navalplan: the open web project planning tool (linuxtag 2011)
DESCRIPTION
By Diego Pino García. NavalPlan is a free software web application for project planning. It is written in Java and licensed under AGPL license. It is one of the main free software alternatives to Ms Project with tha advantages of being web. Main features are: * Multiproject management. It offers a global vision of the company managing several projects sharing resources. * Group resource allocations: dynamic groups based on criteria. * Flexible calendars. * Configurable Gantt chart from Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). * Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) chart. * Overload resource allocation control. * Earned Value Management. * Cost analysis based on work reports. * Integration with other NavalPlan instances and third-parties. * Other features: Materials, quality forms, project templates, planning scenarios, multiple task progress measurement ... Since NavalPlan contains naval references in its name, it is important to stress that it is a general web application useful for any organization/person who wants to plan several projects and resources. NavalPlan was developed in Java using: * ZK as UI framework. * Spring as dependency injection framework. * Hibernate as object relational mapper. * Other frameworks: Jasper Reports, JFreeChart, Maven2, etc.TRANSCRIPT
2NavalPlan: Open Web PlannigContents index
Summary:
– Introduction.
– General overview.
– Main features.
– Technology.
– Community.
– Q & A.
3NavalPlan: Open Web Planning
What's NavalPlan?
4NavalPlan: Open Web Planning
NavalPlan is a project management tool that helps you to plan, monitor
and control any kind of project
5NavalPlan: Open Web Planning
● Commissioned by Xunta de Galicia (regional administration body).
● Goal: provide the Galician shipyards a tool that could help them to manage their production processes.
● Scenario: Lots of open projects, interdependency of resources between projects. What's your status? How can you make the best of your resources?
● The solution proposed was NavalPlan, a Gantt planning tool similar to MS Project, but that also helps you to monitor and control the status of your company.
● Developers: Igalia & Wireless Galicia.
6NavalPlan: Open Web Planning
● Web: Runs on the browser. Based on HTML/CSS/Javascript. No plugins required.
● Open: Free Software. AGPL.
Two key ideas:
In the coming months NavalPlan will be renamed to LibrePlan.
7NavalPlan: Open Web Planning
General Overview
8Main screens
Divided in 5 main screens:
● Company view. Global view with all the scheduled projects.
● Project scheduling (Gantt view). Create dependencies, allocate resources, define progress, etc.
● Project details (WBS, Work Breakdown Structure). Create projects, add tasks, decorate tasks with criteria, labels, progress, etc.
● Resources load. Graph with load per resource (underused, fully loaded, overloaded).
● Advance allocation. Fine-grained allocation for every task.
9Navigation menus
Main menu:• Scheduling• Resources• Administration/Management• Reports
10Navigation menus
Left-side menu: • Project scheduling (Gantt)• Project details (WBS)• Resources load
11Company view
Resources loadThere's overloading of resources among projects
View of all scheduled projects
12Project Scheduling – Gantt view
Menu:• Save• Zoom (year, month, week, etc)• Critical Path• Expand/collapse tasks• Filter tasks• ...
13Project Scheduling – Gantt view
Gantt diagramList of tasks on the leftDependencies: S-S, E-E, E-SConstraints: ASAP, No later than, etcTask, Task groups, Milestones
14Project Scheduling – Gantt view
Graphics:• Load• Earned value• Progress
15Project Details - Work Breakdown Structure
Menu: • Save• Filter tasks• Tabs: wbs, general data, progress,
criteria, labels, etc
16Project Details - Work Breakdown Structure
WBS tab:• Add new tasks• Structure in form of tree• Tasks can be nested: task elements
and task groups• This structure will appear later in the Gantt view
17Resources Load
Shows load per resource:• Green: under 100%• Yellow: 100%• Red: above 100% (overloaded)
18Resources Load
Resource is overloadedAllocated to two tasks that happen simultaneously
100% loaded
19Resources Load
Graph showing total capacity, assigned load and overloading
20Advance allocationAllocate hours to a resource manually or using a function: plain, polynomic, sigmoid
Zoom level: year, month, week
21NavalPlan: Open Web Planning
Main Features
22Main Features
● Allocation of resources based on dynamic roles (criteria).
● Powerful management of calendars.
● Company view: projects and resources are not something isolated.
● Resource balancing.
● Monitor and control.
● Integration with third-parties.
23Dynamic roles
● Roles: a need that a resource satisfies. For instance: Work category: plumber, programmer; Location: Madrid, Berlin.
● Roles are dynamic. A person can stay half of the year in Madrid and the other half in Berlin.
● Tasks can expressed in terms of roles: “To complete this task I need a plumber and a carpenter”.
● Generic allocation vs specific allocation
● Specific. A specific resource is allocated to a task.
● Generic. Resources that satisfy roles are allocated to a task (1 plumber and 1 painter).
24Dynamic roles – Basic use case
● Project:
Task 1: Fix bidet (Needs a plumber)
Task 1.1: Unblock pipes
Task 1.2: Repair handles
● Resource:
Joe (Role: plumber)
● Tasks inherit roles from their parents. Task 1 (needs a plumber) => Task 1.1 and Task 1.2 (needs a plumber).
● Devote 1 resource per day to 'Fix bidet'. As Joe is the only plumber he will be completely devoted to this task (resource load 100%).
25Powerful management of calendars
● Calendars are highly customizable:
–Derive calendars (Spain → Galicia).
–Define number of working hours per day in a week.
–Define exceptions (public holidays, holidays, etc).
● Resources have calendars. Tasks have calendars.
● Calendars play an important role when allocating resources to a task.
● Example:
–Resource “Peter” has Spain calendar (16-20 May bank holidays).
–Allocate “Peter” to task “Paint walls”.
26Company view
● A global view of the status of the company
–Resources are shared among projects.
–A resource can be overloaded due to another project (external overload).
–Apart from detecting overload it's possible to know what project is causing external overload (via 'Resource usage' view).
● Example:
–A construction company which builds houses.
–Projects overlap in time.
–Joe and Peter are also employees there.
27Resource balancing
● NavalPlan is good at spoting overloading of resources.
● Ways to solve overloading:
● Manually (assign another resource, shift task so resource is no longer overloaded).
● Global reassignment:
● Recalculate resource allocations.
● Useful when adding new resources.
● Generic allocation: Distributes allocation among all workers that have less hours.
28Progress, costs control and integration
● Progress:
–Progress tracking (percentage, units, subcontracted)
–Progress graphs (compared different types of progress)
–Deviations and delay summary view.
● Control of costs and reports:
–Work reports: real imputed hours.
–Cost associated to worker.
● Integration:
–Integration with third parties via web-services (RESTful API)
–Integration with other NavalPlan instances.
29Technology & Architecture
● 3-tier application: UI, Business logic, Persistence.
● UI: ZK 3.6.X & YUI. Plan to migrate to ZK5 CE soon.
● Business logic: Java 1.6/Spring (MVC pattern).
● Persistence: Hibernate. PostgreSQL & MySQL throughly tested.
● Web-services layer: Apache CXF.
● Other technologies: Jasper Reports, Timeplot, JfreeChart, Jgraph.
30Community
● Completely developed in the open (wiki, git, mailing-lists, bugzilla, etc).
● In the process of establishing an association for governing the project.
● Association will be initially composed of representatives of public administration and current developing companies, but it'll be open to everyone.
● Training courses from user perspective and developing perspective.
● Some public administration bodies and private companies are joining.
31Community
● Website: www.navalplan.org
● SourceForge: www.sourceforge.net/projects/navalplan (git, mailing-lists)
● Wiki: http://wiki.navalplan.org/
● Bugzilla: http://bugs.navalplan.org
● IRC: freenode/#navalplan (6-8 people)
● Social channels:
● Identi.ca: http://identi.ca/navalplan
● Twitter: www.twitter.com/navalplan
32NavalPlan: Open Web Planning
Thanks!
Q & A