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  #1  
Old 11-26-2010, 07:13 PM
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The right project scheduling software - please help

Hi all,

we are a medium-sized web design company. We usually have many small projects which we work on at the same time. There are several project managers who each manage many projects and usually don't know about which projects the other project managers currently manage. Sometimes they even forget about their own project until the customer calls to remind them.

This leads to chaotic planning, missed deadlines, unrealistic time plans for customers, … you name it.

We are now looking for a collaborative, ideally free/open source, project scheduling software which enables project scheduling based on the availability of developers:

When the project manager creates a new project, he enters an estimation of the project length in man-days. At this point he should see a list of developers together with their availability (based on which other projects they are currently working on, vacancies, …). He will then chose 1-2 developers based on the type of project and the developer's expertise. Based on the developer's availability (!), the system will automatically calculate a starting date and an earliest end date for the new project.

Of course it should be possible to reschedule projects. But at any time the system should respect the ultimate constraint which is the availability of developers.

Does anyone know of an free/open source, collaborative, software which offers such a "resource-driven" scheduling approach?

I've been researching solutions for two days and did not find any free/open source collaborative "resource-driven" scheduling solutions :-(.

I'd appreciate any help!

Many thanks,
Michael
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  #2  
Old 11-26-2010, 09:43 PM
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Here's a list of quite a few software packages, many of which are open source. Since I'm not exactly getting much help with my question (yet?), I'm looking into some of the same type of tools that you are interested in.

[URL="From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_management_software"]From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_management_software[/URL]

Good luck!
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  #3  
Old 12-14-2010, 05:17 PM
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thanx for this information.
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  #4  
Old 12-17-2010, 12:20 PM
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Open-source software

Maybe you will find the software you are looking for on [url]http://pm-software.org[/url]
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Old 12-17-2010, 01:37 PM
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Is that website fairly new? The site looks very well laid out, but there are only a handful of reviews (less than 50) and favorites (20) marked, with no product having more than two of either category... Still, I guess you have to start somewhere - maybe they just need to let more PM's know about the site?
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  #6  
Old 12-20-2010, 07:30 AM
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Hi,

I think it would be better to know what are your requirements for a planning software.. how do you manage your schedule on your projects...how much to you want to pay for a planning software...how complex are your schedules or your monitoring...

every software has its strength and weaknesses...

If MS Project is enough for you... why not? if Primavera is enough? why not?..

as long as you or the user understand the software especially on how it calculates so that the software works the way you want it to... then I think any scheduling software you apply to your project will be fine..

understanding a software fully isn't easy and that is why most companies use another simple software like MS Excel to work on some things or details instead of fully utilizing the software to work on every single thing..

cheers,
the Rock
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  #7  
Old 12-30-2010, 01:11 AM
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Re: Project Scheduling Software

Your problem is somewhat similar to the problem that I use to face 8-9 months back. So after a long research I decided to go with Microsoft Project 2010, [URL="http://www.microsoft.com/project/en/us/team-collaboration.aspx"]collaborative project management[/URL] software that is helping my managers to manage all the projects competently. I will recommend you to opt for the same, since this will help you resolve your concern for project scheduling.
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  #8  
Old 01-31-2011, 06:27 PM
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Thumbs up Forget MS Project

I would forget about using MS Project. I recommend using AtTask. [URL="http://www.attask.com"]http://www.attask.com[/URL]
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  #9  
Old 03-29-2011, 05:17 AM
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I have recently started using Teambox, which to me fills in all of the aspects you mentioned..I'm a student and also doing an internship, and this has really helped me manage in both. You can assign and monitor tasks and projects so it really helps me organize myself and prioritize. Also as you mentioned, it is free. It's almost fun to use and it's become a part of my routine. Hope this helps you! It's [url]http://teambox.com[/url]
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  #10  
Old 04-27-2011, 04:40 AM
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You should check Basecamp. [url]www.basecamphq.com[/url]. They have also free (but limited) version to start. As I remember, they have made this software especially for web designers in mind.
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