!

Though a bit overdue, we've been wanting to share some good news with you: Project Canvas raised around 110,000 DKK in seed funding by the very supportive Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship about three months ago, Ta-Dah!  

Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship enables young entrepreneurs like ourselves to turn their energy and ideas into exciting business opportunities. Now we know that fundraising is not a goal, it is mere means to an end, so we have been busy working on various plans and objectives to use these resources in the best possible way. The funds are primarily being used to develop Project Canvas for educational purposes, including a manual about the tool, a digital application and an explanatory video, all of which are due to be launched in early April.

Meanwhile, your increasing number of queries and positive feedback are keeping us upbeat and motivated to take Project Canvas off the ground and into your offices and universities as soon as possible.

So, are you ready for the project management revolution that is about to come? We know we are!

Stay tuned because next week I'll be introducing you to the awesome team at Project Canvas!

[projectcanvasdk]

Project Management: From Stone Age to Date

In earlier days, planning a project and communicating it to the team was as difficult as playing darts with spaghetti. The project management software was operated and run on big mainframe computers and was used exclusively for large-scale projects. These early systems were quite limited in their capabilities, to say the least and using them posed a challenge larger than understanding the project itself.

Today, things have changed. Copious amounts of project management tools have flooded the market, which help lighten project manager's workload, and are making their way into almost every type of business. In fact, the variety of tools to choose from is so enormous and endless that project managers end up using non-rigorous approaches, often based on personal preference, intuition, or marketing hype, to find their ‘ideal’ project management tool. Not surprisingly, this leads to erroneous decision making and subsequently affects the projects.

We at Project Canvas decided to do something about this problem and created a minimalist project management tool that is bound to stand out in the sea of management and communication tools because of its simplicity and ease of use. We believe that the less complicated a tool is to setup and manage, the more easier and efficient the whole process will be. By using Project Canvas as an analog tool, you are able to keep an overview of your project and its specific actions in a simple way - and the same goes for Project Canvas online, which is currently under development. This results in improved mutual understanding and communication between project participants and  increases the overall chances of your project’s success.

So come join us and download Project Canvas today at http://projectcanvas.dk/

[projectcanvasdk]

Welcome to the Project Canvas blog

Project Canvas has arrived!

We - the team behind Project Canvas - are happy to say "Hello world" on this new Project Canvas blog.

During the last year Project Canvas has gone from idea, thesis research, and actual relevant and usable project tool. But the journey has just begun;

we want to simplify project management. 

We're currently developing material that explains the tool, both for education and businesses, an explanatory video, and - of course - a digital online application. If you're interested in getting early access to the upcoming digital application please subscribe to our newsletter or send us an email!

In this blog we'll write about the development process of Project Canvas, how it is being used in real life, and finally how we are using the tool.

Our goal is to create a community that shares best practices and tools for simplifying project communication and management. Please follow this blog or one (or more) of our social media channels:

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