- Omniplan 3 8 1 – Robust Project Management Software Developers
- Omniplan 3 8 1 – Robust Project Management Software Developer Bootcamp
There are two phases to project management with OmniPlan. The first is setting up your project; adding tasks, assigning resources, setting due dates, and such. That part of project management is covered in this chapter’s tutorial. The second phase is Managing a Project with OmniPlan’s tools.
Topics covered in the tutorial include:
It's nice to see a pretty interface, but for my needs that's not enough. Compared to other 'Project Management' software I have, I would choose OmniPlan over Jumsoft's Operation, but in 2 years I have not chosen it over Merlin 2 or FastTrack Schedule. These 2 programs are more expensive than OmniPlan, and to me they've been worth it. OmniPlan for Mac 3.8.1 November 14, 2017. Requires macOS 10.12. OmniPlan 3.8.1 is a minor update focused on bug fixes. Outlines — Addressed a bug that could cause outline text to disappear or appear black. PDF Export — Row background color is once again preserved when exporting outlines to PDF. OmniPlan 3.3.1 – Robust project management software. March 13, 2016 With OmniPlan, you can create logical, manageable project plans with Gantt charts, schedules, summaries, milestones, and critical paths. OmniPlan: Project planning made painless. Free 2-week trial. OmniPlan is designed to help you visualize, maintain, and simplify your projects. Break down tasks, optimize the required resources, and monitor your entire plan—all at a glance. Visualize your project’s tasks in a Gantt chart or Network. Project management software for professionals that helps people plan complex projects. Critical paths highlight the tasks that will keep your project on track and move you toward the finish line, making prioritization intuitive and data-driven. OmniPlan 3 Standalone.
This tutorial takes you through the process of laying out an entire project—from start to finish—in OmniPlan. Along the way, you’ll use the inspectors and various tools to quickly create a project plan. Even if you have used previous versions of OmniPlan, we encourage you to work through the tutorial as a way of familiarizing yourself with OmniPlan’s interface.
For the purpose of this tutorial we’ll be looking at the development process of a game being put together by an independent team of intrepid designers, coders, and testers. The project design described as we proceed is loosely based on a software development cycle, but applies just as well to any complex work consisting of interdependent and occasionally concurrent phases.
Starting off in On My [device], tap in the toolbar to create a New Project:
If this is your first time running OmniPlan, the Project Editor opens with the Dark Theme applied:
If you would like to switch from the Dark Theme to the Light Theme (which will be used for the remainder of this tutorial), tap in the toolbar to open the View menu. At the bottom of the View menu, tap Light Theme:
After switching to the Light Theme, OmniPlan should look as follows:
Keep the Dark Theme in mind for those times when you’re working late and want to take advantage of the darker background.
The Project Editor displays the Gantt Chart by default; you can switch over to the Network View by tapping in the toolbar. To switch back to the Gantt Chart, tap .
As you can see, your first task awaits editing. Before you get to that, though, the next order of business is to give your project a proper name; something that better reflects the project at hand.
Tap in the toolbar, and then tap the Project tab to open the Project inspector so you can edit the project title. Tap where it says My Project, press the backspace key to erase that title, and then enter The Game Plan as the new project name for this tutorial.
When setting out to build a project, one of the most important aspects is the timeframe. This, in turn, is dictated by any deadlines or start constraints that exist for the project.
Design and building the game project doesn’t have a hard deadline for completion; it just needs to be done when it’s ready. To indicate this, go to the Project inspector, tap the Start field, and then tap the today button to use today’s date as the start date.
If you are working through this tutorial, your project’s start date will obviously be different from the dates reflected in the text and screenshots that follow.
When planning a project, all of your dates will be in the future. As a suggestion, perhaps pick a date a few weeks in the future as your project’s start date for the tutorial.
Conveniently, the day you initially create a new project is used as the default setting for starting the project. If you need to set the Start date to something else, you can certainly do that.
After setting the Start date, you’ll notice a couple things:
- The project’s End date is initially set to 5:00 PM of the same day as the Start date. This date will change as you add more tasks to the project and assign schedules and dependencies, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
- The project’s Direction is set to Forward, which means that all tasks are will be scheduled to complete as soon as possible (or ASAP) based on their duration.
With the Start date for the project set, it’s time to return to the Gantt chart, where the first default task awaits details.
Tasks in OmniPlan represent discrete pieces of work that require substantial effort to complete, usually across a duration expressed in hours or days, rather than minutes. Prepare morning coffee, for example, is a task that’s typically not within the scope of OmniPlan, while Install espresso machine very well could be—maybe even a group of tasks, if you need external help getting pipes or electricity connected.
The notion of “task” in OmniPlan is in contrast with action item-based productivity apps such as OmniPlan’s counterpart OmniFocus, where anything you can conceive of as something you’d like to accomplish can—and should—be included in thinking about your project plans.
OmniFocus is built around personal task execution; the granularity of OmniPlan’s tasks is intended for work that must be considered by (or requires input from) a group of stakeholders, often as a team.
The process of project building starts with a brainstorm session for all the tasks that the project should include. As noted, these are typically things that take the effort of multiple people to complete, or have some impact on other work that the project requires. Don’t worry too much about whether a task fits the project’s scope at this point—it’s more important to get the ideas flowing. You can always come back and edit these later.
Start by changing the name of the default task:
- To the left of the Gantt bar, double-tap Task 1 to make the task name editable.
- Enter Create Initial Design as the new name for the task and then press Return.
You could also edit the Name field in the Task inspector:
To add more tasks to the project, tap in the toolbar. Create the following tasks:
- Brainstorm Gameplay
- Refine Game Concepts
- Determine Project Scope
- Evaluate Frameworks
- Project Pitch
- Code Game Engine
- Configure Middleware
- Build Software Physics Simulator
- Create UI Hookups
- Produce In-Game Art
- Sketch Concepts (Fresh)
- Create 2D Mockups
- Render Pixel Sprites
- Fleece Polygons
- Combine Art and Code
- Release Candidate 1 (RC1)
- Assure Quality
- Test Internally
- “Friends and Family” Beta
- Public Beta
- Game Release
New tasks appear beneath the currently selected item in the Gantt chart, or at the bottom of the list if no tasks, milestones, or groups are selected.
As you may notice while entering the tasks, the project now has more tasks than can comfortably fit in a single screen. However, you can use the pinch gesture to zoom out on the Gantt chart so everything fits within the window.
Initial task entry can be greatly sped up with the aid of a connected or paired keyboard. After entering the name for a task, pressing Return twice accepts the name of the task and creates the next one.
When tasks are closely related or interdependent it can be useful to put them in a group. Groups help organize a project conceptually, and also act as meta-tasks that can be linked via dependencies to other tasks or groups.
A task group is just a container—it has no duration or effort of its own. The amount of time and energy needed to complete the group is equal to the sum of the requirements of the group’s individual tasks.
An easy way to gather tasks into a group is in Edit Mode. Tap Edit in the toolbar, and then tap to select all of the tasks and milestones that you want to group together:
Omniplan 3 8 1 – Robust Project Management Software Developers
- Tap Edit in the toolbar.
- Tap to select the following tasks in the project:
- Create Initial Design
- Brainstorm Gameplay
- Refine Game Concepts
- Determine Project Scope
- Evaluate Frameworks
- At the bottom of the screen, tap Group to place those five tasks in Group 1 and ends Edit Mode.
- Press Return to accept Group 1 as the group name for now.
Admittedly, Group 1 is a boring name for a group. And while you could name it anything you’d like, a suitable choice may already be there. In looking at the list of grouped tasks, the first one--Create Initial Design—appears as the front-runner as group leader, so let’s make that change:
- Tap to select the Create Initial Design task:
- Tap the Task inspector, and then tap Task Info.
- Textual 6 6 0 7. In the Task Type selectors, tap to change its task type to Group.
- In the toolbar, tap Edit.
- Tap to select the following tasks:
- Brainstorm Gameplay
- Refine Game Concepts
- Determine Project Scope
- Evaluate Frameworks
At this point, do not select Create Initial Design. - This time, instead of tapping Group, tap Move so you can move the four selected tasks into the Create Initial Design task group.
- After tapping Move, a message appears at the bottom of the Project Editor, directing you to Tap where you want to move these tasks; tap to select Create Initial Design.
- A contextual menu appears over Create Initial Design, giving you the option to place the moved tasks Above, Below, or Inside. Tap Inside to make the tasks part of the Create Initial Design group.
As you may have noticed, the Create Initial Design group is actually a subgroup of Group 1. Since there’s no need for this to be a subgroup, let’s remove Group 1 so that Create Initial Design stands on its own:
- In the toolbar, tap Edit.
- Tap to select Group 1:
- At the bottom of the Project Editor window, tap Ungroup; this removes Group 1 from the project, but leaves the Create Initial Design group alone.
With the initial group established, let’s set these tasks apart from the others by changing their bar color:
- Tap Edit in the toolbar.
- Tap to select the following tasks:
- Create Initial Design
- Brainstorm Gameplay
- Refine Game Concepts
- Determine Project Scope
- Evaluate Frameworks
- In the Task Info tab of the Task inspector, tap the color swatch next to Bar Color and then choose a color:
- Tap Done in the toolbar when you have set the perfect color for your project’s first group.
Using the methods you’ve learned in Step 4, create three additional groups as follows:
- Code Game Engine
- Configure Middleware
- Build Software Physics Simulator
- Create UI Hookups
- Produce In-Game Art
- Sketch Concepts
- Create 2D Mockups
- Render Pixel Sprites
- Fleece Polygons
- Assure Quality
- Test Internally
- 'Friends and Family' Beta
- Public Beta
Don’t do anything with Project Pitch, Combine Art and Code, Release Candidate 1 (RC1), or Game Release; those will get some special attention later on.
After you have created those groupings, your project should look similar to the following (your color choices may vary):
Milestones are used in project management to denote specific events of importance. A milestone can be a specific event, such as giving a client presentation, and are often used as checkpoints along the project timeline.
There are two ways to get milestones into your project: you can insert a new milestone between existing tasks, or you can convert an existing task into a milestone. Let’s look at the former option first.
To insert a milestone in a project, do the following:
- Tap to select the Project Pitch task.
- In the toolbar, touch and hold , and then choose New Milestone from the popup menu that appears.
- Enter a name for the milestone. In this case, name this milestone Green Light to denote that the project receives the go-ahead following the Project Pitch task.
You can also convert an existing task into a milestone, similar to how you earlier converted the Create Initial Design task into a group. There are two tasks that weren’t placed into groups earlier that are perfectly suited for turning into milestones, so let’s do that:
- Tap to select the Release Candidate 1 (RC1) task:
- In the Task Info tab of the Task inspector, change the Task Type to a milestone by tapping the Milestone button:
- Repeat the previous two steps, and convert the Game Release task into a Milestone:
When you convert a task to a milestone, you’ll see that its Effort and Duration fields in the Task inspector have been set to 0h. Unlike the tasks assigned to a milestone, milestones themselves don’t take any time to complete—they are the culmination of the work that went into hitting that milestone.
Step 6: Setting Task Durations
With the tasks grouped and milestones set, you can now focus on detailing the amount of time required to accomplish each task.
When you initially entered the tasks for The Game Plan project, the Duration of each task was set to 1d, or one day. As with any project, some tasks will take less time than others, and some could span days or weeks depending on their complexity.
When you enter task durations, a special Duration Keyboard appears. This keyboard facilitates date and duration entry, so let’s take a moment to examine the keyboard before you embark on entering durations for all of the tasks.
Using the Duration Keyboard
When entering the duration in the Task inspector, you’ll notice that tapping the duration value brings up a special Duration Keyboard, with a row of buttons for selecting the following duration types:
- y for years
- mo for months
- w for weeks
- d for days
- h for hours
- m for minutes
- s for seconds
To use the number pad, do the following:
- Start by tapping clear; this clears any durations that may already exist for that task.
- In the top row, tap one of the buttons; for example, d if you need to specify the number of days a task should take.
- Then, tap the appropriate number.
If a task, such as the Refine Game Concepts task, has a mixed duration (1w 3d), do the following:
- Select the task.
- Tap the duration in the Task inspector to bring up the number pad.
- Tap clear.
- Tap w for weeks, and then press 1.
- Tap d for days, and then press 3.
- Tap done to close the number pad.
Use whichever method you prefer to extend the durations of the project’s tasks. However, please do give each a try, since there are huge benefits to using the numerical pad to enter a duration.
Enter Task Durations
Now that you know how to use the Duration Keyboard, let’s start by setting the duration of the Brainstorm Gameplay task to two days, rather than the default of one day:
- Tap to select the Brainstorm Gameplay task:
- Drag the task’s right handle to the right, stopping at the 2d duration.If you examine the task in the Task inspector, you’ll see that both the Effort and Duration are set to 2d:
Using either the drag method, or the Task inspector, set the Duration for the remaining tasks as follows:
- Refine Game Concepts: 1w 3d
- Determine Project Scope: 3d
- Evaluate Frameworks: 1w 2d
- Project Pitch: 1d
- Configure Middleware: 1w 3d
- Build Software Physics Simulator: 3w 3d
- Create UI Hookups: 2w
- Sketch Concepts (Fresh): 1w 3d
- Create 2D Mockups: 3w 3d
- Render Pixel Sprites: 2w
- Fleece Polygons: 1w 3d
- Combine Art and Code: 3w 3d
- Test Internally: 1w
- “Friends and Family” Beta: 1w
- Public Beta: 2w
After you have finished setting the durations, your project should look similar to the following:
Step 7: Connecting Tasks with Dependency Lines
With the durations set for all of the tasks, one thing becomes exceptionally clear: your team cannot complete all of the tasks if they start at the same time. Even if you had all of the resources to do so, some parts of the project can’t even begin until others have been completed.
Thankfully, all of the pieces are now in place to establish task dependencies. There are four ways that dependencies can exist:
- Finish-Start dependencies are the most common; these tasks rely on a task to finish before the next can begin. For example, when Task A finishes, Task B can start.
- Start-Finish dependencies indicate that when Task A starts, Task B can finish.
- Start-Start dependencies indicate that when both Task A and Task B can start at the same time.
- Finish-Finish dependencies indicate that when Task A and Task B need to finish at the same time.
To set up a dependency between two tasks, do the following:
- Tap to select the Brainstorm Gameplay task. When the task is selected, OmniPlan places dependency arrows at either side of the task bar:
- Drag the right task arrow to the beginning of the Refine Game Concepts task:
- After dragging the dependency arrow, you’ll notice that Refine Game Concepts has shifted over in the timeline to indicate that its work cannot start until the work of the previous task (Brainstorm Gameplay) has finished:
Dragging the dependency arrow from the completion of one task to the beginning of another creates a Finish-Start dependency.
While in Edit mode, you can use the Connect/Disconnect button to add Finish-Start dependencies or remove dependencies between any number of selected tasks simultaneously.
Now, set up the remaining task dependencies as follows:
- Refine Game Concepts Finish-Start with Determine Project Scope
- Determine Project Scope Start-Start with Evaluate Frameworks
- Evaluate Frameworks Finish-Start with Project Pitch
- Project Pitch Finish-Start with Green Light milestone
- Green Light milestone Start-Start with Code Game Engine and Produce In-Game Art
- Configure Middleware Start-Start with Build Software Physics Simulator
- Build Software Physics Simulator Finish-Start with Create UI Hookups
- Sketch Concepts (Fresh) Finish-Start with Create 2D Mockups
- Create 2D Mockups Finish-Start with Render Pixel Sprites
- Render Pixel Sprites Start-Start with Fleece Polygons
- Code Game Engine and Produce In-Game Art Finish-Start with Combine Art and Code
- Combine Art and Code Finish-Start with Release Candidate 1 (RC1) milestone
- Release Candidate 1 (RC1) Start-Start with Assure Quality
- Test Internally Finish-Start with “Friends and Family” beta
- “Friends and Family” Beta Finish-Start with Public Beta
- Public Beta Finish-Start with Game Release milestone
Once all of the connections are made, your project should look similar to the following:
As you can see, the project is really starting to take shape. However, as the project manager, it’s not quite time to assign resources to the tasks. The next few steps take care of a little bit of project housekeeping.
Step 8: Creating Hammock Tasks
In the life of a project, there are certain tasks whose duration is dependent on both when the previous task ends and when the next task can start. These tasks, known as Hammock Tasks, are useful when your project faces a hard deadline.
Hammock tasks can help you decide which tasks can be compressed if the project is running behind schedule, or if there are any external factors that influence when parts of the project must happen.
Now that all of the tasks in The Game Plan project have their dependencies set, you can see (roughly) how long the project should take to hit the final milestone, Game Release. As it just so happens, the Game Release milestone falls a few weeks short of a major gaming conference, which gives the project a hard deadline for completion.
In reviewing the other parts of the project, the one task that seems the most flexible for converting into a Hammock task is the Public Beta. If additional time is needed for squashing bugs, the team can use some of the Public Beta time to do that work, while still ensuring the project releases on schedule.
In Step 7, the Game Release task received a Finish-to-Start prerequisite from the Public Beta task. However, the Game Release milestone needs to start when the Public Beta finishes. So, the first order of business is to remove the prerequisite from the Game Release task:
- Tap to select the Game Release milestone.
- In the Scheduling tab of the Task inspector, tap the Public Beta prerequisite, and then tap Remove Dependency. This disassociates the Game Release milestone from the tasks in the Assure Quality group.When you break the dependency between the Public Beta and Game Release tasks, you’ll notice that the Game Release milestone zips offscreen to the left. Don’t fret, the milestone is still there; you can tap along the left edge of the screen to be taken to the desired offscreen task:Next, you’ll need to set an implicit date for the Game Release.
- In the Scheduling tab of the Task inspector, tap Constraints, tap Start at earliest, and then enter a date that is a week or two out from when the Public Beta is currently scheduled to wrap up.
- Drag the left dependency arrow from the Game Release milestone to the end of the Public Beta task:When you connect the Game Release milestone to the Public Beta task, notice that Public Beta slides over so it ends when Game Release starts:
- Finally, tap to select the Public Beta task, and then change its Task Type from Task to Hammock by tapping the Hammock task selector.
Depending on where you set the Start at earliest date for the Game Release milestone, the Public Beta Hammock task should stretch a bit to fill in the space between the 'Friends and Family' Beta task and the Game Release milestone.
Step 9: Editing the Work Week
One thing that you may need to do as a project manager is to define the work week. For example, the typical 40-hour work week is Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, with an hour of unpaid lunch somewhere in between.
To define the work week for your company/project:
- Tap to open the Inspectors.
- Tap to select the Project inspector.
- Tap Work Hours to view and adjust the Normal Working Hours for your company:
- To accommodate the late nights that often fuel game development, your company starts a little later in the morning. Touch and hold one of the Time Blocks on the calendar to bring it to a new position, or drag one of the side handles to adjust the work hours.Set the Normal Working Hours to 10:00 – 1:00, and 2:00 – 7:00, as shown here:
Even the most accommodating work week will occasionally have days that are out of the ordinary. Whether it’s a national holiday, a team-wide training seminar, an industry expo or conference, or just a patch of bad weather that keeps folks out of the office, setting exceptions to the regular work schedule can be key to keeping a project on track.
In looking at the calendar, there are three holidays that fall during this particular project’s duration (Labor Day, Halloween, and U.S. Thanksgiving) that need to be factored into the schedule.
If you are working through this tutorial, the holidays you encounter will most assuredly be different than the ones noted here. The takeaway from this example, however, is to show the importance of how holidays and observances can affect a project’s timeline.
When setting up your own projects, be sure to examine the calendar for holidays, observances, and any other special events that could impact normal working hours.
To view and edit the project calendar, do the following:
- Tap to select the Project inspector.
- Tap Calendar to view the project calendar:Dates on the calendar are color-coded as follows:
- Green dates indicate regular work days as defined by the Normal Working Hours set in the Step 9.
- Black dates indicate non-working days.
- Red dates indicate a working day that has been blocked as time off.
- Blue dates indicate days where overtime is permitted.
- Swipe to scroll down to September, then tap the week of September 4th to access the exceptions calendar for that week:For quick navigation between individual weeks of the exceptions calendar, swipe left or right on the numerical date headers. It’s a secret tiny productivity boost—and every little bit helps!
- To block off Monday, September 4, tap Add Time Off at the bottom of the Calendar, and then drag the handles of the Time Block to fill in the normal working hours for Monday.
- To compensate for the day off, you may want to pre-authorize overtime for the remainder of the week. Tap Add Overtime to add a Time Block for that, and adjust its size to span Tuesday through Friday from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
- Using the same techniques, do the following:
- October 31: Add time off from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. to permit staff to partake in the company’s annual Halloween festivities:
- November 23 and 24: Block these days off to cover U.S. Thanksgiving and the day after:
Step 11: Creating Resources
Now it’s time to start adding the team members, equipment, and materials necessary to bring the project to fruition. Every person, piece of infrastructure, and raw ingredient that contributes to reaching the project’s goal is counted as a resource.
- Start by tapping the Resources tab:As you can see, the project already has one resource type assigned: Resource 1, a Staff member.
- Tap Resource 1 to edit the resource’s details, including name, email address, resource type, and personal calendar:For identification purposes, OmniPlan Pro uses the email address assigned to Staff resources as their unique identifier. If you are managing multiple projects in OmniPlan Pro, and trying to balance workloads and resources across those projects, be sure to verify that the email addresses you provide are unique.Typically, this shouldn’t be a problem; just be careful about using group email addresses when, instead, you should use each person’s individual email address.For this tutorial, you can use whatever names you’d like, or you can use the handy list of resources in the following table. Just be sure to specify a half-dozen people and one resource type as Equipment.
Name | Resource Type |
---|---|
Henry Jonathan | Staff |
Janet van Dyne | Staff |
Anthony Edward Stark | Staff |
Robert Bruce Banner | Staff |
Thor Odinson | Staff |
Richard Milhouse Jones | Staff |
J.A.R.V.I.S (Render Farm) | Equipment |
You can remove or rearrange resources at any time by tapping Edit at the bottom of the Resources inspector.
Drag on the handle at the right edge of a resource to move it up or down in the list, or tap the delete button at left to remove a resource. Tap Done when you’re finished rearranging or pruning the resources.
Now that you’ve added the resources necessary for The Game Plan, the next logical thing to do is assign those resources to the tasks.
To assign resources, tap to select the first task in the project (Brainstorm Gameplay), open the Task inspector, and then tap the Assignments tab:
However, before diving into making the assignments, let’s first examine the top part of the Assignments tab:
This section of the Assignments tab gives you the ability to adjust the behavior of tasks when resources are assigned, how tasks are treated for scheduling, and which tasks receive priority over others when leveling your project. The task Assignment behaviors include:
- Options: Choose one of the following options:
- Adjust Task Duration: As resources are assigned, the task’s duration adjusts according to the amount of effort each resource contributes. For example, if you assign two people who are working 100% on a task that should take 2 days, the task’s duration is reduced to 1 day.
- Adjust Task Effort: As resources are assigned, the task’s duration remains fixed, and each person assigned to the task devotes all of their time (100% effort) to the task.
- Adjust Assigned Amounts: As resources are assigned, the task’s duration remains fixed, while the amount of effort each resource contributes is reduced. For example, if you assign two people to a task that should take 2 days, the task’s duration remains set at two days, and the effort contributed by each resource is adjusted to 50%. If you assign a third person to the task, each resource’s effort is reduced to 33%, and so on.
- Scheduling: Choose between the following two choices:
- Independent: Assigned resources work independently on the task.
- Meeting: Assigned resources meet and work on the task at the same time. Resources need to be available for work on the assigned task.
- Leveling Priority: Assign a numerical value to tasks that you want to have prioritized whenever you level the project. The lower the number, the higher priority the task receives.
Now that you know how to adjust a task’s behavior, let’s return to the Brainstorm Gameplay task. This particular task requires everyone’s effort, where the team meets in the Conference Room of Extraordinary Size to whiteboard and hash out ideas.
In the Assignments tab, do the following:
- Set Options to Adjust Task Effort.
- Set Scheduling to Meeting.
- Set the Leveling Priority to 1, making this a high-priority task.
- Tap to select all available human resources (no equipment necessary).
When finished, here’s how the Assignments tab for the Brainstorm Gameplay task should appear: Subtitles 3 2 5 download free.
Using similar methods, use the information in the following table to set task behaviors and assign resources:
Task | Options | Scheduling | Priority | Resources |
---|---|---|---|---|
Refine Game Concepts | Adjust Task Effort | Meeting | 1 | Everyone |
Determine Project Scope | Adjust Assigned Amounts | Meeting | 1 | Janet van Dyne, Robert Bruce Banner |
Evaluate Frameworks | Adjust Assigned Amounts | Independent | 0 | Henry Jonathan, Anthony Edward Stark, Richard Milhouse Jones |
Project Pitch | Adjust Task Effort | Meeting | 1 | Everyone |
Green Light | Adjust Task Effort | Meeting | 1 | Janet van Dyne |
Configure Middleware | Adjust Task Effort | Independent | 1 | Henry Jonathan, Richard Milhouse Jones |
Build Software Physics Simulator | Adjust Task Duration | Independent | 1 | Anthony Edward Stark |
Create UI Hookups | Adjust Assigned Amounts | Independent | 1 | Henry Jonathan, Richard Milhouse Jones, Anthony Edward Stark |
Sketch Concepts (Fresh) | Adjust Task Effort | Independent | 1 | Thor Odinson, Robert Bruce Banner |
Create 2D Mockups | Adjust Task Effort | Independent | 1 | Thor Odinson, Robert Bruce Banner |
Render Pixel Sprites | Adjust Task Duration | Independent | 1 | J.A.R.V.I.S (Render Farm) |
Fleece Polygons | Adjust Task Duration | Independent | 1 | Thor Odinson |
Combine Art and Code | Adjust Assigned Amounts | Independent | 1 | Thor Odinson, Robert Bruce Banner, Janet van Dyne |
Release Candidate 1 (RC1) | Adjust Task Duration | Independent | 1 | Janet van Dyne |
Test Internally | Adjust Task Effort | Independent | 1 | Everyone |
“Friends and Family” Beta | Adjust Task Effort | Independent | 2 | Everyone |
Public Beta | Adjust Task Effort | Independent | 2 | Everyone |
Game Release | Adjust Task Duration | Independent | 1 | Janet van Dyne |
When you’ve finished assigning everyone to the project, it should look similar to the following:
Step 13: Setting Individual Schedule Exceptions
Individual staff members may have personalized work schedules, and they’ll almost certainly have individual needs for time off over the course of a project.
To display an employee’s normal schedule:
- Tap to choose the Resources inspector.
- Tap to select the employee whose schedule you need to adjust.
- To adjust their Normal Working Hours, tap Work Hours, and then adjust their schedule accordingly:Here, Bruce’s Normal Working Hours have been changed so he can come in and leave earlier on Fridays.
- To add time off, or to authorize overtime, tap the Calendar field, tap to select the date, and adjust their schedule accordingly:Here, Thor is scheduled to be out of the office on Friday, November 10 so he can make it back to Asgard in time for the Feast of the Einherjar.
Once a project gets started, tracking costs and expenses is a critical part of your role as project manager. As part of setting up the project and determining how much it will cost, you can assign costs to every resource used or acquired during the course of the project, including Staff, Equipment, and Materials.
Resources can be assigned both Cost per Hour and/or a Cost per Use in the Resources inspector. Miscellaneous costs not associated with a specific resource can instead be added to the task itself, as Task Cost in the Task inspector.
To get an idea of how much this project will cost, start by assigning an hourly rate to the team members:
- Tap to view the Resources inspector.
- Tap to select individual team members, and assign a Cost/Hour for each as follows:
- Henry Jonathan ($42.00/hour)
- Janet van Dyne ($60.00/hour)
- Anthony Edward Stark ($50.00/hour)
- Robert Bruce Banner ($50.00/hour)
- Thor Odinson ($45.00/hour)
- Richard Milhouse Jones ($43.00/hour)
- Still in the Resources inspector, tap to select J.A.R.V.I.S (Render Farm), and set the Cost/Use to $2000.00:
- To add an additional expense to a task, do the following:a. Tap to select Public Beta.b. Tap to select the Task inspector.c. Assign a Task Cost of $2,000.00 to cover bringing in a Social Media consultant to monitor and respond to customers during that time.
To see the overall cost of the project, tap to select the Project inspector and look at the Total Cost field. Knowing this in advance helps you to plan for additional costs, or it could force you to go back and reallocate resources if the project is over budget.
The Total Cost of the project, however, isn’t entirely accurate right now. This is because the Public Beta has been set up as a Hammock Task, which allows it to shrink or grow as the project progresses. You’ll want to keep a close eye on the Total Cost, as it will most certainly go down, as the duration of the Hammock Task shortens.
Step 15: Leveling the Project
After assigning team members and equipment to the tasks, you can ensure the team is at its most productive by Leveling the workload across resources and tasks.
It’s hard to overstate the power of leveling in OmniPlan. When you first level a project, you cross the line between human and machine—making the statement that you’ve added everything you know about the project to the plan, and now it’s time to see what OmniPlan can do to help get all those things done optimally. Automation happens, and everything moves to its most efficient place based on the model of the project you’ve described.
To level the resource workload for your project, do the following:
- Tap to select the Resources inspector:
- Tap Leveling at the top of the inspector and turn on Automatic Leveling and Constrain to Future; turn off Allow Splitting:The Automatic Leveling option optimizes the resources in your project plan whenever a change is made.
Unless your staff is already in the optimal configuration you’ll see the tasks in the Gantt view shift to accommodate the most efficient use of their time.
If you tap on the Project inspector, you’ll notice that the Total Cost has already gone down slightly due to shrinkage in the Public Beta hammock task.
With tasks set and resources assigned and leveled, the project now reflects the best of all possible worlds—one where unforeseen hindrances don’t bog down progress. A world where optimistic estimates rule the day.
This is the world that is captured when a Baseline for progress is set. The Baseline is used to compare the project’s initial expectations against how the project is actually progressing. Setting the Baseline is important because, as the project manager, it enables you to adjust milestones and resource allocations to complete the project on time.
To set a Baseline, do the following:
- In the toolbar, tap to open the View menu:
- Tap Baselines.
- Tap Set Baseline at the bottom of the View menu. This sets the name of the Baseline to the current date, but you can change this to anything you’d like (it doesn’t have to be a date).
Your project can have more than one Baseline; simply add another by tapping Set Baseline at the bottom of the View menu. This allows you to compare how the project is progressing compared to the original timeline or against subsequent baselines.
What Comes Next?
The Game Plan project is now in its ideal form, right before the real work begins.
By laying out the project in OmniPlan, you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect. All of the tasks are in place, resources are assigned, you’ve set up the baseline, and you know how much all of this is going to cost. Well done!
Now comes the fun part of updating and managing the project along the way. The next chapter, Managing a Project, shows you how to use a variety of tools to see your project through to completion.
Broadly considered, OmniPlan’s project management tools serve two distinct but connected purposes. The first is similar to tools used in drafting the design of a model airplane kit: describing, as accurately as possible, the intended shape of an ideal plan, executed in miniature at an acceptable level of abstraction and mathematical precision.
The second use of OmniPlan’s tools comes after the first, once the plan has been made and the project is in motion: adding a motor to that model airplane, refueling it and repairing any leaks, and recovering from bumps along the way. The “management” side of project management is covered in the Managing a Project chapter.
This chapter’s tutorial begins at the beginning, tracing the first step toward successful execution of a plan: building the model of the project itself.
Step 1: Creating a Project
For the purpose of this tutorial we’ll be looking at the development process of a game being put together by an independent team of intrepid designers, coders, and testers. The project design described as we proceed is loosely based on a software development cycle, but applies just as well to any complex work consisting of interdependent and occasionally concurrent phases.
Starting off in Local Documents, tap the New Project button.
This opens the Project Editor’s Gantt chart view, where a first task is waiting to be customized or edited. Before we get to that, let’s rename the project to something more interesting.
Open the Project inspector in the toolbar to edit the project title.
Step 2: Choosing a Start or End Date
When setting out to build a project, one of the most important aspects is the timeframe. This, in turn, is dictated by any deadlines or start constraints that exist for the project.
In the case of our game development scheme, we don’t have a hard deadline for the project to be finished - we want it to be done when it’s ready (but as soon as reasonably possible). To indicate this, we’ll go to the Project inspector and set the start date as today.
Conveniently, this is the default setting for any new project.
You’ll notice when setting the Start date that the End date field is greyed out. This is because for a project scheduled for task completion as soon as possible (also referred to as ASAP), an end date cannot be specified—by definition, the project ends as soon as all of its constituent tasks are complete.
If you’re planning a project with a specific do-or-die deadline, you’ll want to switch the project’s Direction from forward to backward and put the deadline date in the End field. Tasks will be scheduled back from this date (“as late as possible”, or ALAP), filling in the time from project completion to the present.
Note
If you’re planning a project in the abstract without a fixed start or end date, you can change the dates format Specific to Undetermined until the timeframe is more set in stone. You’ll get dates that display as T+1d, T +2d.. instead.
If you’re planning a project in the abstract without a fixed start or end date, you can change the dates format Specific to Undetermined until the timeframe is more set in stone. You’ll get dates that display as T+1d, T +2d.. instead.
Step 3: Creating Tasks
Now let’s turn our attention to the Gantt chart, where a first default task awaits us.
Tasks in OmniPlan represent discrete pieces of work that require substantial effort to complete, usually across a duration expressed in hours or days rather than minutes. Prepare morning coffee, for example, is a task that’s typically not within the scope of OmniPlan, while Install espresso machine very well could be — maybe even a group of tasks, if you need external help getting pipes or electricity connected.
Note
The notion of “task” in OmniPlan is in contrast with action item-based productivity apps such as OmniPlan’s counterpart OmniFocus, where anything you can conceive of as something you’d like to accomplish can—and should—be included in thinking about your project plans.
The notion of “task” in OmniPlan is in contrast with action item-based productivity apps such as OmniPlan’s counterpart OmniFocus, where anything you can conceive of as something you’d like to accomplish can—and should—be included in thinking about your project plans.
OmniFocus is built around personal task execution; the granularity of OmniPlan’s tasks is intended for work that must be considered by (or requires input from) a group of stakeholders, often as a team.
The process of project building starts with a brainstorm session for all the tasks you think the project will include. As noted, these are typically things that you think will take the effort of multiple people to complete, or have some impact on other work that the project requires. Don’t worry too much about whether a task fits the project’s scope at this point—it’s more important to get the ideas flowing. You can always come back and edit these later.
We’ll change the name of the default “Task 1” by double-tapping it or editing the name field in the Task inspector, and then tap the Add button to create new ones.
New tasks appear below the currently selected item in the Gantt chart, or at the bottom of the list if no tasks, milestones, or groups are selected.
Tip
Bundle for iwork 5 1. As you create a list of tasks, try Network Diagram view! Tap the view switcher in the toolbar to see your tasks as a set of nodes—they’re currently not connected to one another, but that will change.
Bundle for iwork 5 1. As you create a list of tasks, try Network Diagram view! Tap the view switcher in the toolbar to see your tasks as a set of nodes—they’re currently not connected to one another, but that will change.
For our project we’ve created several tasks that we think we’ll need to accomplish on the road to a final product. Since we now have more items than will fit on the screen at once, pinch vertically on the Gantt chart to change the view scale.
Step 4: Grouping Tasks
When tasks are closely related or interdependent it can be useful to put them in a group. Groups help organize a project conceptually, and also act as meta-tasks that can be linked via dependencies to other tasks or groups.
Note
A task group is just a container—it has no duration or effort of its own. The amount of time and energy needed to complete the group is equal to the sum of the requirements of the group’s individual tasks.
A task group is just a container—it has no duration or effort of its own. The amount of time and energy needed to complete the group is equal to the sum of the requirements of the group’s individual tasks.
An easy way to gather tasks into a group is in Edit Mode. Tap Edit on the project screen, then tap to select all of the tasks and milestones to be grouped. Finally, tap Group in the bottom toolbar to complete the edit.
An existing task in your list may make a good candidate for a group already. Tap to select it and then open the Task inspector, where you can change its task type to Group. Assign other tasks to the new group in Edit mode by selecting the tasks (but not the group itself) and choosing Move, then tap the group and choose Inside from the contextual menu.
While you’re in Edit mode with the group and all of its tasks selected, this would be a good time to add a bit of visual distinction to the group as well. Open the Task inspector and tap Bar Color to choose a color that will identify all of the tasks in the group.
Step 5: Creating Milestones
Milestones are the anchor points in your project that mark important shifts in focus or unlocking a new phase of the project. Clarifying these will help break a dauntingly large project down into more manageable sections, and help dictate the tasks leading up to and following the milestone.
To create a milestone, tap and hold the new task button until the option appears:
Alternatively, tap a currently existing task to select it, then open the Task inspector. You can change the task type from a regular task to a milestone here.
Note
When you convert a task to a milestone, you’ll see that its Effort and Duration fields in the Task inspector are greyed out. This is because milestones aren’t actionable items; they serve as important indicators of progress, but have no “mass” in and of themselves. If you find yourself wanting to apply effort to a milestone, odds are it’s actually a regular task—some piece of work that precedes an actual milestone.
When you convert a task to a milestone, you’ll see that its Effort and Duration fields in the Task inspector are greyed out. This is because milestones aren’t actionable items; they serve as important indicators of progress, but have no “mass” in and of themselves. If you find yourself wanting to apply effort to a milestone, odds are it’s actually a regular task—some piece of work that precedes an actual milestone.
Step 6: Setting Task Durations
Returning to our tasks in the Gantt chart we can begin to scope out how long each task will take. With estimated times for their completion in mind, tap a task and drag the right handle that appears to the appropriate length for the task’s duration (in this case, two full workdays).
Task duration can also be set using the Task inspector.
Note
The task duration you set in this step isn’t set in stone. By default it represents the number of work hours required to complete the task—not the absolute time that the task will take to complete. This becomes clear when you begin assigning resources to tasks; when more than one staff member puts their full effort into a piece of work, the amount of time it takes to complete is reduced.
The task duration you set in this step isn’t set in stone. By default it represents the number of work hours required to complete the task—not the absolute time that the task will take to complete. This becomes clear when you begin assigning resources to tasks; when more than one staff member puts their full effort into a piece of work, the amount of time it takes to complete is reduced.
If you take a detour to the Assignments pane of the Task inspector you’ll find options for how OmniPlan handles a selected task when resources are assigned to it.
- Adjust Task Duration—Adding new resources increases the effort available to complete them, and this option uses that effort to shorten the amount of time the task will take to complete. The opposite is also true, as removing a resource from the task will increase its duration.
- Adjust Task Effort—Adding new resources keeps the duration the same, and adds the effort they contribute to the total required to complete the task — this represents pouring work into a fixed timeframe. Removing resources indicates that less effort is needed to complete the task in the same amount of time as originally planned.
- Adjust Assigned Amounts—With this option the duration and effort stay the same regardless of resource assignments. Instead, when new resources are added, the amount of effort asked of each resource is reduced evenly across the board (one resource contributes 100 percent, two resources contribute 50 percent each, and so on).
After organizing tasks into groups and estimating the time required to complete them, we’re starting to get a better picture of how our project will take shape. At this stage our Gantt chart looks something like this:
Step 7: Connecting Tasks with Dependency Lines
We can’t complete all of our tasks simultaneously! Even if we had the resources to do so, some parts of the project can’t happen until others are finished. Thankfully, the pieces are now in place to establish the ways that those tasks are dependent on the status of others. There are four ways that dependencies can exist:
- Finish ▸ Start dependencies are the most common type, indicating that when task A finishes, task B can start.
- Start ▸ Finish dependencies indicate that when task A starts, task B can finish.
- Start ▸ Start dependencies indicate that when task A starts, task B can also start.
- Finish ▸ Finish dependencies indicate that when task A finishes, task B can also finish.
Connecting tasks in the Gantt view is as easy as tapping a selected task again, which puts dependency arrow handles on either side of the task bar.
Drag an arrow from the selected task to another task to create a dependency. The type of dependency is based on the start- and end- points of the arrow: dragging an arrow from the completion of one task to the beginning of another will create a Finish ▸ Start dependency, and so on.
While in Edit mode, you can use the Connect/Disconnect button to add Finish ▸ Start dependencies or remove dependencies between any number of selected tasks simultaneously.
Tip
Having created your first dependency, now is a great time to check in with the Network Diagram view again. This is where the view really begins to shine, with clear illustrations of how tasks are connected. Experiment with connecting tasks in this view for awhile—you may find it preferable to the Gantt chart’s organizational aesthetic.
Having created your first dependency, now is a great time to check in with the Network Diagram view again. This is where the view really begins to shine, with clear illustrations of how tasks are connected. Experiment with connecting tasks in this view for awhile—you may find it preferable to the Gantt chart’s organizational aesthetic.
Step 8: Creating Hammock Tasks
A hammock task is one in which the duration is dependent on both when the previous task ends, and the next task starts. This type of task is useful when facing a hard deadline and deciding what can be compressed if the project is running behind schedule, or if external factors influence when parts of the project must happen.
Omniplan 3 8 1 – Robust Project Management Software Developer Bootcamp
In the case of our example project, now that we’ve established most of its dependencies we have a clearer idea of how long it’s likely to take. With that knowledge, we can anchor the final milestone to a point in time: we set Game Release for May 1st.
We decide that the public beta test period is the task that can give the most if we end up short on time toward the end, so that’s the one we want to convert to a hammock task. We start with a set of two tasks connected to each other with a Finish ▸ Start dependency in the Assure Quality group (“Friends and Family” Beta, Public Beta) with the group connected to the Game Release milestone by another Finish ▸ Start dependency.
We want to release the game on May 1st, so we set the milestone’s Start at earliest date (in the Task inspector’s Scheduling pane) to reflect that.
Note
This next step is only necessary because the task we want to convert to a hammock is part of a group with an expressed relationship to the milestone that follows. Creating contradictory dependencies between a group and the final task in that group results in a violation, and we don’t want that! To resolve the issue before it happens, remove the dependency between the Assure Quality group and the Game Release milestone. Don’t worry—we’ll replace it with something better soon.
This next step is only necessary because the task we want to convert to a hammock is part of a group with an expressed relationship to the milestone that follows. Creating contradictory dependencies between a group and the final task in that group results in a violation, and we don’t want that! To resolve the issue before it happens, remove the dependency between the Assure Quality group and the Game Release milestone. Don’t worry—we’ll replace it with something better soon.
For a task to become a hammock task, it needs dependency relationships with the tasks preceding and following it. In our example the Public Beta task doesn’t have an explicit relationship with the Game Release milestone yet, so our next step is to create one. But what kind?
Our goal is to indicate that when Game Release starts, the Public Beta finishes. To do this, select the Game Release milestone and drag the left dependency arrow handle from the “start” of the milestone to the end of the Public Beta task, creating a Start ▸ Finish dependency between them.
Public Beta is now in the proper state to be converted to a hammock task: It’s connected to the task preceding it with a Finish ▸ Start dependency, and the task following it (a milestone, in this case) with a Start ▸ Finish dependency. For the final step, select Public Beta and choose the Hammock task type for it from the Task inspector.
The duration of the hammock task extends automatically to fill the available space, in this case adding an extra week to the Public Beta test period. If the project is running ahead of schedule this period lengthens automatically, or if it’s running behind, it shortens right up until the scheduled release date.
Step 9: Editing the Work Week
Now that we’re starting to see the plan come together, we’ll set tasks aside for the moment and start setting up the work schedule for our project.
Open the Project inspector and tap Work Hours to access the regular weekly work schedule for the project. By default, working hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 5:00, with an hour-long break for lunch at noon.
Since we’re working with a bunch of more nocturnal folks, let’s change the schedule to reflect that. Tap and hold one of the time blocks on the calendar to bring it to a new position, or drag one of the side handles to change the size of the block. We end up with a schedule that fits our needs:
Time blocks can be created for individual days to indicate longer or shorter regular working hours (tap New Time Block), and deleted by tapping Edit.
Step 10: Setting Project Schedule Exceptions
Even the most accommodating work week will occasionally have days that are out of the ordinary. Whether it’s a national holiday, a team-wide training seminar, an industry expo or conference, or just a patch of bad weather that keeps folks out of the office, setting exceptions to the regular work schedule can be key to keeping a project on track.
One holiday we know is in the future for our project is a company tradition: Pi Day (3/14, or March 14th). We can add that to our schedule right now by returning to the top level of the Project inspector and tapping Calendar.
Green days on the exceptions calendar indicate regular work days. Swipe to scroll down to March, then tap the week of the 14th to access the exceptions calendar for that week.
Tip
For quick navigation between individual weeks of the exceptions calendar, swipe left or right on the numerical date headers. It’s a secret tiny productivity boost, and every little bit helps!
For quick navigation between individual weeks of the exceptions calendar, swipe left or right on the numerical date headers. It’s a secret tiny productivity boost, and every little bit helps!
We know we want to take Pi Day off, but we can also predict that this week will be crunch mode for the team. We use the Add Time Off button to create a block of time that covers the 25th, and then replace that lost time with evening overtime hours through the rest of the week.
Tip
For an overview of holiday and weekend time in the context of your project, choose Non-Working Time from the View menu. You can opt to show holidays, holidays and weekends, or all days with work currently unassigned as shaded vertical bars in the Gantt chart.
For an overview of holiday and weekend time in the context of your project, choose Non-Working Time from the View menu. You can opt to show holidays, holidays and weekends, or all days with work currently unassigned as shaded vertical bars in the Gantt chart.
Step 11: Creating Resources
Now it’s time to start adding the team members, equipment and materials we’ll be using to bring the project to fruition. Every person, piece of infrastructure, and raw ingredient that contributes to reaching the project’s goal is counted as a resource, so let’s open the Resources inspector and get started.
One resource has been created by default for our project – a staff member. Tap it to access and edit their details, including name, resource type, and personal calendar.
Note
When balancing workloads across multiple projects with OmniPlan Pro, a staff member’s email address is used as their unique identifier—so make sure their address is consistent across all the projects they’re participating in.
When balancing workloads across multiple projects with OmniPlan Pro, a staff member’s email address is used as their unique identifier—so make sure their address is consistent across all the projects they’re participating in.
After editing the default resource we’ll create a few more to fill out the list of our team members and the technology they’re using to bring the game to life. Remove or rearrange resources at any time using the Edit button at the top level of the Resources inspector.
Step 12: Assigning Resources to Tasks
Assign resources to tasks by selecting the desired tasks in the Gantt chart (multiple tasks can be selected simultaneously using Edit mode), then opening the Task inspector and switching to the Assignments tab.
Tap each resource you’d like to assign to the selected task(s) and their names will appear next to each task that they’re assigned to.
By default, resources assigned to tasks commit 100% of their effort to those tasks. This can be affected in a few ways:
- The amount of effort a resource contributes to a given task can be manually set in the Assignments tab of the Task inspector. Assigning less than 100% of a resource’s effort to the task means the work will be completed more slowly, but frees time for that resource to be devoted to other simultaneous tasks.
- If a task’s assignment options are set to Adjust Assigned Amounts, the percentage of effort contributed by each resource will be reduced uniformly when new resources are added. This keeps both the task’s scheduled duration and required effort at constant set amounts.
- The amount of a staff member’s time dedicated to the project (relative to their full time schedule) is expressed by the resource’s Units value in the Resources inspector. If Ivan’s time is split between two projects that he spends equal time on, his Units value for this project should be set to 50%, and 100% of his effort value applied to a task in this project equates to 50% of his total time on the clock.
- A new trainee’s work might not be as productive as that of an experienced employee. In that case, the resource representing them should have its Efficiency value reduced while they are in training. This represents the amount of effort-per-time the team member contributes to tasks to which they are assigned; 100% of their effort accomplishes less than 100% of the effort of a fully trained worker.
Step 13: Setting Individual Schedule Exceptions
Individual staff members may have personalized work schedules, and they’ll almost certainly have individual needs for time off. In the Resource inspector, choose a resource and tap Work Hours to display their normal schedule.
By default, Julie’s normal working hours mirror those we set for the project earlier. However, Julie is an early riser and works best in the morning, and we’re pretty flexible with hours as long as people are around through the afternoon, so we’ll shift her normal working hours forward a bit here.
Next, let’s look at Julie’s off hours. Tap Calendar to view a resource’s personal schedule exceptions for the project. As with normal work hours this schedule mirrors that of the overall project by default, with any project schedule exceptions included. To add schedule exceptions for the chosen resource only, tap the week where the schedule varies and use the Add Time Off and Add Overtime controls to edit the week’s schedule as needed.
Julie’s birthday is February 29th, and she requested the time off four years ago. It would be criminal not to let her have it, really.
Step 14: Assigning Costs to Tasks and Resources
Once a project gets started, keeping track of expenses is a critical part of leading it to a successful conclusion. It’s just as important to plan those costs in advance, and at this stage in building the project we can get a pretty good feel for the budget by assigning costs to the tasks and resources we’ve added.
Where costs land the heaviest in your project depends what goes into accomplishing its constituent tasks. In the case of software development, much of the budget goes to employee salaries, with some going toward licensing middleware, outsourcing art and music production, facilities and equipment rental, and marketing (among others). Other projects, such as those in manufacturing and construction, have much higher costs in materials—lumber, bricks, silicon—or equipment rental.
Most project costs can be attributed in one way or another to a type of resource (Staff, Equipment, or Material), and resources can be assigned both Cost per Hour and Cost per Use values in the Resources inspector. Miscellaneous costs not associated with a specific resource can instead be added to the task itself, as Task Cost in the Task inspector.
In this example, we see that the Public Beta task is currently scheduled to cost a total of $13,835. Most of this comes as the resource cost of paying Julie to take point throughout the public beta; the rest is a flat fee added to the task that we plan to use for marketing during this period.
Because we set the public beta up as a hammock task and we haven’t leveled or adjusted the project yet, it’s almost two months long. This isn’t an accurate reflection of what we anticipate once the project actually gets rolling, so we’ll want to keep a close eye on this number (it will almost certainly go down, as the duration of the hammock task shortens to allow for delays earlier in the project).
For the highest level view of expenses planned for the entire project, the Total Cost value listed in the Project inspector displays the sum of all resource and task costs currently calculated based on the cost values entered for the project’s individual tasks and resources.
Step 15: Leveling the Project
After assigning team members and equipment to the tasks that make up your project, you can ensure the team is at its most productive by leveling the workload across your resources and tasks.
It’s hard to overstate the power of leveling in OmniPlan. When you first level a project, you cross the line between human and machine—making the statement that you’ve added everything you know about the project to your document, and now it’s time to see what OmniPlan can do to help get all those things done optimally. Automation happens, and everything moves to its most efficient place based on the model of the project you’ve described.
To level the resource workload for your project, open the Resources inspector and tap Level Load. Unless your staff is already in the optimal configuration you’ll see the tasks in the Gantt view shift to accommodate the most efficient use of your resources’ time.
Optionally, choose Leveling from the Resources inspector and turn on Automatically Level to have OmniPlan optimize your resource use every time a change is made to your project.
Step 16: Setting a Baseline
With tasks set and resources assigned and leveled, the state the project is in now may be a glimpse at its fate in the best of all possible worlds – one where unforeseen hindrances don’t bog down progress, and where optimistic estimations rule the day.
This is the world that is captured when we set a baseline for progress, a feature used to compare how the project is actually doing against initial expectations, so milestones and resource allocation can be adjusted accordingly.
To set a baseline, open the View inspector and tap Baselines. Tap Set Baseline and enter a name (the current date is the default); it’s now selected for comparison, and can be compared against subsequently set baselines as the project progresses.
While you’re in the View inspector, now is a good time to check your project’s Critical Path (tap Critical Paths, then Overall Project, then Enabled). The critical path highlights the series of tasks and dependencies which determine the project’s duration. If any of the tasks on a critical path ends up taking more or less time than planned, then the duration of the project as a whole will change as well.
In the case of our example project, the hammock task at the end is designed as a “shock absorber” for earlier phases of the project, so it alone lies on the critical path—if it becomes delayed, its start date moves beyond the date we plan to ship the product.
Here before us is our project in its ideal form, right before the real work begins. We have a good picture of what to expect if our estimates are accurate and everything goes well—and fortunately, we also have the tools to adjust along the way if things don’t go exactly according to plan. In the next chapter, we’ll use these tools to begin managing a project.