Onepoint Report Nr. 36 (Q1/2012)
Editorial Onepoint Project 11 and more in 2012…
Solution HTML5 User Interface & iPad App…
News Onepoint 360 for Apple's iPad…
Spotlight Milestone Trend Analysis…
Links Documentation, Software, APIs…
About About The Onepoint Report…

Editorial

Dear Readers,

the new year is all about finalizing our next major version Onepoint Project 11. As many of you already know the new release will feature an all new HTML5 user interface that will no longer require a Java plug-in and will also work on smartphones and on the iPad. You can find out more about the new Web user interface in the "Solution" section below.

So what else can you expect from us in 2012? Since we are pretty confident that the world will not end later this year, we are already planning a number of interesting new features. The first new function will be the visual resource conflict resolution tool that will already be part of release 11. Other areas we are working on later this year include improved JIRA sprint & resource planning, portfolio analysis, advanced risk management, integration with Atlassian Confluence, and some inroads into social PM that we do not want to talk about yet ;-).

As you see, there are many new features to look forward to and you can believe me when I say: we are very excited about the new HTML5 user interface and to get your feedback when you get your hands on it later this spring... :-)

Best Regards,

Gerald Aquila, Founder & CEO

Solution

Preview: Onepoint Project 11 HTML5 User Interface

Already today many of our customers have selected Onepoint Project, because they are convinced that it is the most easy to use "real" project management tool on the market. Our goal for the new HTML5 user interface was to keep the "good stuff" and fix only what really needs fixing in order to make the overall user experience even better. This also means that upgrading will be relatively "pain-free", since we keep over 90% of the user interface navigation and tools consistent to the previous version in order that you will only need minimum re-training for your user base.

Let us prepare you for the five major changes you will notice in the new user interface, all the rest will only be visual/design changes:

  • The main navigation is now on top between your company logo and the user name that is signed on. The "Sign Off" button and the "your preferences" are accessible through a drop-down menu from the user name. This saves screen real estate and provides you with more space to do actual work in your web browser.
  • The second navigation level is now projects/resources instead of the tools. The major advantage of this change is that we will be able to scale from small, medium-sized to large projects by allowing you to show less or more tools for each project depending on its size or complexity. In addition, this makes it also possible to show a resource demand histogram not only on the organization level, but also on the pool or resource level.
  • The third navigation level is now tools and visualized as tabs within a portfolio, project, pool, or resources. The main advantage here is that this brings all project or resource-related information together into a single information "space".
  • The project/resource meta information (or "Properties") is displayed "inline" meaning that it is just another tool/tab within a project or resource information space (the first tab for projects/resources, the second tab for overviews such as portfolios or pools). This again has the advantage that it moves the project's properties closer to planning, controlling and monitoring resulting in less clicks and a clearer overall project navigation.
  • The "Risks" tool was moved one navigation level down and is now part of the "Planning" tab of a project. We think that this approach is much more consistent and that the risk plan is really part of the "big" project plan [picture] :-).

Finally, we should mention that the switch to HTML5 has also one drawback meaning that we needed to discontinue our desktop tools (Professional/Master). However, we will make up for this by adding an easy-to-install "Personal Server" to our product line that can run locally on a laptop and is accessed through a web browser just like its "big brother". We will announce the Personal Server in the next issue of the Onepoint Report.

Please note that Onepoint Project 11 is a normal major release and thus, a free upgrade for our support customers. For more information about the upcoming HTML5 user interface please contact our sales team at info@onepoint-project.com.

Onepoint 360: Multi-Project Dashboard for iPad

Onepoint 360 is a multi-project dashboard app that was specifically designed for the iPad. The iPad app is available for free on Apple's iTunes App Store and requires a login on a Onepoint Project Group/Enterprise server installation or on one of our cloud servers. The dashboard is based on the multi-project overviews available in Onepoint Project and shows a tabular project overview with status, plan/actual, and traffic light information, a multi-project schedule and the project pipeline in a single infographic-like view.

Onepoint 360 is optimized for landscape mode, but also works nicely in portrait mode. The app is offline-capable, i.e., once data has been downloaded from a Onepoint account it will remain available to you even when you are not online/connected to the Internet.

More information and a link to the iTunes App Store page can be found on our Onepoint 360 landing page on our website.

News

Spotlight

Milestone Trend Analysis (MTA)

If you work with milestones the milestone trend analysis is an indispensable tool. The MTA shows a graph of your milestones over time from the start of your project to the planned finish date. The horizontal axis is divided into so-called controlling periods, e.g., weeks, two-weekly periods, or months depending on the average duration of your projects. The vertical axis charts the date of each milestone for each controlling point.

Using the milestone trend analysis you can easily see:

  • Which milestones have been delayed, how long and how often (upwards trend)
  • If milestones are delayed over and over again (diagonal line with upwards trend)
  • How likely a milestone will hit a certain date (delays becoming less over time)
  • If a milestone date is totally unrealistic (delays are growing in a non-linear fashion)
  • If a milestone plan is up-to-date (no open milestone crosses into the gray area)

The traditional way to create an MTA is quite time-consuming, this is why even project managers who know and value the MTA do not always maintain it. With Onepoint Project you get an automatically maintained MTA with zero additional effort. The "trick" is that we use the fact that project plans in Onepoint are always version-controlled and the system remembers the check-in dates. By using the milestone dates in each project plan version together with the versions check-in dates, Onepoint uses a configurable controlling interval to calculate "virtual" controlling points in order to create an accurate MTA for you.

In Onepoint Project the milestone trend analysis can be found in the project "Monitoring" tool on the "Milestones" tab.

Links

About

About the Onepoint Report

The Onepoint Report is a quarterly, electronic publication, issued by Onepoint Software GmbH. In order to subscribe to or unsubscribe from the Report, please simply send us a short e-mail to report@onepoint-project.com with the subject "Subscribe" or "Unsubscribe" respectively.

About Onepoint Software

Onepoint Software is the leading provider of integrated project and portfolio management solutions for innovative small and medium-sized project organizations. Unlike traditional PPM software, Onepoint Project integrates formal, agile and JIRA projects into a single project portfolio and resource utilization database. Onepoint enables project-driven organizations to increase project and portfolio transparency, shorten project lead times, automate best practices and optimize resource utilization. By building on an open source foundation, providing both cloud-based/SaaS and on-premise installations and with its strategic focus on making PM systems easy to deploy, Onepoint redefines ROI for project management solutions.

The company and product names mentioned are trademarks of their respective owners as far as registered.