OpenProject is an open-source project management tool that allows for project planning, task management, timeline creation, and budget tracking. It can be used by distributed project teams for collaborative work. Key features include creating projects and assigning team members, adding work packages and milestones, generating Gantt charts to visualize timelines, defining and tracking budgets against actual costs, and logging work hours against tasks. The tool provides a comprehensive set of features to support project management from planning through execution.

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Projects in Industrial and Engineering Technology
Southeast Missouri State University
Ngu Kay Khine
12/05/2016
Contents
Contents .......................................................................................................................................... 0
Table of Figures .............................................................................................................................. 1
Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 2
Demonstration of Tool Use............................................................................................................. 3

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1. Registration.......................................................................................................................... 3
2. Create a Project .................................................................................................................... 5
3. Create Work Packages ......................................................................................................... 6
4. Create a Timeline (Gantt chart) ........................................................................................... 7
5. Create Budget and track cost ............................................................................................... 8
6. Other Features.................................................................................................................... 10
Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of OpenProject.......................................................... 12
Recommendation .......................................................................................................................... 14
Suggestions for future development areas of OpenProject........................................................... 15
References..................................................................................................................................... 17
Table of Figures
Figure 1 : Login page...................................................................................................................... 4
Figure 2 : Create new account......................................................................................................... 4
Figure 3 : Create new project.......................................................................................................... 5
Figure 4 : New project overview..................................................................................................... 5
Figure 5 : Create new Work Package.............................................................................................. 6
Figure 6 : New work package details.............................................................................................. 6
Figure 7 : Create Timeline report.................................................................................................... 7
Figure 8 : Timeline (Gantt chart) .................................................................................................... 7
Figure 9 : Create units..................................................................................................................... 8

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Figure 10 : Assign rates to users ..................................................................................................... 9
Figure 11 : Project budget assignment............................................................................................ 9
Figure 12 : Budget for the project................................................................................................... 9
Figure 13 : Log time & unit costs ................................................................................................. 10
Figure 14 : Calculated cost............................................................................................................ 10
Figure 15 : Budget summary after log times and units ................................................................. 10
Figure 16 : Panned Costs and Actual Costs .................................................................................. 10
Figure 17 : Create Meeting example............................................................................................. 11
Figure 18 : Agile and scrum example ........................................................................................... 11
Figure 20 : Calendar example ....................................................................................................... 11
Figure 19 : Roadmap..................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 21 : Forum Page to communicate...................................................................................... 12
Introduction
OpenProject is mainly intended as a web-based project management tool that is cross-platform
for location-independent team collaboration. An active open source community has continuously
developed this open source project application. It was initially released on October 4, 2012 under
the GNU General Public License Version 3. There are many reasons how OpenProject is a
trendy and useful tool nowadays. Based on this OpenProject software, there is a huge amount of
more than 2,500 project installations in many organizations globally. When the project teams

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need to be supported throughout the project life cycle, OpenProject is mostly used for lots of
collaborative features such as project planning, timeline reports, task management, and more.
One of the significant objectives of OpenProject is to create a new innovative place for open
source software that is inspiringly handled by the users and community by utilizing state of the
art technology. The OpenProject foundation is funded by a worldwide community and the
members of its development team. There are six basic objectives of OpenProject: maintain the
hardware and software infrastructure of the OpenProject organization and other corresponding
sites, encourage the community to participate in and contribute to the project, provide the project
source of conduct to protect its community attribution and to develop the vision of the project,
manage intellectual property and financial contributions, protect the project and community
through support and advocacy, and organize OpenProject and how it communicates and operates
the OpenProject platform by the benefits of the OpenProject software. This OpenProject tool is
entirely related to OpenProject management because the real strength of OpenProject lies in
working on projects. For example, this open source project that is today used as Microsoft
Project software, especially where the GANTT chart is used to describe milestones, tasks, and
resources that help to obtain a (visual) overview in operating complex projects.
Demonstration of Tool Use
1. Registration
To start an account needs to be created. An account holder can purchase and host the
OpenProject under the organization name. A thirty day trial version is also availbale to try out.
Figure 1 and Figure 2 shows how to create account.

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Figure 2 : Create new account
Figure 1 : Login page

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2. Create a Project
Once OpenProject is hosted under an organization name projects can be created from the
Dashboard (homepage).
Figure 4 shows the project overview page. Project members can be added using the Project
Overview page. While adding members, OpenProject also allows people to create new users by
inviting them. For this option, the new user’s email can be set as the member. OpenProject will
automatically send an invitation for that user via email.
Figure 4 : New project overview
Figure 3 : Create new project

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3. Create Work Packages
In OpenProject, tasks, milestones, phases and features are listed under the Work Packages Menu.
(1). First, enter the work package Title (2) and
(optionally) provide a Description (3). Several
frequently used work package attributes can be
configured during the creation of a work package:
The Project (4) can be set at the top of the details
list. The Type (5) can be changed to another value,
and the Progress (6) can be set. A start and
end date (7) can be assigned to the work package,
as well as a version (8), a category (9), and
an assignee (10). To display and configure
additional attributes select the Show all attributes
(11) button.
(Image Source: https://www.openproject.org/help/user-guides/work-packages/create-new-work-
package/)
Figure 6 : New work package details
Figure 5 : Create new Work Package

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4. Create a Timeline (Gantt chart)
In OpenProject, Gantt charts can be created as a Timeline report. Figure 7 shows how to create a
timeline report.
Figure 7 : Create Timeline report
Figure 8 : Timeline (Gantt chart)

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By selecting zoom factor as “weekly” and Initial outline expansion as “Expand level 2”, Figure 8
shows a created Gantt chart. NOTE: In image, “Gantt Chart” is the timeline report name.
5. Create Budget and track cost
First, units need to be set. Units can be configured from the Administration tab on top right
corner. Under the Cost types section, a unit can be created (Figure 9).
Project specific rates can be assigned to each user under the Rate history tab in Users section
(Figure 10).
Figure 9 : Create units

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Budget can be assigned to the given project in the Budget section in the Project window (Figure
11).
Figure 12 : Budget for the project
Figure 10 : Assign rates to users
Figure 11 : Project budget assignment

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Then, the budget can be assigned to the work packages (Figure 12). When users are working on a
work package, they can log their hours and unit costs (Figure 13 and Figure 14). Actual costs
will be calculated automatically based on these inputs (Figure 15 and Figure 16).
6. Other Features
Figure 13 : Log time & unit costs
Figure 14 : Calculated cost
Figure 15 : Budget summary after log times and units
Figure 16 : Panned Costs and Actual Costs

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OpenProject has more features, such as Agile and Scrum, Roadmaps, Meetings, Calendar, Wiki,
Forum etc. More features are available to download and enable as plug-ins. (Rest of the images
in this section show examples for plug-ins and other features).
In Roadmap, there are work packages listed by versions (such as product backlogs and sprints)
and the project’s progress (Figure 19).
Figure 17 : Create Meeting example
Figure 18 : Agile and scrum example
Figure 20 : Calendar example
Figure 19 : Roadmap

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Figure 21 : Forum Page to communicate
When dealing with complex projects and geographically scattered teams, a forum is used as a
project communication method (Figure 21).
Analysis of the Strengths and Weaknesses of OpenProject
When selecting a project management tool, it is important to analyze the strengths and
weaknesses of each option in order to select the tool that fits a company’s needs. Some of the
major strengths of OpenProject include its cost and ability to scale. OpenProject’s major positive
features include: Work Packages, Timelines, Agile and Scrum feature, ability to integrate into
existing corporate infrastructure, and User Interface. In addition to its wealth of features,
OpenProject also has several drawbacks. These include it being Open source software, Linux-
based and its file types cannot be shared across other platforms.
The first and primary strength of OpenProject is its cost. This is the primary draw for many of
the software’s current users away from more popular platforms such as Microsoft Project.
Pricing begins at nothing for the community edition, to 1 Euro per-user per-month for the cloud
hosted edition, then finally to 5 euros per-user per-month for the Enterprise edition with more
added features. This could represent massive savings for a small company who would rather not
invest $1,160.00 one time for each user’s installation of Microsoft Project.
Secondly, scalability is another major draw to OpenProject from other platforms. For smaller
companies who do not have the physical infrastructure to host large amounts of data on servers,
OpenProject allows users to purchase cloud space on their servers. The ability to host remotely

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allows smaller companies to focus on major projects at hand as opposed to slowing down their
process with added IT management. Then, when the company expands, it has the ability to
purchase additional users at the same low costs stated earlier. When the company finally expands
beyond a cloud-hosted instance, they then, have the ability to host their own instance of
OpenProject on their own servers and equipment.
Additionally, OpenProject has a wealth of software features that make it ideally suited for
organizations of any size. Work Packages, Timelines, Agile and Scrum feature, ability to
integrate into existing corporate infrastructure, and its easy-to-learn User Interface make it a
competitive option to Microsoft Project and other larger distributions. This is due to the fact that
most of these features are found in other project management solutions at a substantially higher
cost.
Just like any software distribution, in addition to its many positive features, there are always
drawbacks. The first is the fact that OpenProject is open source software. This means that the
code is made open to a community of software developers that all work together to develop the
pieces of a software distribution. While open-sourcing code can aid in the development of
software, it can decrease the reliability of a product. Additionally, OpenProject is designed to run
on a Linux-based environment. While this isn’t a problem for smaller companies that use the
cloud hosted option, this could pose problems for larger companies with IT staff that are trained
primarily in other platforms. Finally another foreseeable issue with OpenProject is that file-types
used in other Project Management programs cannot be used. If a company wanted to migrate
from Microsoft Project, they could not simply open their Project files in OpenProject due to

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compatibility issues. This could cause major scheduling drawbacks in addition to adding to the
overhead workload of a company.
Recommendation
OpenProject is a viable solution to companies of all sizes for managing projects. It is cheap,
scalable, and full of features that make it a highly competitive option over other solutions on the
market. With knowledge of some minor downfalls, OpenProject can be successfully integrated
into most companies with ease. When implemented into a project, OpenProject should be used
from the very beginning as it is able to support the project teams throughout the entire project
lifecycle. The best application for OpenProject would be a project that needs coordination done
over the internet. This could possibly be due to geological differences. Additionally it can be
used when cost, budgets, and identifying people responsible for each work package/task is
critical.
OpenProject should not be used if the Information Technology staff members are not familiar
with Linux operating systems; or, when end users lack connectivity to internet and need cross-
platform compatibility to other software such as Microsoft Project.
OpenProject has many advantages to other solutions on the market; however, it is not the perfect
solution for every organization. The best project management software should still be determined

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based on the project type as different project management softwares excel at different areas
needed for projects.
Suggestions for future development areas of OpenProject
The OpenProject program as a project management tool has a unique position among such other
softwares due to it being open source and several other features. However, there are certain areas
that this tool can develop to become one of the best project management suites in the current
market.
First off, offline access is a must. This is especially true in today’s world as not all the areas have
the accessibility into internet. Additionally, as lots of users are still using a Windows-based
operating system; to capture a larger market, OpenProject should give the windows users the
ability to work offline. Help documents which are accessible in the offline modes would be
helpful to many users. Currently generated projects cannot be exported into a PDF or any other
format, so a feature allowing users to export the projects into a PDF would be value adding and
practical. Since there is a larger mobile usage in this era than computers, adding a fully
functional mobile app would be an added advantage. Currently OpenProject doesn't have the
features to draw network diagrams and critical path analysis/management which is important in
project management overviews. Also the product is only providing the capabilities to manage

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people rather than other resources. Resource management and leveling options and auto
scheduling options would be necessary future additions.
OpenProject currently lacks more features such as Task Dependencies and Recurring Tasks.
These would be useful in a project to identify which tasks have to be done before doing another
task and which would be repeated. Project portfolio management, risk management and baselines
would also be great value added option to make OpenProject usable in any given project
scenario. A new array of options like screen sharing, calendar sharing and online chat
capabilities would be new additions to such a software which substantially increase the usability
and practicality of the software.

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References
OpenProject. (2016, October 25). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenProject
Open Source Community. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.openproject.org/open-source/
Project Software Review. (2016). Retrieved from https://project-management.com/openproject-
software-review/
OpenProject: Collaborative Project Management. (2016). Retrieved from
https://www.openproject.org
OpenProject. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.openproject.org/collaboration-software-
features/
@. (n.d.). OpenProject tutorials and user guides. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from
https://www.openproject.org/help/user-guides/
H. (n.d.). OpenProject. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpDojas1X9ccix4mxadabpw