July 16, 2019July 16, 2019 Linky

Review: Tool to Make Project Planning Fast and Enjoyable

By Victoria Zhlobich

Project plans made easier to do and to share

If you are in the market for a software that helps to make project planning and the sharing of those plans really easy, you may like GanttPRO.

GanttPRO is an online Gantt chart software used for project planning, task management, collaboration, team and resource management as well as cost management. The software is highly estimated by professionals thanks to an intuitive UX/UI design, a short learning curve, and robust features. Worldwide 350K+ managers and other project participants already tried the solution and made sure that project planning and management can be fast and enjoyable.

The software is mainly used by teams. However, managers and individuals use it for personal projects and purposes too. The tool has a 14-day free trial with all the features available so that anyone can decide whether GanttPRO is a good fit for them.

The software is able to become a powerful and affordable alternative to Microsoft Project. In case you already planned your project in MS Project, you have a chance to import it to GanttPRO and see for yourself all the advantages.

In GanttPRO, there are ready-made Gantt chart templates designed for a variety of professional spheres: software development, construction, marketing, design, manufacturing, etc. They include typical tasks and offer a typical structure for an easy start. However, templates are fully customizable.

The main benefits of GanttPRO

Transparent task management

You can create tasks literally in seconds from one menu defining:

Their start and end dates
Assignees
Dependencies with other tasks
Deadlines
Progress
Status
Priority
Duration and estimation
Completeness
Milestones
Requirements
Colors

All this information is available directly in the task settings menu. In the project grid, you can add columns or hide those you don’t need.

One of the most useful features in GanttPRO that distinguishes it from competitors is the possibility to add Custom columns. They do not limit project participants to certain settings and allow working with personal information available through Text, Number, Date, List, Checkbox, and Color columns.

Team and resource management

GanttPRO online Gantt chart maker allows working with real team members and virtual resources. Team management is available via email invitations only on the Team plans. At the same time, virtual resources are created just in a few clicks and available even on the Individual plan. If you are not deeply engaged in team management, virtual resources can be a working way-out. The tool offers the following time working units for team and resource management: per hour, per item, and cost.

Per hour means that the cost is calculated per hour for a labor resource
Per item means that the cost is calculated per item for a material resource
Cost is a fixed value with no connections to time and items

GanttPRO makes provision for the following roles: an Owner, an Admin, and a Member.

An Owner of a project is in charge of billing and has all the rights on it: he/she adds or removes people, grants rights to edit a project or see costs.
An Admin has almost the same rights as an Owner but he/she can’t pay for the subscription.
A Member can work only on those tasks that he/she is assigned to. All the rest is not available

Collaboration

Collaboration in GanttPRO allows team members to be fully aware of current updates in tasks. Project participants can:

Comment tasks
Attach files to them
Describe requirements for tasks
Mention people
Get real-time notifications about changes in tasks they are assigned to.

Export and sharing

The Gantt chart software allows having a physical project at hand thanks to the advanced Export feature as well as showcasing plans to third parties thanks to Sharing via URL feature.

Export in GanttPRO is very powerful. On the screen, you can see how your chart will look like after exporting.

You can choose the following options:

Format: PDF, PNG, XML, Excel
Paper size
Orientation
Filter
Zoom
Critical path
Today marker
Workload
Type of columns

Sharing via URL allows presenting to third parties, even not registered in GanttPRO, two states of a plan: a dynamic and static ones.

The dynamic option means that a plan is updated even after sharing when changes happen in a project.

The static option means that a plan remains the same as it has been at the moment of creation. It does not reflect changes.

Conclusion

GanttPRO is a tool for everyone who needs powerful planning, team management, and collaboration. It is all combined with an intuitive interface and an affordable pricing policy.

August 8, 2017 Linky

The Benefit of Resource Driven Updates on Projects

By Biraj Borah

Project planning and monitoring may be quite simple on average projects, but for larger projects it is a complex set of tasks and activities. During Planning, once the scope is defined, firstly the high-level activities are listed as Level 1 (L1). A rough time estimate is given and only the major milestones are defined. With respect to the Level 1 milestones, further levels are then defined. And the number of levels depends on the size and complexity of the project.

In Planning, this process of defining all task levels to be done on a project, helps to create the work breakdown structure, also called WBS. And the final level of the WBS is the activity. Completion of all the defined activities under the WBS, will lead to completion of all the in scope deliverables.

Traditional Method to Update Progress

According to the traditional method, we update by dragging the Gantt chart or edit in % completion field. Using this approach, there is no relation to the resource assigned to the task and is mostly manually driven by the user. This seems simple enough. But on a complex project, there is no validation of how that percentage is arrived? Large projects require project task against certain validation. Without any tools, the project manager has to rely on other details and supporting documents which makes the project much more complex to monitor.

Modern Approach – Driven by Resources (Human, Capital & Material)

TIEMCHART project management software provides the modern approach to monitoring task progress based on resource update assigned to that task. Each task or WBS may be driven by various resources – human, machinery and material resources.

An individual WBS may involve completion of multiple sets of resources. If you are talking about a consulting business, a task may involve assigning the consultant a set number of hours or it may involve delivering a set number of design documents or other reports. Now such tasks can be monitored based on either the number of hours completed or number of design documents submitted against the plan.

Similarly for a procurement task, it may involve delivering a set quantity of cement bags, steel pipes etc. Likewise such deliverables can be assigned against the task or WBS. Progress of the task can be automated based on actual number of cement bags or steel pipes delivered.

Set Resource Planning & Requirement

Once the resources are identified against the task, you can plan the quantity / hours deliverables against the task. Based on such assignments, project progress can be monitored.

Single resource – if a task involves using single resource. Deliverables such as number of hours or quantity can be specified against the task
Multiple resource – Tasks that involves multiple resources can have a bearing based on number of items delivered against such multiple resources

Monitor Task Progress Based On Resource Assignment

Depending on task planning and resource assignment, task progress can be monitored based on actual delivery of such resources. Be it human or machinery engagement in number of hours, material resources in quantity, task progress can be measured and monitored in real time based on such deliveries.

Benefits of Resource Driven Updates

TIEMCHART is the first Project Management Software to bring the solution of automated project progress based on resources. This helps businesses to cut down project delays and finishing more projects on time. Being a cloud-based solution, it also simplifies implementation and reduce expensive installation costs.

Visit Tiemchart and request a free demo.

May 2, 2017December 22, 2018 Linky

5 Benefits of Using a Future Fit Critical Chain Project Management Software

Software review by Irina Viter, multi-project management researcher

Epicflow is an online Project Management tool designed for business experts who want to manage large numbers of projects simultaneously without project delays and cost escalations. The web-based PM software works in tandem with MS Project and Jira, the most commonly used project management tools, as well as Topdesk, Trimergo, Primavera, and CA Clarity.

This online project management tool was developed by two Dutch scientists, Albert Ponsteen and Jan Willem Tromp, to prevent overload, reduce planning headaches, and set priorities in dynamic workplaces. Having spent nearly 30 years in project management environments of different kinds, Ponsteen and Tromp recognized that project management experts are badly in need of software features that can bring order and simplicity to their multi-project environments.

Benefits and Strengths

Epicflow is the next generation of Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) software, offering capacity buffers for resources in addition to time buffers. It approaches project management from the perspective of resource availability, as this is the most effective way to avert the risk of overload and release bottlenecks as soon as they appear. The key benefit of the Epicflow project management tool is that it creates perfect flow by helping business leaders create effort-based workloads and set priorities.
With Epicflow, project management experts can achieve complete visibility over team performance and notice the “bugs” in their business processes as soon as they show up. The system immediately points to overloaded, “stuck” employees who hold back a project’s velocity. You get a real-time overview of all projects in the portfolio, sorted by priority.
Epicflow creates order out of chaotic planning routines. Its smart algorithm eliminates all the waste so people can work according to project priorities and situations of overload are reduced to a minimum. Project managers immediately feel the reduction in planning and management overhead.
This innovative management tool helps you reach high team performance. With adequate resource planning and effort-based workloads, employees are less likely to suffer stress at work, and will be more proactive.
Epicflow increases project awareness by including a mobile application to control resource groups and stay abreast of current projects regardless of location.

Features

Epicflow’s features complement MS Project and Jira, upgrading them for multi-project environments and infusing predictive analytics into an ordinary capacity planning routine. The most striking features of this PM software include:

Future load graphs to help you take control of resource planning and predict the impact of additional projects on the existing projects in your pipeline;
A pipeline showing multiple projects, milestones, and bottlenecks;

Pipeline with bottlenecks shown in red above

Pipeline indicating the amount of hours that a project lacks below

Historical load graph presenting group performance, capacity, load, and output over time;
Burndown chart;
Weeks remaining;
Task list;
Reporting;
User mapping.

The allocation of resource groups among three PM tools (Jira, Trimergo, MSP) and their associated workloads.

Clients Success Stories

Epicflow has already proven effective for many clients in the form of its previous offline version Flow MPM. This is what clients have to say about the software:

TKF: “With this project management software we increased our output by 200% and reduced lead-time by 50% in 2 years. We are also able to give our customers a realistic commitment.” Hans de Boer, R&D Director, TKF
THALES: “This PM tool resource status is giving you visibility in the near future whether you run into bottlenecks. By doing this it gives you enough time to act accordingly.” Frank Zalm, Program Manager, Thales Nederland
DSM: “Analyzing FLOW MPM data shows that agility on projects is increasing and efficiency is going up.” Rigo Bosman, Application Development, DSM Dyneema
PILZ: “Epicflow has given us a significant improvement in the amount of projects we can deliver nowadays.” Jan Tournois, Director, PILZ NL

Visit Epicflow for more information.

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May 6, 2015 Linky

Project Success Story: National Point of Sales System Upgrade

By Linky van der Merwe

This project story from project manager, Anwar Rawoot, is about the migration from a legacy Point of Sales (POS) system to a new POS system at 265 retail stores nationally that took three years to complete.

The complexity was in the fact that the project team only had a 12-hour window from the time a store closed until the next morning it opened to do the replacement, which included network infrastructure, shop fitting, POS and testing. A shop’s data would be migrated overnight and once the new system is in, it was migrated back to the new system.

Challenges

The project’s biggest constraints were that when server problems were experienced, it would take 8 hours to rebuild and in the case of till problems, it would take 3 hours to rebuild.

The way it was executed, was to do one store each night. All work had to be done after hours and there was only one team per region to do the work. They had to sleep during the day and work at night which had a family impact.

Working after hours

The challenge was how to work a 5-day week back-to-back and then an additional 24 hours shift. People became overworked, and the quality of work dropped. Some people even became ill over time. It also took three months to train people to the right level of expertise.

Eventually the plans were changed….. Read on

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Part of the Success Stories Shared initiative to collect Success Stories from experienced project/programme managers in order to share experiences and to promote learning across the project and programme management community. If you would like to share your project story and make a contribution to the bigger project management profession, contact me on linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com

Success Stories Shared