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RationalPlan Project Server Adds Support For Team Work And Collaboration

Stand By Soft is pleased to announce the new released Beta 2 version of RationalPlan Project Server a free product for all users. The new version allows a better collaboration by adding a web module that gives users the possibility to see their assignments (start and end date, deadlines, completion percentage, etc.). Additionally the web interface got a facelift making it even more user friendly and more easier to be used.

RationalPlan Project Server is a concurrent user project management software developed to improve the existing suite of products by adding a server module that gives project managers concurrent access to a central project data repository when creating plans, tracking progress, allocating resources, managing budgets or analyzing workload. The system consists of a central project management server (where projects are stored/accessed), to be installed at the customer’s site/network and multiple clients (“RationalPlan Multi Project” instances – which will connect to the server over the Internet/Intranet in order to view/update projects). Using this server based architecture project managers get a project management software system with multi project and multi user management capabilities.

Important changes of this version:

Added a resource module for users to see their assignments
New look and feel and improved functionality (sorting, filtering and multiple selection for tables)
Bug fixes

The new version is an important release for companies that need to give access to users to their own assignments. This way the collaboration is significantly improved since each user with access rights can see the status of the work he has to do on the project. He will be able to access a web module where it will be presented a simple report with all the tasks that he is working on. The report includes: task start and end date, task deadline, percent complete, the number of units assigned and the list of resources that are working on that task.

Users now have a more powerful interface with more complex components that allow sorting, filtering, multiple selection, inline data verification, etc. The application is easier to be used having a better navigation between modules.

The web based interface can be accessed from any browser including Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari and offers the possibility to manage users accounts, projects versions and resources assignments.

Besides the storage of projects, resources, clients, etc. RationalPlan Project Server also uses a versioning mechanism that allows administrators to keep track of all the changes that were made to the server data. More exactly this means that the server keeps a list of repository versions where each version has associated a version number, the user that made the change, the date at which that change was made and a short comment that describes what was changed in that version. This list of versions is very useful in tracking which user did what and also to always have a point at which to revert in case something goes wrong. Hence it can be used as a time tracking mechanism and as a backup data.

RationalPlan suite includes:
RationalPlan Single Project – project management software for single projects
RationalPlan Multi Project – project management software for multiple projects, projects that are interconnected through dependencies and share common resource
RationalPlan Project Viewer – free project management software viewer, the solution for anyone (from project stakeholders to team workers) to view projects details
RationalPlan Project Server – a centralized management of company’s projects while offering concurrent/controlled access for different users

RationalPlan is designed as an affordable alternative to Microsoft Project with some extra-features like multiproject management and it is covering project management area from WBS construction, project planning and scheduling to critical path management, over allocated resources detection, progress tracking, cost estimation, etc. Gantt chart support as well as various time line reports are also provided. It offers you the most important capabilities of a good project management software while being able to operate on various platforms starting with Windows, Mac, Linux and all other Java enabled platforms.

RationalPlan Project Management Software is available at http://www.rationalplan.com. It can be download from https://www.rationalplan.com/download.php.

About Stand By Soft
Stand By Soft was founded in 1997 as a software company specialized in building desktop applications and components. RationalPlan is a project management software that follows the general recommended guidelines from project management domain. MOOS Project viewer is a Microsoft® Project viewer that allows you to open, view in a dynamic way and print any Microsoft® Project file
Contact name: Lucian Ioan
Address: Aleea Parului, Nr.4A, Craiova, Dolj, 200346, Romania
Email: marketing@rationalplan.com
Phone: +40771610710

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By Tiberiu Ghioca|2022-11-18T10:20:13+00:00August 5th, 2010|News, RationalPlan|Comments Off

Review – RationalPlan Multi Project

We are continuing the series of reviews for our products. This time Preetam Kaushik from Bright Hub has written a RationalPlan Multi Project review. Here it goes:

“RationalPlan Multi Project, the powerful multi-project management software enables developing of project plans, allocating resources, monitoring project progress, managing budgets and analyzing workload of all inter-related projects with common resources and shared dependencies.

Overview

Rating

RationalPlan Multi Project (www.rationalplan.com) is well-conceived project management software that is principally geared for people who have to centrally manage projects. RationalPlan Multi Project, as the name indicates, is designed for simultaneously handling multiple projects that are interwoven with common resources and task dependencies.

RationalPlan – Project Module and Technical Compatibility

Rating

The key functions of RationalPlan Multi Project are to develop plans, assess work pressure, assign tasks, monitor budgetary limits, control finances and track project progress. In a nutshell, RationalPlan Multi Project is capable of scheduling, estimating, improving the overall efficiency of team members and comprehensively managing inter-related multiple projects untill completion.

Computer professionals acknowledge RationalPlan Project software as not only as an alternative to Microsoft Project but even more powerful as RationalPlan has quite a few extra-features; including the complex multi-project management. It must also be noted that RationalPlan can be operated on various platforms – Windows, Mac OS X, Linux as well as all other Java enabled platforms.
(more…)

By Tiberiu Ghioca|2022-11-18T10:20:14+00:00July 29th, 2010|Microsoft Project, Project Management Software, Project Portfolio Management, RationalPlan, Reviews|Comments Off

RationalPlan Review

While browsing the Internet and reading articles related to project management I reached Ian Burgess blog. And after reading some of his posts I just felt the need to get his opinion on RationalPlan products so I contacted him. That was an interesting point of view and I would like to share it with you:

“Some time ago I was asked to try and review RationalPlan by Tiberiu Ghioca. There are two versions of the application Single Project and Multi Project. The version I used was the Multi Project Version which retails for around $98 per user (compare this to MS Project more about that later).

The one obvious advantage along with the price is the fact the application works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. This is appealing as I am among the few Windows users (by the way I am happy with this) in most of the projects I work on. So finally a Project Management application that is not online (I travel a lot and do not always have easy access to the Internet) that can be shared among all the users on a project.

What is the best environment for RationalPlan?

From using the application over the last few months it holds its own in the SME and Micro Company market against any of its competitors. Where the project management is maybe only a full time job for one or two individuals or where a small team are delivering projects to multiple clients at the same time.

How did it road test?

Well I used this on a group of small projects using the same delivery team and was really pleased with the ease of use and simple interface. This screen shot was taken on a EEE with a 10.1 inch screen and this is a suitable screen resolution to make the application easily usable when I was on the move. Its lighter functionality in comparison with MS Project on was never really an issue when I was mobile.

What can it do?

From a functionality level it is more than capable of managing projects, baselines, risks, cost and resources which is really all you need to manage a project. If you are an MS Office applications user you may miss the import and export functionality the MS Project has with Visio and Excel. Although I have to say what I love about this application and has set it above all the other competitors that I have looked at is the project set up wizard. I have shown this to a few project managers who are starting out and everyone has been impressed with this tool.
(more…)

By Tiberiu Ghioca|2022-11-18T10:20:14+00:00July 19th, 2010|Microsoft Project, Project Management Software, RationalPlan, Reviews|Comments Off

Great Microsoft Project Alternative With Interproject Dependency Support

Some time ago Satish from Open-Tube.com wrote an interesting review for our RationalPlan products. In what follows I shall republish his review but he has all the credits for it:

“While creating and managing a project plan, have you ever run into a problem of having the resources shared between projects and you don’t know how to deal with such situations in your Microsoft Project? Well, we know Microsoft Project does not handle this scenario quite well. If you are a project manager who needs to manage resources centrally then you need a planning tool that would help you manage resources centrally. We have one such tools called RationalPlan Multi Project that is simple and its specifically designed for project managers that need to handle the company’s projects and resources in a centralized way.

With RationalPlan Multi Project you can have all your company projects and resources in one place. Not just that you can create dependencies between tasks from different projects but more important, you can share resources hence you will be able to track a resource’s overallocation state over multiple projects. The Project Portfolio view will help to get an overview of all your projects. Another key differentiator is that a “what if” scenarios capability is offered via multiple undo/redo levels that allows you to make changes and safely get back.

RationalPlan has three different products for various practical needs.

1. RationalPlan Multi Project – RationalPlan Multi Project allows you to manage multiple projects at once, projects that share common resources and/or with dependencies between their tasks.

2. RationalPlan Single Project – RationalPlan Single Project allows you to schedule and track unrelated projects individually

3. RationalPlan Project Viewer – For people involved but who don’t need or shouldn’t change the schedule related data. The Project Viewer is freely distributed for everyone to see the content of a project in the most flexible manner and not just as printed reports.

The software operates on all popular platforms starting with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and all other Java enabled platforms.

Try the Trial version by downloading form the RationalPlan website.”

Thank you Satish for you review.

By Tiberiu Ghioca|2010-07-16T10:51:12+00:00July 16th, 2010|Microsoft Project, Project Management Software, Reviews|Comments Off

What Is A Project Management Software?

Overview

Project management software is a term that covers many kinds of software, including project planning, project scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, task and time tracking and the list can go on. All these areas are covered by project managers that are used to deal with small, medium and even complex and large projects.

A project management application is a simple tool that helps managers and team members successfully plan, manage and execute the various tasks involved in each project under time and budget constraints. The most important part in the success of a project is the project managers experience and knowledge in the project management area. The project management tools are just an extension that help the manager.

Types of project management software

There are several types of project management software. It may be a desktop application, a web-based software or it can also be a hosted software solution that allows access from remote locations through Internet or Intranet.

Desktop applications are used by single users and working generally with system files. Web-based and hosted solutions can be set up to allows access for multiple users simultaneously in a concurrent manner on a central data repository.

The biggest advantage of a desktop application is the increased execution speed. The application runs faster and has a better response time than web-based solutions. This happens because web-based development technologies have not evolved well enough to allow faster running. Still desktop applications have the disadvantage of just one user working with them at a given moment of time. In order to solve this problem it is recommended to use custom server based solutions with desktop clients. This way the server offers the possibility to work concurrently on common data while the desktop clients give execution speed for users when working with the server module.

How to choose the right project management software

Project management software is designed so you can manage all aspects of your project needs effectively. There are different types of software available, and the most will allow you for the complete management from beginning to end. This includes starting with WBS construction, project planning and scheduling to progress tracking etc.

Here are some of the benefits from a project management software that you can expect:

it should be simple, easy to use and user friendly
project planning: provides a clean way to break down your project, build schedules, allocate resources, and manage budgets
resource and cost management: get resources and finances under control
project tracking: track project evolution regarding task’s completion, time and costs
brings project’s critical issues to your attention
team work and collaboration

Besides all these features the product price is also an important factor. There are basically two major payments methods: a one time purchase and a monthly fee. Based on your budget or income it is up to you to decide the most appropriate method.

Keeping all these aspects into account Stand By Soft designed RationalPlan, a project management software suite that follows the general recommended guidelines from project management software domain.

By Tiberiu Ghioca|2022-11-18T10:20:14+00:00July 14th, 2010|Project Management Software|2 Comments

RationalPlan Project Server – free Beta version released

Stand By Soft is pleased to announce the released of RationalPlan Project Server as a free Beta version for all users. RationalPlan Project Server is a multi user project management system developed to improve the existing suite of products by adding a server module that gives project managers concurrent access to a central project data repository when creating plans, tracking progress, allocating resources, managing budgets or analyzing workload. Besides the possibility to connect to the server the new version comes with an improved Undo/Redo mechanism, allows sending non ASCII characters in assignments emails and more.

Important changes of this version:

Added a server module for a concurrent/controlled access for users
Improved Undo/Redo mechanism
Allow sending non ASCII characters in emails
Changed backup file extension to .rpb
Bug fixes

Version 3.17 is an important release for companies that need to concurrently access and modify the projects data from multiple locations. The system consists of a central project management server (where projects are stored/accessed from/etc.), to be installed at the customer’s site/network and multiple clients (“RationalPlan Multi Project” instances – which will connect to the server over the Internet/Intranet in order to view/update projects). Using this server based architecture project managers get a project management software system with multi project and multi user management capabilities. RationalPlan Project Server is released as a free Beta version for anyone who has such needs.

The web based administration interface can be accessed from any browser including Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari and offers the possibility to manage users accounts and access rights on one hand and projects versions on the other.

Besides the storage of projects, resources, clients, etc. RationalPlan Project Server also uses a versioning mechanism that allows administrators to keep track of all the changes that were made to the server data. More exactly this means that the server keeps a list of repository versions where each version has associated a version number, the user that made the change, the date at which that change was made and a short comment that describes what was changed in that version. This list of versions is very useful in tracking which user did what and also to always have a point at which to revert in case something goes wrong. Hence it can be used as a time tracking mechanism and as a backup data.

RationalPlan suite includes:

RationalPlan Single Project – project management software for single projects
RationalPlan Multi Project – project management software for multiple projects, projects that are interconnected through dependencies and share common resource
RationalPlan Project Viewer – free project management software viewer, the solution for anyone (from project stakeholders to team workers) to view projects details
RationalPlan Project Server – a centralized management of company’s projects while offering concurrent/controlled access for different users

RationalPlan is designed as an affordable alternative to Microsoft Project with some extra-features like multiproject management and it is covering project management area from WBS construction, project planning and scheduling to critical path management, over allocated resources detection, progress tracking, cost estimation, etc. Gantt chart support as well as various time line reports are also provided. It offers you the most important capabilities of a good project management software while being able to operate on various platforms starting with Windows, Mac, Linux and all other Java enabled platforms.

RationalPlan Project Management Software is available at http://www.rationalplan.com. It can be download from https://www.rationalplan.com/download.php.

About Stand By Soft

Stand By Soft was founded in 1997 as a software company specialized in building desktop applications and components.

Contact name: Lucian Ioan
Address: Aleea Parului, Nr.4A, Craiova, Dolj, 200346, Romania
Email: marketing@rationalplan.com
Phone: +40727159969

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By Tiberiu Ghioca|2022-11-18T10:20:14+00:00June 17th, 2010|News|Comments Off

Project Management is not Business Management

One of the most prominent characteristic of a project as a concept, is its sharp delimitation in time. It has clear start and end dates and is designed to achieve a unique scope, unlike the ongoing operations specific for business management.

Sometimes, the end date of a project is the most important characteristic of the project. It is the starting point when designing the project deployment, any other characteristic being subordinated to this. In fact using a project management software allows a project manager to add a higher level of transparency regarding the interaction between various factors that interact when developing a project. Keeping some of this variables constant (like the end date of a project), allows to the project managers to determine and control the others (like cost or scope of the project).

Because of it’s very limited nature, a project duration can be clearly divided into five main phases. In the following observations we will presume that the client has clear expectations regarding the project and knows decently well what results he needs. The five main phases of a project are the following:

defining
planning
execution
controlling
closure

In the defining stage an important aspect is to speak with the people who are affected or exert influence over the project evolution. These people are referred to as the stakeholders. Getting their feedback will help you outline the project activities. This is commonly known as the scope (the work that should be done). It is equally important to write down both what will and will not be achieved. You want to make sure you know what the stakeholders are expecting. In this phase the aims and objectives are set, including the development of project deliverables and the desired outcomes of a specific set of activities.

The planning stage presumes breaking the deliverables into subdeliverables down to a level where activities can be outlined. Subsequently can be defined the relations between tasks and their timeline for completion. An important aspect of this stage is defining the requirements for completion of the project, stipulating the needed resources as well as any other requirements deemed necessary. The risks and project constraints are identified and contingency plans originated to address any of these potential issues.

The execution phase takes the major part of the project. Here is most likely that surprises and conflicts to occur and sometimes corrective actions should be taken in order to bring the expected performance in accordance with the project plan. Project manager is responsible for coordinating individuals and make them acting like members of the same team.

As the work begins, the next stage of controlling the project defines the success or failure of a project manager, as the constant surveillance and adaption of project plan are required to reflect the progression of involved activities. A project manager should take advantage of the methodologies and software available on the market. A large number of them are available online.

In the project closure stage, the team will be pulled together to analyze project performance and outline the learned lessons.

Stand By Soft is the provider of RationalPlan, a powerful project management software capable of handling multiple interrelated projects and covering project management areas starting with WBS construction, project planning and scheduling to progress tracking etc.

By Lucian Ioan|2022-11-18T10:20:14+00:00March 24th, 2010|Business Management, Project Management Software|Comments Off

RationalPlan 3.16.0 – Project Management Software for Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Stand By Soft has released RationalPlan 3.16.0 for the Mac OS X Snow Leopard platform. RationalPlan is a project management software application developed to assist project managers in creating plans, tracking progress, allocating resources, managing budgets and analyzing workload. Besides the upgrade to Snow Leopard the new version comes with a significant increase in execution speed for resource sheets, file type association on silent install.

Important changes of this version:

Upgraded to Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Significantly increased execution speed for resource sheet
Associate file type extensions on silent install
Bug fixes

Version 3.16 is an important release for Mac users. The suite of products just went for the latest Mac OS X version – Snow Leopard. The biggest change that can be noticed is related to the application interface: rounded buttons, better chosen colors, Mac OS X specific controls.

RationalPlan suite includes:

RationalPlan Single Project – project management software for single projects
RationalPlan Multi Project – project management software for multiple projects, projects that are interconnected through dependencies and share common resource
RationalPlan Project Viewer – free project management software viewer, the solution for anyone (from project stakeholders to team workers) to view projects details

Work computation algorithm on timescale intervals in resource sheet was significantly improved. This way user interactions like smooth shifting, zooming and scrolling are performed faster making users experience with this project management tool more pleasant. Still there is one observation: this increased execution speed can be noticed only on big and complex projects (usually that span over several years). Hence the greatest gain after this improvement will be obtained by medium/big companies and not by home or small office users.

Another important problem that was solved is related to silent installation. There was a problem to previous versions: the file types where not associated with RationalPlan if using silent installation. Now this issue is fixed.

Several other minor improvements where made and bugs where fixes.

RationalPlan is designed as an affordable alternative to Microsoft Project with some extra-features like multiproject management and it is covering project management area from WBS construction, project planning and scheduling to critical path management, over allocated resources detection, progress tracking, cost estimation, etc. Gantt chart support as well as various time line reports are also provided. It offers you the most important capabilities of a good project management software while being able to operate on various platforms starting with Windows, Mac, Linux and all other Java enabled platforms.

RationalPlan Project Management Software is available at http://www.rationalplan.com. It can be download from https://www.rationalplan.com/download.php.

About Stand By Soft

Stand By Soft was founded in 1997 as a software company specialized in building desktop applications and components.

Contact name: Lucian Ioan
Address: Aleea Parului, Nr.4A, Craiova, Dolj, 200346, Romania
Email: marketing@rationalplan.com
Phone: +40727159969

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By Tiberiu Ghioca|2022-11-18T10:20:14+00:00January 8th, 2010|News|Comments Off

RationalPlan Project Management Software 3.15.7 Email Integration With Yahoo, Hotmail, Live

Stand By Soft has released RationalPlan 3.15.7, a powerful project management software application developed to assist project managers in creating plans, tracking progress, allocating resources, managing budgets and analyzing workload. The new version comes with email integration with Yahoo, Hotmail, Live, added quantity column in assignment table, it remembers last used time scale, added predecessors end date and successors start date columns and many more enhancements.

Important changes of this version:

Email integration with Yahoo, Hotmail, Live
Added quantity column in assignment table
Remember last used time scale
Added predecessors end date and successors start date columns
Bug fixes

Starting with this version managers can send emails to resources with their assignments not only through private email servers or GMail server but also through the well known Yahoo, Hotmail and Live platforms.

The assignments table from the task details panel also got richer with a quantity column needed for material resources.

At user requests RationalPlan now remembers the time scale used in each view on the graphical chart. Project managers have different types of projects: some spreading on a smaller time range (days/hours) and other complex projects that span over several years/months. This way based on the usual project type the manager no longer has to zoom in/out each time he starts the application.

By adding the predecessors end date and successors start date columns in the predecessors and successors table respectively, project managers have a better insight over the project schedule. Now they can see easier how a given task can influence its predecessors or successors and indirectly the project plan and can take better decisions related to the duration and work of that task: how many resources to allocate, whether it is necessary to have those resources work overtime or not depending on whetter the critical path is broken or not, etc.

Several other minor improvements where made and bug fixes where fixes: interface related issues, localization issues and others.

RationalPlan suite includes:

RationalPlan Single Project – project management software for single projects
RationalPlan Multi Project – project management software for multiple projects, projects that are interconnected through dependencies and share common resource
RationalPlan Project Viewer – free project management software viewer, the perfect solution for anyone (from project stakeholders to team workers) to view projects details

RationalPlan is designed as an affordable alternative to Microsoft Project with some extra-features like multiproject management and it is covering project management area from WBS construction, project planning and scheduling to critical path management, over allocated resources detection, progress tracking, cost estimation, etc. Gantt chart support as well as various time line reports are also provided. It offers the most important capabilities of a good project management software while being able to operate on various platforms starting with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and all other Java enabled platforms.

RationalPlan Project Management Software is available at http://www.rationalplan.com. It can be download from https://www.rationalplan.com/download.php.

About Stand By Soft

Stand By Soft was founded in 1997 as a software company specialized in building desktop applications and components.

Address: Aleea Parului, Nr.4A, Craiova, Dolj, 200346, Romania
Email: marketing@rationalplan.com
Phone: +40727159969

###

By Tiberiu Ghioca|2022-11-18T10:20:14+00:00November 30th, 2009|News|Comments Off

RationalPlan Project Management Software 3.15.4 Increased Execution Speed And More Task Types

Stand By Soft has released RationalPlan 3.15.4, a strong project management software application developed to assist project managers in creating plans, tracking progress, allocating resources, managing budgets and analyzing workload. The new version comes with a significant increase in its execution speed, more task types, silent install possibility on Windows and some more interface improvements.

Important changes of this version:

Added more task types
Increased execution speed
Silent install possibility on Windows
Bug fixes

RationalPlan added more task types. Until now users could handle tasks that have only fixed units for the assigned resources. This means that once resources were assigned to tasks with a certain amount of units these units were fixed that is do not change on other task changes like duration or work. The functionality was like this: changing task duration resulted in keeping units fixed and adjusting task work; and the reverse changing task work resulted in keeping units fixed and adjusting task duration. With this new feature project managers have the possibility to automatically adjust the units when changing task duration and to keep the task work and the reverse keep the task duration when changing the task work. This feature is useful in the case the project manager assigns a resource on a task that does not performs a regular activity. The manager knows that that task requires “x” hours of work and that the duration is “y” days. In this case the application will automatically compute the needed unit.

The execution speed of RationalPlan was significantly increased. The application has a shorter start time and most of the actions take a lot less time. The most notable increase can be seen on actions that could trigger a reschedule on the current project: delete and paste tasks, duration or constraints changes, dependencies etc.

Starting with current version RationalPlan users can install the products silently that is without any user interaction. This could be useful for an easier deployment on multiple computers. Other changes to the interface of the application were done both for the Windows and the Mac OS X platform. The assignments email notification was also a bit improved. Now resources can see the percent completion of the assigned tasks and the full path of that task relative to the project for a better identification. Further more the project managers can use multiple email addresses when sending the assignments to resources. This is useful if you need to send an email copy to the resource supervisor.

RationalPlan suite includes:

RationalPlan Single Project – project management software for single projects
RationalPlan Multi Project – project management software for multiple projects, projects that are interconnected through dependencies and share common resource
RationalPlan Project Viewer – free project management software viewer, the perfect solution for anyone (from project stakeholders to team workers) to view projects details

RationalPlan is designed as an affordable alternative to Microsoft Project with some extra-features like multiproject management and it is covering project management area from WBS construction, project planning and scheduling to critical path management, over allocated resources detection, progress tracking, cost estimation, etc. Gantt chart support as well as various time line reports are also provided. It offers the most important capabilities of a good project management software while being able to operate on various platforms starting with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and all other Java enabled platforms.

RationalPlan Project Management Software is available at http://www.rationalplan.com. It can be download from https://www.rationalplan.com/download.php.

About Stand By Soft

Stand By Soft was founded in 1997 as a software company specialized in building desktop applications and components.

Address: Aleea Parului, Nr.4A, Craiova, Dolj, 200346, Romania
Email: marketing@rationalplan.com
Phone: +40727159969

###

By Tiberiu Ghioca|2022-11-18T10:20:14+00:00September 23rd, 2009|News|Comments Off

Read our latest articles

Overview

Types of project management software

How to choose the right project management software