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As a full-time on-site contractor who has had a myriad of different job responsibilities, I organize the way that fits that job. That said, I often use any or all of the tools mentioned in previous posts. The MS Project Plan is most useful when I have a staff and have to communicate to other project managers what we are doing.
For my own use, I tend to do outlining, estimates, and milestone planning for each project, using whatever tools are at hand -- Word, Excel, Project, etc. I usually do a document plan that has some of the elements of a requirements/design document -- the audience, the purpose, the risks, and constraints, along with why I'm choosing the tools or format or delivery method we are using -- and then include the outline and estimates with that and get the whole thing approved.
I sometimes don't have access to MS Project, so sometimes I have to go back and update the dates by hand as they change. But at least having the estimate helps me project future dates quickly when the conditions change and my dates are pushed back or new work is added.
The whiteboard thing has been most useful when I have many people asking for my time. It shows a visual of how busy I am and where their project is in my queue.
On most contracts, I fill in a weekly status report whether or not my consulting company and/or client request it. If the client hates it, of course I will stop, but I usually tell them if they don't want to read it, they can skip it, but it is a record of what I have accomplished that week and what I plan on next week. I love to do these on Friday, so I can look at them on Monday and re-orient myself to the work quickly.
I also include any challenges/issues and track the solutions as they happen. I also document my planned time off.
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Rose A. Wilcox
Senior Technical Writer
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Rwilcox -at- ssqi -dot- com
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