IM506-01

Projects in Industrial and Engineering Technology

Southeast Missouri State University

Ngu Kay Khine

12/05/2016

Contents

Contents...........................................................................................................................................1

Table of Figures...............................................................................................................................1

Introduction......................................................................................................................................3

Demonstration of Tool Use.............................................................................................................4

1. Registration...........................................................................................................................4

2. Create a Project.....................................................................................................................5

3. Create Work Packages..........................................................................................................6

4. Create a Timeline (Gantt chart)............................................................................................7

5. Create Budget and track cost................................................................................................8

6. Other Features.....................................................................................................................10

Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of OpenProject..........................................................12

Recommendation...........................................................................................................................14

Suggestions for future development areas of OpenProject............................................................15

References......................................................................................................................................17

Table of Figures

Figure 1 : Login page.......................................................................................................................4

Figure 2 : Create new account.........................................................................................................4

Figure 3 : Create new project...........................................................................................................5

Figure 4 : New project overview.....................................................................................................5

Figure 5 : Create new Work Package..............................................................................................6

Figure 6 : New work package details..............................................................................................6

Figure 7 : Create Timeline report....................................................................................................7

Figure 8 : Timeline (Gantt chart).....................................................................................................7

Figure 9 : Create units......................................................................................................................8

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Figure 10 : Assign rates to users......................................................................................................8

Figure 11 : Project budget assignment.............................................................................................9

Figure 12 : Budget for the project....................................................................................................9

Figure 13 : Log time & unit costs....................................................................................................9

Figure 14 : Calculated cost..............................................................................................................9

Figure 15 : Budget summary after log times and units..................................................................10

Figure 16 : Panned Costs and Actual Costs...................................................................................10

Figure 17 : Create Meeting example.............................................................................................10

Figure 18 : Agile and scrum example............................................................................................10

Figure 20 : Calendar example........................................................................................................11

Figure 19 : Roadmap.....................................................................................................................11

Figure 21 : Forum Page to communicate.......................................................................................11

Introduction

OpenProject is mainly intended as a web-based project management tool that is cross-platform

for location-independent team collaboration. An active open source community has continuously

developed this open source project application. It was initially released on October 4, 2012 under

the GNU General Public License Version 3. There are many reasons how OpenProject is a

trendy and useful tool nowadays. Based on this OpenProject software, there is a huge amount of

more than 2,500 project installations in many organizations globally. When the project teams

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need to be supported throughout the project life cycle, OpenProject is mostly used for lots of

collaborative features such as project planning, timeline reports, task management, and more.

One of the significant objectives of OpenProject is to create a new innovative place for open

source software that is inspiringly handled by the users and community by utilizing state of the

art technology. The OpenProject foundation is funded by a worldwide community and the

members of its development team. There are six basic objectives of OpenProject: maintain the

hardware and software infrastructure of the OpenProject organization and other corresponding

sites, encourage the community to participate in and contribute to the project, provide the project

source of conduct to protect its community attribution and to develop the vision of the project,

manage intellectual property and financial contributions, protect the project and community

through support and advocacy, and organize OpenProject and how it communicates and operates

the OpenProject platform by the benefits of the OpenProject software. This OpenProject tool is

entirely related to OpenProject management because the real strength of OpenProject lies in

working on projects. For example, this open source project that is today used as Microsoft

Project software, especially where the GANTT chart is used to describe milestones, tasks, and

resources that help to obtain a (visual) overview in operating complex projects.

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Demonstration of Tool Use

1. Registration

To start an account needs to be created. An account holder can purchase and host the

OpenProject under the organization name. A thirty day trial version is also availbale to try out.

Figure 1 and Figure 2 shows how to create account.

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Figure 2 : Create new account

Figure 1 : Login page

2. Create a Project

Once OpenProject is hosted under an organization name projects can be created from the

Dashboard (homepage).

Figure 4 shows the project overview page. Project members can be added using the Project

Overview page. While adding members, OpenProject also allows people to create new users by

inviting them. For this option, the new user’s email can be set as the member. OpenProject will

automatically send an invitation for that user via email.

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Figure 4 : New project overview

Figure 3 : Create new project

3. Create Work Packages

In OpenProject, tasks, milestones, phases and features are listed under the Work Packages Menu.

(1). First, enter the work package Title (2) and

(optionally) provide a Description (3). Several

frequently used work package attributes can be

configured during the creation of a work package:

The Project (4) can be set at the top of the details

list. The Type (5) can be changed to another value,

and the Progress  (6) can be set. A start and

end date (7) can be assigned to the work package,

as well as a version (8), a category (9), and

an assignee (10). To display and configure

additional attributes select the Show all attributes

(11) button.

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Figure 6 : New work package details

Figure 5 : Create new Work Package

(Image Source: https://www.openproject.org/help/user-guides/work-packages/create-new-work-

package/)

4. Create a Timeline (Gantt chart)

In OpenProject, Gantt charts can be created as a Timeline report. Figure 7 shows how to create a

timeline report.

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Figure 7 : Create Timeline report

Figure 8 : Timeline (Gantt chart)

By selecting zoom factor as “weekly” and Initial outline expansion as “Expand level 2”, Figure 8

shows a created Gantt chart. NOTE: In image, “Gantt Chart” is the timeline report name.

5. Create Budget and track cost

First, units need to be set. Units can be configured from the Administration tab on top right

corner. Under the Cost types section, a unit can be created (Figure 9).

Project specific rates can be assigned to each user under the Rate history tab in Users section

(Figure 10).

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Figure 9 : Create units

Budget can be assigned to the given project in the Budget section in the Project window (Figure

11).

Then, the

budget can be

assigned to the work packages (Figure 12). When users are working on a work package, they can

log their hours and unit costs (Figure 13 and Figure 14). Actual costs will be calculated

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Figure 12 : Budget for the project

Figure 10 : Assign rates to users

Figure 11 : Project budget assignment

automatically based on these inputs (Figure 15 and Figure 16).

6. Other Features

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Figure 14 : Log time & unit costs

Figure 13 : Calculated cost

Figure 15 : Budget summary after log times and units

Figure 16 : Panned Costs and Actual Costs

OpenProject has more features, such as Agile and Scrum, Roadmaps, Meetings, Calendar, Wiki,

Forum etc. More features are available to download and enable as plug-ins. (Rest of the images

in this section show examples for plug-ins and other features).

In Roadmap, there are work packages listed by versions (such as product backlogs and sprints)

and the project’s progress (Figure 19).

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Figure 18 : Create Meeting example

Figure 17 : Agile and scrum example

Figure 20 : Calendar example

Figure 19 : Roadmap

Figure 21 : Forum Page to communicate

When dealing with complex projects and geographically scattered teams, a forum is used as a

project communication method (Figure 21).

Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of OpenProject

When selecting a project management tool, it is important to analyze the strengths and

weaknesses of each option in order to select the tool that fits a company’s needs. Some of the

major strengths of OpenProject include its cost and ability to scale. OpenProject’s major positive

features include: Work Packages, Timelines, Agile and Scrum feature, ability to integrate into

existing corporate infrastructure, and User Interface. In addition to its wealth of features,

OpenProject also has several drawbacks. These include it being Open source software, Linux-

based and its file types cannot be shared across other platforms.

The first and primary strength of OpenProject is its cost. This is the primary draw for many of

the software’s current users away from more popular platforms such as Microsoft Project.

Pricing begins at nothing for the community edition, to 1 Euro per-user per-month for the cloud

hosted edition, then finally to 5 euros per-user per-month for the Enterprise edition with more

added features. This could represent massive savings for a small company who would rather not

invest $1,160.00 one time for each user’s installation of Microsoft Project.

Secondly, scalability is another major draw to OpenProject from other platforms. For smaller

companies who do not have the physical infrastructure to host large amounts of data on servers,

OpenProject allows users to purchase cloud space on their servers. The ability to host remotely

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allows smaller companies to focus on major projects at hand as opposed to slowing down their

process with added IT management. Then, when the company expands, it has the ability to

purchase additional users at the same low costs stated earlier. When the company finally expands

beyond a cloud-hosted instance, they then, have the ability to host their own instance of

OpenProject on their own servers and equipment.

Additionally, OpenProject has a wealth of software features that make it ideally suited for

organizations of any size. Work Packages, Timelines, Agile and Scrum feature, ability to

integrate into existing corporate infrastructure, and its easy-to-learn User Interface make it a

competitive option to Microsoft Project and other larger distributions. This is due to the fact that

most of these features are found in other project management solutions at a substantially higher

cost.

Just like any software distribution, in addition to its many positive features, there are always

drawbacks. The first is the fact that OpenProject is open source software. This means that the

code is made open to a community of software developers that all work together to develop the

pieces of a software distribution. While open-sourcing code can aid in the development of

software, it can decrease the reliability of a product. Additionally, OpenProject is designed to run

on a Linux-based environment. While this isn’t a problem for smaller companies that use the

cloud hosted option, this could pose problems for larger companies with IT staff that are trained

primarily in other platforms. Finally another foreseeable issue with OpenProject is that file-types

used in other Project Management programs cannot be used. If a company wanted to migrate

from Microsoft Project, they could not simply open their Project files in OpenProject due to

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compatibility issues. This could cause major scheduling drawbacks in addition to adding to the

overhead workload of a company.

Recommendation

OpenProject is a viable solution to companies of all sizes for managing projects. It is cheap,

scalable, and full of features that make it a highly competitive option over other solutions on the

market. With knowledge of some minor downfalls, OpenProject can be successfully integrated

into most companies with ease. When implemented into a project, OpenProject should be used

from the very beginning as it is able to support the project teams throughout the entire project

lifecycle. The best application for OpenProject would be a project that needs coordination done

over the internet. This could possibly be due to geological differences. Additionally it can be

used when cost, budgets, and identifying people responsible for each work package/task is

critical.

OpenProject should not be used if the Information Technology staff members are not familiar

with Linux operating systems; or, when end users lack connectivity to internet and need cross-

platform compatibility to other software such as Microsoft Project.

OpenProject has many advantages to other solutions on the market; however, it is not the perfect

solution for every organization. The best project management software should still be determined

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based on the project type as different project management softwares excel at different areas

needed for projects.

Suggestions for future development areas of OpenProject

The OpenProject program as a project management tool has a unique position among such other

softwares due to it being open source and several other features. However, there are certain areas

that this tool can develop to become one of the best project management suites in the current

market.

First off, offline access is a must. This is especially true in today’s world as not all the areas have

the accessibility into internet. Additionally, as lots of users are still using a Windows-based

operating system; to capture a larger market, OpenProject should give the windows users the

ability to work offline. Help documents which are accessible in the offline modes would be

helpful to many users. Currently generated projects cannot be exported into a PDF or any other

format, so a feature allowing users to export the projects into a PDF would be value adding and

practical. Since there is a larger mobile usage in this era than computers, adding a fully

functional mobile app would be an added advantage. Currently OpenProject doesn't have the

features to draw network diagrams and critical path analysis/management which is important in

project management overviews. Also the product is only providing the capabilities to manage

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people rather than other resources. Resource management and leveling options and auto

scheduling options would be necessary future additions.

OpenProject currently lacks more features such as Task Dependencies and Recurring Tasks.

These would be useful in a project to identify which tasks have to be done before doing another

task and which would be repeated. Project portfolio management, risk management and baselines

would also be great value added option to make OpenProject usable in any given project

scenario. A new array of options like screen sharing, calendar sharing and online chat

capabilities would be new additions to such a software which substantially increase the usability

and practicality of the software.

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References

OpenProject. (2016, October 25). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenProject

Open Source Community. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.openproject.org/open-source/

Project Software Review. (2016). Retrieved from https://project-management.com/openproject-

software-review/

OpenProject: Collaborative Project Management. (2016). Retrieved from

https://www.openproject.org

OpenProject. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.openproject.org/collaboration-software-

features/

@. (n.d.). OpenProject tutorials and user guides. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from

https://www.openproject.org/help/user-guides/

H. (n.d.). OpenProject. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpDojas1X9ccix4mxadabpw

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