Factory / News: Recent posts

Factory 0.6 is now available for download. This release focuses on network security and bug fixes. In addition, it's worth mentioning that more than 50% of the application (100% for the user interface) has been rewritten using Factory itself. Those new capabilities (not documented at the moment) will speed up the development of forthcoming functionalities.

Home page: http://projectfactory.sourceforge.net/ 
Developers' site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/projectfactory/

Release 0.5 of Factory is now available for download. The major introduction of this release is networking. Users (defined as actors in the system) can share information across the network (local network, over the Internet) as easy as they can share music or folders. An actor can decide to share his data with others, others can access to different actors' data. Using the same application, actors are client and/or servers very easilly (no third party software is required). In addition, data can synchronized between actors (automatically) using a direct connection (via the network) or indirect (using emails). This release does not support any security (except the encryption of data over the network): this is scheduled for 0.6.
Please note Factory now requires Java 5 to run.
Thank you all who reported bugs.
Home page: http://projectfactory.sourceforge.net/
Developers' site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/projectfactory/

Release 0.4 is now available for download. This release introduces risk management and project tracking. It features also several additions (including phases and availability of actors on projects), calculation of totals on every page, cosmetic changes (including bug reporting and better printable documents) and fixes lot of issues. Performances and data storage are optimized, and management of errors is improved in addition. Thus, this release is much more stable and represents halfway, which is still a research project as of now. Next final steps will be essential in this proof of concept prototype. Next phase will 100% concentrate on networking and final phase will integrate everything.
Once again the home page has been moved, the whole project is now fully hosted by SourceForge. Please note sources are now managed on CVS repository, even the project plan for Factory is posted on the Web! You are welcome to test the application and enter bug reports on developers' site.
Home page: http://projectfactory.sourceforge.net/
Developers' site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/projectfactory/

Factory release 0.3 is released. As a major milestone, Factory is almost not a prototype anymore but not a product yet. The application contains now project definition, management of version-based plans, forecast generation and status in addition to definitions of actors, teams, location and holiday schedules. Forecast generation includes management of defined actors and anonymous, events, absences, holidays, multiple assignments and constraints on task. Forecasts are shown on a daily or weekly basis and as a summary. This release contains also full support of localization, backup and database restore, print capabilities (via a web document), export (from web document) to MS Project (copy and paste) and Gantt diagrams.... read more

Factory 0.2 is released. Including now real foundations for project management, you can have a look of what this application will look like in the future. In addition to actors and teams definitions, you can now create projects, version-based plans, generate forecasts and enter statuses. This is one important milestone for Factory, but there are many more to come. Today, the information is stored only locally on your computer, but the plan is to turn project tasks into actions and run into a collaborative tool. But the next step is to include an enhanced user interface, print capabilities and diagrams.
Factory has joined the open source community, based on GPL license, and a project has been created on SourceForge.net.
At the moment, the application can't be stressed too much. You can see it as a prototype, but you can play with it and give me your thoughts.... read more

0.1: Foundations: user interface for Actors, Teams, Locations and Holiday Schedules.
0.2: Stand alone project management tool, including Projects and Project Plans and Statuses.
0.3: Richer user interface plus export, print capabilities and GANTT Diagrams.
0.4: Management of Risks and Tracking.
0.5: Network communication including remote connections, replications and mail notifications.
0.6: Security.
0.7: Action plans and Meeting planner.
0.8: On line help including tool tips.
0.9: Packaging for Windows and Mac OS X.
1.0: Release in English and French.
1.1: Interface (input) from third-party softwares.
1.2: Enhanced project management functionalities.
1.3: Document management using links to repositories.
1.4: Budget management.

Factory
White paper
March 2005

- Hey project leads, what do you have today? The first goal is to provide to project leads an easy but powerful tool for team management and project planning. The idea is to avoid the complex and expensive commercial softwares that require training and experience, nor the free tool that copy the same concepts, look, and feel. These tools are generally helpful for planning in the very early steps of projects but are not designed for tracking. Most of the time, it's only a spreadsheet joined with a Gantt chart. I believe project leads need most of the time a kind of new smart tool that gives a good understanding of projects during every phase, from planning to end, using best practices with guidance. This tool must be small, fast, reliable and easy to use, even if it doesn't cover every aspects of project management. There are needs for such like tools from the project leads community in IT because they need to focus on the deliverables and quality, and most of them act in medium, small or micro organizations, without option to access to commercial BIG softwares. I also believe project leads should not focus on Gantt charts. When a project includes hundred tasks during months, there is no way to 'draw' a nice and flashy diagram. Gantt charts are useful for very high-level presentations, but not exactly to design a medium-sized project. Thus, I think the tool should focus on different views of tasks lists, and give information before to provide a diagram, which should be a result - or view - of one plan. Moreover, project management from a lead point of view, is not synonym to 'plans' in a very low level, or 'portfolio' in a very high level. In many projects, especially in IT, the team members must collaborate and share information quickly, and the lead must react more quickly. Thus, the need is for a tool that is able to change the plans easily, sometimes daily. In the very first releases of Factory, the plans are version-based and the application integrates all that versions in a transparent way.... read more