Mastering Communication in Project Management for Success
Effective communication drives project success. Communications management in project management is the art of ensuring everyone knows what they need to know, when they need to know it, and how it impacts the project's overall goals. This involves strategizing how information flows across the team, identifying the right methods for updates, and maintaining a transparent environment where stakeholders feel informed and valued.
Read more...Essential Psychological Theories for Effective Project Management
Project management is a team discipline. Therefore, motivating the team is essential. Psychological models help achieve that goal. Here you will find an overview of the key models.
Scope Management in Your Projects: How to Avoid Scope Creep
Scope management is a core discipline in project management, responsible for defining, controlling, and adjusting what’s included—and excluded—in a project. Let's explore how understanding and using effective scope management practices, especially with tools like Merlin Project, can streamline your efforts.
Read more...Artificial Intelligence in Merlin Project
The Public Beta Phase for Version 9 Begins
The topic of AI is also central to us and Merlin Project. With the upcoming Version 9, we are launching our AI strategy.
AI-Assisted Project Start
Create new projects from a simple description using artificial intelligence. The assistant automatically generates the task structure, dependencies, and milestones, estimates efforts and risks, and assigns necessary resources. To enable this powerful new feature, Merlin Project leverages the intelligence of ChatGPT.
Merlin Project opens a window displaying the results generated by ChatGPT. The project is created automatically according to your specifications.
And the best part: we cover the costs of using ChatGPT. During the trial phase, you can generate up to ten projects per day for free.
Dynamic Baseline
Since Version 2.0, Merlin Project has enabled you to compare the current state of a project with its original plan. Previously, these planned values were determined with a clever trick: Merlin Project only calculated the project workflow as if the user hadn’t entered any real values in the current task structure. This yielded good results for most situations. However, if the scope changed significantly during a project, this technique could reach its limits.
With the new dynamic baseline, you can precisely compare the current state of your project with any previous one. Simply set a date from the past in the "Reference Date" field of the project settings. All planned fields will then contain the values expected in the prior state.
Merlin Project can dynamically retrieve these values without you needing to have set a baseline in the past. This works so seamlessly because each Merlin document already contains the entire history of a project.
Other Updates
-
The user interface has a fresh look. Familiar symbols and icons appear with the same quality but in a new design.
-
The old, insecure FTP protocol for automatic publishing of project content has been replaced by SFTP. If you previously used FTP, please set up a new SFTP account in the settings of Merlin Project and use it for your publications.
-
We have also added a link to the templates on our website: Clicking on 'More Templates' will take you to the complete list of project templates.
Get this version
The beta phase of version 9 has ended. Just get the latest version from us or from the App Store.
If you have any questions about this blog article or would like to discuss it, we look forward to your contribution in our forum.
20 Years of Merlin Project – A Milestone in Project Management Software
Today we are celebrating a very special birthday: Merlin Project is turning 20! Two decades in which the software has developed from an ambitious tool to an indispensable companion for project managers worldwide.
Over these 20 years, many millions of lines of code have been written, continuously improved and expanded to meet the needs of users and set new technological standards. Behind every line of code is the goal of providing the best project management tool on the market – and we are proud to say that we are very close ;-)
Read more...