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What software would fit my specific needs?

3 replies [Last post]
Thu, 2010-07-22 16:34
Jof Neuhaus
User offline. Last seen 13 years 35 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 22 Jul 2010
Posts: 4
Groups: None
Hi everyone,

I am a freelance illustrator and work alone. Most of the time i have 3 to 5 projects running at the same time, some of which are recurring every couple of weeks. A project can last a day or several months. The most important planning related data is the amount of hours estimated and ofcourse the deadline. I bill my clients based on fixed prices.

What i am looking for is software that can help me plan my daily work. I have some very specific wishes that i just cant seem to get fulfilled with the software i have tried so far.

First of all, it needs to be simple, and if possible graphically well-designed. After all, i am a visually orientated person. I dont do well with tabular data.

Second, i dont need complex resource allocation, personel handling, billing, etc.

Third, i would like to have an overview of a timeline, where projects are spread out, each on a new line. Then, when i have some gaps (of free time), and i enter a new project, it must fill these gaps.

Fourth, i would like to be able to adjust the length of the project or the deadline, in such a way that it will automatically fill gaps if they are present.

Fifth, and very important, i need projects that are becoming short on time to get highlighted (possibly turning increadingly more red as they approach the deadline and the hours estimated are not met).

Now i must say i am a total newbie in this area, and maybe i am looking for the wrong thing. In fact, i am here to ask you what way YOU would plan the kind of work i do. That is, one-person freelance work, couple of simple projects running at the same time, etc.

I very much hope someone here can give me some advice. Thank you very much in advance!

Joah.
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Replies

Fri, 2010-07-23 15:11
#1
Jof Neuhaus
User offline. Last seen 13 years 35 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 22 Jul 2010
Posts: 4
Groups: None
Thank you both,

I will have to give MS Project another go. Oddly enough i never really got it working to my liking, but that may just be the learning curve.

Thank you for offering me help on behalf of the users on this forum. If i run into a problem or have a question--and i am sure that i will-- i’ll turn to you.

Thanks again.
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Thu, 2010-07-22 18:24
#2
Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 2 weeks 5 days ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5241
Groups: Spider Project Team
Jof,

I would go with MS Project in your case.

1- For simple schedules it is not hard to learn.
2- Almost everyone has a copy of it even if not your main scheduling software.
3- It has become a bit sophisticated but not friendly with the advanced issues, keep on the basics and it will be your fit.
4- I believe you hardly will ever outgrow it but it you ever outgrow it then all major software can import MS Project files, this means you will be able to share files with many others and continue using your schedules with other software.
5- Do not believe there are free viewers but at modest price, there are viewers available so others can see but cannot edit your schedules.
6- MS Project 2010 is worth considering improvement over prior versions.
7- At PP you will literally have thousands of MS Project users, many of them expert users that will be willing to help for free, for the love of the game. Take advantage of this, in 20 years we will still be here.

Best Regards,
Rafael
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Thu, 2010-07-22 17:55
#3
Rodel Marasigan
User offline. Last seen 5 weeks 13 hours ago. Offline
Joined: 25 Oct 2006
Posts: 1699
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Jof,
Your requirements are very basic and most of the Basic Planning software can do that. It’s only a matter of mastering the software that you selected. It also depends on how much you wanted to spend on the software package. You can even use a simple excel spreadsheet with a little bit of macro to automate your work. I done some simple excel spreadsheet that my colleagues use for updating their schedule which automatically drawn a bar chart for them where I used to import to my master schedule. There are some free basic planning software available in internet if you Google it.

Some of the basic software are:
@Task
Fast Track
Project Kickstart Pro
MS Project
Etc…

For more sophisticated and advance planning:
Primavera
Spider Project
Asta Power Project
Open Plan
Etc…
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