PHPAGA is a web-based project/task/invoice/quotation tracking solution, providing an efficient, centralized manner to keep on top of your day-to-day jobs and activities. Its features include: printing invoices, quotations and task lists to PDF, productivity statistics per project or per person, and financial overview.

Frankly guys, I got no idea how they got to that shitty name, but still it’s built in Italy, so AGA maybe stands for some italian PM related abbrevation…

And most important, this is by far the most flexible and comprehensive timekeeping, project management and invoicing tool I’ve seen in the last 2 years…

of course there’s still no online-charging integration, but you got everything else you need as a PM to keep manhours and materials, albeit I’m not sure the material catalog is good enough…

transforming a quote into a project works like a charm… seems to me like one of THOSE tools that are not just built to build one, but being used by the creators!

What is NOT in that tool is a real request/task tracking where I’m using Mantis: at the moment… and every PM dreams of migrating his internal requests into a project manager’s plan.

However – if you stick to creating quotes, project time plans (should be sufficient for quite a lot of average sized projects) and let your people type in their time in that tool you are perfect with it…

Frankly, believe this is the first OS pm tool I think is worth digging deeper since it’s usertinterface AND datamodel are both so comprehensive… even taxing is already prepared via country specific modules …

check it out!

PHPAGA – a cool quotation, project management, time tracking, invoicing tool is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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After searching for a good helpdesk/ticketing/project management solution for distributed project teams for over 1,5 years without really finding what I wanted today I came across TrackStudio and I think with

• Hierarchival Task Management and Work Breakdown Structure
• Field-Level Visibility per user role
• Inheritance of project structure setups (that means setting up

the three major features I was missing in so many “small scale” systems out there seem to be in place.

I haven’t tested this solution yet, but with an enterprise license including source-code (java) for around $3k this is one piece of software that every bigger project should be able to afford even for it’s own sake… not to mention a bigger project organization.

What impresses me further are a broad range of (soap-based) integration options

• into SCM systems CVS and SVN out-of-the-box
• into Outlook (out of the box?!)
• into the whole MS office app palette (I want to see THAT!)
• and so many more…

and finally a hefty user security thing, tons of e-mail subscription and e-mail submission features (even for time-tracking! hi trackertool – I spent 8 days today on task #424 LOL)

The workflow features deserve a separate mention – TrackStudio allows you to specify and enforce your tracking process through states and state transitions… that’s per project … and of course you might have different project types like marketing project, software project, evaluation project, procurement project, employee hiring project etcetc in your organization, don’t you?

some goodies:

• Web-based workflow editor
• Complete workflow customization: states, transitions, etc
• Unlimited numbers of workflows, states and transitions
• Multiple workflows per project
• Multiple task categories per workflow
• Dependent task categories
• Workflow inheritance WOW.. that’s what you want
• Per-project workflow customization,
• Per-workflow customizable fields /fancy!/
• Elapsed time history recorded in the database with comments
• Workflow and e-mail notification integration

I must admit after finding my major requirements fulfilled I must take a look at the requirements list I made over 2 years ago for the prospective tracking tool to see if there’s anything missing… my gut feeling says that time-tracking, accounting and invoicing might play a minor role, so i’ll check out features for that and integration into existing systems out soon.

They offer a hosted solution at $40 / month for the professional edition for 20 users AND there’s a 30day trial available – so I have nothing to lose but signup and learn more…

PS: these guys mentioned that if you find a tool that covers their functionality, they will link and advertise it own their own site… cool

TrackStudio – found what I’ve been looking for? is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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So whenever you have the need to accurately describe or define the terms used in your company or project – take a look there first.

of can you define all these with a breeze?

Actual Cost; Bill of Materials; Budget; Change Control System; Common Cause; Contract Statement of Work; Documented Procedure; Enterprise Environmental Factors; Human Resource Planning; Influence Diagram; Initiator; Invitation for Bid; Network Open End; Organization; Organizational Process Assets; Performance Measurement Baseline; Planning Package; Practice; Preventive Action; Product Scope; Product Scope Description; Project Charter; Project Scope; Project Scope Statement; Project Summary Work Breakdown Structure; Quality; Resource Breakdown Structure; Risk Breakdown Structure; Rolling Wave Planning; Scope Creep; Template; and Work Authorization System.

Max Wideman's Project management site is a rich resource for your PM needs, I recommend browsing and learning there a bit longer.

Project Management Glossary is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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some notable tools on there to check out:

MySQL Eventum the mySQLab Issue / Bug Tracking System with project management features based on MySQL

Trac is a python based tool, also integrating into the software confguration management subversion and allows WIKI syntax throughout the whole management process…

PHProjekt – this PHP based suite even features an outlook sync feature in beta!

Those tools look very close to bug tracking tools and I am keen to find out what their real “project management” capabilities really are…

Also dont forget to checkout OpenPSA the OS professional services automation suite including a lot more business related functions.

Open Source project management tools is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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It's not a full fledged pm solution, but could come in very handy if you are satisfied with these features that even include time reporting and some small CRM options:

PROJECTS

• Project organization into project and task hierarchies
• Hours are reported to tasks, projects collect reports from their tasks
• Weekly time sheet view of projects and tasks assigned to the user
• Flexibility – report hours with required accuracy: hours, decimals or hours and minutes
• Descriptive reporting – assign each hour report to a work type and optionally add a description
• Configurable gantt chart view of all or user's projects
• Summary view of all projects showing prices, costs and status of each project and task
• Configurable report generator using Midgard Style templates with full PHP support
  Approval and locking of reported hours, mileage and expenses

Sales

• Contact information for companies and employees
• Flexible search tool for companies, persons and campaigns
• CSV data import (companies, persons and sales projects) capabilities
• Campaign creation based on search criteria including business area, location and sales project status
• Direct email to campaigns
• CSV export of campaign contacts
• Tracking of sales projects
• Summary view of open TODO items in sales projects
• Sales funnel report
• Sales report based on month, country and sales representative

Support-Ticketing tool

• Configurable classifications for all tickets
• Configurable ticket list: which classifications to display, which classifications to filter by
• Text search from the ticket database
• SLA handling: notifications when agreed service levels are getting exceeded
• Email integration: import incoming tickets from an IMAP mailbox. Supports connecting email conversations into ticket notes
• Reports display response times, and spread of ticket types and other classifications

Calendar

• Daily, weekly and resource views of the calendar
• Filtering of shown events based on organization or resource hierarchy or user's custom-selected filters
• Easy selection of event start and end times from calendar
• Support for multi-day events
• Support for repeating events: daily, weekly or monthly with selected interval and end date
• Reservations for rooms, cars and other resources
• Resource notes for sending catering or lecture room setup requests
• Support for private and public events
• Email reminders of events
• iCalendar output of user's events
• Easily printable Weekly Planner view

• all these are web-based user interface modules, no need for software installations local – but you need to be online…
• Access levels based on organizational hierarchy and user-based settings
  Internationalization – support for multiple languages and currencies
• available in English, Finnish and Italian translations
• Multi-company hosting support with Sitegroup virtual databases
• PAM support for different authentication sources like LDAP or Active Directory
• NTLM single sign-on with Windows networks
• Branding support – logos and colors of the application can be changed
• Easy integration with Midgard Content Management System

find more at the OpenPSA site… definately worth a look!

OpenPSA – an Open Source Professional Services Automation suite is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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1. Analysis

Using Project management software will help you to be more efficient at your job.

More correctly referred to as impact analysis a key skill required toward the final stages of a project is the ability to analyse the impact of changes brought about by the project. Exactly the same as the well known ‘ripple effect‘ you must never underestimate the knock-on changes and effect that a major project can bring about. Being able to analyse and then manage these is yet another skill you need to master. Changes to the specification of a project after it has begun are all too easily overlooked and you will need to constantly revisit your impact analysis to incorporate them. Amongst other things any change to the specification could affect your previous analysis regarding legal, health, safety, and marketing or personnel issues. However, the ultimate reason for doing the analysis is – how the change will affect the end-date for the project? Project management is a complex task and the bigger the project, the more complex it becomes. You must be able to keep track of progress on the project from all the various sections of it that are on-going. This can be done on paper, but in all reality you need to learn and understand how to make the most out of one of the many pieces of project management software that are available. Using an IT based project management system will also help you to adjust timelines and priorities as the project develops.

2. Communication

Effective project planning underpins all project management.

If you can’t communicate, I’m sorry but you’ll never become an effective and successful project management. Any manager, but especially the project manager, has to understand that although you’re charged with ensuring the successful completion of a project – you’ll be dealing with a multiplicity of people and companies that you have to bring together in order to achieve the projects aims and objectives. If you don’t communicate effectively, either in speech, writing or presentations you won’t provide the information that your workers need to fulfill their jobs; be that in sharing knowledge, discussing ideas, providing solutions or making an executive decision.

3. Budgeting

Even if you have a team of accountants looking after the day-to-day running of the projects finances, understanding how to use a budget yourself is another essential project management skill to posses. The three key stages to a budget are preparing it, writing it and monitoring it. whilst your finance department may well be ostensibly charged with doing these things for you – as project manager you have the ultimate responsibility for the budget and need to be able to understand what you are being told about the budget. Unless your own background is in accounting you will feel obliged to accept what you’re told, if you don’t take the time to learn some basic budgeting skills. You will need these as at time you will need to know how to rationally and logically challenge budget over-runs that you become aware of as well as be able to sensibly monitor the budget as the project progresses.

4. Teamwork

Effective teamwork - will help you to manage your project most effectively.

The essence of any good project manager is to be a good team leader and, if necessary, be a good team player. Whilst decisions will remain your responsibility, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t encourage input from others or be prepared to work with them to help them achieve their goals too. Furthermore, by building a culture of teamwork into all aspects of the project, you will engender high self-esteem within all of the workers, meaning that they feel personally involved in ensuring the success of the project.

5. Intelligence

This doesn’t mean to say that you have to have a string of letters after your name as intelligence isn’t something you can learn. However, intelligence is something you can improve on and develop, so the more you study the chances are the more you’ll increase your intelligence. In the context of project management intelligence can be considered to be your ability to have a clear vision of all aspects of the project whilst at any one time being able to keenly focus onto a specific aspect of it. Put another way, just having the big picture will not help when you have a decision to make on a specific matter. You won’t always have the time to spend hours researching and re-reading material in order to make the decision at the time it is needed.

6. Calmness

It is almost inevitable that at times your job will be stressful, if not highly stressful. Being able to work calmly under such conditions is an absolute pre-requisite for a successful project manager. A key point to reducing your stress levels is your ability to move on from a setback. If something goes wrong or not according to plan, don’t waste time worrying about who’s fault it might have been or get involved in a cycle of what could have been different, that can come later in your project evaluation. Instead, move swiftly on to solving the problem or rectifying the situation.

7. Time

The Project Management Life Cycle.

Quite simply – are you a good time manager? Understanding the life-cycle for project management will help you to understand how to apply the key skill of time management to it. Your time management and you ability to organize yourself and others are vitally important. Time management is much more than simply allocating portions of time to certain jobs. You need to analyze exactly what it is you’re spending your time on and how important are those tasks and portions of time to the successful completion of the project. For example, you could easily spend up to an hour a day just reading emails. This is a task you can delegate to your PA, get them to be the person that sorts the important from the not so important, telling you what needs dealing with immediate and what can be left until later. That hour you’ve saved – you can use inspecting a part of the project checking on progress or quality etc. You should apply this time management philosophy to most things you do; do I need to attend that meeting or can I delegate someone else? Remember, you are the project manager, you are primarily there to do the strategic planning, overall monitoring and be creative and innovative in solving problems – not micro-manage everything.

7 key skills of a project manager is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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