FAMOUS For a minute of your serenity

Everyone is so stressed out!• Work, family and personal commitments can be fulfilling,

but overwhelming. The American Psychological Association reports about 3/4 of the people in the U.S. experience physical or psychological symptoms of stress.

• The World Health Organization called stress “a worldwide epidemic.” While many things contribute to stress, workplace tension and job related pressure was the #1 reported cause.

• Moreover, modern technology may only add to the stress by making us feel we should be “on”24/7. For example, a study at the University of California, Irvine, found people interrupted by e mail reported significantly increased stress compared with those left to focus

What helps us to feel relaxed?• CONTROL• ON/UNDER-BUDGET• PLANNING• ORGANISATION• MEETING DEADLINES• CLEAR COMMUNICATION• ACCURATE RECORDS• KNOWING WHAT IS EXPECTED OF US

We realised these are all outcomes of successful PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The answer was clear – what if we treat key events and processes in our personal lives as

projects, and manage them accordingly?

PERSONAL

Using Project Management software for personal projects

•Manage stress by getting your ‘must do’ list out of your head

•Don’t lose important pieces of paper•Keeps track of important tasks•Don’t miss deadlines•Don’t forget anything

For a minute of your serenity...

• Choose your favourite project management software online – there are many free options available

• For the purposes of this demonstration, we’ve chosen “Basecamp” (A 37signals product – www.basecamp.com)

• Identify your first project

Example: Manage a holidayInstead of worrying about flights,

accommodation and other important factors for group holidays, use a tool

designed to manage a project

Invite friends & family to be part of a project

Track discussion threads and decisions easily without having to send separate updates

Create to-do lists so nothing is lost or forgotten

Leave comments on individual tasks

Assign items to people involved in the project

Assign deadlines

Keep all your relevant files in one handy place(receipts, itineraries, booking vouchers etc.)

Calendar functions mean you won’t miss

deadlines

Me

Me

Oh yup, Me again

Really, am I the only one working here?

Progress updates let you see who has done what,

when

Constraints faced by our idea• Individual

– perception constraint– intellection constraint

• Group – Process

• Organizational – time and money

• Industry – Market

• Societal – Legitiamacy

• Technological – Available off the shelf (web) product.

Individual ConstraintsPerception• Is there a problem? Will the software management tool help to solve

said problem and relieve stress? Motivation• Will the subject continue to update and monitor progress? Will they

complete the initial set-up required? (Creating a user account for one of the software platforms, entering initial project information etc.)

Intellection• Does the subject see/understand the opportunity? Have they identified

a project which could use the guidance of project management software? We believe the individual will need to commit to seeing out the duration of any one project to see the benefits – if they give up too soon, the stress-relieving benefits of a full plan will be lost.

Group Constraints

• If multiple sources feed into the programme - will they all have the same perspective, goals and scope? Will they have equal buy-in? Emotional response to the project may impact the information provided and highlight the importance of different parts of the process.

• 'The family' - will they accept the "culture" change? Will they support this new direction? Is the environment supportive to personal projects? Are there many distractions?

• Can our team work together to build the required solution? Will we have differences of opinion on best technique and programme? Are our strengths and weaknesses well aligned?

Organisational• Does the individual or the family have the resources (or access to

the resources) required? Do they have the time contribution to make to the start up and monitoring of the project?

• Does the structure of their family unit mirror the roles assigned in the project strategy? Does every member of the team agree to becoming a resource and having jobs to complete?

• Does our team have the resources required to test this solution? Do we have access to different project management software to try this out?

• Can we identify and manage a personal project to map expected outcomes?

• Will the companies who have developed the relevant software want to work with us on this sort of project?

Industry Constraints

• Will professional planners and organisers boycott this product (seen as competition)? Will professional planners and organisers out-perform the product therefore rendering it useless?

• Why would people follow our lead rather than carry on with other techniques?

• How can we market our idea as a tangible product? To do this, do we need to design our own project management software? This hasn’t been part of the scope of our original assignment or idea and so we need to find a way to work around this with existing technologies.

• Is this a marketable product? Will we make profit from this?

Societal Constraints

• Is it socially acceptable to run your family or personal life like a business?

• What are the social implications if this isn't seen as 'normal'?

• How will this impact our interaction with others? Will other individuals (not part of the ‘plan’) interrupt the critical path of the project?

• What about resourcing, deadlines and the social implication of relying on someone else to follow-through with a plan?

• Have we considered the moral implications of potentially making money by helping people deal with a problem that has real health and wellbeing implications if not resolved? (Stress)

Technological Constraints

• Is there an appropriate software platform on the market? If not, can this be built easily and within budget?

• Does the individual have access to required technology? • Mobile technology would allow ease of use for this

project and allow it to extol major stress benefits. • Do we, as a group, need to design a new platform, or can

we work with one already in existence? • Are there licensing or royalty requirements/liabilities?

The Key Constraints

• Societal - perceived as meeting a need

• Technological – Accessible, low-cost or free software

Overcoming Societal Constraints

• The first step to making this a viable solution was to identify what software relating to project management already exists on the market. A grading rubric was developed to help ensure consistency when assessing software – perhaps incorporating functionality, cost, ease of use etc.

• Once identified and assessed, the team went through moderation and made a decision on the technology.

• Once we identified a couple of software front-runners, we ran a “test” of the software with our own personal projects, and mapped results over a period of time, including a diary of our stress levels and the impact of being more organised on our daily lives.

• At the completion of each of our personal test projects, we made a decision as a team as to the best way forward/with which software

• If we were to present this idea to the market, we would need to work with the software company to ensure they are comfortable with us using them as our ‘chosen’ programme, and ensure they are on-board with any messaging/communications we develop which may mention their brand.

Overcoming Technological Constraints

• Access to the appropriate resource/computer programme (project management software) will be a key component of our success, both for our build/testing phase and our release to customers. Identifying our ‘favoured’ Project Management software along with a variety of other options (at free & varying price points) is important here.

• Messaging/communications are targeted to a market with access to computers and the internet. Mobile Smart-phones would also be beneficial. Without this, they would have to manually create Gantt charts etc. which would be costly (both in terms of time and resources) and defeat the purpose of the exercise.

• Our introduction to the idea explains time commitments in the initial start-up phase of a project, so that people know what to expect and can agree that this is a worthwhile commitment. Further to that, they are informed they will need to commit to the ongoing maintenance of updating and reviewing their project management plan. This is overcome by using technology – set reminders with follow-up emails as part of your project plan. Use your mobile device to keep updates running on the go.

So did it work???

• The software did schedule tasks and help organise an event.

• The software help make sure all parties were kept informed.

• The software help relieve stress as the event came up and it was reviewed to make sure nothing was overlooked.

And did people use it?

• It was used for some projects – planning holidays, weddings and other fun activities. People understood the value and could see the benefits. The software worked really well.

• It was not used for other projects – major household clear-outs, bake sale etc. This was likely due to the time-intensive start up.

What went wrong?

• Some projects are too unique to understand what to schedule (conscience ignorance)

• Some projects needed too much start-up attention, outweighing the value

• People forgot to update their projects, leading to minor stress and confusion when they realised they were behind

Where would we go next?

• Prepackage projects with reasonable steps and time frames.

• Work on interfaces to make them more playful and less business-like

• Frame the product as a ‘family friendly’ • Create interactive demos – how you can use

this to make the most of the stress relieving benefits

The End