How to Plan Your Year with Merlin Project
New years bring new resolutions and new plans. Successful project planning requires aligning content, people, and tasks efficiently. The roadmap method simplifies this process, making it clear and visual. With Merlin Project, you can create a roadmap quickly and effortlessly.
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.
Más información…Find vs. Filter
There are two ways to search and find content in Merlin Project. One is by Find, another by using Filters. When to use one, or the other?
Find
Find searches the entered string and highlights it on visible columns. You may use search patterns or enter a string to be replaced with. So if you want to search for (and replace) some text in your notes, you need to enable the 'Notes' column first, or switch to the pre configured view 'Work breakdown > Notes' which contains your text columns.
Filter
Another option would be to filter the view. You can create a new filter, select in its criteria the 'Notes' column and enter the string you are looking for. So if you want to filter the rows no matter if the column 'Notes' is visible or not, you enable a filter.
Merlin Project 4.1.1 Is Released
Just before the Holidays we have released version 4.1.1, another maintenance update of:
Download the new versions by means of the function "Check for updates …" or directly from here.
