Optimize Workflow, Inc. (OWI) has created fact sheets describing the Optimize product.

Entry Title Purpose
1 Access Optimize is a cloud-based product accessible on any laptop supporting the Internet. A communication component is available on cell phones supporting team members reporting daily progress, management updating schedules, and executives accessing status of their processes, products, projects, and issues 24x7.
2 Analysis The Optimize product provides clear, concise requirements and schedules to ensure an organization produces quality results on time and within budget.
3 Communication Communication is a significant problem in accomplishing almost any task, whether part of a process, product, project, or issue. The Optimize product provide clear, concise communication between its Team Members and Managers and communication tools for Business Analysts and Portfolio Managers. It also describes how Executives are provided a daily dashboard showing the status of all approved projects in ranking order using a signal metaphor for its dashboard display of the schedule and cost performance indices along with a trend line of each.
4 Cost Estimation The Optimize product provides virtually instantaneous costing information to its users. A common question about processes, products, and projects and the possibility of adding a new feature is, “how much is it going to cost?” The individual asking the question wants an expeditious, accurate answer to make a prudent decision as to whether or not to include the feature.
5 Issue Resolution System Organizations need to be able to report, update, and delete issues (changes, problems, enhancements, questions) to their ongoing processes, products, and projects. The Optimize products Issue Resolution System is an integral part of Optimize
6 Measurement Organizations need to measure the performance of all their staff members for each labor category they support. The Optimize product measures all staff members’ performance. Its patented resource allocation algorithm and management use the measurement results to motivate and determine the appropriate compensation for each staff member.
7 Messages How often have you thought, “why didn’t my staff tell me about that sooner so I could have done something about solving the problem?” This “fact sheet” describes how the Optimize product informs the appropriate project personnel about problems ASAP so they can take appropriate mitigation actions promptly.
8 Optimal Labor Resource Allocation A significant goal of nearly every executive management team is to maximize the use of their labor resources. Maximizing the use of their labor resources generally involves having the organization’s most cost-effective Team Members work on the projects and activities that are the most important to the organization. Using the most productive labor resources for the most critical tasks is precisely what the Optimize product daily ensures with its patented algorithm of assigning the best to the most important.
9 Process, Product, & Project Selection The Optimize product changes the process, product, and project selection from a subjective executive intuitive decision to a scientific method that takes less time and effort and helps assure the organization is continuously implementing the appropriate processes, products, projects, and issue tasks daily.
10 Productivity Organizations constantly desire to improve the productivity of their staff. This “fact sheet” describes how the Optimize product measures each Project Team Member’s productivity, thus providing a continuous objective evaluation of each Team Member’s performance.
11 Requirements Requirements are the number one reason processes, products, projects, and issues fail. Requirements are often ambiguous. Requirements change with little understanding of the cost and schedule impact. This “fact sheet” describes how the Optimize product resolves these problems.
12 Scheduling Although most Project Managers are very knowledgeable about their organization’s scheduling tool of choice, they often make mistakes that have severe repercussions on meeting the triple constraint of the project being on time, within budget, and thoroughly satisfying all requirements. The Optimize product scheduling features include what popular scheduling tools like Microsoft’s Project, Oracle’s Primavera, Altassian’s Jira, and CA’s Clarity provide with one significant addition. Like with requirements, the Optimize product analyzes each schedule task statement to help assure it follows “good” industry standards. Examples of this include ensuring that each terminal task (those tasks that have no sub-tasks) has at least one labor resource assigned, the duration of any assigned resource is not greater than the maximum hours allowed for a task’s duration (default is 40 hours), each terminal task begins with a verb so the implementer knows what to accomplish, there are not too many fixed dates or absence of dependencies specified, etc.
13 Status Reports Managers and executives must understand the progress and health of its processes, products, projects, and issues. The Optimize product provides a 24/7 health report for all ongoing processes, products, and projects in ranking order.
14 Templates Many organizations continuously conduct the “same” project virtually over and over with a few minor changes between projects. The Optimize product allows the creation of a “template” which includes requirements, WBS, and schedule. A Portfolio Manager can then instantiate a process, product, or project using the “template” and the Business Analyst or the Manager can modify a few statements and have a viable requirements specification, WBS, and schedule for the process, product, or project.
15 Testing There is no purpose in implementing a process, product, or project without thoroughly testing all requirements. Too often, projects are deployed without comprehensive testing of all their requirements. This fact sheet describes how the Optimize product helps assure that every requirement is tested.
16 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Running a process, product, or project without a WBS is like traveling in a strange land without a roadmap. A WBS is a deliverable-oriented, hierarchical decomposition of the team’s work to be completed. This fact sheet describes how the Optimize product integrates the WBS with the project’s requirements and schedule.
17 Work Flow Too often Team Members are uncertain what they should be doing and in what order. Very few Team Members provide Managers with accurate, timely data relative to how long they have spent on each assigned task. Likewise, very few Project Managers maintain their schedule such that it is up-to-date daily. This Fact Sheet describes how the Optimize product resolves this problem.