I'm very interested in Agile project management because I think visibility is improved, and this website is one of many that enhances visibility even more. I like it because of the clean layout and the intuitive nature. You can color code each team member and see what everyone is doing, making team meetings more effective. There is a 14 day trial, so it's worth trying out for a small portion of a project.

From their website: "Free, simple, fast online meetings. Share your screen instantly with anyone." I couldn't say it better myself. Join Me is a pretty great tool if you have meetings with remote members of project teams. The premium version has all of the features of WebEx and then some, and you can get a 30 day trial of the premium version for free. Even the free version that is available after the 30 day trial is useful. No one has to download anything or have a program installed except for the moderator (and it is a very simple download). The moderator gives everyone a code, they go to a website and type it in and can immediately share screens. My advice: Use Microsoft Paint to enhance your Join Me meetings by using it like the WebEx whiteboard.

I posted this in our class discussion, but it occurred to me that it is really a great project management resource for those people who might feel daunted by difficult conversations. It it a resource that will help improve your EQ. In short, the book talks about how to identify when a crucial conversation needs to take place, how to plan for it and how to execute it. There is also a two day course that you can attend or maybe even lobby to bring into your office for PMs. The website for that is here: http://www.vitalsmarts.com/products-solutions/crucial-conversations/ You'll also find that Vital Smarts, the company that produces this training, has a lot of other EQ related resources.

This is a tool that I wanted to share because I know in ILT a lot of people tout using Adobe Captivate for various projects. I recently came across Active Presenter, which has a no-time-limit free version that does all of the basic features of Captivate, most notably screen capturing. One of the obstacles I run into with project management is having everyone on a project team understand how to use various resources. If you have an SME who would be willing to make a quick screen capture of how to use a tool and record it using this program, it will save a lot of time getting everyone on the same page.