Every project manager knows that one of the dreariest tasks in a project is the constant control and problem management. An experienced PM applies his skills and experience to organize the control process, keeping in mind the major milestones and indicators of the project, but even experienced PMs cannot respond quickly while out of the office.
Some control freaks visit their project servers while on vacation at the Goa Beach or Mount Everest, but the fact is that there are few such freaks among project managers. Consequently, the mere mortals must either come to terms with the need to sift through the mountains of tickets after the holiday or trust the technology designed to solve such problems.
Recently, Auriga engineers developed a mobile client for project monitoring web-services based on MS Project Server. In accordance with complex business logic, the application collects information from various project management systems and, if a problem occurs, sends a notification to the manager’s smartphone or tablet. The push-notification service shows the number of open escalations in the corner of the widget icon of the phone or tablet desktop. At the same time, it’s not just a pure notification service; it’s also a tool that allows managers to work with escalations instantly: for example, to send an SMS or call back the responsible person. The solution includes the following functionality:
- Displays a list of escalations in the application
- Ability to close the escalation in the application
- Provides user authorization and authentication
- Calls/SMSs to employees responsible for the escalation
- Sorts escalations based on several parameters (date, customer, type of escalation)
- Integration with web-services notifications (e.g., if established deadlines, costs, budgets, or working hours are exceeded)
- Apple push-notification service
- Displays detailed information within the application without using a web-portal
The client is developed using complex business logic of the project compliance with the state of critical points (triggers). It is optimized for MS SQL database and MS Project Server. At present, the application is available for two main mobile platforms: iOS and Android. The next-step modifications of the solution include:
- Business logic algorithms customization, based on project triggers list expansion
- Cross-platform support for other mobile platforms
- Synchronization with other project servers or databases
Alexander Videnev, Auriga Business Development Director:
I am sure that our application has a bright future in the market. At present, there are many applications for project management, and the mobile segment of these solutions is very active. I mean, the share of mobile devices is growing very fast. However, our analysis revealed that really simple and effective solutions that allow users to obtain timely information about projects, to contact the project manager promptly, and to get comprehensive first-hand information about the project are quite rare. However, regarding such applications for Microsoft Project Server, I can assure you that we are pioneers: Our mobile monitoring application is the only one on the current market.
