Well, I just gave OmniPlan a very quick test run and I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. The world doesn't need another full-scale Gantt Chart project management product. There are already a *ton* of applications that do go Gantt and manage resources and continue to make the whole ordeal of project management an arcane art suitable for PM specialists.
What we really, really need is something that makes project management for "normal people" (designers, programmers, writers, and people in the trenches). I'm talking about something easy, straight-forward, and as intuitive as the rest of Omnigroup's applications. I don't want to have to learn how to read Gantt charts and memorize the terminology of PMs. I just need to manage my projects.
I hate using the P word, but what we need is a New Paradigm.
Maybe I'm just being selfish and whiny, but I don't think my needs are much different from many, many others. Here's a "top of the head in no particular order" list:
- Manage multiple projects with varying project lengths, multiple stakeholders, and multiple milestones
- 14-day and 30-day view so I can see all of the milestones and deadlines coming up
- Fully integrated with iCal and Address Book, linking emails from Mail would be great, too
- Provide a month-view so I can see what projects are scheduled and when their deadlines are
- Allow me to link files to a project so I can see at a glance what assets are connected to a project, and then let me double-click them to open them
- (wistful thinking) Simple versioning control for said files
- Full web export with .ics and RSS support so I can publish a project details / milestones to a server and have clients / stakeholders subscribe to it
- Time tracking and maybe some basic time / cash calculations (but *not* invoicing)
- To-do lists
Basically what I'm thinking about is similar to
Basecamp reborn as a gorgeous Mac OS X application. The biggest drawback of Basecamp is all of the data is stored on a 3rd party server, which is verboten with many corporations and companies... but its simplicity, ease of use, and no BS is more what I was expecting from OmniPlan.
Seriously, Gantt charts are great for true project managers who have training in managing huge projects with tons of variables, but what about us folks who just need something to help us get our work done?