[nailen]

Originally Posted by dancingbrook

I wish I could feel so confident they could handle the sync; I anticipated this need before either OF, OP, OO or OG were released. Omni was in a position to do this (integrate) from the start. Perhaps it was the rush to get it out the door that resulted in the lack of integration? And now they have to spend more time sorting it all out?

I'm sure the Omni folks can handle any syncing issues better than most, but it seems to me that if they folded the OmniPlan features into OmniFocus for a combined project & task manager it would lessen syncing issues among 6 versions (3 hardware versions of the two apps) by only having 3 versions to sync, albeit at a higher price point for such a combined time/task manager that would create a new project management/GTD super category blowing away all traditional project management and simple GTD apps.

Bringing GTD methodology to project management would be an innovative development in the project management space, an ideal project management solution especially for software and web developers where GTD is popular and project management (without GTD) considered old-fashioned.

[wilsonng]

This would work if your entire team/department/company buys into the GTD methodology.

GTD may work for some but not for others. IT would almost make you look like a religious zealot trying to preach the GTD Bible to the masses. Some folks just aren't ready for it and some just don't care.

I'd love to spread the Word of GTD but if my team/department/company doesn't adopt the GTD methodology, then it would be pretty pointless.

By converting OmniPlan into a multi-user version of OmniFocus, it may limit the consumer market to folks who need a project management tool that also requires GTD.

OmniPlan looks like it will benefit by staying agnostic about its task management preference. Maybe it can adopt some of the other methodologies such as Your Workday Now discipline, the GTD discipline, or the DIT (Do It Tomorrow) discipline, or even that new-fangled AutoFocus/SuperFocus discipline.

I've seen Pocket Informant allow me to switch between GTD or the Franklin-Covey GTD methodology.

Originally Posted by nailen

I'm sure the Omni folks can handle any syncing issues better than most, but it seems to me that if they folded the OmniPlan features into OmniFocus for a combined project & task manager it would lessen syncing issues among 6 versions (3 hardware versions of the two apps) by only having 3 versions to sync, albeit at a higher price point for such a combined time/task manager that would create a new project management/GTD super category blowing away all traditional project management and simple GTD apps.

Bringing GTD methodology to project management would be an innovative development in the project management space, an ideal project management solution especially for software and web developers where GTD is popular and project management (without GTD) considered old-fashioned.

[nailen]

Originally Posted by wilsonng

This would work if your entire team/department/company buys into the GTD methodology.

GTD may work for some but not for others. IT would almost make you look like a religious zealot trying to preach the GTD Bible to the masses. Some folks just aren't ready for it and some just don't care.

I'd love to spread the Word of GTD but if my team/department/company doesn't adopt the GTD methodology, then it would be pretty pointless.

By converting OmniPlan into a multi-user version of OmniFocus, it may limit the consumer market to folks who need a project management tool that also requires GTD.

OmniPlan looks like it will benefit by staying agnostic about its task management preference. Maybe it can adopt some of the other methodologies such as Your Workday Now discipline, the GTD discipline, or the DIT (Do It Tomorrow) discipline, or even that new-fangled AutoFocus/SuperFocus discipline.

I've seen Pocket Informant allow me to switch between GTD or the Franklin-Covey GTD methodology.

Good points all. The ability to switch among methodologies would be awesome. My main point is not about a particular methodology but about not separating project management from task management since projects are composed of tasks and tasks usually exist within the context of projects.

It would be nice to have all project management and task management tools together in the same app; it doesn't make sense to separate interpenetrating levels of complexity within a time/activity management system into separate apps simply because they represent different levels of complexity within a coherent system.

This is a systems holism perspective.

[nailen]

Hi Ken,

Woohoo! Just downloaded the OmniPlan 2.0 beta and it looks great!

I'm not seeing how it integrates with OmniFocus...where/how is that done?

Maybe I'm missing something...

Cheers,
Jeff

[chinarut]

Originally Posted by nailen

Just downloaded the OmniPlan 2.0 beta and it looks great!

I'm not seeing how it integrates with OmniFocus...where/how is that done?

Maybe I'm missing something...

ah - thanks for the heads up - just downloaded the beta 2 and the OmniFocus integration isn't obvious either. it really would be great to mark a project in OmniFocus for "management" in OmniPlan - perhaps the actions that show up in OmniFocus are milestones you create, their due dates, and their status (esp if they are blocked) - I could definitely see a mapping to my @Waiting state at the very least.

well - any insight for us eager OmniFocus peeps would be great. I personally have no issues putting a few projects on hold short-term until I have a better handle on resource management! Thus, why I am looking at software like OmniPlan seriously.

UPDATE (from thread):

Originally Posted by skwirl

It’s not featured in the OmniPlan beta because in order for this feature to work we need to update OmniFocus on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad first.

[whpalmer4]

The general idea is that you build an overall project plan in OmniPlan, and set up publishing of actions for various resources to OmniFocus. The actions show up in OmniFocus for those resources, and when they are completed and synced, that information propagates back to OmniPlan to update the plan document. A variation on the same scheme allows for delegating tasks from one OmniFocus database to another. I don't think it makes sense to try to have the master copy of the plan in OmniFocus if you need OmniPlan's tools to plan and execute it successfully, though.

Unfortunately, before we see any of this stuff, they've got to ship OmniPlan 2.0 (which has the OmniPlan-OmniFocus collaboration support turned off right now, though it does have the OmniPlan-OmniPlan support turned on) and also implement and ship the OmniFocus end of the collaboration support for 3 different platforms, each of which runs on a somewhat independent release schedule. They'll need a lengthy testing cycle, as it wasn't really possible to do much testing before they pulled out the OmniFocus component. Some of the OmniPlan resources will be busy building OmniPlan for the iPad, too. I'd say if Santa Claus delivers this stuff in 2011, it might be a surprise :-) If you look back in this thread you see Ken predicting OmniPlan 2 and OmniFocus 2 in 2010, and as it turned out, they barely got the OmniPlan 2 private beta started by Dec. 2010 and still no sign of OmniFocus 2 (though who knows what might have happened had the iPad not come along a few months after he made that statement). One might hope that the current lack of OmniFocus sneaky peek builds means they are now working on OmniFocus 2 rather than yet another OmniFocus 1.x release, but that isn't the only possible interpretation...

[tbo]

Originally Posted by nailen

...

It would be nice to have all project management and task management tools together in the same app; it doesn't make sense to separate interpenetrating levels of complexity within a time/activity management system into separate apps simply because they represent different levels of complexity within a coherent system.

This is a systems holism perspective.

Yes and no. It's intriguing to have everything in one place - that's more or less the MS approach ("the one size fits all"). But I think Omni has does a terrific job at keeping the user experience consistent. So I think whereas I would love to get everything together in one app, task management is a much more detailed job for a different approach than project management. For me, OF is perfect for "getting things done". OP on the other hand comes in handy when trying to think ahead, balancing workloads and assigning resources. Having some sort of interaction (rescheduling for example) would be quite enough for me.
Besides that: getting my friends and colleagues to do some sort of task management is enough work. Project management is a completely different story...

[wilsonng]

Originally Posted by tbo

Yes and no. It's intriguing to have everything in one place - that's more or less the MS approach ("the one size fits all"). But I think Omni has does a terrific job at keeping the user experience consistent. So I think whereas I would love to get everything together in one app, task management is a much more detailed job for a different approach than project management. For me, OF is perfect for "getting things done". OP on the other hand comes in handy when trying to think ahead, balancing workloads and assigning resources. Having some sort of interaction (rescheduling for example) would be quite enough for me.
Besides that: getting my friends and colleagues to do some sort of task management is enough work. Project management is a completely different story...

It sounds like project management programs like OmniPlan is suited more for a higher Horizon of Focus. My life doesn't exactly require GANTT charts and what-not so I may be talking out of my @$$.......

But I do agree that OF is better for the runway and project Horizons of Focus.

[Ward]

I've been an OmniFan for a decade, adopting one Omni app after the next. I've looked at OmniPlan from time to time, but it's way more than I need for a single-person consulting business.

I've used iBiz (née iWork) for nearly as long for time-tracking and invoicing.

My dream since I began using OmniFocus 1.0 sneaky peek has been to integrate time tracking with my OmniFocus tasks.

Omni designers: please consider a time-tracking and invoicing app (OmniTime? OmniTrack?) that integrates with OmniFocus and/or OmniPlan.

-- Ward

[Brian]

I know we have a feature request open on time tracking in OmniFocus, and I wouldn't be surprised if there was a request filed against OmniPlan, as well. If you email the support ninjas, they can attach you to either/both.