A Last Friday for This Year!

Just before Christmas I have a last post for this year.

(no) book recommendation

But I have another subject: A few weeks ago, I came into contact with the book "Holacracy, The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World." A first reading was interesting, especially because I am always looking for new approaches for a modern management. So €12.99 were put into the iTunes BookStore and every free minute invested in Brian J. Robertson's work.

Little by little, however, I began to wonder whether this is not an attempt to make the famous "Silver Bullet" for the Americans. Nevertheless, I fought over half the book until I gave up. But what is the - or even my - problem with the "Silver Bullet"?

Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a friend of these so-called hype management methods. This includes some management classics, as for example "Getting Things done" by David Allen. Here it is not the method in itself, but much more my envy that I have not had the idea to make a lot of money by "putting new wine in old bottles" ;-)

But Holacracy is dangerous. If I do something wrong with GTD, I burn some personal time. This hurts, but otherwise is not harmful. If I do a mistake in Holacracy, in the worst case, I could drive a company against the wall and destroy existences. Because at this point, Brian Robertson takes a great responsibility when he says, "If you introduce parts of the Holocracy, the power structure will not change." So he demands, that the whole company has to change. This was, when my alarm bells started ringing!

In the further course, the concept became more and more opaque and complex that I inevitably built up a training and certification empire in my head. But when the comparison between a company and an operating system came up, I closed the book amused and spent my time more meaningfully.

(no) Christmas story

At this time, it is customary to celebrate a Christmas story. From all sides one can hear from "But it came to pass at the time ..." up to various versions over the old Ebenezer Scrooge, the hard-hearted nickel nurser. It is no wonder at all, that these stories are so successful. In addition to the fact that Mr. Dickens had a very pleasant "writing", storytelling is still the best methods to convey knowledge.

Taking this occasion: Due to multiple request, we have re-added the making of story for Merlin to our documentation. It had been buried more and more over the years in the blog Macpm.net. Now, we have reissued it as quick guide.

Short break

You probably already read the news, we need to take a rest. As every year, we use the time between Christmas and New Year for this. The support will be reduced to a minium, the sale and the development pauses completely. Also I personally will try to relax for a few days.

Therefore, for this year, I conclude with my best magical wishes. Spend the holidays with joy and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2017. The next year will be very exciting for us as well as for you as a Merlin Project user. I am looking forward to it ...

Yours
Frank Blome

P.S.: Would you like to receive the nice snow man as project file? Follow us on (twitter:MerlinPM text:Twitter target:_blank) and send us a short message.

Magic Holidays

We'll be back after a short break

Since all our projects currently result in snowmen, we have decided to take a short break.

Contacte con el soporte

No dude en preguntar

¿Qué información necesitan de mí para responder a mi pregunta?

La siguiente información se solicita automáticamente en el correo electrónico que nos envíe:

No dude en escribirnos en español o en inglés. Puede esperar respuestas de nuestro equipo de asistencia o ventas en inglés.

Algunas preguntas sólo pueden responderse en contexto. Por ejemplo, algunas funciones solo están disponibles en determinadas versiones o dispositivos.

¿Por qué necesitan el archivo de mi proyecto?
Si se pone en contacto con nosotros para hacernos una pregunta o plantearnos un problema, queremos ayudarle de la forma más rápida y concreta posible. Por ello, en algunos casos le pediremos una copia de su expediente de proyecto. Somos plenamente conscientes de que estos archivos suelen contener información confidencial y delicada. Detalles técnicos…

¿Puedo proteger los datos sensibles?
Sí. Ofuscar los archivos del proyecto antes de enviarlos e incluya sólo las partes necesarias. Por otro lado, puede confiar en que siempre trataremos sus datos con el máximo cuidado y absoluta confidencialidad.

¿Por qué no ofrecen asistencia telefónica?
Podemos agrupar eficazmente la información (registros, archivos, capturas de pantalla) por correo electrónico y ayudarle más rápidamente.

Dice «a corto plazo», ¿se aplica también a los fines de semana?
Respondemos de lunes a viernes dentro de nuestro horario laboral.

Este artículo se actualizó por última vez el 30 de julio de 2025.

Friday Again Already?

Team Meeting

Last week the Friday column unfortunately had to be cancelled. The preparations for our upcoming team meeting took up all my time.

In this week it was finally time again. The whole ProjectWizards team met for the annual Christmas meeting. And this was surely not only for me but for all colleagues once again a real highlight.

But we were also busy! On two days we not only reviewed the year 2016 but also planned first topics for 2017. Let us surprise you!

Insiders know that our Christmas meeting is not just about work. We always like to use this event for a more or less sportive activity. This year we went bowling. The support and service teams didn't miss a thing and the final result was very close. Fortunately, nobody had to rely on the use of the admittedly strange emergency exit (see right). We concluded with our Christmas dinner in a nice country inn.

We had a lot of fun and go strengthened into the end of the year.

Question of the week

Of course there was a "favourite question" again this week. Sometimes I wonder how and where people come to an agreement. This week was about working with MS Project and whether Merlin Project can import and export the file format. Yes, of course. There is even a useful one in this context tip.

Completion of the trainings in 2016

This year the training season will run longer than usual. Normally there are no trainings at all in December. But apparently this year is different. So the company Brainworks Training was asked to hold another event in Hamburg in any case. A wish that Josef Neumaier gladly complies with. Therefore, another Merlin Project Training will take place on December 15th and 16th. Some last places are still free. The realization is guaranteed in any case.

Now I must get back to work. Bye for now…

Friday Again Already?

I just don’t understand where the time goes anymore. It only feels like yesterday that I wrote the last Friday article, when my Mac pinged me that I had to hit the keyboard again. So, what did this week have in store?

Merlin Project 4.1

Naturally, the dominant topic was our new version 4.1. Even though it’s not my turn yet – thanks to our German depreciation laws – to get a new MacBook Pro, supporting the Touch Bar was very important to me.

In particular, many of our partners were really looking forward to the new version – and also got busy tweeting about it (for an example, see the tweet on the right). I’m really looking forward to seeing how great an impact the Touch Bar will have on day-to-day work. Maybe I should just pop into an Apple Store, where (hopefully) the first range of demo devices will be available.

Merlin Project vs. Merlin Server

The number 1 question on the phone this week was: “What’s the difference between Merlin Project and Merlin Server?” So I thought it would be a good idea to explain it again here, but in a different way. You use Merlin Project on your local Mac, where you create and update your projects. If you want to work with other people or use other devices simultaneously, you use Merlin Server. Merlin Server is a separate product, which you need to install on one of your Macs. As such, it isn’t a cloud service.

To use it, you publish a project on Merlin Server. Following that, other people or your other devices such as your iPhone or iPad can subscribe to the project. It is loaded onto the device and only edited there.

Our synchronization feature is the magical bit. Whenever this device is connected to the Internet, the local version of Merlin Project attempts to communicate with Merlin Server:

• "Is there any new data for me?" or
• "I’ve got new data for you!" followed by
• "Let’s compare all the changes and synchronize what we find!"

But best of all, you don’t have to do a thing: All the magic happens in the background. And if you’re offline, Merlin Project will wait patiently until you’re online again.

You definitely need to buy Merlin Project; only Merlin Server is optional.

Living without email on the iPhone

Inspired by a blog post by Lars Bobach and one or the other discussions on the PM Camp in Dornbirn, Germany, I’m also trying to live life without email on my iPhone. Something that Lars Bobach said really struck a chord with me:

"Somehow my brain seems to have associated waiting time with email checking."

That’s so true. I associated every free minute with checking my emails – no matter where I was ;-)

I’ve been testing it since Tuesday and can at last simply switch off more often. I’m able to take more time to think about topics rather than just react to them. In return, I also read emails more carefully. Now I only wish that emails could be better thought through now and again before they’re sent ;-)

Now I must get back to doing what I need to do. Bye for now…