PMPlan is an MS Windows® based Project Management graphical software tool that focus' on project development through the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and addresses project and management requirements, contractual data items, and Earned Value Analysis and Reporting on cost and schedule. PMPlan provides for the integration of the WBS and the Organizational Matrix in a manner that permits identification of responsibilities, cost account selection, work authorization, scheduling, resource management, budgeting, cost accumulation, cost and schedule performance measurement, variance analysis, and reporting and change control for WBS and Organizational elements.
The PMPlan Enterprise Product - is the server based database version of the PMPlan software tools.
PMPlan Enterprise Tools: support project management and line management teams in providing for concurrent and timely access to a centralized common project and workforce resource database by all project teams, for all projects, expediting and improving the processing of project and workforce financial and schedule forecast data.
- The project management tool, PMPlan Enterprise, an enhanced version of the stand-alone PMPlan standard, and with the exception of the resource pool, looks and works the same as PMPlan. However, PMPlan Enterprise contains additional features not available in PMPlan such as the ability to define project rules, develop Burden Rate tables, etc. PMPlan Enterprise can be customized to access specific project financial and forecasting data of other applications and organizational databases and/or other unique management processes, allowing for additional and more comprehensive Earned Value Management EVM) and other reporting requirements.
- The line management tool, LMPlan, is a workforce assignment and forecasting tool for billable and un-billable project and overhead applications. It provides for the set up its own project file for limited purposes, or may import project plans from the Enterprise project management tool, PMPlan Enterprise, or other in house project or pricing tools, either directly or indirectly.
- All sensitive information contained in the centralized database is managed, with controlled access, through another limited access Enterprise tool, anDBManager.
- A Management focused Revenue and Portfolio tool, PMFolio provides for the analysis of the project data stored within the centralized server database, and provides summary reports that determine the status and health of all of the projects within the database, or of selected projects of interest.
PMPlan Enterprise, with the exception of the resource pool, looks and works the same as PMPlan, but the application contains additional features not available in PMPlan such as a the ability to define project rules, develop Burden Rate Tables, use the common Resource Pool, and can define project specific holidays and override normal non-workdays. Resource loading, which is stored at daily level, is done from task level with automatic roll up to the cost center and the project. PMPlan Enterprise incorporates import/export capabilities for other applications including PMPlan, MS Project®, Microframe's MPM® and ProPricer®. PMPlan Enterprise can be customized to interface with additional modules (not included with this application), custom designed to access specific project and forecasting data of other applications and/or organizational databases allowing for additional and more comprehensive Earned Value Management (EVM) reporting. This application can be installed on any of the site’s Windows® compatible computers, and includes twenty (20) licensed user seats that can be concurrently connected to the database (Note: additional licensed concurrent seats can be purchased).
The PMPlan Enterprise tools provide the project and line managers with compatible tools that, when jointly applied to the common data within the centralized database, provides for timely project status reports and summary data support for the administration and forecasting of the workload and workforce requirements on the total organizational human resource pool defined within the database.
The 'PMPlanDatabase' contains all of the tables used by PMPlan Enterprise, PMPlanPro, LMPlan, and PMFolio. The 'PMPlanDatabase' is attached to an independently purchased and installed Microsoft SQL Server™ on the organization's network server, and is managed by anDBManager. anDBManager can be installed on any MS Windows® or Apple Intel based Mac® compatible computer.
Additional Supporting Data & Downloads
The PMPlan tools are all project
management tools developed for the planning, pricing and
organizing of work activities, schedules, resources and budgets, and tracking
the work performed on these to determine the Value Earned through the measurement
of schedule and cost variances to a baseline plan. PMPlan aids in the construction
of, and tracks a project through its Work Breakdown Structure, Milestones,
time phased Integrated Project Scheduling, Precedence Logic Network with
Critical Path, and through individualized and categorized Resource Budgeting.
PMPlan tracks resource loading, by day, week, month, quarter, year or fiscal
year, and tracks budgets for these resources at every level of the WBS above
the activity the resources are planned. PMPlan Standalone tool functions wherein it saves data files to its own internal database. With the exception of resources and workforce loading, the PMPlan standalone data
files may be imported into PMPlanPro and PMPlan Enterprise.
An Introduction to Project Management A Guide to Using PMPlan Standard
System
Requirements and Installation of the PMPlan Tools
PMPlan Standard and PMPlan Enterprise Tools may be installed on MS Windows® (NT, 2000, XP, Vista or Windows 7) 32 or 64 bit compatible platforms; (and were also tested on a newer Mac with an Intel processor, and using virtual Windows)
Project size will have the greatest impact on the computers processor speed and memory resources.
The recommended minimum system requirements for the installation and use of PMPlan4:
- X86 based compatible computer at 1 GHz
- Windows XP/Vista /Windows 7 (installation requires administrator or power user permissions)
- 200 MB RAM
- 200 MB free hard disk space
- 800 x 600 display , 256 colors 16-bit color quality 512 MB Ram
The recommended system requirements for the installation and extended use of PMPlan4 (more may be appropriate for very large projects)
- X86 based compatible computer at 2.40 GHz + (or faster speeds for a large project plan)
- Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 (installation requires administrator or power user permissions)
- 4GB RAM (more is better)
- 200 GB free hard disk space
- 1024 x 768 display minimum (1280 x 960 preferred), 256 colors 16-bit color quality, 512+ MB Ram
Users of
Windows operating systems, beginning with 2000, are required to have administrative or power user permissions
in order to install new software applications, including PMPlan.
Should the user not have these permissions, the system administrator
will need to be involved in the installation process. The
system administrator will not need to be involved in the update process "IF" the
system administrator allows user access to "write" to the 'AlNik' and 'AlNik\PMPlan' folders established
during the installation process.
PMPlan Development Notes
The following
Notes for PMPlan are intended to aid in understanding the logic behind
the development of this Project Management Tool Application. These
Notes are intended to address elements of the design of PMPlan for
Project Management activities and are not inclusive.
Notes
on PMPlan Development Assumptions
The
following Assumptions for PMPlan are intended to provide
the logic behind the development of this Project Management
Tool Application. These Assumptions are intended to address
the basic activities of Project Management and are not inclusive.
Review
the Earned Value concept
PMPlan's
Approach to the Earned Value Concept is intended to provide the logic
behind it's use as a Project Management Tool. The example is intended
to address the basic's of earned value in Project Management and
is not inclusive.
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Notes
on Earned Value Tracking Reports
Below is a sample of the Cost Performance Report (CPR)
PMPlan's recently added Cost Performance Report has the
same information as the Cost/Schedule Status Report plus the Current
Period data, and complements PMPlan's
Earned Value Tracking Reports.
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Notes
on Basis of Estimate Report
Below is a sample of Basis of Estimate Report for one
WBS Element
You enter the 'Basis' notes in the 'Res Totals' Tab (Shown
below).
To display the 'Basis' rows, go to 'Tools | Options' Menu, 'Totals – Budgeted' Tab,
then check 'Use Basis Of Estimate Mode'. The 'Basis' is limited to
1024 characters. The 'Basis' can also be included in the 'Outline' (WBS
Dictionary) Report.
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Notes
on CWBS Code
At the request of some users, we have added CWBS Code.
You can enter this information in the 'Task Information' Dialog Box
or the 'WBS Table' Tab. If you use the 'WBS Table'Tab you will need
to insert the column for CWBS Code. The Code can be up to 50 characters
long.
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Notes
on Estimate to Complete
In the 'Status' Tab, the default method for calculating
ETC is to divide the Baseline Budget by Cost Performance Index for
each Control Account, then the ETC is rolled up to the upper tasks
and project. If desired, you can set ETC to based on management estimates
by checking the 'Use Manual Estimate To Complete' under the 'Status' Tab
of the Tools | Options dialog box. Then ETC equals current planned
budget not the baseline budget.
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Notes
on Creating Custom Reports
PMPlan
provides the capability to create custom tabular reports of WBS element
data. You can select which data to show, methods of selecting WBS
elements, and even apply your own formula.
To create
custom reports, select the following menu options
Project | Print Reports | Custom Reports … After this menu selection,
the Custom Reports form will be displayed. If it is the first time that
it has been used on a project, the reports table will be empty.
To create a new report,
click the 'New' button, which will display an input box for you to
enter a unique title for the report. If you wish to save this report
template, this title will be used for the filename with an '.ant' extension.
This title is also the default header used for the report. When you
create a new report, PMPlan initially creates two columns for you
(WBS Number and Description).
To add
more columns,
1. Select the column you want to have the new column inserted to the
left (Note: If you select the last column, you will be asked if you want
to insert it to the right).
2. Select the field from the 'Field' list box.
3. Click the 'Insert' button.
When
you add a new column, the default settings are entered for you. You
can modify any of the non-grayed cells.
Each
Column, displays 10 cells, which are the following:
- Field -
This is the name of a field that is used by the WBS element in
PMPlan. It cannot be changed by the user.
- Title -
This is the title that you will see at the top of each column.
- Align -
This setting determines the alignment of the column.
- Format-
This is for specifying the format of the data, especially numbers
and dates (Refer to the 'Formating Data' section for guidance
on formatting).
- Width -
This is the width of column where each count is the average width
of a letter. If 'Auto-width Columns' is selected, the PMPlan
will resize each column to display all of the text.
- Sort -
This cell is used to determine the sort order of this column.
The sorts the data based on left to right settings (See 'Sorting
Dates' section for special rules for sorting date fields).
- Criteria-
This cell is used to determine which rows to display (See 'Using
Criteria' section for how to setup criteria.
- Show -
When checked this column will be displayed. A typical reason
to uncheck this cell is when you want to use a field for criteria,
but it unnecessary to display.
- Formula-
This cell is only available for the following custom fields;
Byte, Number, Cost, Date, and Text (Refer to the 'Writing Formulas' section
for creating formulas).
- Rollup -
This cell is only available when the 'Formula' cell is being
used. If checked, the math of the lower WBS element is summarized
in the parent WBS element.
Which rows are displayed
in the tabular report is determined in a two step process. The
first process is to apply the WBS filter (for example: if 'Activities
Only' is selected, all of the parent elements are hidden). The
second process is to use the criteria from left to right is the
Columns settings. If the criterion is false, the row is hidden.
Each criterion is applied to currently unhidden rows, thus all
of the criteria must be true to display a row.
To view
a tabular report, click the 'Show' button.
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Notes
on Formating Data
To
format dates, you can use the following combinations.
For Year
yy displays last two digits of the year
yyyy displays all four digits of the year
For Month
m displays one or two digits of month (i.e. 7 , 11)
mm displays month with two digits (i.e. 07 , 11)
mmm displays three letter abbreviation of month (i.e. Jul, Nov)
mmmm displays full name of moth (i.e. July, November)
For Day
d displays one or two digits of day of month (i.e. 8, 28)
dd displays day with two digits (i.e. 08, 28)
Separators
Space - / , .
Examples
of date formats
mmmm
d, yyyy July 4, 2003
dd-mmm-yyyy 04-Jul-2003
dd.mm.yy 04.07.03
m/yy 7/03
Format
for Importing Actual Data
The file can be tab delimited (use '.txt' extension
in filename) or comma delimited (use '.csv' extension). Each row of
the file of actual data should have the following information:
Subaccount, Resource Id, Date, Value, Description
If a labor
resource, Value is the units such as hours, and Description is blank.
subABC, ResA, 2-Jan-2002, 45, ""
If a non-labor resource, Value is actual cost, and Description
describes the non-labor.
subABC, ResX, 12-Jan-2002, 200.45, "Photo Supplies"
Subaccount and Resource Id's are case-sensitive and match what is in
your project file.
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Notes
on Sorting Dates
The sorting
is done against the text is each cell, thus the only way to get date
to sort correctly you need to use the following format 'yyyy-mm-dd'.
If
you want to display the date in a different format,
- Insert two columns
of the same date field.
- Set the format
of the sorting column to 'yyyy-mm-dd', select sorting order,
and uncheck 'Show' cell.
- Set the format
of the display date column as desired using the rules in 'Formatting
Data'.
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Notes
on Using Criteria
The criterion
entered is applied to the value in each table cell of a column.
The
following criteria rules can be used:
- Blank or = with
text for equal criterion (1 or = 1)
- Indicate text
with single or double quotes at each end ("abc" or 'abc')
- Indicate date
with '#' (#15-Jun-2003#)
- Condition '=' for
equal
- Condition '=>' for
equal or greater than
- Condition '<=' for
less than or equal
- Condition '>' for
greater than
- Condition '<' for less than
li>Condition '<>' for not equal to
- Condition 'Like ' used
for text wildcard
- Like "abc*", any
text that starts with 'abc' is a match
- Like "*abc", any
text that ends with 'abc' is a match
- Like "*abc*",
any text that contains 'abc' is a match
- Use 'OR' for more
than one type of match (= "ab" OR = "cbe")
- Use 'AND' for
a range (=> #01-Mar-2003# AND <= #31-Mar-2003#)
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Notes
on Writing Formulas
General
Note: To use a field in an equation use the field name listed in
the 'Field' list box surrounded with square brackets (i.e. [Budgeted]).
The field name is case sensitive.
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Notes
on Number Equations
To create
number equations, you can use fields (Cost and Number types) with
numbers using the standard math operators +-*/. For example let's
assume you want to get the average labor rate for each work package.
To
do this, do the following;
- Insert a custom 'Cost' column
- Change Title to 'Average
Labor Rate'
- In the formula
cell, enter [Budgeted]/[TotalPlannedLabor]
- Set the WBS Filter
to 'Work Packages Only'
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Notes
on Text Equations
To create
text equations (catenations), insert a 'Text' column and catenate
text fields with other text using the following modifiers (For results,
[field name] value assumed to be 'abcdefgh', n = 3, and m=4).
- "any text" between
double quotes
- [field name]
- Left([field name],
n) where n = number of starting characters to use
- Right([field name],
n) where n = number of ending characters to use
- Mid([field name],
n) where n = the starting character to use
- Mid([field name],
n, m) where m=number of characters to use
To catenate
more than one modifier use the '&' character (i.e. [Leader] & ",
[" & Left([Group],3) & "]"
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Notes
on Date Equations
You can
currently add or subtract calendar days from a date (for example:
[PlannedStart]-14)
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Notes
on Escalation/Inflation Method
-
Budget
Calculation Method for PMPlan Version 3.2.09 or higher
-
PMPlan
now uses escalation for labor and inflation for non-labor except
for the ‘Dollar’ resource type that never uses
inflation.
-
The
default for escalation and inflation is 1.000. If you want
4% escalation the escalation value should be 1.040. The same
math applies to inflation.
-
The
base rate of any resource in the pool is:
- Base
Rate = Resource Full Rate x Rate Factor x (1 + Other
Direct Cost % / 100).
- Note if
Labor is a Job Category, Job Category Full Rate is used
for cost budget, while Resource Full Rate is used for
determining cost variance.
- If escalation
is greater than 1, the Labor Base Rate is adjusted as
follows:
- Labor
Rate = Base Rate x Escalation ^ (Plan Date – Last
Salary Date)[in years units].
- Thus
the Labor Rate has a step jump in rate every 12
months.
- If inflation
is greater than 1, the Non-Labor Base Rate is adjusted
as follows:
- Non-Labor
Rate = Base Rate x (1 + (Inflation – 1) x
(Plan Date – Effective Date)/365).
- Thus
Non-Labor Rate increases linear with time.
-
The
graph below illustrates this principle with both escalation
and inflation at 1.040.
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Notes
on Budget Calculations
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Notes
on How to Display Float
To
display Float Column in the Schedule do the following steps:
- Right-Click
on header in table portion of Schedule View that is to
be to the right of new column.
- Select 'Insert
Column' in the popup menu.
- Click the
down arrow and select 'Float'
- Click 'Ok'
button.
- Repeat for
each additional column desired.
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Assumptions
for Creating a New Project:
- Default
loading period (daily, weekly, or monthly) can be set
only during creation of new project.
- Workdays
must be defined during creation of new project.
- Start
day of the workweek must be defined during creation
of new project.
- Project
Start Date can be set during creation of new project
or in the Project Information View. Activities cannot
be started before project start date.
- Project
Finish Date is calculated based on finish of the latest
activity.
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Assumptions
for the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS):
- The
general order of WBS elements is Project (Level 1)
- Task
(Level 2)
- Subtask
(all subsequent levels, to the Activities)
- Activities.
- PMPlan
maintains, the outline numbering scheme.
- An Activity
is at the end of any branch in a Work Breakdown Structure.
- All
changes to Activities roll-up to tasks above the Activities.
- Activities
can only start or finish on a workday, as defined in
the New Project Information dialog.
- The
following items can only be directly changed at the
Activity level.
- Planned
Resource Loading
- Logic
Linkages
- Schedule
(Start, Finish, and Duration)
- Earned
Value (% or $)
- Only
Activities can be deliverable.
- If you
add Activities to an Activity, that Activity becomes
a task and its resources are moved to the first Activity
below it.
- When
selecting more than one WBS element for cut or copy,
only siblings may be selected (ie. all of the selected
elements must be under one task).
- Cutting
or Copying an WBS element
- Cuts
or copies all of its subtasks
- Copies
all internal logic linkages, and
- Copies
all planned resource loadings and cost.
- Demote
means move a WBS element down a level assigning it
to the element of the original level above it.
- Promote
means move a WBS element up a level assigning it to
the same group that is one level higher above it.
- Once
an Activity has earned value (BCWP) = Activity budget
the planned end cannot be changed the without changing
the Baseline.
- Once
an Activity has earned value
- The
Activity cannot be deleted.
- The
Activity cannot become a Task.
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Assumptions
for Scheduling:
- Scheduling
of Activities can be done two ways.
- Manual
placement of activity (either by selecting start, finish,
or duration or dragging start, finish, or moving in
Schedule View).
- Sequencing
in the Logic Network using the Precedence Dependency
Method (PDM) which is the process of placing activities
in boxes, and connecting them with arrows that show
the dependencies (which may include a lead or lag)
which are of the following type:
- Finish-to-start
- the 'from' activity must finish before the 'to' activity
can start. This is the most commonly used dependency
and most reliable getting the expected result.
- Finish-to-finish
- the 'from' activity must finish before the 'to' activity
can finish. A common use of this dependency is to assign
a lag, which indicates that the 'to' activity must
be completed lag days after completion of 'from' activity.
- Start-to-start
- the 'from' activity must start before the 'to' activity
can start. A common use of this dependency is to assign
a lag, which indicates that, the 'to' activity cannot
start until lag days have passed after starting 'from'
activity.
- Start-to-finish
- the 'from' activity must start before the 'to' activity
can finish. This dependency is rarely used.
- Manual
placement of some activities (such as project management
activity that doesn't depend on any other activity)
is acceptable.
- More
than one task can be assigned the same row in the Gantt,
as long they do not overlap in time.
- Activities
that occur after the current status date cannot be
moved prior to the current status date.
- Once
an Activity has earned value
- Planned
Start cannot be changed.
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Assumptions
for Milestones:
- Milestones
are major or critical events, and not Activities for
planning costs. Therefore, Milestones are separately
developed scheduled events that depict major project
moments in time (milestones such as IDR, PDR, etc),
and the milestones may be linked logically to WBS Activities.
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Assumptions
for Resource Loading:
- Planned
Resource Loading can only be entered at the Activities.
Impacts to project budgets can be reviewed on each
upper level of the WBS.
- Loading
can be accomplished at three locations:
- Loading
by WBS Element in the Planned Loading Pane selectable
in WBS Tree View. Data may be entered in hours.
- Totals
loading across all WBS Elements in Res. Totals View.
Data may be entered in the following ways:
- 142
= 142 hours
- 48%
= 48% of Full Time (8 hours per day)
- FT =
100% of Full Time (ft, Ft, and fT also works)
- .5 =
50% of Full Time (any value less than 1)
- Resource
Loading by Individual across all WBS Elements in the
Individual View. Data may be entered in hours.
- Default
loading period (daily, weekly, or monthly) can be set
only during creation of new project.
- Actual
Costs and Resources can only be entered at Work Package
Level.
- Shorten
the duration of an Activity with resource loading,
results in all loading occurring after end shorter
activity to be assigned to the last workday.
- Actual
loading can be entered up to current status date.
- Making
an Activity with resource loading shorter, results
in all loading occuring after end of shortened Activity
to be assigned to the last work day.
- Once
an Activity has earned value
- Resources
before current status date cannot be changed.
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Assumptions
for Work Packages:
- Tasks
or Activities marked as Work Packages are used to collect
actual costs and resources.
- Actual
Costs and Resources can only be entered at Work Package
Level.
- Work
Packages cannot have another Work Package below or
above it within the WBS branch.
- The
Work Packages must be placed such that all branches
downward from the project encounter a Work Package.
- Once
a Work Package has actual costs, you cannot delete
the Work Package.
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Assumptions
for Project Status:
- Level
of Effort (LOE) is calculated as BCWP=ACWP (Performed=Actual,
but Performed cannot be greater than budget).
- The
WBS element must be an activity and a work package
before it can be marked as a LOE.
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