Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!claris!brendan
From: brendan@claris.com (Brendan McCarthy)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Project Planning and Mgmt Software Wanted
Keywords: project planning, management
Message-ID: <11267@claris.com>
Date: 25 Sep 90 23:38:18 GMT
References: <12035@ogicse.ogi.edu> <1990Sep22.052825.7872@lgc.com> <284@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>
Reply-To: brendan@claris.com (Brendan McCarthy)
Organization: Claris Corporation, Santa Clara CA
Lines: 54

In article <284@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> Andrew M. Cohill writes:
>If you are looking at project mangagement software for the Mac,
>MacProject II is bound to end up on your list.  It does some things very
>well--graphical interface, good flowcharts, ok timelines, moderately
>sophisticated resource allocation and leveling.  However, it falls down
>in what I feel is an absolutely critical area--reporting.  
>
>It reproduces the graphical charts just fine, but tabular reports are
>virtually impossible to print.  On every project with even two or three
>people, you want to be able to print out a milestone/task list sorted by
>project member, among other simple reports.  Forget it with MacProject
>II.  

Andy, it is possible to get tabular reports on a resource by resource
basis by using MacProject II's search formulae and using the following
formula "Resource equals <resourceName>"  By adding additional constraints
regarding task type, and dates, it's easy to generate fairly complex queries.
These search formulae can be saved to disk for later reuse.  Note that
a saved search formula also saves the state of the project tables' columns,
so you can restore a particular report format with this method.

While MacProject II does not perform sorting operations, it is possible
to export data from any of MacProject's tables and import them into your
favourite spreadsheet.  Once there, you can use the spreadsheet's additional
computational and reporting capabilities to sort and fine-tune your report.
It's really not too difficult to get good, quick results by setting up
some search formulae and a spreadsheet template.

>My guess is that Claris could care less about this product.  They made a
>few cosmetic changes when Apple turned it over to them, and it's been
>dead ever since. 

MacProject II is the dominant product in the project management category
on the Macintosh.  While it is true that the original MacProject 1.0
was written by a project management novice, Steve Young; and Claris' first
version, MacProject II 1.0 was a minor revision.  But, as a member of
the MacProject II 2.0 team, I have to say that the scope of our task was far
wider than cosmetic.  We added multiple window support, resource scope,
automatic and interactive resource leveling, unlimited custom calendars, 
import/export capabilities, a spelling checker, fixed bugs, and improved
its performance and accuracy.

Most of the engineering team on the project had previous experience in
the project management field -- two had worked on Harvard Total Project 
Manager.

Rest assured that Claris takes the project management category seriously.
If you have any suggestions for improvements to any Claris product, please
write, or call Claris Customer Relations at (408) 727-8227.

Brendan McCarthy

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