Simple project management software 3

[Bensmit]

I am a project engineer rather than a project manager, but have been managing small projects with up to 5 resources extending over a maximum of six months. The projects are about getting new mechanical designs to market.

Up to this point I have been using an excel spreadhseet to generate a Gannt chart as well as ontrol the budgets.

Is there a simple Project management software out there that will suit this niche? Project management is not my main job, so ease of use is important.

Thanks

 

[FrenchCAD]

I would say that as long as you are comfortable with Excel to follow-up your projects in time and cost, then stay with it. You will not be a better PM if you change your managing tool. As long as Excel meet your needs, don't move to another software for such kind of projects.

Unless you're asked so or look for some more automated software like MS Project of course.

Cyril Guichard
Defense Program Manager
Belgium

 

[ShopPlanner]

Bensmit,

There are numerous project management software with different levels of functionality, efficiency and cost. You need to make a trade-off among among those attributes.

You said you have been managing small projects with up to 5 resources extending over a maximum of six months. But, you gave no idea of the total number of tasks involved in those projects and the sharing of the five resources across multiple projects. These are important for scheduling purpose.

If Excel is meeting your requirements without much labor, you may not need to start a search and evaluation process for selecting an appropriate software. Otherwise, a few more details of your requirements may prompt a more informative response from the forum.

Since you are directly looking for software, I would disclose that we offer a resource-constrained, multi-project scheduling software, which needs very little training since it has specific, limited functionality with powerful graphic features. it has no budget features right now. If you are curious about it, I can present a web demo of it.

Planner

http://www.optisol.biz

 

[Bensmit]

Thanks for pointing out a project management suite that I had not seen before.

Actually, resource management is the least of my priorities. The critical path items in a design project are prototyping, testing and tool manufacture. The first and the last are generally outsourced, and the testing is usually a time or budgetry constraint. Your Software concentrates heavily on resource management, juggling the workload to keep a workshop busy.

To clarify, my projects generally don't involve juggling resources - simply time and money. Most Project management software I have seen does control resources, functionality I don't need.

 

[Wicsteve]

Try OPENPROJ. This is an open source project management software that's OK for basic projects. Similar in operation to Microsoft Project. Can be downloaded from sourceforge (see shortcut).

http://sourceforge.net/projects/openproj/

 

[Richard63]

I use a JVCGant Pro, and it works very well for me.
It came packaged with Mindmanager, which I use for brainstorming, estimating a BOM, and a variety of other tasks.




Richard

http://www.led-inc.com

 

[Bensmit]

JVCGant looks interesting. From the website it is the "project management light" software that I am after. Hopefully it is also user friendly and intuitive. I will download the trial version and check it out. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[babynus]

Hi,

For planning purpose, I would recommand Open Workbench (little brother of old PMW).

Personaly, I designed my own tools, that may fulfill your needs :
-

http://deltaprod.toolware.fr

: C/S tool, fully functionnal
-

http://projector.toolware.fr

: web based, patially functionnal
Both are free.
Hope it can help.

Babynus
Administrator of

http://www.toolware.fr

 

[haljordan5]

can anyone suggest any affordable project management web apps for a small business that also do CRM, and billing?

 

[BigDave2001]

Ben

send me your e mail _ I can give you soem additional tools

bigdave2001

david@drluetchford.com



DRL,Texas

 

[bernoullies123]

I have been following

http://www.openbravo.com/

for awhile, but have never had a chance to implement it. You are (were, haven't tried recently) able to run the a test session online to see it's capabilities.

It is free to download the community package.

 

[Rylee]

I recently attended a project management bootcamp by PSMJ and they provided an pretty cool excel work book that generates a three line diagram of projected vs. actual vs. costs. I had never seen this before but I am liking the concept. There is also a solution that my fishing buddy uses called Praesto but I can't get my old school boss to look at it.
Not sure if this is what you are looking for but here is the website:

http://www.basebuilders.com

 

[Bensmit]

Thanks for the suggestions. The PSMJ Excel solution - Plantrax - looks the part. Excel based solutions seems the answer, Plantrax being a comprehensive example.

Praestro covers a whole lot more than a simple gannt chart,including invoicing and customer contacts.