Sometimes PSNext users ask us if they can export data to Excel to allow them to create pivot tables in Excel.

We think this is wrong way to go as PSNext contains a powerful type of report called a Matrix Report.

You may find that a Matrix Report is exactly what you need.  You can display items along the top (ie. like Departments) and items down the side (ie. like Clients).   Then each cell in the matrix will display the relevant value (in this example the cost or hours for each Department for each Client).

This report will also show a total for each column and a total for each row, as well as a grand total in the bottom right corner.

To make this report really powerful, you can also display traffic lights (in addition to values) in each cell and hyperlink each cell to show details.

All the rows, columns and totals can be formatted to show colours and fonts of your choice.

Whilst an excellent tool Excel is primarily spreadsheet software and not a complete reporting and business intelligence solution. The limitations of Excel can cost an organization a lot of wasted time, effort and money. We have posted a paper here that goes into detail of the ten most important hidden costs

Scrum is an agile method for project management developed by Ken Schwaber. Its goal is to dramatically improve productivity in teams previously paralyzed by heavier, process-laden methodologies. Its intended use is for management of software development projects as well as a wrapper to other software development methodologies such as Extreme Programming.

Scrum is characterized by:

• A living backlog of prioritized work to be done.
• Completion of a largely fixed set of backlog items in a series of short iterations or sprints.
• A brief daily meeting (called a scrum), at which progress is explained, upcoming work is described, and obstacles are raised.
• A brief planning session in which the backlog items for the sprint will be defined.
• A brief heartbeat retrospective, at which all team members reflect about the past sprint.

Scrum is facilitated by a scrum master, whose primary job is to remove impediments to the ability of the team to deliver the sprint goal. The scrum master is not the leader of the team (as they are self-organizing) but acts as a productivity buffer between the team and any destabilizing influences.

Scrum enables the creation of self-organizing teams by encouraging verbal communication across all team members and across all disciplines that are involved in the project. A key principle of scrum is its recognition that fundamentally empirical challenges cannot be addressed successfully in a traditional "process control" manner. As such, scrum adopts an empirical approach - accepting that the problem cannot be fully understood or defined, focusing instead on maximizing the team's ability to respond in an agile manner to emerging challenges.

Agile is a way of developing software that's all about acknowledging (and embracing) change.

Qualities of Agile are:


* Indicated for unpredictable and rapidly changing requirements

* Emphasis on highly skilled developers with the ability to motivate themselves

* More real-time communication

* Customer participating and highly involved

* Very little written documentation or satisfies end-user

* Helps minimize risk

With PSNext, you can :


* Review Product Backlogs Items

* Upload Project Documentation

* Plan your sprints

* Enter Actuals and Revised Estimates

* Review Planning Board for Scrum Meeting

* Update Progress

* Review Scrum Reports

Great Success !!

The Third Annual PSNext User Group Conference was held on 19 November 2009 at the Southern Sun Grayston, Sandton.

About 60 people attended this event which was judged as a great success by all who attended.  Various speakers shared their vision, knowledge and experiences.

Once again, from the speakers, it became evident how important a good implementation strategy is in order to implement PSNext.  In almost all companies, the human factor has to be taken into account with a Change Management strategy.  It is normal human nature to resist using a system such as PSNext - people are uncomfortable to have their work exposed.

Even so, some speakers demonstrated great progress in implementing PSNext in a relatively short space of time.

Attendees comments