Conditional sequential items
 

The difference between parallel and sequential project task lists is helpful but could be even better. I'd like the option of making sequential tasks conditional upon completion of their preceding task, so that when I click Item One done, Item Two automatically becomes the next available action and appears all by itself, but Item Two does not appear in a context perspective until item one is complete, no matter what the due dates say.

@jody: contexts and parallel vs. sequential tasks sounds more like OmniFocus than OmniPlan. Perhaps you have the forums mixed up?

[QUOTE=RussleTop;14106]Firstly, great software, although obviously a v1 in terms of features.

A couple of things I'd love to see in future versions:

- Stronger financial planning, tracking, and reporting capabilities. I find OmniPlan great for controlling the project schedule, not so great for controlling project finances.

- Availability of activity "elements". The ability to assign issues, risks, events, etc. against activities. I find this an extremely useful capability in other products.

- Report writing. Perhaps an interface to allow users to generate custom reports? The current custom report approach is flexible but a little low on the usability front. Also making more fields available for use in custom reports would be great.

Cheers.[/QUOTE]

I am a Merlin user, but I use Omnifocus for personal task management. The other day I downloaded Omniplan to check it out, and I must say the interface is incredibly clean, quick and intuitive to learn!
BUT: It is a marvellous scheduling tool more than an A-Z project management tool, lacking financial features as well as having some holes in resource management. Nevertheless, I was stunned at how easy it was to get to know the software, and I would love to see some features in later versions. This is a long reply, but hopefully someone has the time to read it:

1. In Omnioutliner you can set numbers/currency summary for columns/groups/rows. Add that possibility to Omniplan's custom columns + making it possible to create simple arithmetic formulas between columns. Example: <Budget> column minus <Sum planned> column equals your remaining planning overhead - what you have left. Wham. OP would be [B]the best in class[/B] of all Mac OS PM software for financial features. All without cluttering the interface for existing users (you could ship OP with a couple of project templates having financial columns in them, though). Good PM software should not require making external spreadsheets.

2. Some essential resource/task management features are missing:
- Setting predefined lead/lag between activities
- Setting finish-finish and start-start dependencies
- Overtime definitions and costs for working hours
- Setting material units as groups/multiple items
- Ability to log multiple actual working sessions under one task without cluttering the task view (this is so obvious for a PM, but NO software has that feature, instead, you are forced to attach separate time sheets and calculate yourself).

3. Possibility to attach emails, multiple versions of (a) file(s) and multiple notes to each task

4. Event log report where files/emails/notes/work sessions per resource are placed under the task to which they belong as rows, adding columns for debits and credits. This is also something that escapes EVERY maker of PM software:
Once you send your project to accounting, your report needs one row for every single cost/income element. Accountants don't care about what you call your tasks and how you performed them, only numbers count... In the PC world, this is overstated in all the PM software available (impossible to get the nice, visual overlook). In the Mac world, it is understated, hence the reluctance of many companies to allow for the use of Macs. Solution: A simple table report defining every activity as accountable (even if debit/credit is 0)

5. Utilization report. The only concern your boss has (if it is an internal project) is that everyone worked their hours...


Best regards,

Arild

[QUOTE=RussleTop;14106]Firstly, great software, although obviously a v1 in terms of features.

A couple of things I'd love to see in future versions:

- Stronger financial planning, tracking, and reporting capabilities. I find OmniPlan great for controlling the project schedule, not so great for controlling project finances.

- Availability of activity "elements". The ability to assign issues, risks, events, etc. against activities. I find this an extremely useful capability in other products.

- Report writing. Perhaps an interface to allow users to generate custom reports? The current custom report approach is flexible but a little low on the usability front. Also making more fields available for use in custom reports would be great.

Cheers.[/QUOTE]

All three are nice-to-haves if one is to take OmniPlan into the business world. I just purchased it to start planning a family vacation to Kauai, HI. (It's a way off now that I'm $150 behind budget ;) ). But, I have to agree that each of these three requests would be beneficial for any type and magnitude of project. I would love to see them in future releases.

have the product in omniplan
 

the product to be delivered

Omniplan relates to the resources but not to the product-components. I would love to have a product-outline and have these components linked to the activities. Right now the software tells me which people work with the help of which resources but not what they are actually working on. That needs somehow to live in the task description. I believe this information could attached to the tasks in a similar fashion to the resources.