PROJECT PLANNING/MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW - SECTION SUMMARY

SECTION: Accessibility

Copyright (c) 2000 Jim Salmons and Frank Castellucci
All Rights Reserved

Associated project: "Specification Writing for Web-based
		    Project Planning Software" (sXc ID: 24)

Project URL: http://sohodojo.com/techsig/project-planning-project.html

sXc Project detail: http://sourcexchange.com/ProjectDetail?projectID=24

Project coordination: SourceXchange

Sponsors: Opendesk.com and Collab.Net

Core Team: Jim Salmons and Frank Castellucci


1 Introduction

	This document aggregates the feature and underlying model analyses of
comparable products and services in the domain of the project specification
requirements. During the comparables analysis phase, nine product and service
offerings were examined.

1.1 Format and Key to Abbreviations

	Each of fourteen sections of the Comparables Analysis Data Capture
Outline has a Section Summary file such as this one. Section 1 of each data
collection form is an Introduction statement explaining the project and the
assessment. Section 16 is a reviewer profile. Since all data was produced by the
core project team members, section 16 does not have a summary section.
	
	In a Section Summary file, we aggregate the analysis data within each
subsection of the raw data collection forms. Each data point from the raw
assessment outlines is presented in the following alphabetical order and
prefixed with the following identifying abbreviations:
	
	EN - Enact Enterprise System 4.2 by Netmosphere/CriticalPath
	EP - eProject Express by eProject.com, Inc.
	FT - FastTrack Schedule 6.04 by AEC Software Inc.
	MP - ManagePro 4.0 by Performance Solutions Technology LLC
	MS - MS Project 2000 by Microsoft Corporation
	OD - Opendesk.com by HBE Software
	SF - SourceForge by SourceForge (VA Linux)
	WP - WebProject by Novient
	XC - X-Community by X Collaboration Software Corp.

	The aggregated section data in each Section Summary file is the last
section of the file. In addition to the aggregated data, each summary file has
an optional section for the capture of summary insights or comments.

1.2 Section Summary Insights and/or Comments


====== SECTION SUMMARY DATA ======


7 Accessibility

7.1 Web-based

** EN **
	Enact is a web-based client/server platform.

** EP **
	The current release uses very simple HTML, well-designed. It is full
server-based browser-neutral interaction.

** FT **
	No.
	
	FTS is 'web-aware', not web-based.

** MP **
	ManagePro is not a web-based service although its mobile-computing and
Multi-link features give it some in-roads into WAN-based and 'loosely coupled'
network configurations. (You can, for example, use a remote access facility like
PC Anywhere in conjunction with ManagePro's mobile computing extract and
synchronization features to provide collaboration interactions among a team of
distributed members... but this is a "where there's a Will there's a Way"
variety solution.

** MS **
	Yes

** OD **
	OpenDesk is enabled through HTML pages and server side Perl script
applications.

** SF **
	Yes. In addition, each project member is given a shell account on it's
Linux servers. The shell account supports file exchange using SSH tunnels
through TCP/IP.

** WP **
	WebProject is enabled through HTML pages and Java Server Pages. Its
general design assumes installation within an organizations intra-net.

** XC **
	X-Community is a full web-based service which currently is limited to
Windows-flavored clients.


7.2 Interchanges support (MS Project, XML, RDF, etc.)

** EN **
	ActionPlan imports and exports MS Project MPX format files.

** EP **
	There is a clever, low-key export feature to transfer calendar Event and
Person/User records into Microsoft Outlook. Outlook is not, however, required to
use any of the feature of eProject Express.

** FT **
	FTS will 'natively' open MS Project's 'MPX' export file format. In
addition, FTS has a generalized import function which allows data to be imported
from the clipboard or files.

** MP **
	Version 4.0 has updated and expanded its data import and export feature
sets. Import/export integration with Outlook 98 and 2000, and through Outlook
linkage to Palm Pilot devices is supported. The range of email clients and
transport mechanisms has been expanded and includes Outlook, Netscape and any
MAPI-compliant applications and services as well as Notes Mail, Sendmail,
GroupWise and Eudora.
	
** MS **
	Project 2000 and Project Central support extendability at the server
level (as project data is stored in SQL92 compliant form) and is therefore
accessable to any specialized input/output systems (ODBC, COM, etc.).

** OD **
	Functionality not supported.

** SF **
	None at this time, although the group has started architectural
investigations such as the implementation of an object supporting client
applications.

** WP **
	Interchange occurs through the import and export facility.

** XC **
	STRONG support for MS Project integration. X-Community maps its
'Information Unit' architecture (Business Center, Whiteboard, Notecard) model to
the Task decomposition of a MS Project project plan. This gives a tight
integration of MS Project's project planning and management features to the
X-Community architecture.
	
	Since this exchange involves a 'mapping' between a 'people/task'-centric
to an 'work product'-centric model, some Project Manager 'mindset' development
will be required to take best advantage of these advanced features of the
offering.


7.3 Import/Export (MS Project, text, etc.)

** EN **
	ActionPlan imports and exports MS Project MPX format files.

** EP **
	See above. The transfer is one-way; export from the eProject system to
the user's Outlook client.

** FT **
	Imports and exports MPX files.
	
	Import and export of data to user-definable file export formats is
supported. In addition, project data may be exported in lightly-configurable
HTML formats.
	
	Platform-specific features, like OLE server functions on Windows
machines, are also applicable.

** MP **
	Flexible data import and export is provided by allowing import and
export operations to target 'to this view' and 'selected items' operations as
well as 'entire database' data exchange operations. Field-mapping dialogs allow
quick and easy import/export operations.

** MS **
	Details not available at this time although certainly import/export to
other vendor project tools has long been a staple of Microsoft Project.

** OD **
	Support not explicitly mention through hands-on or documentation.

** SF **
	Functionality not available for cross product exchanges. CVS supports
imports of existing CVS repositories.

** WP **
	WebProject can import and export from and to Microsoft Project Exchange
(MPX) files, which are supported in a number of PC based project planning tools.
In addition, WebProject supports archiving the project to a second database as
well as saving the project as a template to be re-used to quickly setup new
projects.

** XC **
	See above. The integration appears to be tight and interactive based on
initial research. We'll revisit this when we assess MS Project.


7.4 Mobile Users

** EN **
	A convenient Palm OS device interface supports loosely-connected, mobile
users. Project plans can be 'checked out' from the Collaboration Server so a
single user can go mobile and disconnected and continue working on a plan.
Unlike ManagePro's mobile computing support, Enact provides a relatively awkward
'check out and unavailable/unchangeable until returned' mobile computing
support. There is no conflict detection and resolution to support disconnected
use of a Project Plan by mobile users.

** EP **
	The current release assumes a connected user. eProject has announced
eProject Anywhere which will add wireless and advanced mobile features. The
release is projected for the Fall of this year.

** FT **
	Not applicable.

** MP **
	ManagePro was one of the earliest Windows-based groupware products that
supported 'loosely connected' mobile computing users. Fine-grained database data
extraction and resynchronization features make it relatively convenient for Team
Members to maintain collaborative, accumulative interactions despite the demands
of today's 'Road Warrior' schedules.
	
** MS **
	Web access, RAS (Remote Access Services), and offline work synchronized
with central server on reconnect.

** OD **
	Support not explicitly mention through hands-on or documentation.

** SF **
	Any web accessable interface is supported.

** WP **
	Support not explicitly mention through hands-on or documentation.

** XC **
	There is no 'disconnected' mode per se. Email communications and the
'off-line' working of 'Information Units' with the versioning history features
gives the current offering a reasonable 'connect, figure out what to do, then
disconnect and go do it' mode of operation.


7.5 Reviewer Comments

** EN **
	None

** EP **
	None

** FT **
	None

** MP **
	None

** MS **
	As expected. In addition, there is the content accessability aspect in
regards to business processing that is not itemized in the outline, but Project
2000 supports rule definitions for every activity associated with project data
manipulation. This adds a significant benefit to overall project management
capability.

** OD **
	Working as designed.

** SF **
	Working as designed.

** WP **
	Working as designed.

** XC **
	None


DOCUMENT HISTORY

Version 0.9 - Draft
Version 1.0 - Final
 
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