Software tool for resource pipeline planning for multiple projects

Question

My company has about 20 - 30 open projects at any given time, as well as 5 - 10 that have been approved and will start within the next few weeks.

We currently use Basecamp to manage the projects and break them down by hours per area, i.e. 45 hours design, 200 development, etc.

Are there any good systems, preferably open source, that can help visualize hours that will be needed for all of these projects in the future? Thinking of a 3 - 6 month future view.

I've been looking at the plugins offered by Basecamp but haven't been able to find anything that will show multiple projects at once using an hourly view.

It's a question about software recommendations (off-topic). – Sergey Kudryavtsev Dec 15 '15 at 13:54 — Sergey Kudryavtsev, Dec 15 '15 at 13:54

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:46

Check out some of the questions and answers on other project management software related questions https://pm.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/pm-software

Consider using start dates as well as due dates when planning so that the blocks of hours have defined time periods to which they belong. This will also help you better schedule and control the work as the number of projects increases. Here is a blog post describing the benefits of using start dates.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 01 '13 at 13:30

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]project-open[ includes resource management and resource leveling processes. Checkout the demo server http://po40pmo.project-open.net/.

Please note that I might be biased, I'm a member of the ]po[ team.

answered Jun 01 '13 at 13:30

fraber

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 02 '11 at 23:55

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We still use MS Project Server for the big picture of lots of projects all being juggled, then JIRA for the tactical, whats happening today, this week, this month. Have a look at FogBugz and SourceGear as well.

answered Jun 02 '11 at 23:55

Robin Vessey

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 03 '11 at 15:27

It sounds like your biggest focus is resource leveling and planning. Most scheduling software can do this, you just have to make sure you plug in the right info.

Another alternative is Critical Chain planning. While I'm not a huge fan, it does focus more on scheduling based on resource capacity than dates and times. There are several plug-ins for MSProject that adapt it to CC, and some stand-alone products as well.

Software tool for resource pipeline planning for multiple projects

4 Answers4