Dr. Stefan Hagen is an unaffiliated management consultant and project manager. He operates the PROJEKTMANAGEMENT BLOG, one of the most-read German-speaking project management blogs. In addition, Mr. Hagen is an external lecturer at the university of applied science Vorarlberg and tutor at several other educational institutions.

What was your first impression of ZCOPE?

In short: „WOW“. Handling the tool is very clear and simple, this is very important to me. Besides that the flexibility when using ZCOPE inspired me from the beginning. Moving tasks, creating new ones, defining dates, etc. – with ZCOPE all that works incredibly fast and really simple.

What are the crucial advantages of ZCOPE?

For me there are three central aspects: simplicity, availability, flexibility. The simple usability enables PM beginners to handle ZCOPE without any difficulty. Furthermore all project data are available in one place. And thirdly I can use ZCOPE just as I need it.

How can ZCOPE influence the project management in companies?

I believe that ZCOPE isn’t right for every company! If the organisational culture is highly characterised by „classic“ project methods such as bar charts (GANTT charts), network plans or complicated earned-value-calculations, ZCOPE isn’t the right tool.

But if you want to approach projects pragmatically and all the same with a certain system, then ZCOPE is an excellent tool.  I consider ZCOPE as highly productive in combination with agile project methods.

In what way can ZCOPE improve the communication in Projects?

As we all know, communication is THE vital factor of success in projects. For this reason a personal face-to-face communication will always be the most important instrument. Closely followed by an appropriate IT-supported communication and documentation of projects. Especially project blogs – as integrated into ZCOPE – allow an active and highly efficient communication policy.

What’s your advice for companies that want to switch to ZCOPE?

Define the rules of the game and take off! With rules I mean some basic conditions, who does what and when in the project? The defintion of project processes and approach models hold an immense potential in this context. These procedures can be integrated into ZCOPE with the help of templates, and that means you’re half way there. And of course, the management must stand behind it a hundred percent, otherwise there’s no way it will work.