Planning Module stable version is now available. And it’s getting rave reviews! Find out more here…

Planning Module for activeCollab is now available to Reports module customers! We launched the beta version yesterday.

What is the Planning Module for activeCollab?
Planning Module lets you manage your project plans 5 times faster (or more!) It shows 3 views – a collapsible tree like outline view (with milestones, tickets and tasks); a card view focused on managing tickets; and a Gantt view of your plan! You can edit project’s plan using Outline and Card views, and it’s really easy and fast!

This is a beta release – there are known issues and limitations. There may even be bugs. We advise you to buy it keeping this in mind.

Only for Reports module customers for now?

Yes, for now, the Planning module is available at a heavy discount to Reports module customers. Planning module will be sold at $149 when it’s stable. Reports module customers can buy it now for only $99! That’s a huge $50 discount. We may open up for other customers as we progress. Once it reaches stable version, it will certainly be available to all.

If you do the math, this is still a good deal! Reports module is $39. If you buy it, you get Planning module for $99. That’s still a $11 discount from their prices! Want to try? Go ahead and buy Reports module. You will get instructions on buying Planning module in an email.

Want to see how it looks?
Check out our live demo here.

And here are some screenshots!

Support & Questions
Visit our customer support forums.

Planning Module stable version is now available. And it’s getting rave reviews! Find out more here…

The planning module for activeCollab has 3 views. You can access them using a tabbed button bar at top right, next to the logo.

1. Outline View

Outline View

The outline view is a tree like view of your entire project plan. It’s editable and you can add items simply by pressing enter. You can also use Tab / Shift Tab to promote / demote items and their children.

The outline view also shows assignees, estimates, start date and due date. You can add multiple assignees and use initials for names. Estimates are tracked in hours, but you can enter them in hours or easy to read short cut format – like “1m 2w 2d 4h”. Start and due dates are smart too! Just enter date (e.g. 22) and it will complete it. We have also tried to parse a few other common date formats! Date display format can be customized from backend.

You can turn off any of these 4 columns using the view options menu at top right.

2. Card View

Card View

The Card view is designed to work on details of your project plan. It shows all Tickets in your project and you can easily filter on them. Spend time on each card and define the ticket details. Cards are color coded by categories to help identify them easily.

You can update ticket’s visibility, priority, category, name, description, tags, estimate, start and due dates, tags, workflow status and assignees from the card view.

Batch update is available in both Outline view and Card view. We have even included an option to add / subtract time from start / due dates. You no longer need to change all dates manually!

3. Gantt View

Gantt View

You asked for it and we have it! Gantt view is the much awaited timeline view of your project plan. It’s a “read-only” view. You can’t edit it, but it still shows a nice graph of your project. Completed items are marked, and we also show progress on items if you log hours on them.

You can expand / collapse items, zoom in / out and review your plan.

There are many other features in Planning module! We will write about them soon!

We’ve been spending long hours over PlannerX last few days. As more people started using it, we discovered some limitations. So all time went in fixing those issues and making a smoother user experience. There is one big thing that’s still pending – changing position of existing items in the plan. This worked earlier, with some limitations. But now we uncovered a lot more limitations of Basecamp APIs and have to rework the entire logic. We are nearing a solution, but it’s taking longer than expected.

All this has resulted in delays on the Planning module for activeCollab. We wanted to launch it last week. But have been tied up.

I think all the enhancements we are making to PlannerX, will also make Planning module stronger, so am focusing on PlannerX for now.

Planning module will come soon! Wanted to let you know we are working on it!

We have been talking about our Planning module. It’s taking shape well, and we will release it in the next few days (unless we hit some road blocks). So what can you expect from it? What will be included?

1. We will have an Outline view to create project plan. With assignees, due dates and estimates. Similar to PlannerX.
2. We are adding a “card view” to add ticket description, category and other details. Also pushing in a simple ticket workflow (new -> assigned -> resolved etc)
3. A weekly iteration planner, that allows you to select from a list of incomplete tasks (backlog) and schedule them (via drag and drop) for immediate 3 weeks. (Update: We are skipping on iteration planner for now)
4. And a Gantt view that shows your project plan

What will be the most valuable features for you? How much time do you think something like this can save you?

Update:

The Card View took much longer than we expected. We added many things to make the workflow easier. And some eye candy Checkout Nirav’s blog post about Intelligent Time Estimation and Card Deck animation. There is more in the actual product! But we had to keep Iteration planner for later because of this.