Project management question

[Roger Oberholtzer]

On Wed, 2004-11-03 at 00:41, Alma J Wetzker wrote:

> I don't want to be the one who rains on your day, but I have yet to see decent 
> project management software.  Period.  I can't find much to run on linux that 
> covers what you need.  None are cross platform.  The *.mpp format is 
> proprietary so no one can read it but M$.  M$ Project will not do several 
> things that you want done (like allocate resources fractionally [at least I 
> could not get it to]).

Go ahead. Rain away. It seems like one of those days anyway.

Interesting. GanttProject (Java and fully cross platform) does not do
this. It was a complaint from the 'MS side' in the new company. They
implied that MSP could. In fact, I don't trust them on these points. I
think that GanttProject could be useful if a few missing features were
added and a few printing details improved (all Gantt charts are only
printed on one page. No matter how long the time or task axis is.
Currently it allows the project file to reside on a server somewhere,
where it gets it automatically. This eases the ability to share project
files. If it does any sort of locking is not clear.

> I am beginning to understand why so many software projects are unmanageable 
> and fail.  If software folks don't understand project management well enough 
> to write the software, how can they know enough to manage a project?

Exactly. Just look at eGroupware's project module. A gazillion things
you can set up on how to send the bill. But not much on what you should
actually do. Or how you can track tasks in a useful way. And if the
program does not let you track things in a reasonable way, how the hell
will it send a bill? Not to mention missing things like task
dependencies.

> I have been trying to get M$ project to work under linux.  No joy.  If you 
> find something, let us know.

Codeweavers (www.codeweavers.com) list it as a bronze (or was it silver)
application. But there are a few problems mentioned in the forum related
to even getting the thing installed. Even though Codeweavers themselves
list no problems at all. But why no Gold rating then?

I think I have to try an evaluation copy. My old purchased copy's
support expired and I cannot upgrade because of that. No discount for
returning after the support on you old version has expired.

Ah, the joys of open source. Despite the problems, I would not have it
any other way. The question is how much longer I get to say that...

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