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An artificial intelligence watchdog is accusing OpenAI of training its default ChatGPT model on copyrighted book content without permission. In a new paper published this week, the AI Disclosures Project alleges that OpenAI likely trained its GPT-4o model using non-public material from O’Reilly Media. The researchers used a legally obtained dataset of 34 copyrighted O’Reilly books and found that GPT-4o showed “strong recognition” of the company’s paywalled content. By contrast, GPT-3.5 Turbo appeared more familiar with publicly accessible O’Reilly book samples. “These results highlight the urgent need for increased corporate transparency regarding pre-training data sources as a means to develop formal licensing frameworks for AI content training,” the authors wrote in the paper. One of the nonprofit’s founders and paper’s authors, Tim O’Reilly, is the CEO of O’Reilly Media. An OpenAI spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to Fast Company‘s request for comment. Training data lies at the heart of all artificial intelligence models. Large language models require an incredible amount of information that it uses to guide back on when it churns out text or images for users. OpenAI has struck up some licensing deals to be able to train their models on certain content. But the company, which recently fundraised and is worth $300 billion, has also come under fire for sourcing certain content. The New York Times, for example, is leading a charge against OpenAI and minority owner Microsoft over alleged copyright infringement. The researchers acknowledged limitations in their study but argued the issue is likely part of a broader systemic problem in how large language models are developed. “Sustainable ecosystems need to be designed so that both creators and developers can benefit from generative AI,” the authors said. “Otherwise, model developers are likely to rapidly plateau in their progress, especially as newer content becomes produced less and less by humans.” View the full article

Zelle, the digital payment platform that allows you to send money directly to friends and family, has shuttered its standalone app. But while the Zelle app is no longer, you can likely still send and receive money with Zelle through your bank or credit union—Zelle is already integrated into over 2,200 bank apps, and you can use this search tool to find out if yours is one of them. Otherwise, you'll have to send money using another tool. Here are four of the best Zelle alternatives for peer-to-peer payments. VenmoVenmo allows you to request money or pay other users and send up to $60,000 a week once you've verified your identity within the app. You can transfer funds in your Venmo account to your bank account for free if you're willing to wait 1–3 days, or instantly for a 1.75% fee. Funds sent from from your Venmo balance or linked bank account/debit card are fee-free, while money sent using your credit card incur a 3% charge. Note that you should update the default privacy settings on Venmo to ensure your transactions and account information aren't publicly viewable. Venmo is available for iOS, Android, and on the web. PayPalPayPal is a well-established digital payment service that is useful for sending and receiving money from friends and contacts as well as making purchases online. There's no fee to send money via the "Friends and Family" function from a linked bank account or using your PayPal balance, and standard withdrawals are also free (like Venmo, instant transfers incur a 1.75% fee). There are fees for international transactions and currency conversions, as well as personal transactions made with credit cards. PayPal is available for iOS, Android, and on the web. Cash AppCash App is a peer-to-peer platform similar to Venmo. You can send money from a linked bank account or debit card to other Cash App users—if the recipient's phone number or email isn't linked to an account, they'll be prompted to create one to claim the funds—for free. Standard transfers are also free, and instant transfers from Cash App to your bank incur a 0.5%–1.75% fee. Cash App can also be used to send and receive bitcoin. It's available for iOS, Android, and on the web. Apple CashApple Cash is a built-in payment function for sending money to other iPhone users via Messages, Wallet, or Tap to Cash. Apple Cash is a digital card held in your Apple Wallet, and you can transfer funds out to your linked bank account (standard timing and free) or debit card (instant for a 1.5% fee). Apple Cash allows you to send or receive a maximum of $10,000 per message, with the same limit in a 7-day period. If you have an iPhone, you can pay someone using Apple Cash from within other apps, including Messages. Apple Cash is integrated into iOS and available on the web. How to protect your privacy with digital paymentsThe apps we've listed here have various privacy and security protections, like encryption and secure authentication, but peer-to-peer payment platforms are still targets for scammers. Make sure you only send funds to trusted contacts, and enable settings that keep your money safe, like identity verification and limiting who can see your account and request funds from you. View the full article

US president set to shake global trading system with announcements from White HouseView the full article

Nintendo Switch 2 is officially coming to stores on June 5. In just over two months, you might have the opportunity to own Nintendo's newest (and most expensive) console and play the latest Switch 2 exclusives (Mario Kart World looks ridiculously fun), assuming you can snag one of them. Because if you want to boot up a Switch 2 on launch day, you'll almost certainly need to preorder it. Unless you're lucky enough to find a store that has extra consoles in stock, or there turns out to be exceptionally low demand (unlikely given eight years of building anticipation among the Nintendo faithful), these things are going to be a rare commodity. One option, of course, is to preorder a system directly through Nintendo—but the company's requirements to do so are anything but orthodox. How to "register your interest" for a Switch 2Nintendo doesn't consider theirs a "preorder" program, per se. Instead, the company invites you to "register your interest" in buying a Switch 2. Assuming you're at least 18 years old, you'll need to head to Nintendo's official interest registration site, then sign into your Nintendo Account. Once Nintendo has confirmed your eligibility, it will send an invitation to the email address registered with your Nintendo Account. This invitation gives you the option to buy one Switch 2 console—either the standalone unit or the bundle with a digital copy of Mario Kart World. This invite will be good for 72 hours. Easy enough, right? It's not that simple. Only experienced gamers need applyThis is first come, first serve program, so the sooner you are able to register, the better your chance of being selected. On top of that, this...let's call it a "purchasing opportunity" is only open to registrants who have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription with at least 12 months of paid service. But the requirement that seems most out of left field to me is this: You also need to have at least 50 hours of gameplay associated with the Nintendo Account you use to register, as of April 2, 2025. If you don't meet any of these criteria, you'll be put on an overflow list. Nintendo will only start sending invites to members of this waitlist once the registrants who meet the requirements have all been invited. Fifty hours of gameplay is a bizarre requirement (can't I just give you money, Nintendo?) but you can see the company's reasoning. As a mega-hyped piece of hardware, the Switch 2 is a prime target for scalpers. By setting strict requirements for who can register for an invitation to purchase one (and by limiting each registration to one console purchase) Nintendo is trying to ensure that only true Nintendo fans get first crack. Scalpers won't even be able to make multiple Nintendo Accounts in order to get around these limits, as the aforementioned 50 hours of gameplay had to be logged before today, April 2. Unless scalpers knew the rules well ahead of time, any dummy accounts they make leading up to the Switch 2 launch will be useless. Even as someone with well over 50 hours of gameplay on my Nintendo Account, this all feels a bit weird. Perhaps its the data privacy geek in me, but it doesn't sit well with me that I need to share my gameplay with Nintendo in order to prove that I am, indeed, worthy of buying a Switch 2. Tie the purchase to my Nintendo Account, fine, but I'm not sure I like the precedent here. Because even if you have those 50 hours, you might not be eligible, since you also need to have opted in to share that data with Nintendo. Nintendo's language isn't totally clear here, so it's not obvious to me if it counts to if you opt in today, or if you had to have already opted in before the program was announced. If you want to maximize your chances of being selected to buy through Nintendo, it's time to check your Nintendo Account privacy settings and ensure that you are sharing your usage information with Nintendo under Data Usage – Opt-Out Preferences. When do invitations to buy a Switch 2 go out?Strange privacy implications aside, here's what happens after you register: Nintendo says the first round of invites will go out May 8, 2025, with subsequent rounds sending off "periodically" until purchases are available for all. The email will come from no-reply@noa.nintendo.com, so consider adding that to your email whitelist if you have an overzealous spam filter. If selected, you'll be able to buy your chosen Switch 2 console or bundle (the standalone system is $449, while the Mario Kart World bundle is $499) as well as a "variety of additional items." My guess is that will include the new Pro Controller, the retro GameCube controller, and perhaps additional Joy-Cons, as well as any other types of accessories Nintendo dreams up. As with the system itself, you'll only be able to purchase one of each of these additional items. Nintendo accepts Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay, and Apple Pay—but not Nintendo eShop gift cards. The company will also only ship products directly to customers, and will not make orders available at its two retail locations. Of course, Nintendo isn't the only company you can order a Switch 2 from. You can sign up for similar alerts from other retailers, including Best Buy and GameStop, and I imagine more retailers will add their own opportunities soon enough. View the full article

Google DeepMind's AGI roadmap reveals how AI tools will evolve by 2030. Here's what it might mean for SEO, content creation, and advertising. The post Google DeepMind’s AGI Plan: What Marketers Need to Know appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Zelle has been around as a convenient digital payment platform since 2017, but has now closed down payments inside its standalone apps for Android and iOS, as it promised it would last October—though the move is a sign of Zelle's success rather than its failure, and most Zelle users aren't going to need to change anything. If you're one of the 150 million or so people who make use of Zelle, you're no longer going to be able to use the Zelle app to send money to friends, family, and businesses. However, Zelle lives on as a platform: It's now integrated into the operations of more than 2,200 financial institutions, so you'll still be able to use it through your banking app. The Zelle apps are no more because Zelle has expanded its integrations so successfully. The peer-to-peer payment system says less than two percent of transactions were being made through these apps by the end of last year, so it didn't make sense to keep them going. Nothing is changing in terms of the links to banks and credit unions—if this is how you already do your Zelle business, you might not even have noticed the standalone app has been pulled. Zelle users shifted $1 trillion in payments over the course of 2024, so as a platform it's not going anywhere anytime soon. Another reason for the switch is security. As Zelle's YouTube page is testament to, users of the app were frequently targeted by scammers—via dating apps, ticketing platforms, rental listings, online marketplaces, job boards, and so on. Having Zelle work through banking systems makes it more secure as well. How to switch Zelle is popular for peer-to-peer payments. Credit: Zelle Given that two-percent figure mentioned above, chances are that you've already set Zelle up through your bank. If not, you'll need to register a Zelle account with your bank, or switch to a financial institution that offers Zelle: You can search through this comprehensive list. Until you set up Zelle somewhere else, you won't be able to make and receive payments. The specifics will of course depend on your bank and its app, but if you click through from the list then you'll be taken to the relevant sign-up page—here's the one for Wells Fargo, for example. You need to provide your registered email address or mobile number, and the bank will do the rest (you can use the existing details already registered with Zelle). If you know your bank or credit union supports Zelle, you can also dig through the options in the official app or the official website, and you should be able to register that way too: Most of the time it'll only be a couple of steps to get Zelle set up, and you can then register the people and businesses you want to enable transactions with. Unfortunately, your payment history isn't going to move along with you, though it will be available in the Zelle app until August 11, 2025. Although payments are now blocked, the app isn't going to stop working entirely, so you've got a few months to note any records you want to keep. There are plenty of other payment platforms you can turn to, if you do want to stay out of your banking app, including Venmo, PayPal, Cash App, Google Wallet, and Apple Pay—though they don't have quite the same tight bank-account integration that you get with Zelle, and which Zelle is now focused on. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: I’ve been doing some remote volunteer grant writing as part of a long-term plan to break out of my current job family (also nonprofit-centric). The nonprofit I’m currently working with is only a few years old, in another state, and very small, with no paid staff. My main contact is the executive director, Helena. The deadline for the biggest grant of the year is tonight. I’ve finished the actual writing and have all the required documents, except the FY25 budget. We can’t submit if any fields are empty. I’ve requested the budget a few times; each time, Helena has responded with FY24’s revenue/expense report. It’s basically that scene in “The Good Place” where Michael repeatedly requests Eleanor’s file and gets cacti in return. Neither of the two volunteer bookkeepers has been very responsive. Q1 ended yesterday. Last night, I had the following text exchange with Helena: Me: Have we heard from Natalie about the budget? Helena: No Me: Definitely don’t want to stress her (or you!) out, but I want to submit within the next few hours — would the senior bookkeeper know anything? Helena: They are very slow on returning emails. Do we need the 2025 budget since we’re only in month 3? Me: Yeah, they require a budget for the current fiscal year. It doesn’t have to be exact since grants, etc are uncertain. Just needs to make logical sense based on last year’s financials Helena: Do you have last year’s budget I sent you? Me: I have the revenue/expenses spreadsheet. I think that’s technically different from a budget? Helena: I don’t think we have a budget for any year then. I thought the revenue/expenses was the budget. Me: Last year’s application [which was rejected for incompleteness] had one — basically our expectation for how much we’ll bring in vs allocate to different line items. The revenue/expenses is for what’s already happened. Helena: Then I think Devon who did the grant came up with it. Me: Hm. I don’t feel at all qualified to do that. Helena: Then we’ll have to wait on Natalie. Email from Helena an hour later: “See attachment for 2024 budget.” (It was a cactus the revenue/expense report.) My final reply: “Hi Helena, I believe I already have this — just waiting on the projected budget for 2025 (rough estimate is fine). Thanks!” I’ve left it there for now. But holy shit, Alison. That exchange seemed so beyond the realm of possibility that I started to think I must not know what a budget is. I even texted my uncle, an accounting professor, for a sanity check. I think Helena is hoping I’ll cave and throw together a budget like Devon did last year, but I have to draw the line somewhere. I’ve invested considerable time and energy in this grant, enduring other displays of incompetence that could justify their own letters. It would be one thing to be rejected on the merits; that’s an unavoidable part of this work. I just can’t believe it might all come to nothing for such an inane, preventable reason. I’m definitely not expecting an answer before the deadline, but I’d appreciate knowing how you would have handled this. Should I wash my hands of this unless/until I get a real budget? If so, should I explicitly tell Helena that the ball is 100% in her court? Should I make one last overture to ask if I should submit the “budget” she sent, be told “yes”, and watch her FAAFO? Some other option? Whatever I choose, how should I deal with the fallout? So, the deal with tiny new nonprofits with no paid staff (and sometimes tiny nonprofits with staff, too, but it’s especially likely when they have none) is that they are very, very often learning as they go, and things may be in chaos. Nonprofits are often founded by someone who’s really passionate about the work they’ve set out to do (like helping a vulnerable population, changing an unjust law, or whatever it is) but who don’t currently have the skills to build and run an effective organization. Typically one of two things happens: 1. They build those skills along the way, figuring it out as they go, often with some bumpy early years, but in the end successfully professionalizing their operations. Or… 2. They don’t build those skills and things stay in chaos, meaning their impact remains very limited and they have trouble keeping staff and volunteers. (And in fact, the worst version of this is when they’re good at attracting funding but bad at the rest of it, because then those resources get squandered and more people are affected.) Organizations in the first category can be great to volunteer with in their early stages, because there’s room for you to have a significant impact (which translates into accomplishments for your resume if you’re using the work to try to move into a new field). But organizations in the second category are pretty much always going to be an exercise in frustration and not a good use of your time or energy. I don’t know which one you’re dealing with, but it’s possible that it’s the first one, and that Helena just needs help moving the organization in that direction. If you keep observing, you’ll know soon enough if that’s the case or not. Either way, though, it sounds like you’re dancing around the budget issue too much. You need to just come out and say, “Most grant-giving foundations will not consider applications without a budget for the current fiscal year. We cannot apply without having that. Once we have a current year budget, we can use it for multiple applications, but it’s a prerequisite to be seriously considered for funding and it doesn’t make sense to submit applications until there’s one I can include.” Feel free to add, “That is not something I can create myself; it would need to come from the organization’s leadership.” You could also attach a few very basic samples from other small organizations as templates so that it’s clear what you’re talking about. If we could go back in time, I’d say that ideally you would have laid that out earlier on so they weren’t scrambling at the last minute … but it’s also completely understandable that you figured a budget would already exist. That said … if it were just this confusion over a budget, I’d be more inclined to think, “Okay, they’re at the very start of learning about all this, let’s see how they do once the requirements are spelled out.” But you mentioned other displays of incompetence that could justify their own letters, so it’s worth questioning whether this organization is the right one for you to invest time and energy into. Volunteer grant writing can be a great way to get the experience to move in that direction professionally, but you’ll need successes from the work to point to. If your efforts are all for naught because Helena is a disaster, it’s not going to be a good use of your time. One thing to look at in particular: aside from the budget situation, what results is this organization getting? Is Helena actually good at the core of the work she’s set out to do, and can the organization point to concrete results it’s achieved? If so, and if Helena is open to getting some basic support as the org professionalizes, I’d be more inclined to give that support a chance to pay off. But otherwise, I’d think hard about whether this is the right situation to give you grant-writing experience. If you conclude that it’s not, don’t view it as “it all coming to nothing.” View it as learning a very useful lesson about things to screen an organization on before you invest time helping them! View the full article

Google's Local Service Ads advertiser console, where advertisers go to manage their LSAs, has been inaccessible for many advertisers since this morning. Google has not yet confirmed the issue but I see a number of complaints from advertisers starting at around 8 am ET.View the full article

The measure applies to mortgages closed in the months prior to the Southern California wildfires, which are now experiencing early-stage distress. View the full article

Google’s AI Overviews expanded greatly in three sectors – entertainment, restaurants, and travel – during the March 2025 core update. By the numbers. Between March 13 and 27, according to data shared with Search Engine Land by enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge, the presence of AI Overviews grew by: 528% for entertainment queries (e.g., [Julia Roberts movies], [Movies filmed in Chicago]). 387% for restaurant queries (e.g., [date night restaurants], [Thai restaurant near me], [downtown restaurants]). 381% for travel queries (e.g., [things to do in Santa Fe], [things to do in Hawaii], [things to do in Las Vegas]). But. Part of the reason for these high percentage increases is because these three industries historically have triggered AI Overviews less often when compared to categories like healthcare and education. Why we care. If you do SEO for brands or businesses in the entertainment, restaurant, or travel industries, you should check whether AI Overviews are now appearing in Google SERPs on any mission-critical keywords, as this could alter your traffic and click-through rates from search. Even if your rankings haven’t changed, your traffic could be impacted by the arrival of AI Overviews. What to do? Here are three areas to focus on, according to Jim Yu, founder and executive chair of BrightEdge: Create content that supports decision-making, including activities and ideas for things to do. Track and refresh content that matches shifting seasonal interest. Optimize for entity-driven searches, especially in entertainment or around prominent people in your organization The core update. Google’s March 2025 core update started rolling out March 13 and completed March 27. Barry Schwartz dug into the impact in Data providers: Google March 2025 core update had similar volatility to the previous update. View the full article

Learn all the ins and outs of keyword research—what terms you need to know, what approaches you can take, and how you can make the most out of Semrush keyword research toolkit. View the full article

For decades, the only way to buy a car was to physically go to a dealership. If that idea gives you an anxiety attack, you’re not alone, so it’s a relief to know that the industry is finally embracing online shopping—even Amazon has gotten in on the act, and about half the buyers in one survey shopped for their car online. But just like anything else on the internet, buying a car online comes with the risk of fraud. Scammers are setting up entire fake online dealerships and ripping people off to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars. You might think you’re too savvy to get fleeces like that (who buys a $50,000 car sight unseen anyway?), but the risk is real. These fake online car dealership scams are fairly sophisticated and can be difficult to spot—it’s gotten so bad that some states, like Wisconsin, have issued official warnings about it. How online car dealership scams workAt its core, the scam is pretty simple: A scammer sets up a fake dealership website. Sometimes it’s an entirely fictional dealer, and sometimes the scammers hijack a real dealership's name and set up a fake site for it, often scraping the dealership’s legitimate website for graphics, text, and photos to make everything look legit. Sometimes they claim to sell classic cars, but just as often they pose as regular dealers. Step two is to adjust all the pricing on the vehicles so they’re incredibly attractive to potential buyers. In the current economic environment, where cars—used and new—are majorly expensive, folks who stumble on an amazing deal are more likely to get sucked into the scammers’ sales funnel. The "dealer" will be very responsive to messages from marks, and will provide everything you would expect a legitimate car dealership to provide—including photos and documentation. It can be extremely difficult to tell that you’re not interacting with an actual car dealership. The scam really kicks into gear when it comes time to make a down payment or negotiate a sale. Scam dealerships will usually require payment in unusual ways—typically via wire transfer—and then cease responding once they've got your money. A man in North Carolina lost $40,000 last year when he tried to buy a truck from a site claiming to sell “repossessed” vehicles at extremely low prices, while a California resident lost $24,000 to a fake online dealer when he thought he was buying a classic car. And this guy on Reddit apparently lost $55,000 to a sophisticated fake online dealer. What to look forThe scam works for a few reasons: People are increasingly comfortable making large purchases online, the in-person car buying experience is kind of terrible, and it’s relatively easy to set up a website that looks exactly like a real car dealership. If you’re thinking about buying a car online, there are a couple of things you should look for when considering an online dealership: Check with your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles or Department of Transportation to see if it maintains a list of authorized car dealers in the state, and if the dealership you’re considering is on the list. If it’s a local dealership, look up the phone number independently and contact them to ensure the website is legitimate. Be wary of unusually low prices, an inability to physically inspect and test-drive the car, and an unusual payment process. Buying a car online is convenient and less obnoxious than doing it in person—but it’s also a little more dangerous. A little extra due diligence can save you a lot of trouble. View the full article

Even a sector in secular decline can generate a lot of cash via advertising and subscriptionsView the full article

US president told confidants the billionaire’s role at Doge could end sooner than expected View the full article

In all, 42% of sales in the borough were financed, a larger share than in many recent quarters in the cash-heavy Manhattan market. View the full article

If you’re in need of some good and satisfying news, Chipotle has got you covered. The beloved burrito brand is bringing back its free burrito promotion for April 3rd’s National Burrito Day. According to the chain’s March 31 announcement, Chipotle Rewards members will once again be able to play the popular Burrito Vault game at UnlockBurritoDay.com. The game, which involves customers trying to guess exact burrito order combinations, is easy to play but comes with delicious prizes. Players will get four attempts to win BOGO (buy-one-get-one) codes. Each hour, the first 2,500 members to choose burrito orders with the correct ingredients will win free food. “Last year, our Burrito Vault drove unprecedented fan engagement that resulted in our highest digital transaction day of all time,” Chris Brandt, chief brand officer, said in the announcement. “Now, we are giving them another chance to crack the code and score more free burritos.” In addition to the BOGO deals, Chipotle is also giving Rewards Members $0 delivery fee offer for orders placed on National Burrito Day. Customers just have to use the code DELIVER on Chipotle’s app or website. The reprised promotion comes shortly after rumors about Chipotle restaurants being shuttered have swirled online. Chipotle dispelled bankruptcy rumors in a statement to Good Morning America. “The claim that Chipotle is closing restaurants is false,” a spokesperson for Chipotle told the outlet. “The false information stemmed from an inaccurate online article confusing Chipotle with a venture it tested in 2023. The story has since been corrected.” Despite rumors about the brand’s demise, it seems the reverse is actually true. In February, Fast Company reported that Chipotle was breaking records in terms of its growth. In 2024, the brand opened 304 new restaurants—the most in a single year for the chain. View the full article

There are many ways to copy text that can't be easily selected, but few that are as simple and fast as Text Lens ($6)—a new Mac app by prolific developer Sindre Sorhus. Text Lens lets you select any part of your Mac's screen and automatically copy all of the text from that part. This makes it easy to copy text from images, videos, scanned pages, settings menus, and other types of text that are otherwise impossible to grab. Text Lens vs. Apple's Live TextLive Text, which is built into macOS, allows you to capture text from screenshots. While it's good enough to get you started, it works only with Safari, Preview, and the built-in screenshot tool. You can't select text from other apps without taking a screenshot first, which adds an extra step to the process. With tools such as Text Lens, you can instantly go into selection mode to capture and copy text. There's no need to take a screenshot and then extract text. Using Text Lens on your Mac Credit: Pranay Parab Text Lens is simple and fast, but you should take a moment to configure it to make the most of the app. Once you've installed the app, click its menu bar icon and go to Settings. In the General tab, enable the following options: Launch at login Click menu bar icon to capture [you can right-click it to open the menu] Next, go to the Shortcuts tab and record keyboard shortcuts for this app. You can even use Raycast's Hyper Key to quickly create unique shortcuts. Once this is done, you're ready to use the app. Try either its keyboard shortcut or click the menu bar icon to fire up the selector. Click and drag to cover the area you want to copy text from, and release the mouse when you're done. Text Lens will show a popover to confirm if the text has been copied to your clipboard. (In case it fails to copy, the same popover will tell you that no text was detected.) Once it's successful, you can now paste the text in any app and carry on with your day. This app supports 18 languages including English, French, and Spanish. Text Lens will also allow you to copy text from saved files on your Mac: You can import images, PDFs, or other files, and Text Lens will copy everything on the page. The app can also copy text from images in your clipboard. Credit: Pranay Parab While I was quite impressed with Text Lens' accuracy with smaller bits of text, I imported a few larger batches of text to see how it works. For this, I compared it with the results from TextSniper ($11.99 for unlimited license) and Cleanshot X($29), two other Mac apps that let you copy text from images. I used one of my invoices to see how all three apps handle formatting challenges, and at the end of the quick test, TextSniper did the best job with the file. Text Lens and Cleanshot X were able to capture text from the invoice fairly well, but they both included a few typos and messed up the formatting. Both these apps listed all the items and dates first, and lumped together the prices at the end. Meanwhile, TextSniper listed each item, its date, and the price together. It also had the fewest typos. Still, for basic text copying, Text Lens does a fairly good job and is priced quite well. I hope that it gets better at copying large amounts of text in the future, but for copying a few lines here and there, it will do what you need it to do without much of a fuss. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. A reader writes: Today, during a screensharing session with my new employee, Barb, I saw something inappropriate on her screen and did not speak up. I was so dumbfounded that I just quickly wrapped up our call. I’m almost sure I saw her chat session with a coworker with explicit reference to private body parts. Both the screenshare software and chat software are part of the same company-provided system; it’s typically used for training and collaboration. Should I say anything to Barb? Or try to forget I ever saw anything? Since my view of the chat window happened very quickly, and I have no “proof,” I’m not sure I should say anything, especially when the content was something I’d rather not repeat. Some background: Barb and I work at different offices. Her previous manager felt that Barb wasn’t a fit for her role and was trying to manage her out; there was a skill mismatch, but Barb also needed to improve her attention to detail. When I learned this, I thought she could be a good fit for my team and proposed bringing her over. I was up-front with her that she would need to improve her attention to detail. She indicated commitment to improving that area and seemed genuinely excited about the opportunity. But because she’s continued to make frequent errors, I’ve had to hold back on fully transitioning some portions of the job to her. I’ve had conversations at the time errors presented, and a general conversation about the pattern of errors, backed up by retraining. I would love your advice as this situation has made me uncomfortable. I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here. View the full article

The Nintendo Switch 2 is quite a bit different than the OG Switch: The Joy-Cons are beefier and connect via magnets; when docked, the console supports 4K 60fps output; and you can finally charge the console when playing in tabletop mode. But at the end of the day, what matters most about a new console like the Switch 2 is the games: If there's nothing new to play, what's the point? Of course, Nintendo shared a number of Switch 2 exclusives during its big Direct on Wednesday. This isn't a repeat of the Nintendo 3DS launch: There are games to play if you buy a Switch 2 on day one. But there are also a number of interesting titles coming soon and later this year. (There's even a new From Soft title coming in 2026!) Games launching the same day as Nintendo Switch 2 Whoa. Credit: Nintendo of America/YouTube Nintendo Switch 2 launches on June 5. While many of the games announced today do not launch alongside the console, there are also many that do—including Mario Kart World. True to its name, this game offers an open-world Mario Kart experience. You can drive around the world, with friends, as you travel to different races. Not that every game needs to be open-world, but this one's kind of a no brainer. It just seems like fun to drive around a giant Mario Kart map. You don't even need to drive anywhere in particular: Nintendo encourages you to drive around leisurely, taking selfies as you do. Of course, the core gameplay is still the same: Race other drivers around a track. But now, you can compete in races with up to 24 people at a time, and part of the competition is driving to the next race. There's even a new "Knockout Tour," where you race non-stop from one side of the map to the other. If you pass through a checkpoint in too low a position, you're eliminated. Plus, you can bounce off walls like Mario in a platformer, grind on rails, and play as a cow, for some reason. Here are the rest of the games that you can play on launch day: Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour Street Fighter 6 Split Fiction Hogwarts Legacy Hitman World of Assassination Brave & Default Flying Fair (HD Remaster) Yakuza 0 Director's Cut The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (Nintendo Switch Online) Soulcalibur II (Nintendo Switch Online) F-Zero GX (Nintendo Switch Online) Deltarune 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 Civilizations VII Survival Kids Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition Fortnite Arcade Archives 2 RIDGE RACER Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S Nobunaga's Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition Fast Fusion Upcoming Nintendo titlesThere are a number of first-party games and upgrades Nintendo announced during its presentation that won't be ready for launch on June 5. Drag X Drive (Summer 2025) Credit: Nintendo of America/YouTube This is an entirely new game for Nintendo. Drag X Drive is wheelchair basketball that uses the new mouse controls on the Switch 2 Joy-Cons. You can push both controllers forward, as your character pushes both wheels forward on their wheelchair. You can also swing the Joy-Con to throw a basket, similar to the experience with Wii Sports. Donkey Kong Bananza (TBA) Credit: Nintendo of America/YouTube After a number of remasters, Donkey Kong is finally getting a new game. This was the last announcement of the Direct, and was worth the wait: Bananza looks like Donkey Kong's version of Super Mario Odyssey—3D platforming in an open environment (though I'm not sure if it's "open world.") The biggest difference? You smash your way through just about anything you can see in the world. Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment (Winter 2025) Credit: Nintendo of America/YouTube This is the third entry in the Hyrule Warriors series, and takes place prior to the events of Tears of the Kingdom. I won't go into spoiler territory here, but you will get to play out the events of the Imprisoning War, and even get to play as Zelda. Kirby Air Riders (2025) Credit: Nintendo of America/YouTube It looks like we're finally getting a sequel to 2003's Kirby Air Ride. We don't have a lot of details yet, other than seeing stars, bikes, and space ships as rideable vehicles. But Kirby Air Riders is directed by Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of both Kirby and Super Smash Bros., which bodes well. Nintendo Switch 2 EditionsLike other consoles, Nintendo is now offering Switch 2 users upgraded versions of certain Switch 1 titles. These can include better visuals, faster performance, or new features that take advantage of the Switch 2's controllers. These upgrades include: Super Mario Part Jamboree + Jamboree TV (July 24, 2025) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (TBA) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (TBA) Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star Crossed World (TBA) Metroid Prime 4 Beyond (TBA) Pokémon Legends ZA (TBA) GameCube gamesNintendo Switch Online is finally adding support for GameCube games—but only for Nintendo Switch 2. (Why my 2017 Nintendo Switch is incompatible with games that ran on a system from 2001 is beyond me, but I digress.) In addition to the three aforementioned GameCube titles that will be available at launch, here's what's coming down the line, none of which have release dates yet: Super Mario Sunshine Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness Super Mario Strikes Chibi-Robo Luigi's Mansion Pokémon Colosseum Third-party titles Credit: Nintendo of America/YouTube Nintendo ran through a number of third-party titles that are making their way to Switch 2. They include: Elden Ring Tarnished Edition (2025) Hades II (TBA) Daemon X Machina Titanic Scion (Sept. 5, 2025) Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 (Summer 2025) Project 007 (TBA) Borderlands 4 (2025) WWE 2K (TBA) NBA 2K (TBA) Enter the Gungeon 2 (TBA) Starseeker Astoneer Expeditions (2026) Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (TBA) Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Hollow Knight: Silkson (2025) Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar (Aug. 27, 2025) Goodnight Universe (2025) Silksong (2025) Two Point Museum (2025) Wild Hearts S (July 25, 2025) Witchbrook (Holiday 2025) Marvel Comic Invasion (Holiday 2025) Star Wars Outlaws (2025) Shadow Labyrinth (July 18, 2025) RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army (June 19, 2025) No Sleep For Kaname Date - From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES (July 25, 2025) REANIMAL (2025) Professor Layton and The New World of Steam (2025) Tamagotchi Plaza (June 27, 2025) Human Fall Flat 2 (TBA) The Duskbloods (2026) View the full article

The triple constraint of project management has been given many names – the Project Management Triangle, Iron Triangle, and Project Triangle – which should give you an idea of how important the triple constraint is when managing a project. If you’re managing a project, then you’re working with the Triple Constraint. Therefore, it can be easily argued that the triple constraint might be the single most important concept in the history of project management. When used in combination with effective project management software, it can give you the ability to drive your projects to success. What Is the Triple Constraint in Project Management? So, what is the triple constraint? That’s easy, it’s a model of the constraints inherent in managing a project. Those constraints are threefold: Cost: The financial constraints of a project, also known as the project budget Scope: The tasks required to fulfill the project’s goals Time: The schedule for the project to reach completion Basically, the triple constraint states that the success of the project is impacted by its costs, time, and scope. As a project manager, you can keep control of the triple constraint by balancing these three constraints through trade-offs. We’ll explain how these trade-offs work in the section below. Another important thing to consider about the triple constraint of project management is that it doesn’t only apply to projects, but also programs and even project portfolios. For this reason, project managers usually need the support from a project management office (PMO) to ensure their project’s cost, timeline and scope aren’t in conflict with other projects and programs within their organization’s project portfolio. /wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Project-Budget-Template-for-Excel.png Get your free Project Budget Template Use this free Project Budget Template for Excel to manage your projects better. Download Excel File While it’s true that the triple constraint is an important part of any successful project plan, it doesn’t determine success. Projects are made from many parts, more than the three that make up the triple constraint. That’s why some project management experts have added three more constraints to the model, to better reflect the most critical areas of a project. Here they are: Quality: There are quality standards for every project, whether its final deliverable is a tangible or intangible product. Project managers need a quality management plan to control quality. Risk: Risk is inherent to any project. That’s why project managers need to create a risk management plan to explain how project risks will be handled Benefit: There are different types of benefit obtained from a project. Project managers must ensure that project stakeholders get the best financial benefit possible. How Does the Triple Constraint Work? As stated above, project managers can increase or reduce the cost, time and scope of a project with trade-offs to keep it on schedule and under budget. Let’s see how these project triangle trade-offs work with some examples. Time and Scope: You can reduce your project scope to also reduce your project duration if you’re running behind schedule. In the opposite case, you can increase the length of your project timeline in case the project stakeholders come up with extra project activities. Cost and Scope: By reducing the project scope, you’ll need to execute fewer tasks, which means lower costs. In the opposite case, a larger project scope means higher costs. Cost and Time: In some projects, time and cost can be directly related. For example, the costs of renting equipment or labor are directly proportional to the time you need them for. All these scenarios apply the triple constraint for managing the project, but there are many more possible trade-offs that can occur in a project, which also involve quality, risk and benefit. Project managers don’t usually make these decisions alone, but rather rely on their project management office (PMO) team. By using a project management dashboard, a manager can keep sight of the project as it progresses. Metrics such as the schedule, cost and scope of the project are easy to track. With this information, a project manager can identify issues and adjust the triple constraint to prevent those issues from developing into problems. Triple Constraint Diagram: The Iron Triangle The triple constraint diagram below illustrates the three interconnected constraints of scope, time and cost. The scope constraint represents the project’s deliverables, features and functionality. The time constraint represents the project’s schedule and deadlines, and the cost represents the project’s budget and resources. /wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Triple-Constraint-bw-600x453.jpg A change in one constraint impacts the project quality. Think of the space inside the triangle as the project’s quality. If the triangle changes shape, the quality of the project changes. How to Manage the Triple Constraint The triple constraint appears simple, but that’s only on the surface. Each of the three points of this triangle can be unpacked to reveal deeper meaning. Cost The financial commitment of the project is dependent on several variables. There are the resources involved, from materials to people, which all include costs. There are also the fixed and variable costs inherent in any project, such as equipment or labor, which must be calculated. This can seriously come into play with the use of contract workers or outsourcing. This is what project managers do to control costs: Estimate the costs for all the tasks in the project scope Create a project budget based on the estimated costs of the project Use the project budget as a cost baseline, which is employed to control costs during project execution Control all project costs to keep spending under the project budget Adjust the project budget when necessary Scope As mentioned, the project scope refers to all the project work required to complete the project. Managing that work is critical for project success. When managing scope it’s critical that you prioritize your tasks, enabling you to plan and assign resources effectively. To manage scope, project managers: Use a scope management plan to clearly define what project activities will be done Share the scope management plan with all stakeholders, so everybody is on the same page Use change orders to avoid scope creep and keep track of all changes made to the project scope Manage stakeholder’s expectations to maintain the project scope Use task management tools and techniques to keep track of all project activities in the scope These scope management actions taken by project managers are all essential because the amount of time each task will require is critical to the cost and quality of the final product. This can have a great impact on schedule and cost, especially so if the project is on a large scale. Time At its basic, the project schedule is the estimated timeline allotted to complete the project, or produce the final deliverable. Usually, this is figured out by first estimating the time that each project task will take. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is used to identify all the project activities. Then project managers can use different scheduling techniques such as the critical path method or PERT charts to determine the total duration of the project. Here’s what project managers do to manage time: Use a Gantt chart to visualize the project schedule, define task sequences and monitor the duration of each task Create policies, procedures and documentation for planning, executing and monitoring the project schedule Allocate resources effectively using a resource schedule to avoid bottlenecks Compare the schedule baseline to actual progress to determine if projects are on track Examples of the Triple Constraint in Practice Let’s explore some examples of the triple constraint to better understand how it plays out in a real-world context. Construction project triple constraint example: Let’s say there’s a small retail store being built, approximately 2,000 square feet. The timeline is 6 months with a budget of $300,000. If there’s a last-minute request from the client to add 500 square feet, this increases the scope. In return, either the timeline must be delayed or the budget increased to meet the ideal project success criteria. IT project triple constraint example: If a sales team needs a new customer relationship management (CRM) built, they may have a 9-month timeframe and $250,000 budget. In terms of scope, the CRM needs to include lead management, sales reporting and contact tracking. If the sales team requests that the system be ready in 6 months, either the scope has to be reduced or the budget must increase. Manufacturing triple constraint example: Let’s say a manufacturing company is producing 5,000 units of a new smart home device. It needs to include app integration and voice control, the manufacturing cost per unit cannot exceed $50, and all units must be produced within 3 months. If there’s a sudden cost change in the budget, and each unit cannot exceed $40 in production, production either needs to slow down, which extends the budget, or the scope will be reduced. Now that we’ve learned what most project managers do to control the triple constraint, let’s learn about the project management tools that you can use to help you with this process. Templates to Help You Manage the Triple Constraint To better manage the triple constraint throughout projects, consider using one of our countless project management templates for Excel and Word available on our site. We’ve outlined three that can help manage the triple constraint. Project Budget Template The project budget is one of the most important factors to consider throughout the project. Download this free project budget template for Excel to calculate a realistic cost baseline and simplify the budgeting process. Workload Analysis Template Keep an eye on the team’s workload to ensure they aren’t using more resources than they should, which would impact the project’s triple constraint. Use this free workload analysis template for Excel to evenly distribute tasks across teams, helping them work more productively. Dashboard Template Download this free project dashboard template for Excel to track task status, budget and the project’s overall progress. At a glance, it’s easy to track the project’s key performance indicators, allowing project managers to make strategic decisions to drive the project forward. Controlling the Triple Constraint with ProjectManager As mentioned at the top of the post, the triple constraint when used in conjunction with a project management software is the best way to control your project and lead it towards a successful end. ProjectManager is a cloud-based project management software with real-time data that gives project managers the power to manage each arm of the triple constraint: costs, time and scope. Costs ProjectManager helps you track your project costs to make sure you’re not overspending. You can create budgets, add project expenses and input hourly rates for all of your resources. The real-time dashboard tracks cost and five other metrics across your project and reports on them instantly in easy-to-read charts and graphs. This is an easy way to keep an eye on your costs and make sure you’re aligned with your budget. Now you can catch budget issues before they become a problem. /wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Portfolio-dashboard-compressed.png Time Your schedule can get away from you, but not with ProjectManager. When tasks are updated, they’re instantly reflected across the software. That means, your reports and dashboard are accurate and current. You can even watch the progress of individual tasks on the online Gantt chart, where the duration bar indicates how much progress has been made on the task. Project timesheets are synced with the team’s tasks, which makes it easy for team members to select their task and just enter it. This brings their time into the timesheet, which can then be previewed and approved with a few clicks. /wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screenshot-2022-09-28-083515-timesheets-report.jpg Scope Scope is going to change throughout the project, and ProjectManager has the tools to stay flexible with those changes. There are multiple project views, so you can switch from the Gantt to the kanban view to get visibility into your workflow. Kanban cards, which represent tasks, are set by priority, which can change as the relevance of those tasks change. /wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Kanban_Marketing_Wide_Zoom-150_Moving-task-to-different-status.jpg The great thing about kanban boards is that they’re set up to deliver tasks to team members only when the resources and capacity are there to complete them. As the scope of the project changes, the kanban board can quickly adjust. If you notice teams are under- or overallocated, you can balance that out on the workload page. The workload page has color-coded charts that show at-a-glance who is overloaded with tasks and who is available. You can reallocate their work quickly and easily to keep the project within scope. Related: Theory of Constraints: A Guide for Project Managers Related Content There’s a lot to learn in project management before you can plan, schedule, execute and deliver projects successfully. For this reason, we’ve created dozens of blogs, templates, ebooks and videos on the most important topics in project management. Here are some of them. 20+ Project Management Tools & Techniques Best Project Management Certifications Project Management Basics: Definitions, Methods and Tools 100+ Project Management Terms: PM Terminology PMBOK: The Project Management Body of Knowledge Explained Top 15 Project Management Methodologies: An Overview Best Project Management Charts for Project Planning ¿Qué es la Triple Restricción de un Proyecto? The triple constraint will help you manage your project. Planning for the schedule, scope and cost of your project will help you achieve your goals and objectives. ProjectManager, a cloud-based project management software, gives you the tools to use this model effectively. See how our real-time dashboards & interactive Gantt charts can help you by taking this free 30-day trial. The post The Triple Constraint in Project Management: Time, Scope & Cost appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article

In both countries, the mood is newly sober as a system of vested interests fights backView the full article

Producing video content is a particular challenge for generative AI models, which have no real concept of space or physics, and are essentially dreaming up clips frame by frame. It can lead to obvious errors and inconsistencies, as we wrote about in December with OpenAI's Sora, after it served up a video with a disappearing taxi. It's these specific problems that AI video company Runway says it's made some progress in fixing with its new Gen-4 models. The new models offer "a new generation of consistent and controllable media" according to Runway, with characters, objects, and scenes now much more likely to look the same over an entire project. If you've experimented with AI video, you'll know that many clips are brief and show slow movement, and don't feature elements that go out of the frame and come back in—usually because the AI will render them in a different way. People merge into buildings, limbs transform into animals, and entire scenes mutate as the seconds pass. This is because, as you might have gathered by now, these AIs are essentially probability machines. They know, more or less, what a futuristic cityscape should look like, based on scraping lots of futuristic cityscapes—but they don't understand the building blocks of the real world, and can't keep a fixed idea of a world in their memories. Instead, they keep reimagining it. Runway is aiming to fix this with reference images that it can keep going back to while it invents everything else in the frame: People should look the same from frame to frame, and there should be fewer issues with principal characters walking through furniture and transforming into walls. The new Gen-4 models can also "understand the world" and "simulate real-world physics" better than ever before, Runway says. The benefit of going out into the world with an actual video camera is that you can shoot a bridge from one side, then cross over and shoot the same bridge from the other side. With AI, you tend to get a different approximation of a bridge each time—something Runway wants to tackle. Have a look at the demo videos put together by Runway and you'll see they do a pretty good job in terms of consistency (though, of course, these are hand-picked from a wide pool). The characters in this clip look more or less the same from shot to shot, albeit with some variations in facial hair, clothing, and apparent age. There's also The Lonely Little Flame (above), which—like all Runway videos—has reportedly been synthesized from the hard work of actual animators and filmmakers. It looks impressively professional, but you'll see the shape and the markings on the skunk change from scene to scene, as does the shape of the rock character in the second half of the story. Even with these latest models, there's still some way to go. While Gen-4 models are now available for image-to-video generations for paying Runway users, the scene-to-scene consistency features haven't rolled out yet, so I can't test them personally. I have experimented with creating some short clips on Sora, and consistency and real-world physics remains an issue there, with objects appearing out of (and disappearing into) thin air, and characters moving through walls and furniture. See below for one of my creations: It is possible to create some polished-looking clips, as you can see from the official Sora showcase page, and the technology is now of a high-enough standard that it is starting to be used in a limited way in professional productions. However, the problems with vanishing and morphing taxis that we wrote about last year haven't gone away. Of course, you only have to look at where AI video technology was a year ago to know that these models are going to get better and better, but generating video is not the same as generating text, or a static image: It requires a lot more computing power and a lot more "thought," as well as a grasp of real-world physics that will be difficult for AI to learn. View the full article

They’re not always so simple. By Ed Mendlowitz Tax Season Opportunity Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Edward Mendlowitz. View the full article

They’re not always so simple. By Ed Mendlowitz Tax Season Opportunity Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Edward Mendlowitz. View the full article

An abundance of information is created, transferred and stored over the project management life cycle. Without a way to organize the documentation that’s produced, your project may be doomed to fail. That’s when PMIS comes in, an acronym for project management information systems. A PMIS enables an organized and controlled flow of information so nothing is siphoned off or misplaced. Project management software that’s collaborative and offers unlimited file storage, such as ProjectManager, is a given. Our tool can organize your documents and make them accessible to the project team on any of our multiple project views. For example, the list view allows teams to share files and comment on tasks in real time to foster better communication. Get started with ProjectManager today for free. /wp-content/uploads/2023/09/notification-collaboration-gantt-light-mode-construction-CTA-1.jpgLearn more What Is the Meaning of PMIS? A project management information system (PMIS) is how a project’s information is organized. It collects and uses project information through one or more software applications. These programs help project managers plan, execute and close their projects and allow them to organize the flood of information so they aren’t drowning in data. There are different types of PMIS software but most share feature sets that include tools for scheduling, work authorization, information collection and distribution, etc. Some also have automated gathering and reporting on key performance indicators (KPIs) while others are simply a collection of files. What Is a PMIS Used For? A PMIS is made to support all aspects of project management including the information that’s necessary to monitor or collect. This includes integration management, project scope management, project cost management, project time management, project quality management, project communications management, project risk management, project procurement management and project stakeholder management. Essential Features of a PMIS That’s a lot of information to keep track of, and when managing a project, it’s crucial to be able to immediately pluck the required information from all that data. A PMIS is an important tool that gives you instant access to the signal in the noise. The information is also critical for future projects to help reduce risk, improve efficiencies and estimate costs. If a PMIS captures all project data and stores it in an organized way, it must also be retrievable, searchable, categorizable, shareable and analyzable. To achieve this, a typical PMIS has a series of tools. Project Scheduling: Computes early and late schedules, slack times and the critical path Project Resource Management: Includes resource loading, leveling, allocation, etc. Project Budgeting: Costs associated with individual tasks for more accurate budget estimation and generation. Project Tracking: Analyze and control cost and performance, update existing plans as actual against planned data changes and provide what-if scenarios for the project manager. Project Reports: Creation of graphs, reports and charts of collected and analyzed data that can be shared with stakeholders and team members. Integrations: Some PMIS will access data from different projects for multi-project analysis, integrating with other systems, such as payroll, inventory, etc. The easier a PMIS is to use, the less time and money required to train. What Is a PMIS Report? A PMIS report is a document that a Project Management Information System (PMIS) generates to provide data on project performance. It delves into various aspects of a project to help project managers and stakeholders identify potential issues, monitor progress and make informed decisions. Typically, a PMIS report contains information on the project status such as the overall project health, key milestones, deliverables and percentage completion of tasks. It also compares planned vs. actual start and finish dates, Gantt chart visualizations and critical path analysis. Other areas of a PMIS report may include data on cost performance, resource utilization, risk management, issue tracking, quality control, change control and communication. The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of project performance and how it aligns with strategic goals. How Does PMIS Work Throughout the Project Life Cycle? A PMIS has different functions depending on the phase of the project. At a basic level, a PMIS should offer the possibility to track your project scope, time and costs. A robust PMIS should include a wide variety of project management software features you can use as you go through your project life cycle. ProjectManager has advanced resource management, time tracking, work management and project management features that you need from a PMIS plus real-time collaboration features, dashboards, reporting and more. Here’s how you can use an advanced PMIS to manage your project life cycle. Project Initiation During the initiation phase, a project manager uses a PMIS to establish a preliminary budget including cost estimates and resources. A PMIS used in conjunction with other tools can help schedule the project. In terms of approval, a PMIS helps to define the scope of work, assists with preparing the bid and can be used when presenting data to decision-makers. Project Planning When planning a project, PMIS helps with scheduling details including task and critical path analysis. It supports cost management planning including WBS analysis and integration of control processes. PMIS also proves beneficial to the project manager when resource planning in terms of availability and level. It can also help establish a baseline for project scope, schedule and cost. Project Execution Once the project has been executed, the PMIS collects, organizes and stores data as it comes in from the project team. This data can then be compared to the baseline projections. The PMIS helps with cost and schedule forecasts to determine if changes are required mid-project. Materials management, cost collection, performance measurement and, of course, reporting are all supported by PMIS. Project Monitoring & Control A PMIS should have all the cost management, resource planning, task management and time tracking features you need to make sure the project execution is going as planned and nothing affects your project schedule or budget. In case an issue does affect your project plan, you can use a PMIS to find all the information you need to mitigate that risk and adjust your project plan. Project Closure Especially when closing out a project, a PMIS is a great help. It helps review requirements to make sure the project has met all its goals and objectives. It also organizes the information collected over the course of the project for performance review, productivity analysis, final reports and keeps an archive of historical data for future projects. PMIS Example: A Construction PMIS Let’s look into a construction PMIS as an example. Let’s say there’s a new commercial office building that was built in October of 2024. The construction PMIS may include sections such as the following. Project Status Summary: On track with minor schedule variances Key Milestones Foundation completion: October 8 Structural steel erection: 80% complete (delayed by 2 days due to steel delivery) Exterior wall framing: 20% complete Issues Steel delivery delay (resolved with alternate supplier) Minor delay in concrete pour due to unexpected rain (mitigated by extended work hours) Schedule Performance Planned vs. actual Structural steel erection, planned finish date Oct. 23, actual finish Oct. 26 Exterior wall framing, planned start Oct. 15, actual start Oct. 16 Schedule variance Structural steel erection: +3 days Exterior wall framing: +1 day Critical path: Structured steel erection, exterior wall framing, electrical rough-in are currently on the critical path Include a Gantt chart that shows planned vs. actual timelines for each task Cost Performance Budget vs. actual Total budget: $10,000,000 Total actual cost: $6,500,000 Budget remaining: $3,500,000 Cost variance Steel deliver delay: +$50,000 (premium for alternate supplier) Concrete pour delay: +$10,000 (extended work hours) Earned value analysis Planned value (PV): $6,800,000 Earned value (EV): $6,500,000 Schedule variance (SV): -$300,000 Cost variance (CV): -$10,000 Resource Utilization Labor Steelworkers: 95% utilization Concrete workers: 100% utilization (due to extended hours) Equipment Crane: 80% utilization Concrete pumps: 90% utilization Materials Steel: on-site inventory sufficient for next week Concrete: deliveries on schedule Risk Management Identified risks: severe weather (mitigation: weather monitoring, contingency plans) Material price fluctuations: low risk (mitigation: locked-in supplier contracts) Realized risk: steel delivery delay, rain delay Risk mitigation status: steel delivery (resolved), rain delay (resolved) Issues Steel delivery delay Status: resolved Impact: 3-day project delay, $50,000 cost increase Action: alternate supplier sourced Rain delay Status: resolved Impact: 1 day delay, $10,000 cost increase Action: extended work hours Communication Weekly project meetings with stakeholders Daily site progress reports distributed to the team Client informed of steel delivery delay and mitigation plan This is a simplified version of a real-world construction PMIS report. In reality, it would delve into more granular data and visualizations, but it illustrates the core components and how they track and maintain a construction project. Advantages of Using an Online PMIS While there are manual project management information systems, the benefits of using an online or cloud-based system are numerous. With an online project management information system, the speed, capacity, efficiency, economy, accuracy and the ability to handle complex projects are supported. Of all these benefits, speed is the most practical. Related: 20 Free Project Management Templates for Excel Once the data is collected, it can then be adjusted to reflect the results a project manager needs with great speed and accuracy. A manual program is never going to match that nor can it create and revise project documents, plans, schedules or budgets as quickly. What once took days or longer is now completed in a matter of seconds. Project managers and their organizations can store large amounts of data with a PMIS. That data is also easily accessed, prioritized and summarized as needed. And unlike a manual system which is large and requires many support personnel, an online PMIS requires far less support and space. With these factors, there’s also a cost-benefit. The cost advantage of digital over a manual PMIS is usually significant, especially when considering storage and processing. And if inputs are correct, the chance of errors greatly diminishes with a cloud-based PMIS. Try ProjectManager as Your PMIS ProjectManager is project management software with the features to make a great PMIS. The real-time dashboard gives an up-to-date view of project metrics, crunching numbers for you and creating vivid and easy-to-read charts and graphs that can be printed out for presentations or shared digitally. They can also be filtered to reflect just the data you need to show to your team or stakeholder. /wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Dashboard_Construction_Wide_Zoom-150.jpg Unlimited Project File Storage Because the software is cloud-based, there’s a great deal of file store to archive your documents, images and other files. Now they’re all in one place, which keeps them safe, organized and accessible when you want them. /wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Files-Page_Wide_Zoom-175.jpg Efficient Task Management Communications between team members are also saved, but they’re not on email or lost in a long text narrative, both of which can waste valuable time searching for the right piece of information. Instead, with ProjectManager, those conversations are organized at the task level using our task management tools, including attaching the relevant documents, so everyone knows where to find them. /wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Manufacturing-overlay-LIST-ZOOM-task.jpg PMIS is essential to manage the massive amounts of data that swarm around every project. ProjectManager is a cloud-based project management software that has the features a project manager needs to collect, organize, analyze and archive all that information. It’s easy to use and the whole team can collaborate. What are you waiting for? Try ProjectManager for free with this 30-day trial. The post Project Management Information System (PMIS): Meaning, Reports & Example appeared first on ProjectManager. View the full article