Re: MrProject Features/Target Market

tor 2002-08-22 klockan 18.53 skrev [email protected]:

Hi!

First of all, thanks for great input. (and thanks to everyone else that
have been participating in the last days great discussions).


> I've been awarded professional certifications 
> from Project Management Institute and from AACE 
> International (Association for Advancement of 
> Cost Engineering).

Great, sounds like you will be really good to have around.
 
> Not so many years ago, there existed numerous 
> software tools that were vastly more powerful 
> than even the most capable contemporary tools 
> today. Those tools ran on the mainframe and they 
> did an incredibly good job of baselining and 
> tracking the time, resources, and cost dimensions 
> of large projects of great complexity - and of 
> multiple small projects. The names of those tools 
> were MSCS/COPES (Management Scheduling and 
> Control System by McDonnell Douglas), Project/2 
> by Project Software Development Inc., CIPREC by 
> IBM, PREMIS/PICOM by ???, PMS-4 by IBM was 
> probably the first of the truly powerful systems.

Can you give some examples of where current PM software is coming short
compared to these?

> It seems the current view is more toward the 
> lower-end user that places less demand on the 
> system.

One of the reasons for this is that we want to have something that is
useful enough for more people to join the project. My experience is that
if the system is to hard to use/setup less people care to look at it and
help by contributing.

Just because the UI looks a bit like Microsoft Project that doesn't mean
we aim to make a clone of it. The UI was more chosen because it was used
in Evolution than that it was used in Microsoft Project.

> I think the real question is; "Are we developing 
> a product for the person that is to be a 
> dedicated Professional Scheduler and uses this 
> tool on a day-to-day basis - OR - are we 
> developing a tool that follows the *original* MS 
> Project paradigm and is so simple to use that a 
> casual Project Manager can use the tool on 
> occasion?" The answer to this questions weighs 
> heavily on development priority. It seems the 
> present direction is toward the latter - but I 
> wonder if that is the wisest course of action?!?

I'd say, ideally we'd like to target both these groups. We want
MrProject to be easy enough to use for anyone to sit down and manage
your project (even if it's just for your) but at the same be possible to
extend (through plugins) to be really useful for large projects and
professionals.

I'd love to hear input if you guys think this would be possible at all?
Or is the current UI (and obviously the one in Microsoft Project) too
limited to be really useful to professionals?

> Re: Task Duration(s). I noted that we are 
> planning to allow 3 types of durations for an 
> individual task - pessimistic, assumed, and 
> optimistic. This is a network model that reflects 
> PERT as opposed to CPM. I wonder why it is that 
> we chose this approach?

The reason we thought of having PERT was that it was much asked for when
we started out. This doesn't mean we won't have CPM, we will probably
start with adding CPM and then extend it to be able to draw PERT's too.

> For every type of project I have ever been 
> associated with, CPM offered a much more 
> practical and useful output than did PERT. I 
> suggest you reconsider this direction.

This probably depends on which type of project it is, right? From what I
understand PERT can be better when there is more uncertainty about the
times for tasks. While CPM is better for projects where your know with
more accuracy the lengths of tasks.

> Re: User needs. With both P3 and MS Project, the 
> major shortcoming is in the resource management 
> and cost management capabilities. Primavera 
> Corporation attempted to supplement P3 with 
> another tool for cost management, but failed - 
> and MS Project suggests the use of another MS 
> product (Excel and/or Access and/or SQL-Server) 
> to meet the needs of their customers - but these 
> applications are all custom.

Could you (and anyone with opinions) please let us know how you think
they are coming short and how we can avoid doing the same?

> That's all for now. I hope these comments are 
> constructive and useful. Please let me know if I 
> need to elaborate further or address any 
> questions.

Yeah, great mail and thank you very much for your input and hope you
will continue to give input on the directions of MrProject.

Regards,
  Mikael Hallendal

-- 
Mikael Hallendal                [email protected]
CodeFactory AB                  http://www.codefactory.se/
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