Claiming PDUs for Merlin Training
Dave Prior on 27. November 2012
If you are a member of the Project Management Institute and would like to receive PDUs for taking our Managing Projecs with Merlin training, you are able to receive 16 PDUs for the 2-day session. ProjectWizards is not currently a PMI Registered Education Provider (REP), so in order to receive the PDUs you will have to self-report them and list them as Continuing Education.
To claim PDUs for our class you will need to log into PMI’s website (http://www.pmi.org/) and go to the myPMI section. Once you are logged into your myPMI area you can select to Report PDUs. The PDU Category to select is Cat B: Continuing Education. Then click the Next button and enter the Program Title: Managing Projects with Merlin, the dates of the class you took, and 16 hours for the number of hours completed. You can select each of the Process groups. For Industry, just select your industry since Merlin applies to all of them. If the class you took was given in the U.S or Canada by ProjectWizards, Inc., our Provider Name is ProjectWizards, Inc. the business address is P.O. Box 7919, Moore, OK 73153. The URL is www.projectwizards.net.
If you have taken the class outside North America, or with one of our partners, then you would list them using the Provider Name of the organization that provided your training and include the related information that is requested.
Tags: Continuing Education, PDU, PMI, Project Management Institute, Training, US Training
Win a PM Camp Ticket
Michael D. Schulze on 26. September 2012
Send us your Merlin user story and win a ticket to the „PM Camp 2012“ (Austria, November 8th-10th, 2012, value 119.- €)
Feel free to tell your story, even in case you can not attend the event.
Event information: http://www.pm-camp.org/wp3x/vision/
Closing date: October 25th, 2012
Winner Notification: October 26th, 2012
The drawing of the winner happens without possibility of recourse to legal action. The winner will be selected at random.
The participant agrees that the user story may be published on the website and the social media channels of ProjectWizards GmbH.
If you don’t want your name or company to be published, we ask for a mention in the text.
Please send your user story to michael@projectwizards.net
Tags: Austria, pmcamp, tickets, win
Merlin 2.9 update with support for OS X 10.8
Antoni Cherif on 12. July 2012
Today we’ve released a new free Merlin update. The Merlin 2.9 update brings various improvements and more stability. It is recommended for all Merlin and Merlin Server users.
How to update Merlin
How to update Merlin Server
- Merlin and Merlin Server support new Gatekeeper and start on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion as identified software.
With Mountain Lion Apple introduces a new technology called “Gatekeeper”. Gatekeeper helps protect you from downloading and installing malicious software on your Mac, no matter where your apps come from. And it gives you even more control over which apps you install. With the standard option Gatekeeper installs only apps from the Mac App Store and apps from identified developers. Merlin and Merlin Server are now signed by ProjectWizards as an indentified developer and working with the Gatekeeper default option under OS X Mountain Lion.
We highly recommend users of OS X Mountain Lion to install this update.
Updating existing installations of Merlin Server: The formerly contained certificate is now replaced by the new one verified by Apple. Therefore the very first time you start Merlin Server, you will be asked to allow accessing Keychain for the existing certificate to be replaced. Please click on “Allow always”.
Resolved Issues in Merlin
- Freemind HTML export was broken.
- LDAP items with images could not be loaded.
Tags: 2.9, Merlin, Mountain Lion, Update
Merlin 2.8.5 update available
Antoni Cherif on 31. May 2012
Today we’ve released a new free update. The 2.8.5 update brings various improvements and more stability. It is recommended for all Merlin and Merlin Server users.
- How to update Merlin
- Some mpp files could not be opened by Merlin.
- MS Project could not open from Merlin generated XML files containing % in duration fields or some special character in a task’s title.
Resolved Issues in Merlin
Tags: Merlin 2.8.5, MPP, MS Project, Update, XML
Packing my bags
Frank Blome on 31. May 2012
…is probably a bit too early, but I admit that I can’t wait to start. The sale of the trainings started well, the date for the App Spotlights in the Apple Stores can be saved and in addition we’re discussing a nice meet & greet in a German “Biergarten” – a beer garden – where else? 
I know, I could have done this earlier, but seriouly I always tried to get around this long 25 hours flight.
But let me explain how this all started. We were in need for a good consulting partner in Australia for a long time. The sales part was nicely filled with NovaMind, our Mind Mapping partnership. But unfortunately they don’t have the menpower to do trainings and consulting. I made some experiments with freelancer and project manager of types. But they could not deliver stable and continuous services. So we stopped that, because at the end of the day it was more frustrating than helping – for both sides, me and Merlin users.
And then, earlier this year in San Francisco, while I did attend the MacWorld, I was introduced to the guys from PureMac. They got a very good reputation by our business friends like Marketcircle, MoneyWorks and others. We took our time and had a walk together and during this walk the plan of a co-operation was born. On the following weeks we did exchanged ideas, concepts and many other stuff. By the end of March it was fixed. I will travel to Australia to certify PureMac as our ProjectWizards’ Partner in Australia and New Zealand.
Stay tuned. The story will continue…
Tags: Australia, Partner, Training, travel
Distributed Agile Teams White Paper Review
Dave Prior on 24. April 2012
ProjectsatWork has published a study called Distributed Agile Teams: Achieving the Benefits. The report was put together by Elizabeth Harrin (@PM4Girls), who is the author of the website A Girls Guide to Project Management. The results of the research cover a lot of ground with respect to what makes distributed Agile projects work and what can contribute to their failure. The report is very insightful and definitely worth the time it takes to read. While some of the findings may seem like common sense, knowledge workers in the IT space (myself definitely included) seem to possess a remarkable capacity for periodic loss of grip to that tether.
My favorite part comes at the very end during the summary of recommendations. Number One on the list is:
Don’t act like your project is co-located – pay the tax for distribution.
This is one of the most simple things that so many of us forget when we are working at a distance. I believe this applies whether you are working down the hall from someone, or across the globe… there is a price that has to be paid when you are not sitting in the same room. With the transparency that Agile offers, this tax becomes far more obvious. There is no doubt that distributed teams provide a number of benefits, but those benefits come at a cost. The reason (IMHO) so many people struggle so much with distributed is that they keep thinking that the ride is free … which it theoretically could be… unless you actually want it to work.
Tags: Agile 2010, Agile Project Management, Communication, Dave Prior, Project Manager, Scrum
Review CeBIT 2012 – Great feedback and lots of praise
Michael D. Schulze on 14. March 2012
ProjectWizards participated last week in the exhibition CeBit 2012 in Hannover (Germany). Just like last years our exhibition stand was embedded in the OS X Business Park. We held numerous meetings and did business networking with well known OS X software vendors. We generated lots of promising contacts with potential partners in the B2B sector.
The large demand from representatives of the Chamber of Commerce (IHK) was unexpected but pleasing. Chamber of Commerce was interested in various applications of Merlin for their members. We were very pleased to discuss OS X and iOS based examples with them.
We offered staged software presentations for Merlin 2. They were well attended and we received much praise from existing Merlin users.
Well over one hundred trade visitors appreciated the opportunity to come to our stand and posed detailed questions concerning Merlin’s usage.
Web sharing module and the possibility of always having your „projects at your fingertips“ (iPhone & iPad) did appear as a particular interest for many customers.
Last but not least, we would like to thank the organizers and the invisible helpers for this successful exhibition.
Tags: 2012, CeBit, Communication, Exhibition, Merlin Web, Review, Trade Show
Merlin Mac Project Management Software – TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 8. December 2011
Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.
Harvey Mackay
And you know what we do instead of work; Merlin!
It is great to do what you love. It is awesome when others recognize how much care and effort you are putting into it and see its true value.
Merlin is a powerful competitor in the field of Mac project management software, and TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award. This application offers a wide range of collaboration possibilities, providing flexibility that the other options can’t begin to compare to. Integrating more timesheet and work hour capabilities combined with a wealth of help & support resources put Merlin above the rest. Merlin is a Mac project management software option that will help you lead effectively…
Top Ten Reviews
We are also very happy about the mentions to Merlin support and blog activities. Read the complete Merlin review and why it got the TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award here
Quick Tip for Merlin PMs looking for templates
Vicky Stamatopoulou on 28. September 2011
If you are searching the internet for templates and find some for Microsoft Office, you should check the following tip we just found on Word:Mac.
Most templates offered on the Microsoft Office for PC download site can be used with Microsoft Office for Macintosh. However, on the Mac, we have to install them manually. […]
Obviously the best place to start is Mactopia. The templates offered there are the most popular Microsoft Office templates, re-engineered to work with no issues on your Mac.
However, if the template you want is not among them, look on the general Office templates page. Almost every imaginable template that you can obtain without payment is there.
For more details (more…)
Tags: free, Mac, Microsoft, PC, Project Management, Templates
Merlin social network
MacPM
MerlinPM on Twitter
YouTube Channel
Merlin Project
PMOT, AGILE Tweets
- Good one RT @derekhuether: Want to get your teams to delivery predictably? http://t.co/kHwkQqO3WD #agile #pmot shull (Sean Hull)
- RT @RohanCrawford: Ready to hear @saugustine & @abankston of @lithespeed speak on "The #Agile PMO" for May's @PMIATLAgile event #PM #PMOT #… lithespeed (LitheSpeed)
- Ready to hear @saugustine & @abankston of @lithespeed speak on "The #Agile PMO" for May's @PMIATLAgile event #PM #PMOT #ProjectManagement RohanCrawford (Rohan Crawford)
- Want to get your teams to delivery predictably? http://t.co/5Fd4ZHCAkY #agile #pmot derekhuether (Derek Huether)
- Join us for pt.2 of #AgileLIVE http://t.co/vJoJd8jvB5 The webinar starts Wednesday at 12PM ET #agile #pmot #SAFe versionone (VersionOne)
Project Potion #46(ish) – Using Social Media. Two Years Later
Dave Prior on 23. September 2011
ProjectWizards’ Dave Prior and The Project Shrink, Bas de Baar, catch up on social media and project management. (more…)
Tags: Dave Prior, Project Manager