RISC DISC 1/RISC_DISC_1.iso/commercial/acp/projecting/Help

Text File | 1994-10-06 | 19.2 KB | 353 lines

                        ProjectING - The Project Manager

               For more details or to purchase contact ACP Ltd
                  PO Box 319, Lightwater, Surrey, GU18 5PW
                   Tel: [phone]  Fax: [phone]

ProjectING is a powerful project management program capable of dealing with
any project from a small home or school project up to the large demanding
management tasks required in business and industry. PlanING is a similar
program able to manage the many details of a project but limited to
designing plans for the smaller types of project. Both programs control the
events and activities involved through a graphical representation of the
project called a Network drawing. The first stage is the ability to draw
the network to represent the project being undertaken. There are very few
constraints on the structure of the network, and the drawing process is the
same in both programs.

The programs then allow a great deal of information to be stored about the
project. This consists of a range of dates covering the expected and actual
start and completion dates for the items that make up the project. From this
information, the program automatically calculates a Time analysis. This
calculates many additional dates and provides information such as; when will
the project actually be completed, compared with the Target completion date;
is the project ahead of, or behind schedule; which events are most important
(critical) to complete on time in order prevent the project from being
delayed. The drawings of the project can be printed, and a range of printed
reports provide the user with all the information that will be required
about the project.

PlanING

The range of software consists of two programs. The PlanING program provides
all the facilities described above with some limitation on the size of the
projects that can be undertaken. The ProjectING program provides the full
range of facilities. Demonstration versions of both programs are supplied
in the ProjectINg directory on this CD.

ProjectING

The ProjectING program provides all the above facilities and also a great
deal more. It has additional drawing facilities, and no limits on the size
of project that can be undertaken. It has additional time analysis
facilities, and the ability to display a much wider range of information.
ProjectING also provides a range of resourcing facilities. The resources
used on a project range from the people who are working on the project
through to the materials used, and the plant or equipment that is required.
ProjectING allows these resources to be allocated to the project activities.
The details of when each resource is required, how long for, and even the
cost of the resource, or of an activity can be determined.

The ProjectING resource facilities extend to providing resource information
across many different projects, a facility not found on some programs
costing many times the price. This provides information of all the jobs a
person may be working on. The total resource requirements for all projects
to be determined.

Starting the program

PlanING and ProjectING require RISC OS 3.10 or greater.

This tutorial uses the Example project file supplied in the ProjectING
directory on the CD to demonstrate many of the facilities provided by
both the ProjectING and the PlanING programs. These demonstration
programs are fully working versions, except that they will not save.
The programs can be run directly from the CD, but they may also be copied
onto a hard disc, if available, as this will speed up the operation of the
programs, particularly ProjectING.

The program ProjectING consists of the application called !Project, the
program PlanING consists of the application called !Plan. The network
drawings for both programs are saved in Project files which are identified
by the Project file icon which can be seen on the Example file.

The project files are completely compatible with both !Project and !Plan,
and they can be loaded to either program. Choose the program that is to be
demonstrated and double click on the application. The program will load and
the icon will appear on the icon bar. Double click on the Example project
file to load the Example project file.

The overview window will be displayed together with the Working date
dialogue box. The Working date is the date that the work on the project has
got up to, and it is the date used by the time analysis. In this case, click
on Retain last date. When any project is loaded, if there is any doubt as to
the correct setting of the Working date, always retain the last date until
the information is entered for a new date.

Once the date has been set, the next operation will always be to click over
the overview window and open a large scale window showing the area of the
project to be worked on. Click Select towards the middle left of the
overview window.

ProjectING and PlanING windows

The overview window is always open when a network drawing is present. When
the overview window initially opens it displays the first page of the
drawing according to the page size selected in the Setup, Options dialogue
box. The overview window is just this, it displays a miniature version of
the network to give an overview of the whole project.

The overview window is intended as a map of the complete network enabling
easy location of the area to be worked on, and it is useful when drawing to
see the layout of the whole project. The network drawing cannot be altered
in this window, this is done in a large scale window.

The large scale window displays an enlarged view of one specific part of the
network. The full details of the network are displayed including
descriptions and any date analysis that has been selected. A green square is
displayed on the overview window indicating the area of the large scale
window. Any number of large scale windows can be open at the same time.

Events and activities

There are two types of object that appear in the drawing. These are an
activity and an event. The activity is displayed as a line on the drawing.
The activity is where the work is done or where something that affects the
project will happen. An activity always has an event at the beginning and
the end. The activity has a duration in days, which indicates how long the
activity will take.

The event is displayed as a circle with an event code in the centre. The
event is a point in time when one or more activities start or finish. When
several activities finish at an event, all these activities must be complete
before the following activity can be commenced. More than one activity can
also start from the event. Each event has a unique code to identify it. The
event codes are allocated automatically by the program when the event is
created.

Main menu

All the facilities of the program are accessed by pressing the menu button
over any of the windows to display the Main menu. Move the pointer to the
right over the Setup option to display the Setup menu. There are a number of
general items here that cover the setup of the program and the project. The
Working date can be changed here at any time. Calendars can be set up to
take into account working days and holidays and calculate the date
appropriately. The Company details and Project details options are self
explanatory and the boxes can be opened if desired to see the information
stored here. The Options box provides settings for the name of the project,
the paper size and other items that affect the entire project.

Drawing

If it is not already open, click in the top left hand corner of the overview
window to open a large scale view. The first thing that needs to be done is
to draw the project.

A item needs to be added to the example, so click Menu, and click on the
Draw option. The pointer now changes to a cross to indicate that draw has
been selected. Open the window to full size, and scroll if necessary to get
the event circle RU0090 at the centre bottom of the screen. Move the pointer
about two thirds up the screen above it and click Select. A circle showing
FF0180 will be drawn. Move the pointer to the right hand side of the screen
level with the circle and double click Select. A horizontal line and event
FF0190 should now be drawn. If an error message states that there is no
horizontal component, repeat the entire procedure, but ensure that the two
clicks are exactly horizontal.

This has drawn a complete activity. As it was not near an existing part of
the network, and activity lines must always be joined to events, a new event
has been drawn at each end of the line.

Scroll the window to the right until FF0190 and RU0100 on the line below can
both be seen. The new activity now needs to be joined to the rest of the
network. Move the pointer over event FF0190 and click Select. Move the
pointer over event RU0100 and click again. An error message will be displayed, stating that this activity does not have a horizontal component. It may
seem strange that the two events cannot be joined directly with a straight
line but, for good reasons, ProjectING and PlanING insist on all lines
having a horizontal section.

The horizontal section of the activity line is required as all activities
have a direction, which is set by the direction of the horizontal line, and
they are selected and display information on this part of the line. Click on
FF0190 again and move about half way to RU0100, but staying level with
FF0190. Click at this point and then move down and click on RU0100. The two
events should now be joined with a two section line with a flat top and a
downwards sloping section like a landing at the top of a flight of stairs.
Click on the Main menu and then click on Draw to switch off draw mode. The
remaining demonstrations do not use draw mode.

Selecting and altering items

Once activities and events have been drawn. There are many facilities that
allow the drawing to be edited and other item added. If an activity line is
untidy, or in the wrong place it can be redrawn. Before any item can be
edited it must be selected. Simply click on any event or activity and it
will displayed in blue, indicating that it has been selected. Only one item
can be selected at a time.

Click on the activity to be re-drawn, for example the one above from FF0190
to RU0100. The activity will be selected and displayed in blue. From the
Main menu, choose Edit network, and click on the Redraw activity option.The
pointer changes to a cross to indicate that this is a drawing operation.

Click on FF0190. Move the pointer diagonally down towards RU0100 and click
about half way. Move the pointer a short horizontal distance to the right,
click again and finally click on RU0100. This is an alternative way of
joining two events at an angle like this with a flat section in the middle.
It is also possible to delete any unwanted items by selecting them and
choosing Delete on the Edit network menu. It is also possible to add
activities in the middle of a run using the disconnect option on the Edit
network menu. This breaks the network. The events at each side of the break
must be moved apart, and a new activity can be added in the gap.

Entering information

The information about all the events and activities in the network is
entered to a series of dialogue boxes. These are listed on the Edit network
menu, and it can be seen that there are several boxes for events and
activities. The dialogue boxes can be accessed by selecting the event or
activity and then selecting the box from the Edit network menu. An easier
way has also been provided and, as will be seen, a quick shortcut using a
mouse click is available for each box.

Firstly, scroll the screen to the left if required to display event FF0180.
As this is at the start of a run of events, it must be declared as a start
event. Double click on the event and the Event data dialogue box will be
opened. The event can be given a description in this box. In this case just
click on the start/finish radio button, then click OK. The event is now a
start event, and is surrounded by a hexagon to indicate this. Now double
click on the activity line to the right of FF0180 to open the Activity data
box. Here the description can be entered as "Approve Final Issue" (Press the
down arrow) "Of Software". Also enter 15 in the Duration box. The progress
section allows the entry of information about how long the activity will
take, and if any part is completed. Click OK.

Analysis & timescales

Scroll the window to allow the end point on the network RU0130 to be seen.
Click on RU0130 with the Adjust button. This opens the Event timescales
dialogue box. The end event allows the information available from the
ProjectING and PlanING programs to be seen clearly. It can be seen that a
date has already been entered here. This is the Target completion date. It
is the date that was chosen for the project to be completed when the project
was first set up.

By comparing the timescales box with the event circle, it can be seen that
the target date is displayed below the event circle. Above the event circle,
the date 12-OCT-1993 is displayed. This date is calculated by the time
analysis.

After taking into account the length of all the activities, i.e. the amount
of work that needs to be done, this is the earliest date that the project
can be completed. As it is after the target completion date, the project is
behind schedule. These dates apply all though the project. The date below is
the date the item should be completed to get the project back on schedule
and the date above is the estimated completion date. Items are highlighted
in red through the network to indicate the critical path. These are the
activities that are the most urgent to complete to get the project back on
schedule.

There is another way of displaying the date calculated by the time analysis
which gives more information. Click on the Analysis button in the timescales
box. This displays the Analysis dialogue box. The timescales box is where
the user enters the dates about the project, and the analysis box displays
the dates calculated by the program. In a sense the program asks the
question in the timescales box about when the project should be completed,
and the answers are displayed in the analysis box about when it actually
will be completed.

The early and late dates are the earliest and the latest times it is
possible for the event to be completed. (Ignore the start dates as they are
irrelevant here). The Total float is the number of working days that the
project is behind schedule.

Experiment with different target completion dates in the timescales box.
See that dates after 12-OCT-1993 will show the float as positive. The
project is no longer behind schedule, and it now has a number of days on
hand. The red critical path still displays which jobs are urgent, but all
the activities have some time in hand.

Event FF0020 on the bottom line is shown with a thick black line. This event
and the previous activity have been completed. As the work on the project
progresses, completed items are marked. The time analysis is recalculated
based on the completed dates and the new estimated completion dates are
displayed. Items are indicated as completed in the event or activity
dialogue box.

Printing

Details of the project can be printed out. The Print network option on the
Main menu will print the network drawing. This will be printed in graphics
mode and may take some time on certain printers.

The Print reports menu provides a number of printed reports. Choose a
Milestone report. Either drag the text icon to the printer driver to print
the report, or drag the text icon to the !Edit icon on the icon bar to view
the report on the screen. Reports can also be saved and exported to other
applications.

The milestone report can be printed on a standard A4 sheet of paper. Most
of these reports print up to 132 characters across the sheet. These reports
should either be printed in landscape format, or a small text size selected.
Full instructions for doing this are included in the manual. The reports are
user defined and a powerful programming language allows user defined reports
to be created.

ProjectING features

The remaining section of the demonstration is only relevant to ProjectING.
If There are a large number of additional features available in ProjectING.
The Options dialogue box provides many more analysis options, the data
dialogue boxes provide more facilities for each event and activity. User
defined calendars are available that allow separate calendars to be
allocated to each activity. This provides very powerful time analysis to
take place when different activities are performed by part time staff or
outside contractors with different work patterns.

Resourcing

ProjectING also offers resourcing facilities. Open the Setup, Global
resources dialogue box. The resources may be the people working on the
project, or the materials and tools used for the job. The first resource on
the list, Jim Brown, works in the design department. On the example
project, he will design the packaging materials. Locate the activity
starting at event RU0140 and select it. From the Edit network menu open the
Activity resources dialogue box. This box lists all the resources allocated
to this activity. In this example, a second person is required to work on
this activity, but only for part of the time. In the boxes down the right
hand side of the box enter Resource Hill, quantity 0.5 delay 0 Duration 10
and click on the Add action button with the Adjust button. This indicates
that Edward Hill will spend half (0.5) of his available time working on this
activity for a period of 10 days. These resources allocations can be altered
at any time. Click on the top line for resource Brown and the details are
displayed in the boxes on the right where they can be edited. Click Cancel
to close the box.

To demonstrate how this information is used, select the Global allocation
report from the Print reports menu and drag the text icon to the !Edit
application. This report displays all those currently working on this
project, and the activities they are involved with. When several projects
have been set up this report displays the activities from all the projects,
so allowing a persons work program over all the projects to be seen. Other
reports, such as Project resources and Department list also list and the
dates they are required to work on these activities.

This completes the tutorial. It has give only a brief insight into the
powerful facilties offered by these programs. The demonstation programs
allow the Example network to be edited with the only limitation that it
cannot be saved. Continue to explore the facilities of the programs in these
demonstration versions. For more information, or to convert these
demonstration programs into fully working versions, please contact ACP Ltd
as detailed below.

          ProjectING costs £299.00 + VAT PlanING costs £99.00 + VAT

     If you wish to purchase either program, it is possible to convert the
              demonstration programs into fully working versions.

              For more details or to purchase contact ACP Ltd
                 PO Box 319, Lightwater, Surrey, GU18 5PW
                  Tel: [phone]  Fax: [phone]