Review of OpenProj, an Open Source Project Management Software
OpenProj Overview:
OpenProj is an open source, cross platform Project Management application, designed to replace Micosoft Project. Being a Java program, it runs on Linux, Mac OS X, Unix, and Microsoft Windows and can open native Project files. The programme was released on January 10th 2008 under CPAL Licensed version 1.0. It can produce all the graphic reports you need to manage your project.
We looked around and everyone had abdicated the marketplace to Microsoft — projects in particular. There was really no innovation, and no competitor was really going there, so we launched the company specifically to offer the marketplace an alternative — a software-as-a-service or open source alternative — to Microsoft Project.- said Marc O’Brien, CEO of Projity.
Features:
- OpenProj allows project managers to easily create new projects, add and link tasks, manage and assign resources, create customs filters, sort activities.
- OpenProj includes different types of charts like Gantt Chart, Work Breakdown Structure, Risk Breakdown Structure, PERT graph, Task usage reports, Earned value Costing.
- OpenProj’s familiar user interface and ability to open existing native Microsoft files makes migrating both free and seamless.
- Compared to Microsoft Project, OpenProj is miniscule (less than 10MB to download, not counting the Java runtime software) and it runs fast.
- The availability of the source code and the right to modify it is very important. It enables the unlimited tuning and improvement of a software product. It also makes it possible to port the code to new hardware, to adapt it to changing conditions, and to reach a detailed understanding of how the system works.
- OpenProj can be downloaded free of cost and saves you $999.99 list price of Ms Project.
Disadvantages:
- Unless you are already familiar with similar applications, it may be a struggle for you — as it has been for me — to become adept at using OpenProj based on visiting the skimpy project documentation available thus far.
- OpenProj can not export pdf files.
Conclusion:
OpenProj is a complete Freeware and has essentially all the features of a Microsoft Project application that you will find. It is a very promising developing product. If this software is given any amount of support to reach the maturity, it would definitely be a solid competitor against Ms Project. Projity claims that its open source project management desktop has been downloaded 175,000 times in its first three months on the market.
Filed under Enterprise Software, application software