STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Technology Review
Using my PDA as a Project Management Tool

by Karla Caldwell

Editor's note: This is the second in our technology review series on the usability of Personal Data Assistants (PDAs).

When I bought my Handspring™ Visor Deluxe, my brother made fun of me. He called it my “$250 pencil and paper” and never missed an opportunity to mock my new tech toy. For a while, I almost believed him; had I wasted my money on my personal digital assistant (PDA)?

The answer today is a firm no. Along with the great address book and video games galore, my PDA is the most valuable project management tool I own. To explain better, let me take you back a few months…

My life was crammed full with little bits of paper: Post-it™ notes, receipts with information scribbled on the backs, pieces of envelopes—you name it. I dutifully crammed all of this into my briefcase, my purse, and my pockets, but when the time came to produce that one crucial piece of information, I was at a loss.

Enter the PDA. Granted, I still have my slips of paper, but now I enter all of the information into the PDA and simply toss them out. But where the PDA came in really handy was in managing the diverse and various projects I work on during the course of the day.

The Palm™ operating system (Palm™ OS) comes with a feature called “The Palm™ Desktop.” On the desktop, the user has access to a calendar, a memo pad, an address book, and a to-do list. The to-do list can be broken down by customizable item types, priority level, and project notes. Using this customized hierarchy, I've created a system that allows me to manage projects all the way down to the task level. At the top of the hierarchy, I have three main item categories: Business - LT (long term), Business - ST (short term), and Business - HOLD. The long term and short-term categories are based on a projected completion date. For example, I know that when I finish documenting a module for the mainframe system, there will be another module waiting. I won't begin to work on that module until I've completed what I have now, but having that reminder on the horizon makes me mindful of information that might add to the value of the project (which I can always tuck away in my Palm™ OS memo pad).

The next level is priority. Admittedly, the priority levels are arbitrary, and they can change from week to week. But having some identification for which projects are hot and which can wait a day or two helps me to devote my time to the place where it's most needed. The Palm™ OS comes complete with five priority levels that can be assigned with the click of a button. In the view window, projects are automatically ordered following your settings.

Finally, I use the note function to indicate specific tasks for the project. For example, if my mainframe SME shows up with a change to the documentation while I'm working on another project, I add the changes as a task note for that project. Later, when I come back to my mainframe project, I know exactly what I need to do.

Having everything together on my PDA makes me much more productive, and ensures that I don't miss a task just because it was on a piece of paper in another stack. I've also found that the record on my PDA to-do list allows me to give my supervisor accurate and detailed status reports for projects. Best of all, the only scraps of paper at my desk are in the recycle bin.

Reprinted from Lines and Letters, Northeast Ohio Chapter, volume 18, issue 1, September/October 2001.