Product Overview of LiquidPlanner
LiquidPlanner is a comprehensive project management solution designed to help organizations manage multiple complex projects efficiently. Here’s a detailed look at what the product does and its key features.
What LiquidPlanner Does
LiquidPlanner is a predictive project management tool that enables teams to organize tasks by priority, make best- and worst-case estimates, and collaborate in a central location. It is tailored for organizations that need to handle multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring accurate and constantly updated project schedules even for the most complex projects.
Key Features and Functionality
Dashboards and Project Views
LiquidPlanner offers three types of dashboards: Workspace, Package, and Project dashboards. These dashboards provide updated information on the status of projects, tasks, and team members. Additionally, it includes four different project views: Portfolio, Project, Board, and Grid views. These views allow for an overall glance at all projects, individual task assignments, a Kanban-style interface, and a spreadsheet-like layout, respectively.
Time Tracking
The software includes robust time-tracking features, allowing teams to estimate the minimum and maximum hours required for each task. It also enables real-time logging of hours worked, which automatically updates task estimates. Custom rate sheets can be set up for billing purposes, and cost codes help in organizing timesheet entries.
Resource Management
LiquidPlanner’s resource management capabilities are extensive. It provides resource profiling, giving a clear view of each team member’s current workload and remaining availability. The tool also offers automatic resource leveling to distribute workloads evenly, preventing overloading of team members. Rate sheets and billing rules help in tracking resource costs and revenue.
Smart Schedules
The predictive scheduling and forecasting engine uses Monte Carlo simulations to predict task completion times, considering priorities, team capacity, and estimated ranges for delays and risks. This feature automatically adjusts schedules based on task changes and project priorities, ensuring realistic and adaptable project timelines.
Priority Alignment
LiquidPlanner ensures that individuals, teams, and the entire organization are aligned on task priorities. It operates on a four-tier hierarchy: Packages, Projects, Tasks, and Assignments, with items listed in order of priority. Changing the priority order updates scheduling estimates in real time, and the ASAP scheduling function allows for easy adjustments in case of emergencies.
Forecasting and Alerts
The forecasting engine drives the scheduling based on priority and target dates, providing alerts for potential troubles ahead. Smart schedule bars identify uncertainty and dynamically adapt to changes, focusing on tasks that need attention.
Workload Views and Availability
The tool provides workload views to see who is working on what and when across all projects. Schedules automatically adjust based on team members’ availability, including vacations and non-project activities, to ensure accurate forecasts.
Task Management and Integration
LiquidPlanner includes integrated time-tracking, allowing team members to mark work done, track progress, or postpone work with ease. All changes instantly update schedule predictions. The software also integrates with tools like Slack for real-time collaboration and change tracking.
Customization and Reporting
Users can add custom properties to projects, tasks, and resources to generate tailored reports. The open API allows integration of work metrics, schedule insights, and custom data into the organization’s digital ecosystem.
Summary
LiquidPlanner is a powerful project management tool that excels in managing multiple complex projects through its predictive scheduling, resource management, and priority alignment features. It offers a range of views and dashboards to visualize project progress, robust time-tracking capabilities, and automatic resource leveling to ensure balanced workloads. With its advanced forecasting engine and real-time updates, LiquidPlanner helps organizations stay organized, focused, and efficient in their project management endeavors.