jmeissen@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (John Meissen) (09/11/90)
The Oregon Advanced Computing Institute (OACIS) is looking for a project planning and management system with the following capabilities: 1) The ability to specify "Task Work Units". That is, we want to be able to specify the time it takes to perform a task in man-months, man-weeks or some other unit. Then, depending on how many resources are assined to that task, the system should automatically adjust the duration of the task. MacProject II has this capability. 2) The ability to specify multiple precedence relationships accross sub- projects. Suppose I have a hierarchical structure in my project consisting of multiple levels of sub-projects and tasks. It may be required to set precedence relationships between various tasks in different sub-projects. SunTrack has this capability. 3) The ability to perform resource leveling with the constraints of the available resources, including allocating the percentage of time resources are assigned to tasks. Suppose I am designing a project in which there are a number of people constituting a given resource. I need to have the system assign these resources to different tasks and possibly allocate the percentage of time that this resource spends on given tasks. The object is to minimize the duration of the project, without exceeding the total resources allocated for the project. Presumably, if the desired schedule cannot be met, more resources can be allocated. Thanks for any assistance. Please reply via e-mail. G. William Walster, Research Director, Computation and Algorithms, OACIS fuddy@oacis.org
jma@lgc.com ( John Amason) (09/22/90)
In article <12035@ogicse.ogi.edu> jmeissen@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (John Meissen) writes: >The Oregon Advanced Computing Institute (OACIS) is looking for a project >planning and management system with the following capabilities: > >1) The ability to specify "Task Work Units". That is, we want to be able >to specify the time it takes to perform a task in man-months, man-weeks or >some other unit. Then, depending on how many resources are assined to that >task, the system should automatically adjust the duration of the task. >MacProject II has this capability. > >2) The ability to specify multiple precedence relationships accross sub- >projects. Suppose I have a hierarchical structure in my project consisting >of multiple levels of sub-projects and tasks. It may be required to set >precedence relationships between various tasks in different sub-projects. >SunTrack has this capability. > >3) The ability to perform resource leveling with the constraints of the >available resources, including allocating the percentage of time resources >are assigned to tasks. Suppose I am designing a project in which there are >a number of people constituting a given resource. I need to have the system >assign these resources to different tasks and possibly allocate the percentage >of time that this resource spends on given tasks. The object is to minimize >the duration of the project, without exceeding the total resources allocated >for the project. Presumably, if the desired schedule cannot be met, more >resources can be allocated. > >Thanks for any assistance. >Please reply via e-mail. > >G. William Walster, >Research Director, >Computation and Algorithms, >OACIS >fuddy@oacis.org I am in the process of evaluating several commercial project management products and would also appreciate email describing PD or commercial solutions. John Amason Landmark Graphics Corp. jamason@lgc.com
cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu (Andrew M. Cohill) (09/24/90)
If you are looking at project mangagement software for the Mac, MacProject II is bound to end up on your list. It does some things very well--graphical interface, good flowcharts, ok timelines, moderately sophisticated resource allocation and leveling. However, it falls down in what I feel is an absolutely critical area--reporting. It reproduces the graphical charts just fine, but tabular reports are virtually impossible to print. On every project with even two or three people, you want to be able to print out a milestone/task list sorted by project member, among other simple reports. Forget it with MacProject II. I've taught PM professionally, and it appears to me that MacProject was designed by a software person who read a book on project management, not by someone actually acquainted with the details of PM. Printed reports are usually much more useful than fancy on-screen graphics; don't be fooled by a bunch of gee-whiz features that get in the way of good solid information reporting. My guess is that Claris could care less about this product. They made a few cosmetic changes when Apple turned it over to them, and it's been dead ever since. -- | ...we have to look for routes of power our teachers never | imagined, or were encouraged to avoid. T. Pynchon |Andy Cohill cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu VPI&SU |703/231-7855