Will OmniFocus help & how?
 

I'm looking for some input please. I'm the Administrative Minister at a large multi-campus church and we recently finished our strategic planning. The result is we have identified 6 areas (strategies) that need to be improved. Of those six strategies I have been asked to lead the Facilities Strategy Team since part of my position oversees our facilities. Let me list the basics of the four strategies we have identified for our team to address, they are:

1. Develop a comprehensive plan for the utilization of space and for the adjoining land at the Southwest Campus.

2. Look at ongoing facility needs at the Mac Campus to best utilize the space with an eye toward updating and future expansion.

3. Develop a strategy for dealing with future short term and long term needs at both campuses

4. Review the current facilities team and policies that are in place.

I realize there will be information gathering, and action steps ect... for each of these four strategies, but my question is this. Is OmniFocus the sofware I need to do this type of work, or do I need more a a project management software, and if so what Mac software do you recommend? Also all our church staff uses Mac's only so I would need to be able to share files with other strategy teams.

Thanks in advance for any input.

OmniFocus is not really project management software. It is a personal time management software based on the Getting Things Done philosophy. It could still be useful to you in conjunction with e.g. OmniPlan in terms of helping you to determine what you need to do (and get done) each day, etc. but if you are planning a project involving multiple resources and people (which it sounds like you are), then you need something more akin to OmniPlan first and foremost so you can set time lines and prepare Gantt charts of how resources need to be used, what deadlines to set and when to meet them, etc.

OmniPlan is OmniGroup's own project management software (click the omni logo above to see all their products). I haven't used it or had a reason to use it, so I don't know if it is good or if their are any competitor products to try either.

your main two choices on the mac are " omniplan" and " merlin2" @ [url]www.projectwizards.net[/url] you'll have to select the english version of the site . [merlin is very involved and costs 225.00]

Omni plan is " project management made simple " and I think it was 149.00 when I bought it . I'd suggest you take a look at trial versions of both and see which " feels right " to you .

Thanks for the posts, I will check out the suggestions so far.

Well, I'm very pleased to say that OmniFocus will do what I need it to do. I found that out after downloading a demo of some project planning software. What I need to do is more task oriented than I originally thought. The more I sort of play with OminFocus I'm finding it very useful for not only my original need, but also for other To-Do's I need to address in my ministry.

Good. I've found OmniFocus to be very useful, and like you said, versatile enough to cover pretty much every area of life, not just "work". Not surprising, since everything we have to worry about really just boils down to our "actions". If you haven't already, you might want to check out the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. There are a lot of helpful tips in there, even if you don't adopt his precise system. And since OmniFocus was made with GTD in mind, reading the book (or at least having a working knowledge of the system) should help you to get the most out of OmniFocus.

OF would be a great tool to help YOU move along with YOUR tasks in each of these areas, but once one of your tasks becomes coordinating the tasks of other (build greenhouse on adjacent land) then OmniPlan would be the tool of choice. In the future, OF and OP will interoperate.

[QUOTE=abh19;50925]Good. I've found OmniFocus to be very useful, and like you said, versatile enough to cover pretty much every area of life, not just "work". Not surprising, since everything we have to worry about really just boils down to our "actions". If you haven't already, you might want to check out the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. There are a lot of helpful tips in there, even if you don't adopt his precise system. And since OmniFocus was made with GTD in mind, reading the book (or at least having a working knowledge of the system) should help you to get the most out of OmniFocus.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I just picked up a copy.

[QUOTE=pjb;50955]OF would be a great tool to help YOU move along with YOUR tasks in each of these areas, but once one of your tasks becomes coordinating the tasks of other (build greenhouse on adjacent land) then OmniPlan would be the tool of choice. In the future, OF and OP will interoperate.[/QUOTE]

Good to know, thanks.