CNET Editors' review
Project management software is a cornerstone of today's business world. Managers, executives, engineers, and administrators depend on it to organize their projects, manage their teams, keep clients and suppliers in the loop, and measure progress toward defined goals. SharedPlan Pro is SharedPlan's enterprise suite of project management tools, and it integrates with the developer's other editions, such as SharedPlan Personal. It's designed to be easy to understand and use, collaborative, and flexible in options and execution, while still having the power and scope to manage large, complex projects with critical deadlines. To that end, it offers sophisticated tracking and graphing tools like network diagram and Gantt chart editors, subproject import and export, and advanced reporting and project analysis capabilities.
SharedPlan's stated goals include software that is "elegant," exuding the intangible but definite feeling of quality, efficiency, and intuitiveness of well-designed solutions; "collaborative," in facilitating communication between all project levels and elements; and "robust," meaning capable of handling large projects and growing with your needs. SharedPlan Pro meets those goals. It's quite a large download, but the well-configured installer suggests back-to-front thoughtfulness in design and execution, and the interface bears this out: Though hardly unusual or unfamiliar, it's one of the cleanest, most efficient, and most intuitive designs we've encountered, another indicator of attention to detail. The Help files, documentation, and Web site also offer clear, concise language with a minimum of manager-speak.
SharedPlan Pro is free for a seven-day trial and costs $99.95. It's fully compatible with Vista and Windows 7.
Publisher's Description
From SharedPlan Software:
Project planning's not as hard as it looks as long as you have the right tools. SharedPlan's suite of project planning and management tools includes desktop software. SharedPlan Pro is the next member of the SharedPlan product family and delivers Microsoft project import, subproject import and export, network diagram and Gantt chart editors, project analysis and reporting, and compatibility with SharedPlan Personal Edition. Features: Simple--quickly plan your first project. Elegant--easy to understand. Collaborative--effortless communication for all involved. Robust--grows with you, handles large projects. Effective--invest your time doing, not planning.
What's new in this version:
- maintenance release with a number of bug fixes
- improved performance of critical path calculation
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4.0 starsout of 1 votes
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"Flexible, Robust, Great Function, Pretty Intuitive"
Version: SharedPlan Pro 6.2
Pros
After looking at a LOT of professional project management programs, I trialed SharedPlan Pro and have adopted it enthusiastically. It's easy enough for a beginner to use and has many reports and other high-end functions a professional project manager needs. I really like the instant integration of the Gantt charts, visual plan, calendar, and resource list. I like the overall ease of use, as well, and so far the customer service has been very responsive about questions I have as I ramp up.
The price is also MUCH better than MS Project while still being totally useful for a dept director such as myself, who is managing 25 or so large projects with many, many subprojects under each.
A favorite function of mine is the Visual Planner, which allows you to brainstorm many layers of subtasks intuitively,then instantly translate them into a Gantt chart.Cons
Pverall, not many. The niggling things are as follows:
Very little documentation or tutorial.
The Gantt chart can behave strangely with dependent tasks. However, I may not be using it correctly.
Though somewhat customizable, the interface is unattractive overall.
It can get a little laggy when updating resource allocation and dates.Summary
Good functionality, mostly intuitive, WAY cheaper than MS Project with much of the same essential functionality.
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