EnCompass Quick Start Guide - The Project Solvers Quick Start... · 2013-09-10 · Page 2 of 36...

Version 1.0

September 10, 2013 © 2013 by Knucklehead Computers www.KnuckleheadComputers.com

Quick-Start Guide

http://www.knuckleheadcomputers.com/

Version 1.0 September 10, 2013 © 2013 by Knucklehead Computers www.KnuckleheadComputers.com

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Conventions Used in This Manual

Full-Size Italics: The name of a form or a report.

Example: New Project

Small-Size Bold: The name of a label or a field on a form.

Example: Project Name

SMALL CAPS ITALICS: The name of a button on a form.

Example: ADD TO PROGRAM

Other Notes:

PROTIP:

These tips spread throughout the manual will either help you use the advanced features of

the program, or give you ideas for organizing and running your project like a pro.

NOTE:

These notes will explain details about how the program works. They will help you use

EnCompass to the greatest advantage.



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The Basics

Main Menu Since this is a quick-start guide, we won’t go through all the options on this

screen. You’ll have to pull out the User’s Manual for that.

To start a new project, click on

START NEW PROJECT



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New Project When you first open the New Project form, you will see this blank page. You

must enter a project name before you can enter any of the other fields:

Once you have entered information in these fields, it will look like this:

Once you are satisfied, click on SAVE PROJECT to open the following:

Type the name of the new project here.

If you haven’t entered any employees, you can click

ADD EMPLOYEES.

These fields are optional. You can fill them now or

later when you do the project charter

Check this box to add a charter to the project. The

Project Charter form will open next.



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Project Charter If you did not add a charter, you will see the Project Status form instead,

which is addressed in the next section.

The project charter is an important part of the project, since it records the

specifications up front. Written definition of the project helps keep

expectations under control and defends against scope creep.

Why are we doing this project?

What are we doing?

What’s IN?

What’s OUT?

Boundaries?

When these things are done the project is complete



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A completed charter:

Close this form to go back to the Main Menu:

Once one of the approvals has been obtained, the charter is frozen and must be revised to be changed.



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Main Menu Moving on to the Project Status Report.

Click on PROJECT STATUS UPDATE



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Project Status The next step is to put together the milestones, or top-level schedule. These

are the items that get reported to management.

Next, click on

EDIT MILESTONES to put

together the top-level

schedule



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Project Milestones Blank form before entering any milestones:

Click on

ADD NEW MILESTONE or

EDIT MILESTONES to open

the Edit Milestone form.



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Edit Milestone

All dates are entered in the Due Date Revision History section of the form. This

way a history of date changes and reasons is always available. The due date

entered most recently always appears in reports.

See below for a filled-in milestone detail page:

Enter the milestone description here

Dates are not entered in

the Current Due Date field. If you TAB or click here,

the cursor automatically goes to the Due Date field

under Due Date Revision

History.



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When all milestones have been entered, click on SAVE AND EXIT to see the

completed Milestone list as shown below:

Use CHANGE DATE when

you want to change a

previously-entered date. The cursor will

automatically move to the Due Date field below

on a new line in Due Date

Revision History.

Keep adding milestones until the schedule is

complete.



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Completed Milestone List:

You are almost ready to generate a Project Status Report, or a Monthly

Project Report for management.

Close the Project Milestones form to return to the Project Status:



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Project Status

Comments make up the last important part of the Project Status Report and

Monthly Report. They provide a way for project team members to report on

the progress of the project. The comments also become an integral part of

the project history, so use them to record as much as possible.

Now your newly-

entered milestones show up here.

Click on EDIT COMMENTS



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Edit Comments Blank form before adding any comments:

After entering a comment:

Click on ADD NEW COMMENT

Click on SAVE AND EXIT



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Project Status

You are now ready to generate reports.

Click on GENERATE REPORT



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Project Status Report Builder

To create the following report, an important tool for reporting project

progress:

Use these filters to narrow your

project list when it

gets long.


Select the project or projects

to report from the list.

(If no projects are selected, all

projects on the list will print)



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Action Items Now let’s look at some of the everyday uses for EnCompass. Your most-used

feature will probably be Action Items. Have this open during your project

meetings to quickly and accurately record who should do what.

On the Main Menu:

Click on

ACTION ITEMS



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Action Item Entry

Use this form at your project meetings not only to record action items, but

other details and decisions as well. These items will become integral parts of

your project history.

Assign responsible

person

Describe the work

to be done.

These are “To-Do” items, not long-

term tasks.

Date Entered is filled in automatically, but

you can change it.

Date complete,

NOT due date.

Notice that completed items are

sorted to the top.

Comments and important details

about the item.



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Double-click in any

field to open the detailed view.



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Action Item Detail

Once you start using the action items, you will want a quick way to see who

needs to finish what. For that you will use the Action Item Report.

Close Action Item Detail and Action Item Entry to return to the Main Menu.

Note that you can assign action items

to multiple projects

from this form.

Probably not used often, but it can

come in handy.

Provides more room to read and write

lengthy action item descriptions and

comments.



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Action Item Report

Click on ACTION ITEM REPORT



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Action Item Report Builder You will notice that most of the “report builders” have a similar format:

Use these filters to narrow your

project list when it gets long.


Select the project or projects

to report from the list.

(If no projects are selected, all

projects on the list will print)



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This report shows all the Action Items for one project because “Very

Important Project” was selected in the report builder above.

If no projects had been selected, the generator would have included all

projects on the displayed list.

It would have looked like this…



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Action Item Report with no projects selected from the list:



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You can use the Filter By Assignee drop-box to generate specific individual

reports for all of your team members.

Using the filter will generate a report for that individual only.


Note that a name selected

in the filter…

…changes the project list.



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Action Item Report with “Smith” selected as assignee:

Encourage your team members to generate these reports often, or distribute

them yourself on a regular basis.



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Purchase Orders EnCompass can also track your purchase orders.

From the Main Menu:

Click on PURCHASE ORDERS



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Purchase Order List

If you select a single project, the list will show only purchase orders for that

project and update the total at the bottom.

Clicking on ENTER NEW PURCHASE ORDER will open the following form:

Use filters to

narrow the list of Purchase Orders

Click here to enter a new Purchase Order



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Purchase Order Detail

If you have not entered any

vendors, simply

type the name here and

EnCompass will prompt you for

the details.



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After completion, the Purchase Order Detail looks like this:



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Project History The Project History report can be very helpful in recreating the “what” and

“when” on your projects.

From the Main Menu:

Click on PROJECT HISTORY



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Project History Report Builder Look familiar?

This report shows only completed action items and milestones—it is a history

report after all.

The more data you record throughout the life of the project, the more

helpful the Project History Report will become. Be sure to enter all action

items and encourage your team members to comment often. You can cut

and paste e-mail directly into the Edit Comments form.

Select all three options:

action items, milestones, and comments

for the most comprehensive report.

Select “Very

Important Project” for this example

Delete the prefilled

date range to show

all dates



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Two-Month Look Ahead This is the last item in the Quick-Start Guide. There are many other features

hiding in the program, but you’ll need to look at the User’s Manual for all the

details.

From the Main Menu:

Click on TWO-MONTH LOOK AHEAD



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This report shows all of the open milestones either past due or coming due

in the next two months. It can really help by making sure nothing takes you

by surprise.

Run it once a week, and make sure Gate Review meetings are scheduled,

and upcoming milestones are on track. Now would be the time to reschedule

if you are seeing problems ahead.

That’s it for the Quick-Start Guide. If you have any questions, please refer to

the User’s Manual. You can also contact me if you still need help at

[email protected].

Thank you!


mailto:[email protected]

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