multiple projects with staff resources
 

Can I create multiple projects (not tasks) and assign staff resources, and prevent scheduling conflicts across the projects?

For instance, I have one staff member who needs to work on three separate projects in a given week. I want to assign the hours needed for each project, obviously without overlap. Ideally I would then publish each project as iCal calendars, upload to a server and have the staff member subscribe to them.

I guess I need to share that resource across projects, but can't see if it's possible.

This isn't possible in OmniPlan right now. We do have a feature request for this in our database which I'll add another vote to for you.

In the mean time, you could create one OmniPlan project file and add each project as a group in OmniPlan. That way, you could put all the tasks associated with each project in the appropriate groups and still be able to track your resource schedules and see potential conflicts.

Add my vote, too. We have many projects and would like to keep our growing company's resources well scheduled and not over scheduled. A centralized server approach for resource management is essential.

Adding your vote jscotta. Thanks!

please count my vote
 

Yes, please do include the abilty to view multiple projects at once. A critical feature since I work on 6-10 projects a given time.

Thanks!

Viewing and managing multiple projects
 

Unless I can create multiple projects as well as manage and view them simultaneusly, the program is not useful. I believe this is the case for most businesses. Why isn't this part of OmniPlan? I'm surprised.

lpj -- I think there may be a bit of a misunderstanding here. You can create multiple projects, save each as a separate file, and open each in a separate window at the same time. The only real limit there is your computer's memory.

On the other hand, OmniPlan cannot yet share resources across projects. If you must have a separate file for each project and a person is working on two projects, you should set their available units in each project to 50% (or the appropriate balance) so that they aren't assigned a full work load in each project. The other approach would be to delete their work hours from the calendar in one project when they're scheduled to work on tasks for the other project.

count me in
 

Please add my request to share resources across projects. We are an internal ad agency with our resources stretched across many projects. This would be extremely helpful in determining when to schedule in freelancers, and hire new staff.

Thanks!:)

mims:

Your request have been added. :D

Well, while the multi project PM functionality is not - yet - around, is there at least a feature to create one or more "dummy" project-templates with defined numbers of tasks, sub-task, dependecies and - this is crucial - resource allocations such that I can copy the whole lot from one project-plan into the next?

It also would be helpful to have replacement feature for the task name, so that for a group task and its children that were copied their dummy start of name tag can be replaced to fit the actual project in one go.. regexec capabilities welcome.

Pure Project Administration is nasty enough, so every bit of relief would be very welcome.

Finally, any thoughts on Priority based inclusion/exlusion from task and/or resource scheduling to a fast "What-If" instrument at hand to present the implications of priority settings or structure/resource alteration at board meetings?

Thanks in advance for any helpful reply.

Add me to the list
 

Seems like a no briainer. Managing multiple projects at once, and sharing resources is needed even if just for a single individual.

I wonder if OmniFocus will manage this. That would be ironic.

Add me to the list as well
 

Please add me to the list as well. I really need this feature :-)

Add me as well
 

Ditto! Ditto!

[QUOTE=Detlef Bloch]Well, while the multi project PM functionality is not - yet - around, is there at least a feature to create one or more "dummy" project-templates with defined numbers of tasks, sub-task, dependecies and - this is crucial - resource allocations such that I can copy the whole lot from one project-plan into the next?
[/QUOTE]

Set up a project the way you want it (tasks, dependencies, resources, styles, etc.), then choose "Save as Template..." from the File menu. Later when you want to use that template as your starting point for a new project, choose "New from Template.." (also in the File menu) and there it is.

multiple projects + files on multiple computers
 

I'm not misunderstanding. I realize that you can open several windows at once. But without the ability to cross reference and share resources ( to see where there are overlaps or gaps), its use is limited.

Also, I'm wondering if the files can be copied from computer to computer so different people can access and update them.

[QUOTE=Lizard]lpj -- I think there may be a bit of a misunderstanding here. You can create multiple projects, save each as a separate file, and open each in a separate window at the same time. The only real limit there is your computer's memory.

On the other hand, OmniPlan cannot yet share resources across projects. If you must have a separate file for each project and a person is working on two projects, you should set their available units in each project to 50% (or the appropriate balance) so that they aren't assigned a full work load in each project. The other approach would be to delete their work hours from the calendar in one project when they're scheduled to work on tasks for the other project.[/QUOTE]

Add me to the list
 

I need to track 8 designers and developers. For our situation, tracking their time on multiple projects is more important than tracking a project since a large project for us may involve many other teams that really don't impact my team at all, or we may have many tiny projects (like re-design a button) that I would like to assign to one person over the course of a day or two.

I just need to know WHO can work on WHAT [B]PROJECT[/B], WHEN.

Seems like a great, easy to use product otherwise - we already purchased a bunch of copies. Thanks.

db

We have a feature request for a pool of resources that can be used and tracked for multiple projects.

Sounds like it would work for your situation dbuchter. I'll add a vote to it for you. :)

Hello.

I just wanted to say that I definetly also am looking for a project management application that can handle several projects running at the same time. I am a freelance photographer and most of the time I am working alone on 3 to 6 projects at the same time, sometimes including other "resources" (people like assistants, labs, locationscouts,...).

The Omni applications are the best applications on the market because they are simple and logical and not as ugly as most of the stuff one can get. It's cool to work with them. Also Omniplan is a great application, and it's the only application that comes near to my imagination of a good application, but it's not yet there.

Anyway I want to describe what I was looking for, so maybe this helps someone (maybe the programmers / developers , who knows).

On the basis of Omniplan I would like to be able to completely plan and schedule my tasks and dates, that are connected with several projects. I would like to set up my general working time, then do project-outlines, set milestones and deadlines and time-estimates for them and have Omniplan do a proposal for me, how to plan my week without getting too bored. I get very fast bored, that means: I love to work on two, three (or more) projects a day, one after another. Instead of working on one task of one project on 2 days for 10 hours each I like to mix my projects and work on - let s say - three projects, each 3 to 4 hours a day.

I would like to see Omniplan make a schedule for me, with blocks for the amount of time in iCal (instead of 24-hour-columns, as it is right now), for several projects a day. For example: 10am to 1pm is project a, 2pm to 5pm is project b, 5pm to 8pm is project c. If I am not confident with "the mixture" of my daily plan, I can still re-arrange those blocks in iCal, that wouldn't be a function that Omniplan would have to do, but Omniplan should - in my digital dreams - be able to give me a proposal how I can structure my calendar. That would be ideal.

I don't know if that makes sense for someone else, but for me this sounds good.

One could even think one step further and develop OP so far, that it really gets GTD-orientated. For example if I have 5 jobs running and one of the tasks in every job is connected to "laboratory" then it would be ideal, if OP would just try to schedule all those five lab-walks to the same day. But maybe that's illusionary...

Anyway, the problems for me at the moment are, that OP:

a) makes 24hour blocks in my iCal file and I also don't like to have long allday-event-rows in my calendar

b) if I put my own "resource" availability to 30% then my estimated time, that I need for work, triples; this doesn't make sense (I don't need to work 3 times longer because I'm not on 30% "power" but because I only want to use 30% of my time for this task); my working time stays the same, it just takes longer, that's a significant difference

c) if I put more than one project into OP, then OP exports all the projects into one iCal calendar (with one colour/label), so it gets impossible to differentiate what task belongs to which project. (it would be great to get an option to assign project-titles in front of the tasks/dates anyway...if one task of my project "xyz advertisement" is "send out final pictures" and I import the task into iCal, then "send out final pictures" could belong to three other projects... it would be great to have an option to add the title of the project to every task (like "xyz ad - send out final pictures")

...that s about it.

Anyway: I don't see too much usability for me right now, because OP can not handle more than one project, but I am very sure that I will try it for several biggger projects, thought it's sad that it has not yet the functionality that I would need to make my planning-efforts a little more simple...

Thanks,


aeiou11235

PS: apologies for my odd schoolbook-english.
PPS: Does anyone know an alternative to OP until it's "ripe"?

Sahre resources accross multiple project and multiple project view
 

Please add my request to share resources across projects and add a view with all projects (like Merlin 2 does). We are web agency with our resources stretched across many projects.

Another Vote
 

I would also like to see some views / reports that run from multiple projects - it would be a useful feature, but the proposed work around will of course work.

Also - I have a team of designers (5) who work 10 hour days. I may assign them 10 tasks, and I need them completed in 2 days - I don't care what order they are completed in, but I do have a final deadline. Is there any way to visually represent this - is this something that has been considered - or should I just deal with assinging times to tasks and have a personal understanding that the time may not be completely accurate? Just a question I had, that I am sure you guys have already asked.

Overall, I love the program - I have been working on the demo version, but I have recommended that we purchase copies for all of our project managers.

Kudos.

Vote++
 

Count me in for a vote on this one. It is a feature that would certainly be very useful.
:D

Need the feature too, but...
 

I'm with the group here, we'd love to see this feature delivered in the next release. ;) However, I'd like to report that we've had good success managing multiple projects in a single plan. I'm running a Dual 533 G4 with 768 MB RAM and had great performance managing over 8 projects with more than 25 resources. All in all, this is a great 1.0 Product Offering.

Me too!
 

Please add my vote for this feature as well.

OP is already a fantastic app, but no multi-project views and resource sharing is what prevents me from using it.

To have that featureset in OP's interface would be totally ideal.

Add my vote, too.

At the moment, I'm managing my department as a single project file. Each root tasks represents one department project. It works OK, but gets a little unwieldy at times. (I have 15 projects at the moment -- as tasks in a single project file.)

While it's nice you can open multiple project files on screen, and balance resource availability between them manually, it quickly becomes tedious. Especially when the number of concurrent project varies, staff involvement with a particular project changes over time, etc., etc. There really needs to be an automated system.

Please add my vote also

blindmouse, mprewitt, and pslade:

Your votes have been added. :)

[I think I posted this on the wrong thread -- sorry! Still waking up, I guess.]

Add another vote "to multiple projects with staff resources" feature
 

We also need the ability to manage a list of resources across multiple projects.

Related to this we need a way to set the percentage of a "resource allocated" at x% (not a specific value)

In other words, if we have two projects A and B:

Task A is set at 100 hours
Task B is set at 10 hours

We want Task B to start a week after Task A starts and to be worked on for 25% of the time till it is done.

Thus Task A starts at a 100% and then moves to 75% for the duration of Task B, and then returns to 100% after B completes.

I would like to lock in the percentage for Task B, but let Task A adjust itself as Task B starts and completes.

Is this going to be possible in OmniPlan in the future?

Please add my vote too. Can you tell us how this issue is doing and when we might see this feature added to Omniplan?

We've just evaluated OmniPlan and it looks great for our needs. I'm looking forward to adding this program to our suite of Omni products, however tracking multiple projects (ideally with a 'Master Project' type overview and resource allocation / checking between projects) is a must for us before we buy.

I would appreciate hearing where this feature was at in Omni's development roadmap - are we likely to see this soon? Will it be a part of 1.1.X or 1.2.x or will it be a 2.x feature?

Inquiring minds want to know!

PS> add my vote in case you had not guessed already.

I'm not sure how the system is set up in Omniplan, but I would suggest something like the iCal calendar becomes the central file that all the plans look at for the resource availability (Project-A places resource-x as busy Monday 4-6, when Project-B is fired up it will see the availability of resource-x, the question is how to have two files accessing the same file..) So that there is some type of realtime updating. Maybe a resourceManager??

Anyway, my vote too, I'm in several projects that are very distinct. I'd like to share the plans with other people in the project, but I don't want them to see the plans for the other projects. I.e. I don't want to mix separate companies and interests, but I am a resource in both.

Huevos:

I'll add a vote for you and attach your comments to the feature request. Thanks!

Multiple projects and resource pool
 

Another vote!
Managing multiple projects with a pool of resources is simply necessary in most real life situations.

+1
 

please add my vote too.

I want to manage 7 staff and 20 big project : all in one project will be ugly to display.

ericscmw and mannu:

Votes have been added! Thanks! :)

I think my [URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/showpost.php?p=11671&postcount=30"]vote / questions[/URL] may have been missed :(

[QUOTE=basic612]We've just evaluated OmniPlan and it looks great for our needs. I'm looking forward to adding this program to our suite of Omni products, however tracking multiple projects (ideally with a 'Master Project' type overview and resource allocation / checking between projects) is a must for us before we buy.

I would appreciate hearing where this feature was at in Omni's development roadmap - are we likely to see this soon? Will it be a part of 1.1.X or 1.2.x or will it be a 2.x feature?

Inquiring minds want to know!

PS> add my vote in case you had not guessed already.[/QUOTE]

I'm so sorry about that basic612! :o

If we are going to implement this feature, it won't be in version 1.2. It'll probably be a 2.x feature, but I can't promise anything at this point. A vote has been added for you as well.

Votes
 

Add mine and three other PMs (is that legal? ...heh). I'll get them to sign up and register so they can vote if needed.

This feature would be critical as we're a medium size shop who is constantly sharing des, dev resources across multiple projects.

ALSO - we're desperate for a way to roll up all projects into a calendar view to review not only duration for each but also resources spread across projects.

Thanks!

I'll add some votes for you skerman. If your PMs have any other comments or suggestions, please email them to us at [email]omniplan@omnigroup.com[/email]. Thanks!

Please add my vote for multi-project handling - here's the email message I sent:

OmniPlan has the best user interface I've experienced in a project management app, not to mention the excellent Levelling - well done guys!

Here's a feature request that would blow away the competition - multi-project handling - I tried ConceptDraw's Project app because they offer this, but I prefer your interface! I'm currently handling different projects as sub-projects inside a main project, but it's not ideal.

thanks!

[QUOTE=gemello]Please add my vote for multi-project handling - here's the email message I sent:

OmniPlan has the best user interface I've experienced in a project management app, not to mention the excellent Levelling - well done guys!

Here's a feature request that would blow away the competition - multi-project handling - I tried ConceptDraw's Project app because they offer this, but I prefer your interface! I'm currently handling different projects as sub-projects inside a main project, but it's not ideal.

thanks![/QUOTE]

Yep, received your email and vote has been added! :-)

Multiple projects
 

You can add my vote too for the multiple project request.

I'm evaluating OmniPlan atm, and the missing multiple project feature is really a pity. We have 6 staff working on anything up to 20 projects at the same time.

Really a pity you guys missed that one. Although i'm hoping you'll add it in the future?

One more vote
 

It will probably be too late to get us as a customer, since we need some PM software which can track resources across projects in the next couple of months, but please add my vote to have this feature.

:)

Jason Mark
[url]www.gravityswitch.com[/url]

Jason's comments made me wish for a place to discuss the options to OmniPlan, but I didn't think this was the right place. So I've decided to launch a Google Group called "MacProject", a place for exploring all Project Management Applications on the Mac, a place where users can share ideas and thoughts about the various apps, a place where they can ask questions of and explore with other users and potential users.

[url]http://groups.google.com/group/macproject[/url]

In my mind there is a wide spectrum of info management applications. Omni (with all their apps) actually covers most of this range (but fails to integrate). I hope the MacProject Google Group will focus on the higher end (ie more complicated) needs of this spectrum.

[B]Note[/B] the tribute to the original "MacProject" name and icon ( I hope Apple doesn't mind, or is too busy with bigger fish).

Multi Projects
 

Add me to the list of people requiring multiple linked projects.

Add my vote too!
 

Please please add this functionality.

We track up to 50 projects or more, and need to know our resources' bandwidth so we can accurately assign them.

This would seal the deal for us!

Votes added from dirk_sabbe, Jason Mark, huwmac, and workinprogress.

I'll check out your Google Group dancingbrook. :-)

Me too, desperate to use Omniplan "properly".

You got it!

Got what? Does OmniPLan no offer multiple projects?

[QUOTE=dancingbrook;18733]Got what? Does OmniPLan no offer multiple projects?[/QUOTE]

Reading over my last post it looks like I wasn't very clear. My apologies dancingbrook. It sounded like you were wanting to add a vote to this feature request so I replied with, "you got it", as in I added a vote for you in our database.

To clarify, OmniPlan does not support multiple linked projects right now but this is something we're considering for a later version. :-)

I thought it'd be fine to just use tasks as projects (and subtasks as tasks) to handle the multiple-projects issue.

The only downside I see so far is that Critical Path will not work properly, since it looks over the whole file instead of for each task separately...

[QUOTE=michaelatSPG;20311]I thought it'd be fine to just use tasks as projects (and subtasks as tasks) to handle the multiple-projects issue.

The only downside I see so far is that Critical Path will not work properly, since it looks over the whole file instead of for each task separately...[/QUOTE]

And what would one use as subtasks? ;-)

Let's hope Omni fixes all of this sooner than later. If they integrate Plan Focus, Graffle and Outliner, then they might have a grand slam, or a real OmniDazzle.

I use omni plan and make all my projects " tasks " and then each projects tasks become the " subtasks .. the nice thing about it is .. if I put a parent task called " this week " or something like that .. I can see the estimated time required to accomplish all my projects for the week and remaining time as it burns down etc ..

Just to add my Vote, I am in the process of evaluating OmniPlan and almost disregarded it because of the Multi-Project problem. I found the script for importing multi projects and I think this should do the trick. (I couldn't test it properly as I believe it exceeded the evaluation task limit.

I really do think Omni should make haste with this feature as anyone who is using project management software needs it.

It is a great application otherwise!

[QUOTE=flamejob;22289]Just to add my Vote, I am in the process of evaluating OmniPlan and almost disregarded it because of the Multi-Project problem. I found the script for importing multi projects and I think this should do the trick. (I couldn't test it properly as I believe it exceeded the evaluation task limit.

I really do think Omni should make haste with this feature as anyone who is using project management software needs it.

It is a great application otherwise![/QUOTE]

I'll add your vote flamejob. As for the evaluation task limit, you can request a 24 hour trial license on our website [URL="https://store.omnigroup.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/OnlineStore.woa/wa/trial%3fproduct=4d9e05f8457df5310a04026c"]here.[/URL]

You can request 1 additional license every 12 hours, so if you need more time to properly evaluate OmniPlan you can have more time.

Please add my vote as well.

My company uses Omni plan for scheduling and resourcing and would love to continue using it if we could scale up to allow managing multiple projects / resources.

Also, it looks like this thread has been going on for a while. Is there anyway to know approximately when/if this feature will be added? It looks as though enough people would benefit from it.

Thanks!
dt

+ 1 vote,

when will this feature be available ? we are all waiting for it ...

[QUOTE=akwong;12021]...it won't be in version 1.2. It'll probably be a 2.x feature, but I can't promise anything at this point.[/QUOTE]

Version 1.2 got renamed to 1.5 because we added several more features than we originally expected. Since 1.5 isn't even out yet, it's impossible to say when 2.0 will be, and whether this feature will be included. We do understand that it's important to a lot of people, but it also requires a major reworking (and re-testing) of several areas of our application, so we need to plan carefully. A look at the history of other Omni applications reveals that the time between major releases (1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc.) is perhaps 1-3 years. As OmniPlan has been out for about a year now, one might guess at seeing OmniPlan 2.0 sometime in the next 2 years.

I know my previous post sounds very vague and pessimistic, but we honestly do not know. Omni's policy is to focus less on schedules and more on the features and quality our customers have come to expect from us. I could tell you a date, but it'd have a 99.8% chance of being wrong, so there's really no point.

I don't mean this as sarcastic or anything, I own and love omnifocus, that's why I'm evaluating omniplan (hoping to easily export projects milestone outlines + revisions to clients) but... People out there only working on a single project at a time? Personally, I don't... and I'm not sure I understand the point of a program like this without multi project support. I'm trying to test it out with with task groups as projects but I haven't had much luck so far...

Add My Vote
 

It would certainly make the product more useful if it could track resources across project files...

Maybe some enterprising young web shop could get a license to knock together a simple server app if Omni is dragging their feet... They could maybe sell the server to the list of folks who are already asking for it in this forum to defray their costs.

Multiproject Management is essential
 

Dear Omni-Folks,

first of all my congratulations to your product - keep on to develop such clear and straight software.
Nevertheless I totally agree with other members, that omniplan needs the possibility to handle multiple projects sharing resources - thats reality.

In my opionion this is not only a fancy "feature" but for you as a company a unique selling proposition.

What are your plans for this in the future?

Regards
Norbert

Another Vote
 

Please add me to the long list of requests for this. It really is a must.

Even if we essentially would be running one huge project and you only showed us views of unconnected groups that were now re-defined as projects it would be very useful.

(Of course, also desperate for OmniFocus integration, but that is a different thread.)

Votes added for everybody! :-)

and...
 

Me please ! Please add me. I won't be able to survive without this omniplan handling multi-projects.

Me too please!

One way to implement this would be to allow the saving of different filters, perhaps a la the Perspectives feature of OmniFocus. Set up a different Perspective for each Group (sub-project), and just click an icon for that Perspective to see just that (sub)project.

[QUOTE=santra;53185]One way to implement this would be to allow the saving of different filters, perhaps a la the Perspectives feature of OmniFocus. Set up a different Perspective for each Group (sub-project), and just click an icon for that Perspective to see just that (sub)project.[/QUOTE]
santra - this is essentially what I was thinking when I commented above.

One important, additional point is that I'd like to make sure we could export all the information from that perspective (but not from the other sub-project) as if it were its own project. That is critical for sharing only the relevant information with members of that sub-project.

When will it happen?
 

Please could you let us know when multiple project views will be available? Thanks.

They will, but it will probably be in the form of a product announcement saying it is now ready for download as an alpha test version (sneaky peek)... Omni doesn't believe in revealing their development plans until they have something concrete to show, and even when they have that, predictions of exact ship dates are hard to get (until the version string gets the magic "rc"). To paraphrase a posting elsewhere from one of the Omni staff, "we decide on a bunch of features we want to include, then work on them until we are satisfied." It's possible that they lose some customers by not being able to accurately predict when that process will complete, but I would rather use something that was shipped when its creators thought it was ready, not something that was shipped because someone made what turned out to be a promise that couldn't be met without sacrificing quality and/or content. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, etc. may have to operate that way, but Omni doesn't, and coupling that freedom with their willingness to listen to the customer base, I think we get better products as a result.

Please add me to the list for the multiple project feature also. We are an internal agency with 7 designers, 3 writers, a web team, retouchers and photographers. Would find this very useful.

Thanks.

multiple projects
 

please add my vote for multiple projects and intelligent cross-project resource management.

and it wouldn't harm anyone or anything if omni were to give a general target date, even to the quarter year, for when you anticipate - without commitment - major features like this to be implemented.

Multiple Project Tracking
 

We really needs this feature. Please add us to the mix of people voting. thanks

This is an extremely important feature. I really like OmniPlan but as others have said it is severely limited without this feature.

Please vote
 

Add a vote for me, please! The first thing I tried to do was to manage multiple projects on a single doc to eliminate sched. conflicts.

The great thing about OmniPlan IMO is that I don't need to have a bunch of project outlines, combined with a calendar, cross referenced with an excel document to manage projects. Everything is in one place and OmniPlan does the clerical work I don't need to be doing, when deadlines and delivery dates change, reordering every project and resource required.

Right now, I'm adding all my projects for a given month to a doc. At the end of the month I'll clean up the things that have been completed and archive the old plan for reference.

Thanks, Omni software is great.

Ditto as well. Please add my request to share resources across projects and add a view with all projects.

I own and love OmniPlan.

Please add me to the long list. This thread is over three years old now. Have you made any progress with this feature? Any chance of an ETA of when it might be ready? You are probably losing customers due to this.

Yet another multi-license customer, me, voting to include some kind of multi-project rollup feature so resources can be levelled across projects. I just read that groups within the one file is a workaround - I'll check that out, but please, people! How many years does this take?

JP

2.0
 

Has this been added in 2.0?

Cross-project leveling wasn't part of the 2.0 release, but an important step along the way to that feature - Project Syncing - was. Hopefully, that's some consolation. :-)

How many more years?
 

Obviously there is something being missed in your product development cycle? I've read the entire thread... and what is missing is an appreciation that people have been asking for what we all consider the "key" feature in a PM app... FOR 3 YEARS! You have votes and posts since 2008 and all you guys have been doing is saying... your vote is in... your vote is counted... and now "consolation", as in you acknowledge the major oversight and you're throwing your users a bone?

Come one guys... why are you handling your development with such a lumbering microsoft-esque way?
Smart companies provide solutions without leaks. Quickly and efficiently.
Smart companies think forward, planning for the future.

Omni has a serious achilles heal. True collaboration is something your application doesn't do.

It's unfortunate that the best designed app is missing the most important feature.

[QUOTE=dr.sadrieh;102171]

Omni has a serious achilles heal.
[/quote]
Where is the heal located? ;-)
[quote]
True collaboration is something your application doesn't do.
[/QUOTE]We must have different ideas about what "true collaboration" is. OP 2 is chock full of collaboration features, such as the support for syncing documents, accepting/rejecting changes from multiple users, getting resource availability from calendars, etc. What it lacks, and what everyone else in this thread is requesting, is support for managing resources over multiple projects. That isn't collaboration, as it is equally useful for a single user.

You can see the votes in this thread, but you can't see the votes made elsewhere, so you really can't conclude much about the relative popularity of this request. There's not much reason to believe that Omni would choose not to build a feature that was more requested than any other.

Omni(Plan/Focus) Multi-user
 

As a consultant that has had to try to help numerous people find solutions to their workflow, it would appear what seems to be missing is the ability for multiple DIFFERENT users to log into a project.

Clients want to see their task assignments, delegate tasks to others, and have a set of permissions so that certain users or groups can view or not view specific tasks or projects.

Daylite does this, but their interface is much too complex for efficient task entry.

I've had many executives who don't use Gantt charts - in fact, some of them feel that these types of project management systems are old school, and reserved for Boeing-types. Whether that is an accurate description or not, many of these people now do project management the way OmniFocus handles tasks - they manage their products this way. Unfortunately OmniFocus doesn't handle any kind of multi-user setup.

And not to digress from this thread, it appears that OmniPlan has gotten much closer to this request, but it still appears like it's lacking to it's fullest extent.

I personally have never understood why there are so many great applications that continue to be primarily built for the solo-user. There are enough of those out there. It seems to me that development houses are missing the mark by not building their application as multi-user capable right out of the gate, rather than trying to retro-fit that into the product 5 years later, when it's much more difficult to do.

Users should not necessarily have to invent workarounds to make the product do what they really would *like* it to do. The products should just be built with that vision in mind.

As we continue to see more and more de-centralized computing environments, offices that are mobile, people who work together yet live in multiple places in the world, I think developers at large should be focusing on the bigger picture. At least in a true multi-user environment, the solo user is taken care of, yet so are the requests of the teams who need to share or delegate various tasks or projects with each other.

And furthermore, its getting a bit tiring to see companies add a bunch of "blue sky" features into some of their products, but still fail to address some of the very much needed fundamental issues that users are requesting. I'm not trying to point the finger at Omni, it's just something I've noticed in general. There are a bunch of great apps that "almost" do what users need, but not quite.

And the urgency to get the apps ready for that market never quite seems to be there.

Companies build what they think most customers want, within the constraints of development budget (time, money, and personnel) and what they think they can successfully deliver. Trying to build the perfect product that satisfies everyone from the first release is a fool's errand. It takes too long, allowing the competition to steal all of the customers (who generally need something now), and it prevents you from learning anything from the customers (because you don't have any). If you try to build something too ambitious, you are likely to end up with a product that isn't useful for anyone.

OmniPlan 2 does support multiple users editing and updating the project. The project manager can even monitor the changes and individually areject them as necessary. There's also work underway to integrate it with OmniFocus to dole out the tasks from the overall project to the individuals responsible, with completion data automatically returned to the project manager via OmniPlan. It isn't in the product yet, but I've had a chance to play with parts of it, and it will be a very useful arrow in the quiver, even for solo practitioners.

No, OmniFocus was not built as workgroup software, and as the bulk of the customers do not need to use it that way, it would have made little sense to not ship until such features were ready. More than 100,000 copies sold tells me they were right not to wait. How many sales would have been lost to the competition if they had waited until they had a full groupware implementation to sell? The incremental approach also allows the project to fund its own development, which cuts the financial risk considerably. Finally, everything a solo practitioner needs is likely to be needed in a multiple-user product, so you can start helping much of your customer base much sooner while you are trying to figure out the right approach to building the multiple-user product that will convince the world that yours is the one to buy.

Frankly, if building the better mousetrap was so easy a route to guaranteed commercial success, someone would have done it by now!

Giving customers what they want?
 

Its interesting: I remember working at Microsoft long ago, and then finally branching out into the field of consulting for the last 12 years or more.

Clients always used to ask me why Entourage didn't allow the users to sort on First Name / Last Name. When I asked the PM of Entourage why this was the case during a beta test cycle, they told me they had interviewed their customers and that wasn't a necessity.

Interesting, because in the circles I ran in, it totally was a necessity. So my question was - who were they interviewing, Grandpa Joe and his poker club? Because business people found it frustrating that there were these limitations.

I'm not knocking your points, but you can't rationalize why something is missing for an entirely different client base. Just because it sold "100k copies" doesn't mean that it isn't lacking some necessary criteria to be able to sell maybe another 250k copies.

In this day and age, there is a shift in the way executives do business. Omni has been around long enough to understand this, especially as one of the first OS X developers.

It's fine if they want to continue to make solo-style applications, but they're missing an entire market segment of people that are asking for something more. Eventually, just like Daylite, the market will start to move away to something else when someone finally does get it right.

If Apple were to have interviewed potential customers and asked for what they were looking for, they'd probably be just like everyone else. The key is for companies to visualise where the future is going and what people are seeking - sometimes before they even *know* that they're seeking it.

Like it or not, multi-user apps with functionality like OmniPlan and OmniFocus are severely lacking. I can attest to this because I deal with lots of clients in the entertainment industry that are frustrated that they can't work in a true multi-user setup with apps like OmniFocus, and instead feel relegated to apps like Daylite that they find cumbersome and inefficient.

And having come from a client/server development background, I still feel that it's more difficult to add the multi-user capability down the road rather than build it like that from the beginning so that it can be scalable - even if they decided not to enable the functionality until later.

That's just my .02. I see people that love Omni stuff, but find it lacking and therefore seek other options. And until they actually release a full-on multi-user capable application (not a psuedo multi-user capable app), they'll never really know.

Erik

This argument you're advancing is very similar to the argument advanced by others about why Omni should be developing for Windows (and for that matter, the people who think they should sell the software for a much lower price). The answer is the same: they are interested in building the best software they can, not chasing after every last possible dollar of revenue.

The sales figures (which are very low, as I'm quoting numbers given to me more than a year ago) indicate that they are giving quite a few customers what they want, right now. Omni gives a money-back guarantee on its products, so they have some skin in the game.

Deal breaker
 

Not being able to view staff across multiple projects is a deal breaker. Add this feature, and I'll buy the product. Leave it out, and I won't.

Why? I need to coordinate staff in a small office with a large-ish number of projects. I can't assign work to someone if I don't know what else he's working on.

You should read this thread if you haven't already done so: [url]http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=4294[/url]

In particular, Ken has some suggestions about how to use resource availability calendars.

Multi-user Functionality
 

WH,

I don't know if you're a mole/employee for Omni, or simply a person that wants to be "right" and defend your POV. I appreciate that you're trying to come up with reasons "why" the software is the way that it is, but regardless - the apps fall slightly short for many businesses.

At one point I figured I might give some quotes from Steve Jobs on his idea of supplying software and hardware to customers, and mention some perspectives from the 37Signals guys, especially from their book Rework, but then I figured that would be a waste of time.

Small businesses & enterprise customers are tired of Gantt-based project management systems, would rather be doing task-based project management, and are in need of a true multi-user application.

Everything else outside of that is a lame workaround.

My consulting company and our clients find it frustrating and unfortunate that Omni brings almost everything they need to the table that they want and need, except for the ability to be a true collaboration task-based project management system. People *want* to use this software and *can't*.

We can rationalize and make excuses all day long, but it doesn't change the fact that the full solution is nearly there, yet they are missing the mark by neglecting this fundamental requirement in this market segment.

But trust me when I say the industry as a whole doesn't need another single-user-based project management system. There are already a ton of them out there. The best that people can hope for is a web-based system, and they fall short for a variety of reasons as well.

Omni can continue to debate and discuss whether or not they should retrofit their apps with true multi-user capability, or they can simply get busy and build in the functionality... or not, I guess. Problem is, they've set the bar high in most other areas (functionality and UI to name just two), and there aren't any other apps that behave in this manner, otherwise people would be discussing them and using them. It's frustrating for users to have an app that delivers *almost* everything that they need.

Omni should be happy that there are existing and potential clients who are frustrated about this and demand this feature. It shows that they care, that they like Omni, that they don't want to use mediocre crap, and they are seeking more from the software that they'd like to manage different aspects of their businesses.

If the functionality were implemented into the application, it wouldn't create "less" market penetration or be abandoned by the existing users. It would only become more viable to a wider audience.

Erik

I'm reminded of a sign I saw on a co-worker's door long ago:

"I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow's not looking good, either."

Omni's got a steadily growing business selling their products to the customers they have in essence selected by virtue of what they have chosen to build. You can jump up and down all you want about how they should be building what you think they should build, but in the end, they are going to build what they think they can build to their own standards and sell to a sufficient number of customers to make it worth the effort. If that doesn't happen to be what you and your clients want to buy, you'll have to go elsewhere. The fact that you're here badgering Omni about building it suggests that no one else has been convinced of the need to deliver a great product with those features either, or they haven't figured out how to do it. It's a simple matter of supply and demand.

Keep telling yourself that...
 

k, thnks fr tht rmndr, Mr. mn Shll.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;102384]I'm reminded of a sign I saw on a co-worker's door long ago:

"I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow's not looking good, either."

Omni's got a steadily growing business selling their products to the customers they have in essence selected by virtue of what they have chosen to build. You can jump up and down all you want about how they should be building what you think they should build, but in the end, they are going to build what they think they can build to their own standards and sell to a sufficient number of customers to make it worth the effort. If that doesn't happen to be what you and your clients want to buy, you'll have to go elsewhere. The fact that you're here badgering Omni about building it suggests that no one else has been convinced of the need to deliver a great product with those features either, or they haven't figured out how to do it. It's a simple matter of supply and demand.[/QUOTE]

Multiple Projects Support
 

I have one question regarding your OmniPlan software. We would like to have
several projects within one file and track all projects against a master
timeline.

*Does OmniPlan support multiple projects with one file?*

If not, will this be a feature in the near future?

Welcome to the forums, butchclydesdale; I'm going to move your post to an existing thread which discusses what you're asking about, but wanted to respond in the original location so you get any notifications you've signed up for.

Epmadsen, please don't resort to ad hominem attacks; it's not acceptable on our forums.

It's perfectly fine to make passionate arguments for a particular viewpoint - just don't resort to attacking the individual or individuals that see things differently.

FWIW, we agree with you that there's demand for a feature like this; that's one of the reasons that we added project syncing in version 2. It's a step towards the feature you're asking for. It hasn't made it into the app yet, but that doesn't mean you should assume it never will.

You really have to make very smart move by using the member on the projects and it really needs you to be very tight with that.