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Say goodbye
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What are the tools that keep a project afloat
and on track? This month Malcolm Raymond
from the Enex TestLab looks at project
management software.
egardless of the amount of programs When you start to consider large projects Project management can be applied to
R available to assist in project manage-
ment, many people are still taking a
very informal, unstructured approach to man-
that require a significant amount of investment,
the use of software project management tools
are necessary to help maximise the project re-
almost any type of project and, in particu-
lar, it is widely used to control the complex
processes of software development projects.
aging projects. turn on investment and lower the project risk. The planning stage is critical in order to
Sure, a very simple project could be repre- Additionally, many large corporations un- complete a project within a certain timeframe,
sented by a basic timeline on the back of an dertake projects with geographically dispersed usually with defined stages and with designated
envelope or on a whiteboard, but what happens team members: with the move to outsourcing resources. Normally project planning divides
when times/dates change and a staff member (ie in many industries, the team members may the activity into stages such as setting objec-
resource) that you’ve selected for a task is not even be in different countries. In these situa- tives (that should be measurable), identifying
available on a particular day? tions additional features need to be provided deliverables, planning the schedule and making
When tasks get more complex it seems man- by the project management tool, and several supporting plans. These supporting plans may
agers make a move into software tools such as products also have a range of work collabora- be related to: human resources, communication
an Excel spreadsheet to help with some of the tion features. methods and risk management.
planning and scheduling. However, for even For this review we have looked at projects
quite simple projects there are now a number of WHAT IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT? from @Task, Computer Associates, eProject,
project management software solutions avail- Project management can be defined as a Microsoft, Primavera and TASKey. We have
able that will greatly assist in the planning and methodical approach to planning and guiding examined these products based on their abilities
tracking of the project so that the manager is project processes from start to finish. Normally to manage such things as project tasks, costs
aware of the project status at all times and can the processes go through five stages: initiation, and resources, as well as aid communication
make adjustments when issues arise. planning, executing, monitoring and closing. and collaboration between all parties.
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in which each level in
the context is hyper-
linked enabling the user
to return to previous application screens.
Also worth noting is @Task’s ability to
sort lists in ascending or descending order
and improved information architecture.
@Task is offered as both a hosted solution
@TASK or it can be installed on the user’s system. We
We were one of the first had access to the hosted system so installa-
users to get a glimpse of the latest version of tion wasn’t required, but as described in the
the @Task Enterprise Project Management documentation it is database and server plat- such as IBM, Coles-Myer, and a wide
software package. Version 4.0 is due for release form independent. variety of government bodies. In the
this month and includes a number of new fea- As the product has been built to open Labs’ testing for T&B, they are in direct
tures over its predecessor v3.5. standards data can be used with other proc- contact with the clients supplying prod-
Of note are the improvements to the user in- esses and applications and its modular build ucts and the magazine is responsible for
terface, which contributed to the product’s ease also allows for extensibility and develop- the full cost of the testing. The findings
of use. One of these new features is the tabbed ment. We ran @Task on both the Firefox are the Labs’ own—only the specifica-
navigation interface, where tabs can be custom- and Internet Explorer 6 browsers with no tions of the products to be tested are
ised to display only the required data—the in- compatibility problems. provided by the magazine.
terface provides breadcrumb or trail navigation The opening or “Home” screen design is
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Product @Task v4 Product eProject Product MS Project
Vendor @Task Vendor eProject Vendor Microsoft
Phone +1 801 373 3266 Aust dist. Bluenova Phone 13 20 58
Web www.attask.com Phone +1 206 341 9117 Web www.microsoft.com/australia
08 9474 2990
Price Install option: US$350 per user Price Single user $1033
Hosted option: US$250 per user—per Web www.eproject.com
year plus 20 percent support, www.bluenova.com.au Interoperability ½
discounts for over 500 users. Price Install option US$395 per user ,
Runs on Windows 2000 or XP good user
Hosted option US$39.50 per user/month. interface.
Interoperability ½
Good feature set, excellent user inter- Interoperability Futureproofing ½
face, runs on most servers and supports Good feature set, good user interface, Project Professional is a standalone
the major databases. Client works with runs on Windows servers and MS SQL product but can be upgraded by using
major browsers. A rich set of APIs database. Client works with major Project Server.
provides integration with any application browsers. Web Services APIs for further
on any OS platform. integration. ROI
Relatively expensive compared with the
Futureproofing Futureproofing other systems especially when upgrading
Very scalable and can be run in a Very scalable from 10 to 10,000 users. to enterprise capability.
clustered environment. Hosted version Hosted version automatically upgraded.
automatically upgraded. Service
ROI Local support from Microsoft.
ROI Slightly more expensive than @Task but
Relatively low cost with the option to pay still good value hosted version reduces
as you use through the hosted system, infrastucture costs.
which also reduces infrastructure costs.
Service
Service Local training/consultancy support all
No local support but forum/FAQ other support from US.
support access, phone support, and
on-site training/consulting available for
additional cost.
Rating HHHH Rating HHHH Rating HHH
clean and uncluttered and includes four quick Issues, Timesheets, Users and Documents. My Tasks and My Projects.
link drop downs that provide very quick access A main navigational menu is provided on Under the Project Management section,
to key information of: “My”—Documents, the left-hand side of the screen and enables selected from the main left hand menu, we
Issues, Projects etc; “Find”—Companies, selection of Application Home, My Profile, found that setting up project team members
Documents, Issues etc; “Create”—Access level, Project Management, Resource Manage- and assigning project permission and tasks was
Company, Project, User etc; and “Recent” ment, Help Desk and Setup. The Application quite straightforward. Other controls include a
which contains a list of recent Projects, Tasks, Home has a set of quick links to My Profile, Timeline button that enables the selection of a
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Product Open Workbench/Clarity Product Primavera Product TASKey Team
Vendor Computer Associates Vendor Primavera Australia Vendor TASKey
Phone 02 9937 0500 Phone 03 9826 9292 Phone 02 6296 1150
Web www.ca.com Web www.primavera-aus.com Web www.taskey.com
Price Open Workbench: free. Price Average per-user cost Price Enterprise: based on 50/50
Clarity: 10 users $85,000 for 100+ users, split—supervisors to workers and
500 users $500,000 assuming typical mix of modules, $1000 includes MS Exchange Integration:
10 users $13,431,
Interoperability Interoperability 500 users $186,868
Runs on Windows and Unix servers and Runs on Unix and Windows servers and ASP version $25 setup fee per-user then
Oracle or MS SQL databases. Client MDE, Oracle and MS SQL databases. $25 per-user per-month
works on Windows or Mac. Good user Client Wndows, or major browsers for
interface. MyPrimavera. Very good user interface. Interoperability
Runs on Windows 2000/2003 Server and
Futureproofing ½ Futureproofing MS SQL, Oracle or Firebird databases.
Standalone product with good feature Very good scalability up to 10,000— Client works with major browsers. Very
set. Can only be upgraded using Clarity. plus users good user interface.
ROI ½ ROI Futureproofing
Open Workbench is free but investment Slightly more expensive but has very Very scalable through support load
required to upgrade to Clarity is good feature set, very robust and proven balanced Web servers, clustered data-
quite high. perfomance. base servers, clustered Exchange servers.
Service Service ½ ROI ½
No local support for Open Workbench Local support includes 24x7 “follow-the- Good value offered through hosted
but active user and developer forum. sun” support, access to free upgrades for version. Installed version is about the
Clarity support from CA at 20 percent 20 percent. same as the other products.
of price.
Service
Free support for the first year then a
support charge of 25 percent. Local
support
Rating HHH½ Rating HHHH Rating HHH½
Gantt chart, a calendar and resource grid. You that assist in the project documentation. These documents with the old version still being
can also recalculate timelines and replan the include the ability to prepare, search and view maintained. The Import/Export button gives the
project from this section. notes, prepare and view documents as well as project manager control to attach a template,
The Team button enables the project man- set up new directories and documents. save a project as a template, copy a project and
ager to view the Team, search for and add team Documents can be shared between users and export in MS Project format.
members and to search and add roles. The At- document version control lets users checkout, A number of resource management features
tachments button provides a number of features review and modify (based on permission) are provided and include functions to manage
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user schedules, job functions, skills and work. creation for users with administrator rights viewing, version tracking and also approval.
In addition the user/manager can create, ap- and the user’s personal calendar. Team members can also modify documents to
prove and manage time sheets. Other resource A project workspace can either be estab- provide some collaboration.
management functions include job roles for us- lished from scratch or created using templates Once a project has commenced, eProject has
ers, capacity planning—giving resource utilisa- available from the main horizontal tool bar. For a number of features that help to manage the
tion reports identifying resource conflicts—and our review we used a New Product Development project. Overall eProject has a great user inter-
capacity requirements. template supplied with eProject. The original face and feature set, and a good price although
Setting up a new project was quite simple, template is customised and when saved it ap- it does not display quite as much interoperabil-
this could be user defined or built from an pears in the Navigator. ity as some of the other products here.
existing template. This section also provides a Assigning resources is a breeze—the Mem-
button to Import a MS Project which displays bers button on the toolbar enables you to MICROSOFT PROJECT
a seven-step Import Wizard. The Wizard is well search for and select people to be involved in Project has been around for a long time and is
designed, clearly indicating what each step was the project as well as assign their roles. Once used by many project managers. All of the other
and where you are in the process. We imported assigned, the team members are sent an e-mail products tested in this review have some form of
a couple of very simple Microsoft Project work- notifying them of the project and their role—a import/export capability to Project.
sheets, and while they were imported easily they very handy feature. We are reviewing the standalone Project Pro-
did seem to lose some date information, but this By selecting Resources on the toolbar a team fessional but Microsoft also has an enterprise
was easy to change, and you need to do this for resources bar graph can be displayed that shows version that contains collaboration features
a new project anyway. for working with remote workers, timesheets
Overall @Task is a fully featured pro so on. To take advantage of these features
management package that covers the gam ject Professional has to be used with Server
of requirements for enterprise-level wor 03, Web Access Point and Sharepoint. The
We were particularly impressed with the erprise solution has been put together from
effort @Task has made in developing a number of other existing products which
standards-based, versatile architecture. means that the interface does appear to be
somewhat inconsistent as you move through
EPROJECT e various components.
eProject is available as both a hosted an The standalone version of Project has seen
censed solution—we chose the hosted op ny changes over the years, many of which
and were up and running without installati e been introduced to increase ease of use.
Rather than being a straight project man Project screen has a Microsoft Office look
ment tool, eProject has gone one step fu feel with the added buttons that are project-
and prepared a number of “bundled” prod nagement specific. In particular, buttons are
that include templates tailored to suit key busi- provided to select a number of functions under
ness requirements. These “in-a-box” solutions the availability for each person selected with the headings: Tasks, Resources, Track and Re-
include Project Management Office, IT Govern- their availability colour coded to show if the port. Each of these buttons has a drop-down list
ance, Project Portfolio Management, Sarbanes person is allocated (blue), has additional avail- offering a wide range of alternatives.
-Oxley, Six Sigma and Advanced Reporting. ability (white) or is over allocated (red). A Project Guide pane is included on the left-
Some of these products may be of use to organi- Finally, specific tasks can be assigned to the hand side of the screen and includes instructions
sations that want to apply more methodology team members and they will be sent another e- or tools to assist the user with many of the com-
and process to their business practices and also mail asking them to login to eProject to view mon tasks that a project manager might want
assist in moving towards achieving better gov- their task and their resource status is updated. to undertake. As an example, clicking on the
ernance and compliance. Alternatively, by viewing the project Gantt “Define the project” link invokes a short three-
When first starting eProject, a Dashboard chart, team members can be assigned to tasks step wizard to set up the project.
page provides a summary of key sections of using a drag-and-drop process. Task dependen- Because Project was only provided in a
information that can be tailored to suit the indi- cies can also be set this way. In addition, a standalone version it doesn’t actually meet the
vidual user requirements, such as providing key baseline view can be created from the Gantt scenario criteria, however, Project has been a
summary points for executive review. chart that enables the project manager to track market leader for a long time and should not
We found the interface to be clean and and compare the project progress against the be disregarded.
quite intuitive—the left hand side panel or original schedule.
quick dashboard includes links to the user All projects have a range of documents OPEN WORKBENCH
start page, a search capability to items, work- associated with them and eProject provides Originally developed as an open-source product,
space names and users, a Navigator or tree a document-management feature that al- Open Workbench has been taken over by Com-
representation of projects/task, workspace lows project documents to be uploaded for puter Associates (CA) as part of its purchase of
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Niku, an IT management and governance soft- Open Workbench, in common with many f
ware vendor. Although Open Workbench doesn’t other open-source packages, has no formal sup- t
provide some of the more advanced collabora- port—you need to purchase it separately. How- t
tive and other features required under our test ever, there is an active forum group that goes a p
scenario it was included in our review as it can long way to resolving problems that novice (and
be used with the CA Clarity product to provide some experienced users) might have, and good a
an Enterprise solution. documentation provides product description t
T&B invited CA to submit Clarity for review, and usage information.
however, CA declined stating: “Because of In common with many of the other pack- w
the breadth and depth of the solution and the ages reviewed here, Open Workbench is able w
myriad of configuration options, CA does not to import Microsoft Project files. The interface t
provide evaluation copies of this software.” is clean with major selection groups down the u
CA did, however, provide a demonstration of left hand side including Favourites, Planning, d
the product. Executing, Controlling and Filters & Sorts. wide-ranging features that it offers. Clarity is
Being an open-source product, Open Work- The Favourites provides the selection of project a Project Portfolio Management Solution that
bench has gained a lot of support and its site re- views and includes Gantt Chart, Critical Path enables organisations to effectively manage
ports there have been nearly 65,000 downloads Method (CPM) Network and the Phase Level project portfolios.
of the product. While there are similarities Gantt, which is similar to the standard Gantt Overall, Open Workbench is a great choice
between Microsoft Project and Open Work- except that it displays only the phases in a for readers who are just putting a toe into the
bench, the fundamental difference between the project, and not all tasks in the project’s Work project management water as it has good fea-
products is that Project is task driven, and Open Breakdown Structure (WBS). tures, is free and has a great growth path due to
Workbench is resource driven. Open Workbench has an Auto Schedule the Clarity enterprise system.
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Product @Task Project Management Software Computer Associates (CA) eProject, Project Management Software
Distributor @Task CA Bluenova
Accessability Runs on any operating system that supports Browser based 100% Browser Based
Java.
Calendar support Collaborative and Multiple work calendars Yes at a project and resource level Native project calendar supports I-Calendar
format and Outlook synchronization
Client OS supported All OS/hosted Windows and Macintosh Browser based
Collaboration Web based, with features such as Through browser based project and Document management with version control,
automated, manual notifications, audit resource modulesand Clarity core threaded discussions, polling, news boards,
trails, approval process. module workflow
Database support Oracle, Microsoft SQL, MySQL Oracle, Microsoft SQL Microsoft SQL
Deployment options Installed enterprise version hosted by client. Use CA resources, train internal On demand (hosted software as a service or
Hosted enterprise version hosted by @Task resources or a mixture of internal customer site installed)
and external
Document All docs version control, document preview, Integrated document management Version control, check in/check out, version
management check in/check out, security controlled. at a project and system level retention, approval routing, zip file upload,
features thumbnail preview, item level security.
File types handled All All All
Import/export Import/Export of MS Project .xml and Via Clarity XML gateway Zip file import/export for documents, .csv
capability .mpp. TSV and CSV exports of any lists in for most other data elements. MSFT Project
the application. sync option.
Integration All functionality in the UI is available on Most Clarity implementations Active Directory, MSFT Outlook Sync,
with enterprise any platform, any language, from local or integrate to Financial and HR MSFT Project Sync. Web Services API’s
applications remote host. systems via out XML Open Gateway for other integration.
Issue management Help Desk feature enables each project to be Yes, using PMBOK rules Native issue tracking with assignments,
features activated to track issues and customised to status, and user definable fields.
capture information.
Mobility solutions Hosted. WAP enabled for cell phone Clarity client is native Web Outlook sync for tasks and calendar
accessbility
Portfolio Projects, tasks, issues and financials in exec Portfolio Manager module able to Portfolio dashboards and scorecard for
management views. Milestone report, cost, budget roll customise portfolio analysis portlets aggregation
features ups, progress status across all projects.
Reporting formats/ html, flash, .tsv, .csv., MS Projects, saved Clarity comes with native reports Canned Reports. Ad Hoc Reports, Crystal
options searches, any external reporting system like that can be modified or new reports Reports. Excel, .pdf, .csv output put options.
Crystal Reports through Web Servcies APIs built.
Resource Detailed resource allocation reports for Resource planner module includes Full resource demand and capacity planning
management projects, tasks, and issues. resource finder, capacity planning, by resource type and name. Tracks actual
resource requisitioning and skills versus estimates.
management componnents
Scalability Horizontally scalable and can be run in a From 15 to over 20,000 end users From 10 to 10,000 users
clustered environment.
Security User access level gives rights to all Security is role based Item level security. Role based permissions.
functional areas. Custom scopes can also be Fully customisable roles and security
defined further parameters
Server OS supported Windows, Unix, Linux, OS X- Non-Platform Windows, AIX, HP-UX Windows 2000 and 2003
Specific.
Timesheet Timesheets supported and are customisable Yes Native integrated timesheets with automatic
project and task data display. Real time
updates to schedule.
Web client All Yes Browser based.
Workflow support Flexible workflow. Automated notifications, Yes Integrated workflow—customisable by
advanced dependency structures for projects module.
and tasks.
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Primavera MS Project TASKey TEAM Technology
Primavera Australia Microsoft Australia TASKey
Flexible, configurable user interface Fully supports Windows accessability features Not fully compliant
Project, company, role, user based, shift Extensible calendar support through defined Users maintain their own calendar based on
support, etc. working hours, can be associated with their ability to contribute
individual resources or groups
Windows 2000, 2003 and XP Windows 2000 or later IE browser based
Primavera Web broswer based project Shared workspaces allow users to store files Matrix management capability with full task
workspaces become a hub for the entire team, centrally with others. Based on Windows and team coordination from portfolio to action/
discussions, news and e-mail integration SharePoint services ToDo level
MSDE, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Microsoft SQL, Oracle MS SQL, Oracle, Firebird
Configurable to meet technical, process, Standalone, or installed enterprise version Enterprise (internally hosted) or ASP (On-
maturity needs using Project Server demand) hosted by TASKey
Manage work products & documents, upload/ Shared workspaces allow users to store files URL hyperlinks to documents in task context.
download, checkin/check out, version control, and other documents centrally with others. Can be linked to popular document management
view history systems
Primavera native file formats, MPX, MPP Project, CSV, Text, Excel, WebPage, XML All IE MIME supported file types
Various: eg. MS Project (MPP,MPX,XML,XLS, Import tasks from Outlook and Excel XML, MS Project (import), CSV Files (financial
XER,P3), MS Excel and resource information)
API supplied on request. Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Integrated with Microsoft Outlook via Exchange
required for enterprise intergration,
connectors available to LOB systems
Create/View Project Issues, Configurable Issues Shared workspaces allow users to store files Issues are handled in the same context as the
Portlet, Issues Graphics, Email notification and other documents centrally with others. work being done. Issues are fully integrated into
task and team management
3rd party app. enables read/write access on any Microsoft Project solution providers offer a Operates on mobile devices with Microsoft CE
mobile device range of add ons Outlook
Automatic Project & Resources Portfolios, Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Concurrently controls multiple strategies,
Side-by-Side Portfolio Comparisons, range of required for Portfolio management features project, tasks and teams. Automatic real-time
graphs, View ROI data progress reporting
Native report writer/editor, 100+ template Predefined reports for task, resource, HTML, XML, PDF, MS Word, MS Excel,
reports, WYSIWYG graphic reports assignment, or cost information you want to JPEG, text
share. Or wizard generates XML file
Resource and skills management, capacity Assign and adjust resources. Add from the Available at both Task and Action/ToDo level,
planning Resource Pool, Active Directory service or user definable resource types and codes, people
Exchange address book. Project Pro includes and resources separated
resource levelling
From 1 to 10,000 plus users Stand alone, Server 2003 required for multi Supports load balanced Web servers, clustered
users database servers, clustered Exchange Servers.
User, role, project, function based, LDAP Project integrates security with Microsoft Security based on task team membership.
support Active Directory
Unix/Windows 2000 and 2003 Stand alone, Server 2003 required for multi Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2003 Server
users
Formal timesheets and/or progress status, plus Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Individual timesheeting, flexible costing and
collaboration features required for enterprise timesheet capabilities. approval process
Yes Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 IE 5 and above
Project process templates, adinister workflow Shared workspaces allow users to store files Dynamic structured and unstructured (ad hoc)
recipients, initiate project process and other documents centrally with others. workflow support
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What to look out for
•Scalability: Don’t invest in a project management tool that can’t grow workforce have particular need for the remote workers to be readily
with your organisation and cope with changes in technologies over time. involved in the planning, scheduling and tracking of projects. Con-
System upgrades should be able to be conducted transparently and with sider the use of tools with collaboration features that include options
minimum disturbance to existing and on going projects, templates etc. such as forums, issue handling, calendars and e-mail.
•Compatibility: The system you select must be capable of operat- •Security: Ensure it has adequate levels of security available—you
ing across your organisation. It should work with all major servers, are protecting all of your company’s project information. The system
databases and client operating systems. The use of a browser-based should provide multiple levels of security including authentication,
interface for client machines greatly simplifies compatibility issues. authorisation and provide audit trails. Apart from the normal security
•Product features: Consider if the product has the all of the requirements for network or operating system and Web-server securi-
features that you need, including the ability to integrate with your ty the system must provide control over access rights of all user groups
existing systems such as financial and enterprise resource planning accessing the system including readers, administrators and so on.
systems. Also check that systems publicised as being fully featured •Workflow: Look to using a Workflow system to automate project
have sufficient capability in each area eg document management, handling through critical business processes. The workflow system
financial and so on, to fully meet your organisational needs. should preferably be easy to use providing a user-friendly graphical
•Collaboration: Organisations with a geographically dispersed user interface. A full audit trail should also be available.
PRIMAVERA graphics, spreadsheets and reports. cation for the project in the EPS, entering the
The Primavera solution is an integrated The timesheets module works through the project name, defining start and finish dates,
project management tool providing a number Web allowing team members to communicate entering the project manager and selecting a
of modules that meet the needs of different with a centralised database. resource rate type.
team members. Primavera uses client-server The Primavera product features a lot of Once the project has been entered and is
architecture, is Web enabled and uses either functionality which is easily accessed through open, the Projects window is displayed show-
standalone or networked databases. It works a very simple Home or Navigation Window. ing where the project sits in a project table, a
identically in single or multi-project modes, is A number of different projects can be viewed Gantt Chart view and a number of project detail
very scalable and runs Oracle, SQL Server and at the same time and multiple projects can tabs at the bottom of the layout of the window
MSDE databases. exist under nodes. Also, an Enterprise Project that provides access to a number of features
The modules available include Project Man- Structure (EPS) is used to organise projects including Notes, Dates, Default settings, setting
agement, Methodology Management, Portfolio into a hierarchy and each project must fit under project codes and how to calculate costs.
Analysis, Timesheets, and Primavera Web to a node within this. Once the new project has been created you
provide access via the Internet as well as a When you first start working on a project the can define where it sits in the WBS and then
software development kit for integration with user interface seems a bit daunting, however, define activities (often called tasks in other
external applications. Other modules provide you are guided by very good documentation packages) that are the lowest level in the WBS
links to Microsoft Project as well as a project and it doesn’t take long to master setting up and are the most detailed unit of work that is
plan comparison tool. your own projects, entering tasks and users and tracked. Activities can be set up through a Wiz-
The methodology management module ena- producing the inevitable Gantt chart. ard or entered it directly into the Activity Type
bles users to create, capture and organise re- New projects can be created in a number of Column in the Activities Table. It can also be
usable components for use in future projects. ways including a New Project Wizard, from a done through a wizard which sets up the name,
It provides companies with a method to cap- template or through importing a file from other WBS element and activity type, enabling the
ture best practice using templates that can be packages including Microsoft Project. Setting selection of how the activities dates are cal-
customised. Project summaries and tracking up a new project is made simple by the use of culated ie Start or Finish Milestone, Task or
information can be presented format using a wizard and simply consists of selecting a lo- Resource Dependant.
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Project Scheduling is conducted using a a to-do list is complete, key information for the areas on the right a number of Tabs enable the
Critical Path Method (CPM) which uses activ- task and the bar chart progress are updated. required Task related activities to be selected al-
ity duration and relationships between activities Taskey Team is good for all levels of users low the user to add, edit or view Tasks, Actions,
to calculate the schedule dates. Once activities within an organisation—managers would use Resources Times or Documents.
have been set up, roles can be set up between it for strategic plans, large projects and coordi- Navigation through the various steps of a
resources and the activities. The role will act as nating work between groups within the organi- project is intuitive and even novice users will
a place holder indicating the type of resource sation, as well as their own Tasks and Actions; adapt to the system with little training. How-
to be assigned later (for example software middle managers for smaller, more specific ever, the Administrator functions aren’t quite so
engineer, draftsman). Resource usage can be projects; and users who check off their to-do list intuitive but this is soon overcome.
displayed with a Bar Graph giving an indication that has been assigned by others. Overall, the products mentioned in this
of a particular resource’s activity allocation and TASKey TEAM, which uses a Web-based review so far have all been designed for tradi-
will indicate over allocation through a different client interface, can be purchased as a client/ tional projects and their management; TASKey
colour in that section of the bar. server system for installation on the company Team on the other hand provides an innovative
The Primavera Web module, which provides infrastructure or as a hosted system. The client/ solution to distributed management and is defi-
Web access through a browser, had a very clean server system can be used with Windows 2003 nitely worth a look.
and intuitive interface and enables many re- Server, Linux and Unix. A number of database
mote, workflow and collaboration features. As systems can be used such as SQL Server 2000, FINAL WORDS
with many of the other products reviewed, Pri- Oracle 9i or Firebird (open source). The system For enterprises that are serious about running
mavera provides a dashboard view which can be is very scalable to cover use across large organi- projects in an efficient and cost-effective man-
configured to provide access to projects, activi- sation and a mobile solution is available using ner, the products reviewed offer a wide range of
ties and events, display key information such as Outlook and Exchange server. features. They have been designed for all users
financial trend analysis, summaries of resource The browser-based interface is very clean and in an organisation from senior management to
allocation and status as well as the ability to set uses a main header containing selection for the the project managers and staff undertaking the
up discussions or e-mails for collaboration. main views that cover Today, To-Do, Tasks, Task tasks. The product designers have also taken
Overall, this product provides a comprehen- List, Progress, Options and Search. The Tasks noticed how modern corporations are moving to
sive and robust solution for project managers button selects the main workspace which con- distributed workforces and have implemented
at an enterprise level. It has good collaboration sists of a Task tree in a left-hand panel and input collaborative work features. ■
features to assists distributed team members
and a range of tools that facilitate planning
scheduling and tracking large projects. SCENARIO
TASKEY
Taskey takes a different view to most other This large company is struggling to manage such things as project tasks,
project management tools in that it inherently Product name here a growing number
maintain control of costs and resources, as well as aid com-
employs a distributed management method that of projects. It is seeking a project man- munication and collaboration between
integrates general management and project agement tool that will be able to help all parties.
management techniques.
Taskey identifies three activity levels in its ) ) ) ) ) ) ( ( ( ( ( (
method: Actions as the lowest unit of work, that
EDITORÊS CHOICE
is, it can’t be broken down any further, such as Primavera
an appointment or a to-do; Tasks, which are a With the number of hensiveness of the Primavera product,
logical grouping of actions and as such need products available which takes the disparate people and
management of information, resources and peo- and competition for a groups within a large enterprise and
ple; and Projects, which in turn is a grouping of growing market space, brings it all together under an easy-to-
tasks to achieve the overall, longer team goal. the developers of these use tool.
The key steps in the Taskey method are: a products are packing The product appears robust and the
goal and work breakdown of tasks using a bar a lot of features into level and presentation of documentation
chart to indicate planned and actual timings their solutions which makes picking a clear inspires confidence that the product will
plus progress. For each Task an information winner in this review difficult. get the job done.
template is used to ensure capture of key infor- Based on its feature set, position in the As a close second we must recommend
mation such as team composition, responsibili- marketplace and local support, the Edi- @Task for a very rich feature set, great
ties and actions to be done. Then a consolidated tor’s Choice award goes to Primavera. user interface and interoperability at a
to-do list is created for of all the actions re- We were impressed with the compre- great price.
quired for all projects and tasks. Finally, when
98 T&B MARCH 2006 www.technologyandbusiness.com.au
Project.indd 98 3/6/2006, 3:24:17 PM
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