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Merlin Project: Use Dependencies, Remove Static Dates, Stay flexible

With Merlin Project you are free to plan your project in any way you find it more suitable. You can plan in Work breakdown with Gantt, as a Mind Map, a Kanban board. Just pick the view you need and customize it to your needs.

While Mind Map is not focusing on time constrains, when viewing the Gantt of your project, you are interested in its scheduling. So you might already intuitively dragged the activity's bar on the Gantt to fix it to a specific time frame, or entered dates in the Given Start column or the Plan inspector.

And we have to admit, there is nothing wrong about that, other than the manual work you are putting into these actions of setting static date constrains and loosing flexibility.

How to stay flexible for scheduling changes in the future?
The answer is easy; use Dependencies

• Merlin Project offers following Dependency types: End to Start, Start to Start, End to End, Start to End
• Dependencies can be combined with a lead or a lag.
• You can define Dependencies graphically, enter the Predecessor's (or Successor's) number in the according outline column, use the inspector, or the Link toolbar icon. Read here more…

Converting a static scheduling into a flexible one

Let's consider following sample project.

Buzzword Bingo for Digital Meetings & Video Calls

Another week in the home office with many virtual meetings and video conferences mastered. Even after the pandemic situation, meetings continue to take place digitally via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Hangouts or one of the many other video conferencing providers.

But regardless of the software: meetings always run similarly and we all know enough about the problems that arise in between. Last year, we already discussed the dos and don'ts for online meetings.

With a twinkle in our eye, we want to bring a little variety into your next virtual meeting today. To do so, we've rounded up the video conferencing classics in a buzzword bingo:

Wizards Web Week – CW 5

What Particularly Caught Our Eye

The Internet, endless expanses. We are on a permanent knowledge journey and always discover new things, but also old things anew. In our focus are topics around management - especially of projects, Apple and its hardware as well as software, but also special like software development or software distribution. We choose websites very subjectively and mostly in the context of our mission.

• omegataupodcast.net
  A podcast with German and English interviews that go deep into scientific and technical topics. A must for all nerds!

• Agile Is The New Waterfall
  This article triggered a passionate discussion not only among us in the team.

• 5 TED Talks That Will Make You Better at Remote Work
  At ProjectWizards, we can't really relate to this "suddenly working from home" thing, but for those of you who are new to the topic, Inc.com has put together 5 interesting sessions.

• I Invented the World Wide Web. Here’s How We Can Fix It.
  In this article, Tim Berners-Lee writes of his goal for the Internet to serve humanity. He thinks it is not too late to fulfill this promise.

• absolutmac.de
  This German site brings not everyday tips around the Mac for several years.

• Awesome Asciidoctor: Tipps & Tricks
  A large collection of many valuable tips around Asciidoc, our documentation language of choice.

Is Social Media a Waste of Time In Project Management?

Professional success has always been linked to who you know. Particularly in the professional sphere, people network with like-minded people in order to exchange information with each other. For centuries, people have therefore joined together in guilds, fraternities, associations, etc.

Our modern society is built on countless network structures; we are more connected today than any generation before us. Networks of the 20th and 21st centuries extend across all areas of society and are often not clearly recognizable. The economy is driving this networking even further: globalized flows of goods, international services, working in the cloud, social media. Everything is organized decentrally in networks.

Employee impressions from the home office

Always a good place to work - for me already since 2008

At ProjectWizards, we work remotely from home. Always have. With the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the discussion in Germany about working from home became more and more urgent. We can only smile tiredly about this, after all, we have been doing this for years and very successfully.

The advantages outweigh the disadvantages, for example that you only have a few steps to work every day, but you can still see your colleagues directly and contact them in a short time. Thanks to modern work devices and apps, we are all connected and can concentrate wonderfully on our work. We don't know any disturbances caused by the noise of an open-plan office.

We even have a set up virtual coffee kitchen where people can discuss and laugh apart from work. But that's not all. Every now and then, as just happened this week, there is also a nice surprise that is not virtual in nature.

The parcel carrier rings the doorbell and a black package with a Merlin Project sticker is handed over. Inside is a "Corona Care Package" containing everything needed for survival in these days. Two small bottles of Prosecco for the good mood, many small chocolate bars for even more good mood and several FFP2 masks, so that all colleagues come through the pandemic unharmed.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this team. Attention like this is what has set us apart for years, a sworn community working on great products and the customers out there appreciate it!