Prozima.com News

Planning Engine v0.7 Release

2010-03-28T15:24:00.000+02:00

An updated version of the Planning Engine is now available for download. The release includes several improvements over the last version. Significant changes include:

Internal design changes result in higher optimum solution detection rate when evaluating schedules which contain relationships.
Introduces the usage of the Apache Commons Logging package. This affords much greater logging flexibility to users of PEngine. It also gives developers access to internal PEngine log messages, which aids faster debugging and development.
Enables developers to create their own custom cost rules by sub-classing the CostRule class.
Enables developers greater control of how worker threads are executed.

Version 0.7 of the Prozima Planning Engine is now available for download. Example code is also now available which demonstrates how to use the API.

The Planning Engine is highly versatile, adding powerful new functionality to many types of software application, everything from large scale enterprise systems to small mobile applications. A fully featured, evaluation version of the library is now available for download from the Planning Engine page.

Planning Engine v0.6 Released

2010-02-08T18:22:00.004+01:00

We are pleased to announce the release of a new, updated version of the Planning Engine. Version 0.6 contains significant improvements over v0.5. Scheduling performance is now orders of magnitude faster than in previous versions. 99% of all functionality is now implemented and verified to behave correctly. PEngine development will now be moving to the beta version of the library.

Version 0.6 of the Prozima Planning Engine is now available for download. Example code is also now available which demonstrates how to use the API.

Planning Engine v0.5 Released

2009-12-03T12:09:00.005+01:00

Version 0.5 of the Prozima Planning Engine is now available for download. This version focused on making the API more consistent and reducing the complexity of some methods. Example code is also now available which demonstrates how to use the API.
PEngine, the Prozima Planning Engine, is a Java library which facilitates the creation of complex portfolios of projects, containing multiple schedules, activities, milestones and resources. PEngine's algorithms can calculate the optimum allocation of resources across all projects so that time and cost goals are met.
The Planning Engine is highly versatile, adding powerful new functionality to many types of software application, everything from large scale enterprise systems to small mobile applications. A fully featured, evaluation version of the library is now available for download from the Planning Engine page.

Gantt Chart Components for Java

2009-11-27T12:26:00.003+01:00

While the Prozima Planning Engine can do all the heavy lifting of allocating resources, managing calendars, calculating costs and optimizing schedules, if schedule and resource information is to be displayed graphically, it may make sense to use an off-the-shelf component rather than developing from scratch. There are various Java Gantt Chart components available:

Commercial Components

ILOG JViews Gantt from IBM is a full featured Java library which provides Gantt charts, PERT charts, calendar and resource views.

VARCHART JGantt from netronic provides a Gantt Chart which is available as a JavaBean and JavaServer Faces component.

FlexGantt UI Framework from DLSC is a customizable Java Swing component.

Open Source Components

We are not aware of any component which renders Gantt Charts to an acceptably high standard.

If you know of any other components, please let us know.

UML Diagrams for Planning Engine v0.4

2009-11-19T12:59:00.008+01:00

The Prozima Planning Engine v0.4 has a fully documented API, however it's always useful to see the classes described graphically. Below are two UML diagrams describing the public API provided by the Planning Engine library. The first is a class diagram which describes the most important class provided by the API. It does not list every subclass of Command as this would clutter the diagram too much. (click the diagram to enlarge)

Secondly, here is a simple sequence diagram which describes the process of passing a Command to the API using the invoke() method.

Javadoc for the Prozima Planning Engine

2009-11-16T13:34:00.004+01:00

Javadoc documentation describing the public API of the Planning Engine library is now available online. The API decribes the public interface of version 0.4 of the library. View the API here.
Example code is also available which demonstrates how to use the Planning Engine interface. The source code is freely available for download at Prozima.com.

Active Schedules

2009-11-18T13:22:00.005+01:00

The Planning Engine can support a large number of individual projects, which share many resources. This allows the creation of project management applications which support project portfolios. Each project consists of one or more schedules but only one of these schedules is the active schedule at any one time.

Whats an active schedule?

As an example, take the situation where we have two projects: Project XX and Project YY. Project XX has a higher priority than Project YY. Project XX has two schedules: Schedule AA and Schedule BB. Project YY has only one schedule: Schedule ZZ. The activities in all three schedules utilise the same resource: Bob. When calculating the work allocated to Bob for the Schedule ZZ, work cannot be allocated during time when work has already been allocated to Project XX, due to its higher priority. Therefore, it must be known when work has been allocated to Project XX. However, Project XX has two schedules, which may have different activities, constraints, relationships and therefore, differently allocated work. Hence, every project should have a schedule whose work allocation is examined when calculating the best solution for other schedules.

If Schedule AA is the active schedule for Project XX, then the work allocated to the resource Bob for Schedule ZZ cannot overlap with the work allocated to Bob for Schedule AA. An active schedule, therefore, is the schedule a project publishes/exports when other projects are being solved. Also, when new work is being logged towards an activity, this work should be allocated to the currently active schedule. Baselines can never be the active schedule as they cannot accept logged work.

The concept of the active schedule allows non-active schedules to be used to evaluate alternative scenarios and create baselines, without influencing the work etc. allocated to schedules across other projects.

Prozima Planning Engine Released

2009-11-17T14:32:00.003+01:00

PEngine, the Prozima Planning Engine, is a Java library which facilitates the creation of complex portfolios of projects, containing multiple schedules, activities, milestones and resources. PEngine's algorithms can calculate the optimum allocation of resources across all projects so that time and cost goals are met.
The Planning Engine is highly versatile, adding powerful new functionality to many types of software application, everything from large scale enterprise systems to small mobile applications.
A fully featured, evaluation version of the library is now available for download from the Planning Engine website.

Prozima v0.3 Released

2009-04-22T13:17:00.002+02:00

Prozima Labs have just made available version 0.3 of the new project communication application. v0.3 provides several user interface improvements which are instantly apparent (note: there are many more improvements identified before the application goes beta). This is the first version to also include printing support. Formatted reports can now be printed for many of the available tabs within Prozima.
The interface now contains most of the information which will be present in the final version however some functionality is still not enabled. Work is now in progress on adding most of the remaining functionality for version 0.4.

Version 0.3 on the way

2009-03-27T14:56:00.007+01:00

As we continue working to prepare version 0.3 for release, we have decided to post a few screenshots of v0.3 in action. The biggest difference in v0.3 is that the user interface is now more complete and the overall look has been improved. The most important new feature we have added is printing - yes, you can now print the tab you are looking at! Most tabs provide two options: print the list/table displayed at the top of the tab or else print more detailed information about the currently selected activitiy or milestone etc. The printed document is a correctly formatted page and not just an ugly snapshot of what you see on the screen.

Fig.1 Activities tab

Apart from everything finally being lined up correctly, the activity and milestone entries in the Activities table, see Fig.1, now inform the user if there is problem scheduling the item or if its on the critical path. Soon we will be updating the Gantt chart to provide the same information.

Fig.2 Dashboard

The dashboard's tables now also look better and we've added in an "=" sign to indicate when a project or resource is meeting, but not exceeding targets. Finally, heres a screenshot, in Fig.3, of a simple Gantt chart. Expect to see several new features being added to the Gantt chart for V0.4.

Fig.4 A Simple Gantt Chart

As always, we are interested in getting feedback from users so if you are brave, try out V0.3 when its release (later next week) and send us some feedback. What features are most important to you?

Version 0.2 Released

2009-02-12T17:48:00.004+01:00

We are pleased to announce the release of version 0.2 of the Prozima client application. This release features most of the major bugs which were present in the last version, giving this release much improved stability and functionality.
Some of the fixes included in version 0.2 are:

Options. Changing autosave directory now moves the files as well.
Dashboard trend chart fills width of the window if there is no data to display.
When adding a milestone to a new schedule with no activities or milestones, the new milestone is now displayed on the Gantt chart.
Windows Vista. Application window was about 15% too narrow upon startup and was not positioned at top-left of screen. Window positioning is now correct.
When creating a new project with only one valid subscription, the user was still queried to choose a subscription. This is no longer required.
When updating the time periods for the work week of a resource, some changes were lost in the user interface but stored to XML. The user interface now behaves correctly.
Activities tab. Milestone cumulative effort etc. was not displayed in tooltip. Resolved.
Activities tab. Newly logged work did not update the activity's progress bar. Resolved.
Gantt chart. Activity popups didn't always render, depending on how the chart was scrolled. Popup positioning has now been improved.

We now intend to add some of the missing features in preparation for development release 0.3. It is planned for the next release to include an improved schedule solver, resource cost configuration and an improved visual style.

Version 0.2 Screenshots

2009-02-05T15:08:00.011+01:00

Development continues on version 0.2 of Prozima. This version will include over 30 major bug fixes, making the next release of the application a lot more stable and functional. We have generated some screenshots of version 0.2 in action to give an idea of what the application looks like.

Prozima features a tabbed interface, which allows the user to quickly switch between alternative views of their projects and schedules. Fig.1 shows the Manager's Dashboard tab, which contains a high-level summary of the status of each project and resource. This high-level dashboard allows the user to instantly judge the status of a portfolio of projects. At the top of the dashboard, a trend chart illustrates the total effort worked across all projects and the difference between planned and actual work performed.

Fig.1 Dashboard with Trend Chart

In the middle of the dashboard, there are two tables containing a summary of the status of each resource and project. This facilitates the quick identification of areas where actual performance is lagging behind scheduled performance. Finally, the "Today's Activities" table provides the user with a view of which activities have outstanding work to be performed i.e. what should be worked on today and whats behind schedule.

Fig.2 Projects Tab

The Projects tab in Fig.2 displays a list of all the current Projects. When the user selects a specific project, much more detailed information appears at the bottom of the application. Here, the user can view and update project's active schedule and other properties. In Fig.2, the Schedules tab is visible, which allows the user to manage schedules and baselines. The user also has the option to manage the Work Breakdown Structure for the project and update the project's calendar and timetable using the WBS tab.

Fig.3 Gantt Chart View of a Schedule

Any schedule can be viewed using a Gantt Chart view, as shown in Fig.3. Prozima provides all of the functionality of a standard Gantt chart and provides several enhanced features not currently seen in other project management tools. The aim is to provide a highly interactive Gantt Chart which allows the user to drill into the data. As with all other information in Prozima, the Gantt Chart updates in realtime and does not require refreshing by the user.

Prozima version 0.2 currently has a scheduled release date of the 12 February 2009.

Version 0.1 Released

2009-01-14T18:14:00.001+01:00

Prozima Labs have released version 0.1 of Prozima, the project communication application. This is a development version of the application which demonstrates its layout and basic functionality. Feel free to download it and take a look. Please keep in mind that this is an early release, made for testing purposes, and it still has disabled features and more than a few bugs. Do not use it for anything but testing and evaluation.

Pre-Release Milestone

2008-12-18T13:14:00.000+01:00

Prozima Labs have reached an important milestone in the development of Prozima. Final testing is now in progress and the first development release of Prozima will be published at the start of 2009.