lunes, 20 de septiembre de 2010

Project Management Software

At the moment Microsoft Project is covering big portion of the total of users of PM programs, but one of the common lacks of Microsoft is to forget about architectures or operative systems different than Windows.


--PalmOS--
*Natara Project@Hand 2

Project@Hand for PalmOS

Can import/export to Ms Project only if you install a software in your windows desktop and sync, the palm device. On the other hand you can use as stand alone app.


--MacOSX--
*OpenProj 1.4



Works stable and include the basic features, translated to some languages, many data fields, few customizable, interface could be better, Net plan view is a crap, and


Save as: .pod(default), Project2003 XML, Project .mpp, .mpx
Open XML, Ms.Project, Gnome Planner
Doesn't support project 2010 files
(Opensource and Multi-platform)


!! Notes on MacOS:
-Some features requires right button click therefore you have to use a normal mouse or press apple+alt+click instead of standard ctrl-mousebutton
-Change Date format (mm/dd/yyyy) to (dd/mm/yyyy)
edit /Applications/OpenProj.app/Contents/Info.plist
-Xms128m -Xmx768m -Duser.region=GB
-Change Interface language, add "-Duser.language=en" inside the tag
-If you are creating a new relation of dependency and you have an error, check your task and if your task has a successor then remove this relation, define predecessor dependency, and now you can create the removed relation again.


MERLIN SCREENSHOT


*Merlin 2.7.7

Nice and usable interface, good Net plan view, many data fields.

Open Project files (.mpp, .mpx), Project XML
Many option to save/export, merlin2, project, CSV, FreeMind, Image, OmniOutliner, HTML,iCal
Commercial

!! Notes:
Be careful if you import Ms project files, and check/ask about some correct dates because Merlin use some data fields in differente way than Ms. Project and the dates could change.


*OmniPlan 1.7
Basic project management software with few data fields.
Open Ms.Project files XML and mpp (fails opening .xml files saved with Merlin or Openproj)
Many option to export, project .mpx .XML, CSV, Image, OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, HTML,iCal
Commercial

!! Notes:
This software doesn't have a PERT or Net view, fails to open some files, and sometimes when you export. Maybe in a future could be an alternative to Merlin but not now.


--Windows--
*Openworkbench 1.1.6
Powerful software, specially for PM power user, customizable views including many data fields, best alternative to Ms. Project.

Used for a long time, works stable moreover can be used as a standalone app or to connect to CA Clarity PPM Servers.
Only for Windows(requires Java)

!!Note: For Ms. project users, the planification is done using the effort (hours) of resource assigned to task.

*Ms. Project 2007
The most popular PM software, you must configure the view to show baseline bars in the Gantt, could be easier like in the alternatives.

Save as: Project .mpp, .xls, .csv, xml
Open XML, Ms.Project *

*Like is common in Microsoft, lacks of compatibility with other formats



*ConceptDraw PROJECT
Default format: cdpz(conceptdraw project), cdpx (xml)

Save as: Ms Project XML, mmap(MindManager)
Open: Ms Project( xml, mpp, mpt, mpx), mmap(MindManager)
Multiplatform. Mac, Windows
version 6.3.0 included in ConceptDraw Office 2

conceptProject gantt screenshot