BARCELONA, Spain, May 9th — The ]project-open[ development team is proud to announce the release of version V3.2. of its project management and project collaboration application. ]po[ is currently ranked #65 at SourceForge.net with >100,000 downloads.
The main feature of the new version is an integration with GanttProject, the no. #1 open-source project management application. Together, the two applications form an integrated open-source based application stack covering the complete project cycle for IT departments and IT companies from definition and planning to execution, tracking and invoicing.
“]project-open[ and GanttProject together form the first one-stop solution to managing project organizations.” says Frank Bergmann, founder of ]project-open[. “I believe that application stacks are the key to the success of OSS business applications in general”.
While GanttProject is similar to Microsoft Project, ]project-open[ is comparable to the Microsoft Project Server application, as it stores and manages multiple projects and resources and financial information on a server. In addition, ]project-open[ includes a number of collaboration modules such as forums & tasks, full-text search, file storage, calendar, wiki, bug-tracker and workflow plus a number of financial modules such as timesheet management, expenses, travel costs, project controlling, invoicing and support for backend accounting systems including SAP.
“We frequently see customers running a dozen applications ranging from bug-trackers and wiki to timesheet management and travel costs, each with different GUI and logins. Our goal is to integrate these applications into a single system.” says Klaus Hofeditz, the other founding member of ]po[.
With Version 3.2, ]po[ now presents a mature, industry-tested product. Using the Open Source approach, ]po[ is able to offer enterprise class solutions that require a considerably lower investment than comparable commercial software.
Application Scenario: IT Department or IT Company
The following application scenario demonstrates how ]project-open[ and GanttProject can be used together to define, plan and execute a project:
A key account manager or a sales manager start the project cycle by creating a new project in ]po[ as a container for requirement documents and brainstorming results by using the file storage and forum modules.
Also, the account manager starts to plan the budget top-down or bottom-up by defining and estimating project tasks and resources using GanttProject.
The resulting project proposal often passes through a priorization and approval workflow in order to enforce company policies on budgets, margins and project approval. Using a graphical workflow editor, the approval workflow can be defined and modified. Project attributes can be added and customized.
A project manager then takes over the responsibility for the project scheduling and resource planning using GanttProject. Using ]po[ reporting, the PM identifies resources overallocations and bottle necks across projects.
During project execution, members of the project teams can use a large number of ]po[ modules such as calendar, forum, wiki and bug-tracker to collaborate across geographical and organizational boundaries.
Meanwhile, the project manager tracks the project progress on a per-task level and compares it with the internal costs from ]po[ timesheet management and the external costs from the ]po[ expense & travel costs modules. Alternatively, cost information can also be imported from external applications such as SAP.
After delivering the project, an accountant or senior manager then uses the ]po[ invoicing module to create and track invoices for fixed-price and effort-priced projects. The results can be exported via CSV or XML to backend accounting packages such as Quickbooks, Lexware Buchhalter or SAP.
Resources & More Information:
]po[ Web Sites:
– http://www.project-open.org/ (Developer Site)
– http://www.project-open.com/ (Marketing Site)
– http://www.project-open.com/en/press/ (Press Kit)
– http://pcdemo.dnsalias.com/ (Online Demo)
– http://sourceforge.net/projects/project-open/ (Download)
– http://www.project-open.org/download/change_log.ht ml (Change Log)
GanttProject Web Sites:
– http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/ganttproject/ (Download)
Developer Conference:
– September 27.-29., 2007 in Barcelona, Spain
http://www.project-open.com/product/services/devco n/
Analyst Briefing:
– For questions and further information:
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 8pm CEST / 2pm EST
Dial-in: +1-641-297-5600
Participant Code: 78819
Press Contact:
– Frank Bergmann, Founder
Tel: +34 933 250 914 (11am – 7pm CEST)
mailto:press@project-open.com“
Link: project-open.com
