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From: info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac)
Newsgroups: fa.info-mac
Subject: Macproject
Message-ID: <2396@uw-beaver>
Date: Sun, 2-Dec-84 15:46:28 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.2396
Posted: Sun Dec  2 15:46:28 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Dec-84 06:31:21 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beave
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 32

From: Sam Harbison 
I bought a copy of MacProject this week at my local computer store.  It's a
spectacular program, with good documentation (manual and Guided Tour).

In MacProject you draw boxes representing tasks and milestones, indicate
dependencies, and provide times, costs, and resource (e.g., people)
consumptions for the tasks.  It then calculates earliest begin/latest finish
times and critical path information.  Results are presented in three major
ways: your original schedule "roadmap" with various bits of computed
information; a task time line, and a resource timeline (times each resource is
occupied).  Costs and cash-flow breakdowns are also available.  Particularly
nice is the ability to write annotations anywere on the schedule or timelines.
Editing the project with the mouse is quite powerful and natural; you scroll
the main window on the (usually much larger) schedules and charts.  There is a
built-in calendar facility to note holidays, working hours, etc.

I have been using Harvard Project Manager on an IBM PC for the last several
weeks, and I consider MacProject superior.  However, MacProject is not a
superset of HPM's functionality.  HPM has facilities for tracking actual versus
estimated times and percent-complete data.  It also allows a master schedule to
be composed from separate smaller schedules (e.g., a company plan from
individual project plans).  MacProject allows none of this.  However, HPM does
not allow tasks to consume resources other than dollars, and I find the ability
to assign and track people on projects to be a big plus in MacProject.  Also,
MacProject is more flexible in the permitted interconnections of tasks and
milestones, has much sexier displays and charts, and in general has a smoother,
less surprising user interface.  (Actually, it's a complement for HPM even to
be in the same league.)  HPM lays out the schedule roadmap automatically (and
often awkwardly); MacProject allows (forces) you to sketch the relative
location of the boxes yourself.  MacProject also prints the charts faster and
is cheaper ($120 vs. $400).
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