1. Project Scheduling
Using OpenProj

2. Project Portfolio Management
PPM – Project Portfolio Management
Every company executes a set of tasks, that can be grouped together, utilizing a group of human resources and machinery/hardware – this is termed as project
In every project, we need to track resources, time and cost
In every project we need to plan, track and analyze the status
Usually a team reports to a project manager
OpenProj by Serena Software, helps to track projects
The competing tools for OpenProj are Microsoft Project Plan, Open Workbench etc.

3. Tasks Tasks are the building blocks of project management
A task must have a definitive start date and definitive end date
A task can be assigned to one or more people
A task can have a predecessor and/or successor. This creates a dependency between tasks
We can have a detailed notes for every task

6. Resources A resource can be a human resource or machinery
Resources will be associated with regular time rate and overtime rate
Resources will be tied to the tasks for tracking purposes
Resources are not shared between projects. Each project is treated as a separate entity

8. Project Calendar For scheduling a project, a base calendar is required
In the calendar we specify the regular work time, holidays, etc
We can use 24 hour calendar or a regular time calendar
If required, we can also specify any unconventional work times
Number of hours per day, number of days per week, number of days per month can be configured

10. Task Tracking
Gantt chart is used to see a pictorial view of the task dependencies
Gantt chart uses timeline as X axis and tasks on the Y axis, one below the other
To create subtasks, use indentation feature
We can define a task as milestone task as well to indicate a logical end point
We can specify the percentage completion for every task
When percentage completion is 100%, the task will be indicated with a tick mark

11. Baselines
When tracking the tasks and the progress, it is imperative to save a baseline
Baseline is a snapshot of the plan at a given point of time.
After many updations to the plan, during the tracking phase, we can compare that with baseline dates
This will tell us whether we are in line with or deviating from the original plans
11 baselines can be stored for every project
Usually we suggest to have a weekly baseline of the plans
If more baselines are required, we can clear some of the previously defined baselines

13. Task View The task grid can have many more columns
We can hide an existing column or add a new column.
There are many predefined columns such as priority etc.
We can add our own text, number and date columns and rename them as well, as required
Any column can be resized and the order of the columns can be rearranged
When you double click on a task, you can see details of that particular task

15. Constraints
The tasks do have dependencies as Finish to start, Finish to finish, Start to start, Start to finish.
Depending on predecessors start and finish dates, and the dependency, the next task will be scheduled
Apart from this we can specify constraints like, Start no earlier than, must start on, must end on etc.
These constraints put additional stress on ensuring the tracking is done correctly

16. Work and Cost
When we include the work column, based on the number of hours configured per day, the effort is calculated
We can use the work part to calculate the planned and the actual efforts
When we associate cost to resources and tasks to resources, the cost of the resources are used to calculate the cost of the task.
The cost calculation is based on the work hours