Bill Gates said, “I believe that any tool enhancing communication profoundly affects how people learn from and perform together.” The Optimize product “Home” page, depending on the “User’s Type,” has an updated set of two to five lists depending on user types. All users have access to a “Workflow” list showing their assigned tasks in due date order and within the due date ranking order. All users have a message list for actions and issues needing their attention or notifying them of important events. At the end of the business, the Optimize product scans its databases daily to post the appropriate information for each user for their designated responsibilities. Messages are provided relative to their assigned processes, products, projects, and issues. Executives and portfolio managers are provided an “Executive Portfolio Dashboard,” showing the health of each process, product activity, project, and issue.

Workflow List Each day the Optimize product posts the tasks for each user in date order and ranking order within the date for the allocation period. The allocation period is a value between two and ten weeks set by a portfolio manager. Team members update their hours spent on their tasks, and if there is a change in status, the revised status and hours are updated by the Optimize product with a press of the “send” button. The Team Member’s action causes the transmission of the information to the activity’s managers.

Message List Daily, the Optimize product posts messages found during the end-of-day business processing applicable to this user. Messages include a missing resource for a specific task, the excessive resources for the current allocation period, poorly specified requirement or scheduled task specification, a new staff member, vacation dates for an employee, the excessive time specified for a scheduled task, etc. The target individuals depend on their user type and which processes, products, projects, and issues they are responsible for the management.

Workflow of Team Members List Each day, the Optimize product posts the tasks for Process Managers, Product Managers, Project Managers, Process Portfolio Managers, Product Portfolio Managers, and Project Portfolio Managers for task assignments to a process, product, project, or issue for which they are responsible.

Team Member Progress List When a team member updates a task status, the Team Member sends the information to the task’s managers. One of the managers either accepts the information (the schedule is automatically updated), or the manager sends a message telling the individual why they did not accept the data.

Executive Portfolio Dashboard The Optimize product daily posts the “Executive Portfolio Dashboard” list displaying the health of approved processes, products, projects, and issues. It uses a signal metaphor (“Green” = Good, “Yellow” = Could be Problems and “Red” = Problems) for both the cost (CPI = Cost Performance Indicator) and schedule (SPI = Schedule Performance Indicator). These indicators are derived from an analysis of the completed tasks’ data to ascertain each activity’s health. Management no longer has to wait for a status report to determine how their activities perform. The Optimize product displays a trend line on a separate page when the user clicks on either the SPI or CPI odometer icon. The trend line shows the last twenty occurrences, which can be daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.