Tag: gantt

The best software for Gantt chart 2024

Do you want to quickly find out which are the best Gantt chart software in 2024? We have drawn up a special list for you.

The Gantt chart is the best tool to get an overview of project performance.

It allows you to have the start and end dates of the project and its phases, their duration, their correlation, the assignees, all in one view.

As we shall see, there are many reasons to implement it, but to draw up a Gantt chart that is really useful and effective, we need the right tools.

Otherwise, we risk wasting a lot of time creating a merely theoretical plan, which will soon be abandoned and remain only in the initial plans of the project leader.

In fact, the key words for evaluating a good Gantt chart are in our opinion: dynamicity and shareability.

CONTENT

Origins and qualities of the Gantt chart

The Gantt has undergone many evolutions over time. Initially, it was a simple, static, time chart for initial planning.

Until not so many years ago, the Gantt was a theoretical structure that was designed at the start of a project, then printed out and hung on a wall in the workplace.

It was a simple benchmark, but unfortunately after a few days or weeks, the chart already became obsolete.

With the emergence of calculation software and then later with web tools, the Gantt became an operational tool.

Its function today does not end at the planning stage, but continues during project execution.

And this is why it must necessarily be integrated and interoperable with other tools. Nowadays, the Gantt chart only makes sense if it is dynamic, sharable, updatable in real time.

Here are in detail the two aspects we took into account the most during our analysis in search of the best software for creating Gantt charts.

First quality of the best Gantt chart: dynamicity

By ‘dynamic’ we mean both the interactivity of the Gantt and its integration with other working tools.

In fact, a good Gantt chart must be able to evolve as various activities are completed. And of course, it is better if this evolution takes place in an automated way and in real time.

At the same time, the information that allows the Gantt to change and progress comes from other sources, such as worklog data, calendar and ToDos performed.

Conversely, the assignments distributed through the Gantt make up and update the 0perators’ workload; its duration affects budget estimates and many other aspects of project management.

This explains the relevance of the Gantt chart in a project management software: it is the starting point and the core to which everything leads back.

The tools we have included in our list of the best Gantt chart software possess this quality!

Second quality of the best Gantt chart: shareability

Together with the interactivity of the Gantt, the group of actors involved in the use of this chart has expanded.

We are talking about the actual project executors, but also about the stakeholders: each resource has its own specific reasons for keeping an eye on the Gantt.

Having a Gantt at hand when we are presenting a project and being able to act within it in real time during meetings is definitely a good practice.

This increases the involvement of the parties and helps achieve a holistic view.

In addition, the most advanced tools also have very customisable role permission systems that allow certain aspects of planning to be delegated.

For example, the project manager may need to entrust the planning of certain project sub-phases to other collaborators, and good software must in our opinion allow for this elasticity on permissions.

But let us finally come to our ranking of the best Gantt chart software, bearing in mind the aspects we have highlighted so far, and see who and how performs the work best.

Here is the list of the best Gantt chart software:

1. Twproject

Gantt Twproject - best gantt chart software

Let’s start with what is considered by many to be the best Gantt chart on the market: Twproject, a software that has made this chart its strong point.

Twproject was founded in 2001, but only from its fifth release did it integrate the Gantt among its tools.

Its team waited until they had the technological maturity to develop a tool that had real utility and was not equivalent to graphing on a spreadsheet.

Since then, however, Twproject has ensured that its Gantt chart became increasingly comprehensive and interoperable, always adding new optimisations and functionalities.

Twproject stands out by having a rather customisable and realistic Gantt that truly reflects the progress of projects.

The elasticity of Twproject’s Gantt is remarkable, but at the same time this tool is extremely precise and its interaction with the other elements of the software is total and accurate.

Last but not least, Twproject guarantees the possibility of keeping track of all previous changes made to the Gantt chart, thanks to the timeline: with this, you can scroll back in time and review the Gantt chart structure at any desired date.

Best features:

  • Overview or detailed view: possibility to have a lower or higher detail level and zoom in on individual phases of the WBS
  • Creation of phases and milestones: from list or drag and drop, as preferred
  • Assignment of phases: possibility to set assignees directly from the Gantt
  • Integration with workload: warning of overloads and reallocation with ‘magic wand’ tool
  • Critical path: possibility to check crucial nodes of project development
  • Timeline: user-activated project change history
  • Dependency types: in addition to the classic Finish to Start dependency, three more dependencies are available to better accommodate different work dynamics
  • Elasticity: possibility of having non-sequential dependencies
  • ToDo view: side-by-side and integrated ToDo management for each project phase
  • Role and permission management: possibility of assigning the planning of various phases to different users
  • Sharing: exportability in various formats

Pricing: from € 7.89 per user/month.

Pros: Twproject makes it possible to create a Gantt chart that is unrivalled in terms of user-friendliness, accuracy and variety of functions. Thanks to constant feedback from its users, this product is constantly evolving and improving.

Cons: Frankly, it is difficult to find a single negative aspect in Twproject’s Gantt.

With Twproject, you never have to enter information twice: everything is designed to optimise working time and offer a useful tool in daily operations

2. ClickUp

ClickUp - gantt chart software

The Gantt that can be created with ClickUp has a good overview of the entire project, which is also highlighted by the green bar that encloses all project phases, showing the total duration at a glance.

On each step, the name of the assignee is clearly visible, but other information, such as the percentage of work done, is missing.

There is a general lack of connection with the resource load.

As there is no difference between activities and project phases in Clickup, the Gantt chart is very quick to create and manage.

However, this can be a disadvantage when it comes to complex projects or projects with many micro-tasks to perform and keep track of.

Best features:

  • Hierarchical structure: Spaces > Folders > Lists
  • Lists of tasks have their own Gantt
  • Tasks that can be entered directly on the gantt by dragging and dropping
  • Secondary opening of the related tab with various detailed information
  • Duplication possibility
  • Wide range of customisation possibilities

Pricing: from $ 7 per user/month.

Pros: ClickUp has an attractive interface, and its Gantt is no exception. It makes the agile philosophy its strong point.

Cons: It lacks some advanced features and at first glance its Gantt editor can appear a little chaotic.

Agility and aesthetics combine in a tool that is quick to use but not always complete in its functions

3. GanttPRO

Gantt PRO - gantt chart software

With almost diametrically opposite characteristics we find Gantt PRO.

As its name suggests, it is a software totally dedicated to the Gantt chart.

Project planning starts precisely from the Gantt view, with a WBS side-by-side, in which projects and task lists are entered.

Alongside the Gantt, there are also secondary views, such as the Kanban board, operator loading and reporting.

Some secondary functions such as budgeting and time tracking are only available in advanced licences.

Best features:

  • Fixed hierarchy of projects and task lists
  • Various baselines can be created
  • Percentage turnaround that can be set directly on the task by dragging and dropping
  • Dependencies with Finish to Start or Start to Start type
  • Gap between dependencies settable in hours
  • Critical path

Pricing: from $ 9.99 per user/month.

Pros: It turns out to be a good technical product, with a simple, clean interface and few but clear functions.

Cons: It has a somewhat dated appearance and is little or no customisation. Some secondary functions such as budgeting and time tracking are only available in advanced licences.

If the objective is to create accurate Gantt charts, it may be a solution, although lacking in interoperability with other management tools

4. Smartsheet

Smartsheet - gantt chart software

It is a software that plans to replace Excel spreadsheets for business management, and thus closely replicates its functionalities.

Smartsheet is a tool consisting of many combined elements, with the addition of typical project management tools.

The data entered in your worksheet can then be interpreted through the various views, including the Gantt view.

It is therefore a tool that requires good expertise in the use of calculation formulas.

Best features:

  • Customising phase colours
  • Conditional formatting allowing the setting of customised rules for the display of phases
  • 4 zoom levels: quarter – month – week – day
  • Secondary views: list, calendar and board
  • Critical path
  • Percentage of work done shown on phase
  • Task duration: shown only when dependencies are activated

Pricing: from $ 6 per user/month, for up to 10 users.

Pros: The main feature of Smartsheet is the possibility of customisation, both graphically and in terms of the method used.

Cons: Lack of automation and the need to master the calculation formulae for its use.

Technical tool with refined functionality, but not exactly useful for saving time in planning

5. Toggl Plan

Toggl Plan

Toggl strongly focuses on the human resources aspects of the projects.

It is therefore very much geared towards managing tasks and assignments in a smooth manner, particularly through its Gantt editor, but not only.

The special feature of the tool is that it allows you to create resource-specific, as well as project-specific, Gantt charts.

It could therefore be useful for those who specifically deal with scheduling and balancing the working time of human resources in a company.

Best features:

  • Data sharing to external users also
  • Estimated vs. actual progress
  • Good integration with resource load, which is visible at the same time
  • 4 zoom levels
  • Drag and drop for duration and dependencies
  • Colour customisation of assignments

Pricing: from $ 9 per user/month.

Pros: In general, it is easy to use and has a modern, user-friendly interface.

Cons: Perhaps also because of its easiness, it has some limitations, especially when it comes to integration with other views of the software.

Agile and easy-to-learn software, more useful if the work is set up in a resource-oriented manner

6. Team Gantt

Team Gantt

Here again we are in front of a tool that starts projects directly from the Gantt.

Only at a later stage, one can add tasks and distribute assignments.

Almost all of its functionalities relate to the Gantt chart and many interactions can be done directly from this view.

A limitation is the fact that tasks and ToDos are not distinct from each other. In addition, all tasks related to a project are always visible on the Gantt, making the management of complex projects somewhat difficult.

Best features:

  • Ability to add notes and attachments to tasks
  • Possibility to enter the percentage of task completion
  • Workload view openable from Gantt
  • Total view of the number of tasks assigned per person in days or hours
  • Health report
  • Secondary views: list, calendar and board

Pricing: from $ 8 per user/month.

Pros: A detailed and very specific tool for creating Gantt charts, with some useful customisations.

Cons: Among the customisations, the differences between dependencies and their elasticity unfortunately do not appear. Furthermore, due to an excessive level of detail by default, the Gantt loses its primary function as a comprehensive overview tool.

Suitable for those who need to create many Gantt charts for small projects but somewhat lacking in cases of complexity

Bottom line

We have tried to help you choose the best Gantt chart software for your projects.

In conclusion, keep in mind that if you decide to try to Twproject:

  • its interaction with ToDo lists makes it possible to overcome the classic Waterfall vs. Agile opposition, and creates a new structured yet dynamic approach.
  • The possibility of having a timeline that allows you to go back to the planned structure at any time, right from the start of the project, makes Twproject’s Gantt chart the best planning tool. In fact, it allows us not to miss any important data and to be able to reschedule freely and without delay during project implementation.

If you wish, you can tell us if this analysis was useful to you and start creating a Gantt chart in the best possible way right away: with Twproject you can try it out for free for the first 15 days.

New Twproject Release – All types of Gantt dependencies

After months of study and implementation we are really happy to announce that a new version of Twproject has been released and it includes, among other optimizations, a particular step forward on the use of the Gantt chart.

The Gantt developed by Twproject is undoubtedly one of the best on the current market in terms of flexibility and interaction with other pages in the application. It is also one of the few that allows you to do all sorts of tests on project duration and dependencies, thus proving to be a useful tool not only when sharing timelines but also in the process of studying them.

As always, the new release will be for the immediate benefit of all our customers, who can start using the new features right away!

Dependencies in the Gantt

According to definition, in the context of project management, “dependency” is defined as the relationship between two activities in a project or between an activity and a milestone (a precise point that defines the beginning or end of a relevant phase).

Dependencies thus allow one phase to be linked to the next in a way that indicates that they are consequential.

dependency

Introduction of new typologies

Until now in Twproject, the dependencies between project phases that the user could enter were of one type, the so-called classic Finish to start (FS). This means that activity A must finish before activity B starts, or in other words, activity B cannot start before A is finished.

But as we delved deeper into this topic and also through feedback from our clients, we realized that limiting the possible relationships that exist between the phases of a project to this classic type of dependency was reductive. In fact, there are additional relationships that can develop between the activities to be performed and that have been theorized in the principles of project management. Let us look at them in detail:

  • The Finish to finish (FF) relationship type implies that activity B cannot finish before A is also finished. For example, if activity B is the completion of writing a book and activity A is the writing of the last chapter, it becomes clear that A must necessarily finish for B to be considered finished as well.
  • Furthermore, there is the case that a certain activity cannot begin before another activity has in turn begun, and in this case the relationship will be Start to Start (SS). A classic example is the project management activity (B) of a project that cannot start before the project itself (A) begins.
  • Finally, a very specific case is the last type of relationship called Start to finish (SF), which is probably the most complex to understand and applies only in certain contexts. In this case activity A must start before B finishes, or in other words B cannot finish until A is started. Such a scenario may arise, for example, during shift change in a manufacturing plant whose machinery needs constant monitoring. The initial shift (A) cannot be said to have ended unless the next shift (B) has already started, on pain of putting the plant at risk.

We are therefore overjoyed to announce that in the new release of Twproject we have introduced the ability to assign all of the above types of dependencies to project phases.

After creating the dependency between two phases, you can possibly change the default value represented by the FS dependency and select another type of relationship.

modify dependency type

The application of the concept of “elasticity”

Another important paradigm shift, which makes us very proud of our work, is that we have made all the newly added dependencies “elastic.”

Indeed, if until now the assignment of a dependency established the linear succession of one activity after another, we know well that in the real world the downtimes.

That is why Twproject decided to allow the user to freely manage this elasticity.

So from now on when you enter a dependency it will be saved at first with the default FS hard type. But this classic “hard” dependency can be converted into “elastic” and with any type of relationship.

This means that two interdependent activities may also not be chronologically consequential and move apart, leaving any gaps between them, or overlap for a time, as long as the logic of chosen dependence is respected.

This is a big change in terms of sticking to the facts when carrying out a concrete project and reinforces the concept of delegation that is central in Twproject.

Imagine a project tree where a Project Manager (PM) is assigned for the whole project and then a specific one for each phase, one for the analysis(PMA), design(PMG) and production(PMD) phase, these phases are linked by an FS dependency.

The PM can define a total project duration and assign a specific duration to the phases, thanks to the elastic dependencies, he can, while maintaining the logic of the dependencies, create a lag between the phases and therefore leave to PMA, PMG and PMD great freedom of action (moving end and start data) without affecting the overall dates!

This was not possible before, since a postponement of an end date, for example of the analysis phase, would necessarily have led to a postponement of the consequent phases, phases over which PMA has no right.

Other news

But it doesn’t end there. With this release Twproject has made really a lot of improvements to the system, a full list of which you can find on the changelog page.

Here’s a sampling of them:

Revenues: a useful tool for turning an estimated value into actual revenue has been introduced to further facilitate the entry of these items.

Worklogs: filters by ToDo and by project have been added to the worklog analysis sheet, and in addition a column with the sum of total worklogs on a phase or project has been added on the timesheet.

Role security: we have made permissions on task management even more secure in relation to cost and form entry.

Agenda: various improvements have been made to the agenda, including the ability to view the duration of ToDo’s, and in addition, events entered in the agenda have been integrated into a dedicated row on the ToDo and resource planner.

So, don’t waste any time and go find out now how much these latest innovations from Twproject will benefit the efficiency of your work!

All clients using Twproject on the cloud will get the update automatically in the coming days, while those who have Twproject installed on their own servers can find the new installers here.

The new release is waiting for you

Try Twproject

Twproject 5.6.59820: subscribe to Gantt assignments

Twproject 5.6.59820 is a bug fix release, get it here.

 Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a Gantt problem when browser time zone was different from servers.
  • Fixed getting subscriptions when creating assignments from the Gantt simple edit tool.
  • Now possible to add a property for activating TLS (mail server), use MAIL_SMTP_USE_TLS
  • Restored digest message dispatcher channel.
  • A few fixes on page customization.

 

 

The never ending Twproject “war” with Microsoft Project

Through our customers and contacts we frequently get reminded about Microsoft Project© enduring existence.

Twproject was in fact first born as the limitation of Microsoft Project (it was 1999 🙂 ) were unsolvable by using the Microsoft Project API available at the time. And the two project management solutions are born to differ in their core philosophy – and they do. Web applications became possible at the time and Twproject development started, around 2002, and Twproject got developed as wed based and around the idea of making information gathering as easy as possible.

Why care about Microsoft Project then? The team that develops Twproject and the set of its customers are often large, even enterprise companies, and we have the experience and sensitivity to typical corporate problems of software and IT integration. In these contexts we are still frequently asked how Twproject and Microsoft Project compare as solutions for corporate customers, e.g.

I actually downloaded it and I am trying it on my localhost. I would love to hear though what advantages Twproject has over Microsoft Project Server. We are in the process of trying to decide. If you have a comparison white sheet I would be grateful.
Some information follows.

Twproject is web based (since 2001)

Twproject around 2002

Being web based then and today meant ubiquity, adaptiveness, flexibility, inclusiveness. This in our opinion is what Microsoft Project always lacked.

Microsoft almost made it (in 2014!) making a web version of Microsoft Project the reference one. Still if you check their user interface it tries to emulate desktop software, using an iconic language alien to the web.

Twproject is cost effective

Let’s consider costs:
is available for $58 per user, per month

Microsoft marketing in the referenced videos stress the simplicity of the price model, probably as an effort to distract from prices. Well Microsoft’s model is actually quite complex, price ranges from $33 to $58 (per user / month!) – and if you want to use the desktop client, prepare to pay $1556 for each client!

That is way more expensive than Twproject, which gives you a full user for less than $5 per month!

twproject-prices

Twproject is not Gantt centered 🙂

gantt-new

jQuery GanttIt is a bit funny to write this, because we released a free, open source amazingly popular JavaScript web based Gantt component :D, which is also part now of Twproject.

Twproject has a Gantt-like editor where we tried to get the advantages of the Gantt user interface model without adopting the unrealistic

(planned time = project effort)

equation which constitutes the core of the Gantt model.

Twproject focuses on real work done

While in the current version planning is fully supported, still the core of Twproject is collecting information about real work done.
So it collects multiple projects, allows temporary dis-alignment of dates and statuses, collects issues, to-dos, worklogs, does all it can to encourage users to insert information in the simplest, fastest possible way. Planning is supported, but Twproject works with and without planned work.

Twproject integrates with different IT structures

it-integration

Microsoft Project depends for everything on Share Point©, so including its collaborative aspects. it is strongly integrated with Microsoft Exchange©.

So you have to get the whole Microsoft package, like it or not, to adopt Microsoft Project. Meh.

Twproject instead is functionally and technologically widely compatible with different solutions and is built to be non-intrusive.
This is true for both the installed and the online version of Twproject.

For example, the installed version runs stand alone in Tomcat (a Java web server), and can run anywhere, supporting easy integration with say LDAP, single-sign on and directory services.

The on-line version comes as a dedicated server instance that comes with its own mail server for a dedicated notification email.

Twproject works fine without Microsoft Exchange©, simple connection with an SMTP and POP3 service gives you full e-mail integration.

Twproject has an “open” approach (even if is not open source, sources are available for our customers). It runs on every operating system and can use any database. It is available both on cloud on or customer premises. It is web based and you can use it with every “modern” browser. Twproject is a wise choice from the IT manager perspective because of its open data and infrastructure features, as IT infrastructure changes over time.

Twproject developers are people, easily reachable on-line

Twproject is built by a small, solid and very efficient company. Its developers are ready to give support on the solution; moreover complete sources are available for free for all customers. Twproject is structured to support customization, custom extensions, reports, wizards, complete custom forms, and export and import with other data sources.

We deployed and maintain many customized parts for our over 3000 customers, all compatible with Twproject main release and hence compatible with updates.

Conclusion

After 15 years, the divergence of the two products is still considerable. In the meantime, the road of the web as a platform for applications has become the main path for collaborative software. And the diversity and richness of IT environments has increased. So we believe there are ever more good reasons to pick a safe, compatible solution as Twproject instead of the closed Microsoft Project universe.

References

http://windowsitpro.com/office-365/microsoft-announces-project-lite-cloud-based-productivity-team-members

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/technet/en-us/office/media/video/video.html?cid=pstc&from=sharepermalink&VideoID=ebe00785-db66-44d6-8ed3-86eafa63c7e4

Twproject is not affiliated in any form with Microsoft. Microsoft Project, Microsoft Exchange Share Point may be Registered Trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

 

Twproject 5.6.59808: in what time-zone does the project start?

This is a bug fix release.

Thanks to the feedback and collaboration from one of our customers (Johnson & Johnson) we have finally identified the source of a weird incongruence between dates in Gantt, project tree and task editor.

A working day calculation error could happen in cases when the time zone of the browser and the one of the server were not the same, and the project tree got edited in the Gantt window. This has been fixed, and the local time offset is always included allowing for the same project to be edited coherently in time from different time-zones.

For users with teams spanned across several time-zones this upgrade is mandatory.

editing a project from different time zones

Twproject 5.5 release: project reporting, collapsible Gantt and more

Reporting, statistics, Gantt, security and much more

After less than one month from last release, here is a brand new Twproject version with exciting new features.

Reporting

Your project data are carefully collected and maintained by Twproject and this represents on of the most valuable aspect of Twproject adoption.
How can you extract your data and present it to your users? Actually Twproject has several pages with dynamic filtering capabilities that extract meaningful data, but a customizable reporting systems was missing…. until now!
On version 5.5 we have integrated Jasper Reports, one of most powerful reporting engine. Jasper reports add the capability to create your reports in minutes using an intuitive graphical editor.
Reports are integrated with the flexible Twproject security structure in an easy and practical way, without forcing users to write complex query and rules.

Here a screenshot from the report writer Jaspersoft Studio

Jasper Reports Editor

 

and a couple of reports

Jasper Custom Report: worklog by resourceJasper Custom Report: worklog by resource

Gantt

Thanks  to a contribution of “BestKen” to our open source jQuery Gantt editor (see jQuery Gantt editor – collapsible branches) this version includes a nice new feature, collapsible branches:

Collapsible Gantt

Collapsible Gantt

Statistics

On task data, there are more statistical information available: ideal trend, worklog aggregated, and worklog done

image

the visual comparison between trend and aggregation makes you get at a glance the project’s “health”.

This is the first step in introducing earned value management, that will be completed in one of the forthcoming releases.

 

Repository

In this version we introduced some new features related to security.

In Twproject you can upload files on tasks, issues, resources and so on. Uploaded files are indexed, for full-text searching, and then saved to a repository.  Now you can choose between three different kinds of storage: folder, encrypted folder or database.

image

In the first case uploaded files are copied as-is on a folder or network disk.

In the second case, files are encrypted using a AES key, and then saved on the same folder. File decryption is automatic when you need to access the file from Twproject, but the file itself remain encrypted on the repository. There are tools for generating AES keys and for encrypting existing files.

In the third case, files are stored on a database table as BLOB data.

Note: existing files will use its original type and will not be touched.

 

Security

  • We have introduced a seal for every document that allows you to send a link to a friend (even without having a Twproject user defined). This link will be valid for 24 hours only, so that the risk of “leaks” will be reduced. Moreover the seal keep your repository safer, making harder an url guessing attack.
  • Another minor security improvement has been introduced for the LDAP mixed authentication. This authentication modality is useful in companies where Twproject is used by internal and external users at the same time. Sometimes a large company uses the LDAP authentication to make the user’s life better, allowing a single login name and password for multiple systems (and also to have a single point for password policy management). Actually Twproject can be used not exclusively by internal users, but also by consultants or third party suppliers that are involved in projects but are not present in the LDAP server (for several good reason 🙂 ). In this case Twproject can use a fallback to its internal authentication using its internal database. Now we can force LDAP users to do not fallback; internal user MUST authenticate on LDAP, external ones will fallback.

Bugs fixed and little features:

  • full search on plan comments
  • search on agenda events using “a:…”
  • IE fix on large auto-sizing notes fields
  • fix for jdk 1.7 in some comparators
  • a stylish background, and smoother colors

 

Teamwork 5.1: Project trees and more

We just released Teamwork 5.1 (build 57001) here:

http://www.twproject.com/download.page

Contains a new view, task trees, and a subtle but important extension in functionality for “staff” selection.

This is a free upgrade for all users of version 5. There are no changes in the database structure with respect to version 5.

Task trees

Teamwork tree

Teamwork project actions Thanks to user feedback and direct experience in bootcamps, we added a tree view of tasks which is simpler to read and allows basic data editing. It has limited functionality with respect to the Gantt editor but it can be practical in many cases.

Staff & department management

We revised both the inner logic and the user interface of the resource department / group / staff theme. The modeling problem that we’ve frequently met recently for Teamwork used in large organizations is complex cases of delegation handling.

Now if you are manager of a department you can assign all those in the department (inclusive of sub departments) as now they are on your staff – without setting area-global permissions.

This makes it easier to model delegation in structures where a certain kind of project managers create work for other departments, without overriding that department resources assignments.

It can be useful in cases where you have a planning department distinct from the set of project managers that handle resource’s assignments. So the planning manager can assign tasks to a project manager that has no global company rights, but manages her own staff, i.e. the entire department she’s heading.

We also improved the use interface by removing the “staff” checkbox which made you filter resources by staff, having your staff members always as first rows in bold in combos.

Little improvements

– Gantt editor is now in full screen (relative to the browser).

– Date change and status changed request for feedbacks are active only on tasks not just created.

– See in the resource assignment part all assignments on open tasks, also those out of date scope.

Bug fixes

– Mobile module: got “undefined” when saving agenda events.

– When creating a new document file / folder selection from file storage did not work.

– Made “my open issues” and “my open severe issues” predefined filters behave similarly in task selection.

– Gantt editor: task descriptions inserted from that page were not saved.

– Fixed default language pick at startup and on options.

Teamwork 5: Gantt, planning, new design & more

Teamwork 5A major Teamwork release, Teamwork 5, is now available for download here:

http://www.twproject.com/download.page

In the same page you can generate a 15 day evaluation license. (inclusive of the mobile version)

Teamwork’s costs have not changed, all details:

http://www.twproject.com/licensing.page

The base cost is 90 Euro per non-expiring license, and the upgrade cost is 35 Euro (44$) per user.

See the introductory video and download the user guide here:

http://www.twproject.com/documentation.page

Teamwork hosting is now built entirely on Amazon dedicated servers E3 service – more information here.

Upgrading from Teamwork 4

The multi-platform installer includes an upgrader from version 4 which updates the web app and your data, but it cannot update Java’s JDK (see FAQ), you must do that by hand or do a new installation; Teamwork 5 needs Java JDK version 6 (or 7). In order to try version 5, the best way is to do a fresh installation.

If you own version 4, you’ll need to purchase an upgrade license for version 5, unless you bought Teamwork 4 after 1st of June 2012 (our invoice date is the purchase date) – in the latter case it is a free upgrade.

What’s new

Teamwork version 5 has a new user interface and several new functionalities. The work model is mostly unchanged from version 4.
Main new features:

– Introduced Gantt-like editor
Also supports dependencies between any two tasks, not just between brother tasks.
Teamwork Gantt

– Introduced issue planner /organizer:
Issue Planner

– Assignment enriched with assignment specific costs (expenses)

Cost on assignements

– Statistics graphs improved and extended

Teamwork Stats
A line graph on the task editor which shows total worklogs / issues done.

More

– Heuristics on project progress / state
– Date and number formats relative to user profile (on top of user interface language, which was always customizable)
– Denormalization to achieve speed
– Speed improved in general
– Conceptual simplification of planning and estimation and more fine grained tools
– Shorter click paths with layers
– Amazon S3 file storages
– Custom reports on all Teamwork sections
– Agenda and meeting completely redesigned
– Workgroups visibility / association with images
– Technical: libraries updated to Hibernate 4.
– Flow management has been extended:
o for example worklog estimated in the time assignment can be set. Also added attributes to workflow descriptions that allow setting duration of tasks and estimations of assignments.
o clone tasks can clone also the assignment for the business process
o when writing flows you can automate assignments by “instantiator” and project manager:
The classes to check are
com.twproject.task.process.InstantiatorSwimlaneAssignmentHandler
com.twproject.task.process.ScaleToBossAssignmentHandler

We also released Teamwork Gantt, a free online tool for creating Gantts, you find it here:
http://gantt.twproject.com/

Of course Gantts created online can be imported in Teamwork 5 – just go to projects and select “import from Teamwork Gantt”.

N.B. Complete Teamwork sources (under NDA) are available for free to all customers as always.

Twproject free online Gantt editor

Twproject’s team in its core developer instance (Roberto Bicchierai) has released a free online service for designing “Gantts” online, here:

Twproject Gantt site

This editor is a Gantt editor as for functionality, but it actually supports the more extended functionality of Twproject modeling, supporting task state management as distinct from dates management. Supports multi assignments, dependencies, drag&drop, zooming and much more.

Twproject Gantt editor

Technically it is an interesting solution because it runs completely on the client (the browser) and its built on jQuery, the most popular JavaScript framework. As JavaScript component it is free and can be used in any kind of project, thanks to its MIT license – just download it here.

Gantt editors reviewBefore developing this component we carefully researched the available online Gantt components – a review here:

The JavaScript Gantt odyssey

But in the end our requirements (like being built on jQuery) were not satisfied by any of the linked above, so we built our own.

A coming Twproject update will include the option to import such Gantts in Twproject, and also a built-in version of this complete and flexible editor.