Of course there's nothing complicated about Project Management!

The last time I thought seriously about trying to understand project management software I had not long begun my career in IT sales. Talk of Gantt charts and critical path analysis nearly popped my tiny brain, so I called the techies in to do the demo, nodded knowledgeably from the background and kept schtum until the conversation turned to cash (if I remember rightly the software cost £2500.)

So you can imagine my reaction when a project management expert from Crest Software called and suggested he come and show me the latest product from the CSProject software stable.

Since I am neither a construction expert nor a project planner, I asked Crest's Jeremy Storey to use our iTSHOWCASE LIVE event plan as an example project, which would not only make it easier for me to follow but also help him to demonstrate Crest's claim that planning software is not just for the construction sector.

The first thing that struck me when Jeremy fired up the software was just how orderly the screen layout was. With graphical menus across the top as you'd expect, the left hand side of the screen is reserved for your activities and the right hand side for bar charts. If you need more space on one side or the other you simply drag the border to the desired position - "simples!"

To add a new activity you just double click in the blank space on the activity or the bar chart area, which displays a pop-up in which you describe the activity and set its attributes, like start date, end date, duration and so on. Of course, you can always return to edit these at any time by double clicking on the activity. Once you have added the activity dates, it's displayed as a new bar in the chart viewer.

You have the option to create your full activity list first if you like, then add the variable details later, or you can do it as you go.

Sometimes, it makes sense to group sub-activities together, both from a logic and visual perspective. This is achieved through selecting the activities by dragging across them, then clicking the indent button on the menu bar.

BTW, if I'm making this sound rather simple, it's because it is!

Now, once you're happy that you've described your activities you can start thinking about linking them together. Which activities can run concurrently, which one's can't start before another one is finished and so on. CSP Express uses an intuitive, fully graphic interface, so creating a link is simply a case of dragging the cursor from one activity to another. As you drag, you see a line on-screen representing the link, followed by a pop-up screen where you select the relationship of the linked activities, whether one finishes before the other starts etc., and any lag between them.

As you'd expect, link relationships are represented graphically in the bar chart. You can drag either end of a bar to extend the duration, or you can pick it up and move it to a different point in the timeline. Any such changes are, of course, reflected in the chart, along with their affect on any linked or associated activities.

Anyway, getting back to my live example, Jeremy soon created a project plan that broadly reflected one of our events from the design phase, through the various marketing phases and on to the logistics of transporting the kit, setting up and running the show. The project looked great on the screen and easy to follow from start to finish...and that's where I thought I had him: 'That's all very well for a construction project' said I, 'But we don't plan from start to finish. We plan from an event date backwards!'

It must have taken Jeremy all of a minute to change a few settings, so the various activity relationships used 'Finish On' as their constraint and the whole project was recalculated and reconfigured finish-to-start rather than start-to-finish.

As we run many events that use much the same format, we could now simply copy the whole project as many times as we needed, change the descriptions and the event dates to produce a compete timeline for a whole year's activities - fantastic!

You can filter your activities using familiar SQL-like queries, which allows you to display just the activities for a certain phase, type or personnel for example.

When you've finished planning, CSP Express can export project data in iCAL format, which means you can transfer the activity information into any calendar software that reads that format. This would include Microsoft Outlook and Google Docs, which we happen to use here.

CSProject Express is Crest's entry level product, at £95 it's certainly low on price but not on features or function. I'm certainly going to buy a copy and so should anyone who has to plan projects, whether they are small or large. CSProject Express is limited to 500 activities per project, which should be plenty for most and there's an upgrade path to Crest's other planning software should you need it.

Training is available but I reckon most people will find the software easy enough to pick up. The software comes with comprehensive help files but this is where my only criticism comes. The help files are totally construction oriented. So if Crest wants to sell this as mainstream software, they'll need to change the examples to a more generic project. However, if you are in construction then whoopee! CSProject Express should be a breeze.

Crest Software

Crest's software is specifically written for the construction and civil engineering industry and includes; Valesco Estimating and Valuation Software, CS…