I’m looking for some project management software. It’s not for a
software project, I’m building a house. I searched about a bit both here
and elsewhere and found various possibilities and tried several. I
thought I’d write up my opinions in case anybody else is interested or
has any other thoughts.
Taskjuggler
Seems to have been well-respected but the current version is
command-line only, which isn’t what I want.
Calligra Plan (was KPlato)
It seems you have to install the whole Calligra Suite to get the PM
application. As I don’t use KDE that involves over a 100 dependencies.
The web site doesn’t seem to contain version info or any documentation
(the manual says “Its a bit empty right now”). So I gave up on that.
Gnome planner
Seems to work OK after a short test but whilst it will import MS Project
XML files, it only exports HTML, so it’s a bit of an all-or-nothing
commitment.
ProjectLibre (was OpenProj)
Seems to work OK after a short test. One fairly worrying feature is that
when I click on the help button, I’m shown a dialog and if I then choose
Online Help, I’m taken to a page that says “Access denied”. So it seems
the UI may be flaky. Further searching shows that docs may be non-existent.
So I’m still in the testing stage, trying to decide between ProjectLibre
and Gnome planner.
Cheers, Dave
On Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:06:46 +0000, Dave Howorth wrote:
> So I’m still in the testing stage, trying to decide between ProjectLibre
> and Gnome planner.
Good information, Dave - I’ve also been looking for something to help me
manage projects. While not specifically project management software, I
have settled on using Novell’s Vibe myself (a 10-user license is
available for free - and it’s based on Kablink teaming, which is OSS, if
you don’t need the workflow modules).
But I tend to handle things just as tasks within it, and in a lot of
ways, it’s overkill.
What kinds of features are you looking for in project management
software? For others looking at such software, it might also be good to
compare desired features, especially if you’re looking for more than just
task management (like cost estimation, scheduling, resource management,
PERT/GANTT charts, dependency mapping, etc.)
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
First thing first: I have to say that I am one of the guys behind RationalPlan so this might sound like a marketing message but it is not quite like that. I reached this thread by chance and I was surprised that so few solutions exists… There must be more out there… GanttProject and jXProject for example are Java based applications so might also work on Linux but are lighter in functionality compared to OpenProj or RationalPlan. On the other hand GanttProject is a more active project while OpenProj was and seems to still be inactive for many years since they were bought by Serena.
Regarding ProjectLibre this has nothing to do with OpenProj except that it was built from its code. From what I have understood behind the project there is only one guy that is not even a developer so to me it looks like a new application dead from the start 
I am not aware of other tools but curious to see if other users can add more to the list.
IoanLucian wrote:
> First thing first: I have to say that I am one of the guys behind
> ‘RationalPlan’ (http://www.rationalplan.com/) so this might sound like a
> marketing message but it is not quite like that.
Well I would say that it is exactly that. Your product appears to be
paid-for rather than FLOSS, for starters and you appear to try to spread
FUD in your arguments below, so I suggest that the mods ban you and
remove your blatant marketing spam link!
> I reached this thread
> by chance and I was surprised that so few solutions exists… There must
> be more out there… GanttProject and jXProject for example are Java
> based applications so might also work on Linux but are lighter in
> functionality compared to OpenProj or RationalPlan. On the other hand
> GanttProject is a more active project while OpenProj was and seems to
> still be inactive for many years since they were bought by Serena.
I don’t believe anybody said there weren’t other projects as well.
> Regarding ProjectLibre this has nothing to do with OpenProj except that
> it was built from its code. From what I have understood behind the
> project there is only one guy that is not even a developer so to me it
> looks like a new application dead from the start
Well, that differs from the accounts I have read on both the
projectlibre and openproj sites so I doubt your account is true. Also
I’m not clear why a ‘dead’ project would have just won sourceforge’s
project of the month!
> I am not aware of other tools but curious to see if other users can add
> more to the list.
If anybody wants to suggest that other FLOSS projects are better than
the ones already mentioned, by all means go ahead. Or if you have
experience of one of the ones I have mentioned, but have a different
view of it to me, please go ahead and give us your opinion. That’s a
purpose of the thread.
Jim Henderson wrote:
> What kinds of features are you looking for in project management
> software? For others looking at such software, it might also be good to
> compare desired features, especially if you’re looking for more than just
> task management (like cost estimation, scheduling, resource management,
> PERT/GANTT charts, dependency mapping, etc.)
Hi Jim,
I’m not quite sure what features are going to be important to me, which
is why the ability to export to other software is a feature I’m looking for.
I suspect I’m going to be learning a lot about both how to structure a
plan for this project and how best to manage it, so the ability to
rearrange tasks and their grouping is quite important to me.
I’d like to think that resource management, fixed delivery date
deadlines, dependencies will all be helpful to me but I’ll have to see
how the capabilities stand up to a sea of mud.
I think costing is probably best dealt with separately and in a simpler
way, since at the end of the day it will have to be correct and stand up
to the scrutiny of the taxman. I don’t want to be fighting software as
well as him!
Cheers, Dave
Sorry for making that impression. Was not trying to do that but rather help with the knowledge I have… And regarding ProjectLibre a few months ago it was clearly written on their main page the story and that they (meaning one guy that is not even a programmer) need developers.