The ability to accurately plan, monitor and control projects at the outset and throughout the life of a project is key to project management best practice. The early identification of time, cost and resource overruns can make the difference between success and failure to a project. Using the TROPOS Project Planning and Control module, project managers have the ability to plan and monitor project progress, with costs being collected and consolidated automatically based on information recorded in other TROPOS modules.

TROPOS supports projects varying from simple, stand-alone projects through to complex sub-project structures, where costs are rolled up to a top-level parent project. Within a project, multiple levels of detail can be defined, from summary work package, to work package, to activity. Activities can have start / end constraints and inter-relationships defined. Milestones and hammock activities can also be set up. At the activity level, resource requirements pertaining to skill grades, specific employees, resources and expense codes can be defined. For security, project update/enquiry user privileges can be defined.

Multiple plans can exist for a project. Baseline plans, working plans and what-if plans can be set up, with historical versions being retained. Baseline comparison of progress and costs to date, together with forecasts at completion, is standard.

Project costs recorded in other TROPOS modules, such as shop-floor bookings, stock movements and goods receipts are automatically consolidated. Purchase order exposure and adjusted forecast and actual sales revenue, are also visible.

Plans can be protected from accidental update, and frozen, to prevent any update. Progression of plans through a regular, time-cased cycle of scheduling, cost consolidation, protection and freezing can be achieved either manually or automatically.

Project plans can be shared with non-TROPOS users. Using the XML-based interface to the industry-standard Microsoft Project package, Gantt charts and other project views can be printed.

Using standard reporting tools, further analysis of project plan and cost information is possible. To this end, a project management focussed Cognos Catalog and PowerCube are available.

To simplify use of the module by project managers, a role-based, browser application covering all normal day to day activities is available. This provides an intuitive, easy-to use interface, providing both graphical and field-based views of project data.

TROPOS Project Planning and Control

• Project Structure
  • Simple or complex
  • Cost roll-up from sub-projects to parent project
• Work Breakdown Structure
  • Nested summary work packages
  • Work packages
  • Activities, milestones and hammocks
• Activity Definition
  • Duration, target-to-complete, % complete
  • Start and end constraints
  • Activity relationships
• Resource Requirements
  • Skill grade, employee, resource, expense
  • Requirement as hours or cost
• Plan Progression
  • Activity progress recording
  • Timesheet entry expense booking
  • Network time analysis
  • Cost consolidation
  • Plan chilling and freezing
  • Automated/manual progression
• Progress Visibility
  • Comparison against baseline
  • Forecast at completion
  • Purchase order commitment
  • Adjusted sales revenue
  • Stock by project
• MS-Project Integration
  • XML interface
  • Project plan distribution
  • Gantt chart printing
• Role-based Application
  • Project manager focus
  • Intuitive user interface