Project Management[edit]
Top-down/Bottom-up project planning: Projects can consist of
an arbitrary number of sub-projects and tasks. Using a top-down approach, a
projects' total budget is split over a number of subprojects.
In terms of financial estimations, the system indicates if the sum of planned
units for each task in a subproject is beyond its estimated budget. Using a
bottom-up approach, a group of tasks can be aggregated to a sub-project, and
multiple subprojects can form a main project. The budget of the main project is
calculated based on the estimations made on a task level.
Resource
Management: Based on resource assignments defined on a project level, a
resource report indicates availability, or oversubscription, of resources
across all open projects.
Project
completion tracking: Each task owner reports task completeness. A weighted
total completeness is calculated by the system.
Export to/import
from OpenProj, GanttProject and Microsoft Project: Projects can be exported
and further edited using either of the three desktop applications. The results
than can be re-imported.
Project
templates: New projects can be created based on existing projects marked as
templates.
Top-down/Bottom-up project planning: Projects can consist of
an arbitrary number of sub-projects and tasks. Using a top-down approach, a
projects' total budget is split over a number of subprojects.
In terms of financial estimations, the system indicates if the sum of planned
units for each task in a subproject is beyond its estimated budget. Using a
bottom-up approach, a group of tasks can be aggregated to a sub-project, and
multiple subprojects can form a main project. The budget of the main project is
calculated based on the estimations made on a task level.
Resource
Management: Based on resource assignments defined on a project level, a
resource report indicates availability, or oversubscription, of resources
across all open projects.
Project
completion tracking: Each task owner reports task completeness. A weighted
total completeness is calculated by the system.
Export to/import
from OpenProj, GanttProject and Microsoft Project: Projects can be exported
and further edited using either of the three desktop applications. The results
than can be re-imported.
Project
templates: New projects can be created based on existing projects marked as
templates.
IT
Service Management[edit]
IT Helpdesk: The IT Helpdesk manages the lifecycle of tickets. For
each ticket type, a workflow is defined allowing configurable routing of
incidents through the organization. This way the module allows the management
of Incidents, Request for Change, Feature Requests, Software Bugs and other
events that require life-cycle management. Collected data provides results for
Key Performance Indicators and Business Intelligent Reporting, supporting
management decisions.
Configuration
Database: Configuration
Management is
supported by an integrated CMDB that ensures transparency of changes
performed and provides real-time information of Configuration Items managed.
Nagios
Integration: Result of Nagios scans and notifications feed the IT Helpdesk and CMDB.
IT Helpdesk: The IT Helpdesk manages the lifecycle of tickets. For
each ticket type, a workflow is defined allowing configurable routing of
incidents through the organization. This way the module allows the management
of Incidents, Request for Change, Feature Requests, Software Bugs and other
events that require life-cycle management. Collected data provides results for
Key Performance Indicators and Business Intelligent Reporting, supporting
management decisions.
Configuration
Database: Configuration
Management is
supported by an integrated CMDB that ensures transparency of changes
performed and provides real-time information of Configuration Items managed.
Nagios
Integration: Result of Nagios scans and notifications feed the IT Helpdesk and CMDB.
Timesheet
Management[edit]
Timesheet
Management allows tracking of time on project tasks and tickets. Several
reports are available to extract time-sheet data and make it available to
supervisors or HR staff based on the integrated permission system. A
pre-configured workflow allows supervisors to confirm time sheet data entered
by subordinates.
Timesheet
Management allows tracking of time on project tasks and tickets. Several
reports are available to extract time-sheet data and make it available to
supervisors or HR staff based on the integrated permission system. A
pre-configured workflow allows supervisors to confirm time sheet data entered
by subordinates.
Financial
Management[edit]
Internal/external
costs: Besides time-sheet costs, the system also allows tracking other project
expenses, such as costs for travel, accommodation, etc. A pre-configured
workflow allows the creation of "expense bundles" that would need to
be confirmed before these costs are considered in the projects profit and loss calculation.
Invoices: Invoices can be created based on various
criteria (planned/billable/logged units). This process is supported by a
wizard. Also other financial documents, such as Provider Bills and Quotes are
created semi-automatically, based on data about customers and projects managed
by the system.
Cost Centers: The
cost-center module allows assignments of costs to cost centers across projects.
Financial
Reporting: Several financial reporting are available to determine profit and
loss, cash flow, and cost-effectiveness of
operations. Data cubes provide data-warehouse-like reporting, giving the user
the option to select dimensions.
Internal/external
costs: Besides time-sheet costs, the system also allows tracking other project
expenses, such as costs for travel, accommodation, etc. A pre-configured
workflow allows the creation of "expense bundles" that would need to
be confirmed before these costs are considered in the projects profit and loss calculation.
Invoices: Invoices can be created based on various
criteria (planned/billable/logged units). This process is supported by a
wizard. Also other financial documents, such as Provider Bills and Quotes are
created semi-automatically, based on data about customers and projects managed
by the system.
Cost Centers: The
cost-center module allows assignments of costs to cost centers across projects.
Financial
Reporting: Several financial reporting are available to determine profit and
loss, cash flow, and cost-effectiveness of
operations. Data cubes provide data-warehouse-like reporting, giving the user
the option to select dimensions.
Knowledge management and collaboration[edit]
File Manager:
File Managers are used to connect arbitrary files to principal business objects
such as customers, clients, users and projects. Permissions can be set on a
folder level.
Wiki: A wiki with Media wiki syntax allows to associate wiki pages
with projects, customer or users.
Forum: Forum
supports project collaboration. Several thread types are available. For each
contribution permissions can be set. Some types provide basic workflow support.
Full text search
engine: A user can search across all data stored in the system. Results depend
on access permissions of items found.
File Manager:
File Managers are used to connect arbitrary files to principal business objects
such as customers, clients, users and projects. Permissions can be set on a
folder level.
Wiki: A wiki with Media wiki syntax allows to associate wiki pages
with projects, customer or users.
Forum: Forum
supports project collaboration. Several thread types are available. For each
contribution permissions can be set. Some types provide basic workflow support.
Full text search
engine: A user can search across all data stored in the system. Results depend
on access permissions of items found.
Human
resources[edit]
Absence
Management: Users can enter their absences. A pre-configured workflow is
available routing the inquiry to the users supervisor.
Unified employee
record: Employee data that can be managed is available to HR managers.
Skill Management:
This module allows the management of user skills. Categories and attributes
therein are configurable. Users can manage their skills themselves if
permission is given. Supervisors can confirm or deny skills set by a user.
Absence
Management: Users can enter their absences. A pre-configured workflow is
available routing the inquiry to the users supervisor.
Unified employee
record: Employee data that can be managed is available to HR managers.
Skill Management:
This module allows the management of user skills. Categories and attributes
therein are configurable. Users can manage their skills themselves if
permission is given. Supervisors can confirm or deny skills set by a user.
Customer relationship management[edit]
Unified customer
record: A unified customer record contains relevant information about customers,
such as contact information, financial data, past projects, etc.
Email campaigns:
Email campaigns can be performed.
Email
integration: Emails can be imported from a mail server and will be auto-assigned to users and
projects.
Pre-sales
Support: Forum and additional dynamic fields helps managing the pre-sales phase
of a project.
Unified customer
record: A unified customer record contains relevant information about customers,
such as contact information, financial data, past projects, etc.
Email campaigns:
Email campaigns can be performed.
Email
integration: Emails can be imported from a mail server and will be auto-assigned to users and
projects.
Pre-sales
Support: Forum and additional dynamic fields helps managing the pre-sales phase
of a project.
History[edit]
Project-Open has been built based on the work of Philip Greenspun of ArsDigita.
Frank Bergmann took this system and added extensions for the management of
translation companies in 2003. In 2003 the project was published on Sourceforge,[2] and Klaus Hofeditz joined the team. In
2009 the application had been extended by an ITSM Service
Desk, Configuration
Management Databaseand a Nagios integration to support IT Management
processes.
History[edit]
Microsoft Project 2000
Microsoft
Project was initially proposed by Microsoft's Manager of Product Development, Alan M. Boyd,
as an internal tool to help manage the huge number of software projects that
were in development at any time inside the company. Boyd wrote the
specification and engaged a local Seattle company to develop the prototype.
The
first commercial version of Project was released for DOS in 1984.
Microsoft bought all rights to the software in 1985 and released version 2.
Version 3 for DOS was released in 1986. Version 4 for DOS was the final DOS
version, released in 1986. The first Windowsversion
was released in 1990, and was labelled version 1 for Windows.
In
1991 a Macintosh version
was released. Development continued until Microsoft Project 4.0 for Mac in
1993. In 1994, Microsoft stopped development of most of its Mac applications
and did not offer a new version of Office until 1998, after the creation of the
new Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit the year prior. The Mac Business Unit
never released an updated version of Project, and the last version does not run
natively on Mac OS X.
Microsoft
Project 95 was the first to use common Office menus.
Microsoft
Project 98 was the first to use Tahoma font
in the menu bars and to contain Office
Assistant, like all Office 97 applications. Project 98 SR-1 was a
major service release addressing several issues in Project 98. [3]
Versions
were released in 1992 (v3.0), 1993 (v4.0), 1995 (v4.1a), 1998 (v9.0), 2000
(v10.0), 2003 (v11.0), 2007 (v12.0), 2010 (v14.0) and 2013 (v15.0).[4] There
was no Version 2 on the Windows platform; the original design spec was
augmented with the addition of macro capabilities and the extra work required
to support a macro language pushed the development schedule out to early 1992
(Version 3).
Features[edit]
Microsoft Project 2007 showing a simpleGantt chart
Project
creates budgets based on assignment work and resource rates. As resources are
assigned to tasks and assignment work estimated, the program calculates the
cost, equal to the work times the rate, which rolls up to the task level and
then to any summary tasks and finally to the project level. Resource
definitions (people, equipment and materials) can be shared between projects
using a shared resource pool. Each resource can have its own calendar, which
defines what days and shifts a resource is available. Resource rates are used
to calculate resource assignment costs which are rolled up and summarized at
the resource level. Each resource can be assigned to multiple tasks in multiple
plans and each task can be assigned multiple resources, and the application
schedules task work based on the resource availability as defined in the
resource calendars. All resources can be defined in label without limit.
Therefore it cannot determine how many finished products can be produced with a
given amount of raw materials. This makes Microsoft Project unsuitable for
solving problems of available materials constrained production. Additional
software is necessary to manage a complex facility that produces physical
goods.
The
application creates critical path schedules, and critical
chain and event chain methodology third-party
add-ons also are available. Schedules can be resource leveled, and chains are visualized in
a Gantt chart.
Additionally, Microsoft Project can recognize different classes of users. These
different classes of users can have differing access levels to projects, views,
and other data. Custom objects such as calendars, views, tables, filters, and
fields are stored in an enterprise global which is shared by all users.
Project-Open has been built based on the work of Philip Greenspun of ArsDigita.
Frank Bergmann took this system and added extensions for the management of
translation companies in 2003. In 2003 the project was published on Sourceforge,[2] and Klaus Hofeditz joined the team. In
2009 the application had been extended by an ITSM Service
Desk, Configuration
Management Databaseand a Nagios integration to support IT Management
processes.
History[edit]
Microsoft Project 2000
Microsoft
Project was initially proposed by Microsoft's Manager of Product Development, Alan M. Boyd,
as an internal tool to help manage the huge number of software projects that
were in development at any time inside the company. Boyd wrote the
specification and engaged a local Seattle company to develop the prototype.
The
first commercial version of Project was released for DOS in 1984.
Microsoft bought all rights to the software in 1985 and released version 2.
Version 3 for DOS was released in 1986. Version 4 for DOS was the final DOS
version, released in 1986. The first Windowsversion
was released in 1990, and was labelled version 1 for Windows.
In
1991 a Macintosh version
was released. Development continued until Microsoft Project 4.0 for Mac in
1993. In 1994, Microsoft stopped development of most of its Mac applications
and did not offer a new version of Office until 1998, after the creation of the
new Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit the year prior. The Mac Business Unit
never released an updated version of Project, and the last version does not run
natively on Mac OS X.
Microsoft
Project 95 was the first to use common Office menus.
Microsoft
Project 98 was the first to use Tahoma font
in the menu bars and to contain Office
Assistant, like all Office 97 applications. Project 98 SR-1 was a
major service release addressing several issues in Project 98. [3]
Versions
were released in 1992 (v3.0), 1993 (v4.0), 1995 (v4.1a), 1998 (v9.0), 2000
(v10.0), 2003 (v11.0), 2007 (v12.0), 2010 (v14.0) and 2013 (v15.0).[4] There
was no Version 2 on the Windows platform; the original design spec was
augmented with the addition of macro capabilities and the extra work required
to support a macro language pushed the development schedule out to early 1992
(Version 3).
Features[edit]
Microsoft Project 2007 showing a simpleGantt chart
Project
creates budgets based on assignment work and resource rates. As resources are
assigned to tasks and assignment work estimated, the program calculates the
cost, equal to the work times the rate, which rolls up to the task level and
then to any summary tasks and finally to the project level. Resource
definitions (people, equipment and materials) can be shared between projects
using a shared resource pool. Each resource can have its own calendar, which
defines what days and shifts a resource is available. Resource rates are used
to calculate resource assignment costs which are rolled up and summarized at
the resource level. Each resource can be assigned to multiple tasks in multiple
plans and each task can be assigned multiple resources, and the application
schedules task work based on the resource availability as defined in the
resource calendars. All resources can be defined in label without limit.
Therefore it cannot determine how many finished products can be produced with a
given amount of raw materials. This makes Microsoft Project unsuitable for
solving problems of available materials constrained production. Additional
software is necessary to manage a complex facility that produces physical
goods.
The
application creates critical path schedules, and critical
chain and event chain methodology third-party
add-ons also are available. Schedules can be resource leveled, and chains are visualized in
a Gantt chart.
Additionally, Microsoft Project can recognize different classes of users. These
different classes of users can have differing access levels to projects, views,
and other data. Custom objects such as calendars, views, tables, filters, and
fields are stored in an enterprise global which is shared by all users.