Since the release of PoP Project some people have asked us this question, “Why is there no scroll bar on your planning canvas?” (The “planning canvas” is the area where you’d drag and drop PoPs.) My answer: “Because I can’t focus after I see the scroll bar”.

Well, sort of. Absence of scroll bars on the canvas is intentional. They don’t fit the PoP concept. That concept says that we ought to limit our project planning and management to the 7 topmost things happening in the project. No need for a scroll bar. The canvas can easily hold 7 PoPs (the “things”). Give ‘em the scroll bar and the “Rule of Seven” risks being broken.

I will entertain you more on this rule of seven later. For now, I’ll say that it is the basis behind PoP Project. When you reach your desk in the morning, you don’t want to be swamped by the many tasks listed in your project, for that day. You are a busy person. You have many other things to take care of, apart from this one project. The strategy that would work well is to look at the project in terms of the key (seven – based on research) things to do. Each would result into something tangible. Each could potentially be assigned to another owner. Each could be further detailed in terms of its task list etc. Each would be like a sub-project in itself. We call each a ‘PoP’. Your project would then be a ‘Project of Projects’ - composed of seven PoPs. Not surprisingly, PoP stands for ‘Project of Projects’.

PoP Project helps you plan your project so that you can focus on the key things you need to accomplish. A scroll bar implies hiding some of those away from your smart glance. So, no scroll bars here.