www.smartworks.us

This great application provides workgroups with the ability to efficiently track and manage the progress of a project defined by the manager. Project Planner makes it easy to start a new project and generate reports on the progress of it, as well as update the details and development of every task. The application includes easy to read to charts and graphs that visually report the evolvement of your project.

INSTALLATION

Installation was very easy, asks for a few user details and the folder of choice to install to, everything went smooth.

CONFIGURATION

Project Planner has 4 types of users: Administrator, Project Manager, Project Leader, and Team Member. Each user has a different set of available configuration options. For instance, the administrator is the only user that can add project managers to a project. The help system comes with a wonderful guide on explaining how to get your project properly added and configured. With a program of this nature, a learning curve is required to get you familiarized with the system.

INTERFACE

For someone who is unfamiliar with project type applications, the interface may seem a little confusing at first. The available project screens are all neatly laid out on the left hand side for your choosing. Project Planner comes with a Gantt chart, calendar, task lists, excellent graphs, and others. Nothing is too hard to find and all options are also available through the menu bar at the top.

FUNCTIONALITY

Project Planner is a FULL featured, powerful project manager application. Compared to other related programs, this application certainly excels when it comes to functionality. A SmartWorks server comes bundled with the application which allows users to connect to the server and update what they need to, this way project members do not have to e-mail, or send files to each other, everyone is looking at the same plan all the time. Adding a project is easy with the 'Add new Project Wizard' utility that takes you step by step through the process. Several charts are included that provide an excellent way to overview your project plan and make decisions based on resources, tasks, time allocated, and costs.

CONCLUSION

I am very impressed with the features of this program, and would choose it over the current competing applications. It has a great set of functions, and an excellent way to keep all users connected to the same plan. Visual improvements could be made to make the interface look more pleasant, but the core functionality is what makes this program exceed.