ProTracs
ProTracs Professional

ProTracs is a mid-level project management program. Unlike high-end PM programs it will not accommodate planning and tracking complex business projects. Rather it will let you plan and track as many projects as you and your department can handle. It's relatively fast and easy to use.

Opening Screen

The opening screen appears when you start the ProTracs Pro application. It remains in the display while the rest of the program loads into memory. Then it vanishes and you are presented with either an empty data entry screen or one that shows the data from your previous use of the program.

ProTracs Pro is one of the project management programs that works on the HP Palmtop. The documentation comes in a pamphlet-style booklet of 30 pages. A separate sheet of paper gives instructions on how to install and run the program on the Palmtop. The instructions are not too clear on what it takes to run the program however. They list 3 different ways to run the program. 1) from Filer -- however to get this to work you'll need to close all other applications, otherwise you'll get an error message which will not indicate what went wrong. 2) from Application Manager--however you'll have to append "|512" on the end of the Path field in the setup screen in App Manager. Even then, ProTracs will only run if you eliminate all your TSRs and other driver programs. The program apparently needs all the memory it can get. 3) from the DOS prompt. This is the preferred way to run the program. Exist System Manager with

 More Menu A T  Enter 
Switch to the directory that holds the ProTracs files, type protracs on the command line and press Enter.

Data Entry Screen

The above screen shows the first fifteen tasks in the Webpage creation project. Pressing the down arrow key will scroll through the rest of the tasks. In this case, the Activity Descriptions came from a Project KickStart data file. All the dates and Responsibility Codes (RSP) have to be entered manually. This is the tedious part of using the program. However ProTracs expedites this chore by letting you enter "8/1" as a date and then expanding it automatically. Neat!

The lower left portion of the screen presents a legend of function key use. The F10 key will get you a screen of help. The F5 function key will open a menu that will let you use a built in calculator (oddly there are no date functions built in), scroll through the calendar, or toggle the color on and off.

Reports

As can be seen from the above screen shot, there are 7 different reports that ProTracs can generate. The reports are all patterned on the data entry screen. You can route the reports to either the screen, a printer or to a disk file. Since the reports are ASCII text files, the best way to print them is to send them to a disk file, transfer the files to a desk top, import them into a word processor for reformatting and then print them.

Shown below is a sample report of a ToDo List for 8/23/96 for EMKeefe. Such a list could very easily be entered in an Appointment book on the Palmtop as a reminder of what needs to be done for the project.

Gantt Charts Galore

One of the features of most project management programs is the ability to produce Gantt charts. (To read more about these charts click on Gantt charts.)

Shown below are two of the four possible Gantt charts that were produced from the Webpage creation data. The first chart is based on the Current Schedule The second one shows a chart arranged by priority. (Since there are no priority codes used, each task has the same weight.

The bottom of the screen indicates what the function keys will do. For example, the F2 key will temporarily widen the first column so you can see more of the activity description. The F3 key, called ZOOM, actually toggles between a monthly and a yearly view of the chart. The highest resolution you can get in ProTracs is the monthly view. You can't have it display a weekly or a daily view. The F5 key creates a cross hair on the screen. You can move the cross hair to the start or end of an activity and press Ctrl + F1 or Ctrl + F2 to adjust the start and end times of the activity. However this is tricky to do, on a Palmtop, and will take some practice.

What ProTracs Won't Do

ProTracs is best thought of as a tracking tool. It will let you track the progress of activities and people. You could also use it as a deadline management tool, since it will let you see what has been done and what is still left to be done.

ProTracs, on the other hand omits such features as PERT chartsand , milestone charts. It does not deal directly with multiple resources such as money and equipment. For these features you'll need to look to high-end PM tools.

ProTracs is available in a shareware version. The Professional version costs $79.95 and is available from

Applied MicroSystems, Inc.       
Order Desk
P.O. Box 832
Roswell, GA     30077
Phone (404) 552-9000

ProTracs: Professional is produced by :

EXPERIENCE IN SOFTWARE, INC.
2000 Hearst Avenue, Suite 202
Berkeley, CA, 94709-2176
Fax: 510-644-3823,  Phones: 800-678-7008,  510-644-0694

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