Open Source Project Management Tools for Monitoring Projects in Academic Institute

Open-source software or tools have gained huge popularity in the past decade. Open-source software / tools indicate the source code of the software is available to everyone throughout the world to inspect, modify, improvise and distribute the updated or same copy to the community or group of users or individual user. Some open-source software is free and some may charge a small fee for the maintenance of the software. One of the famous open-source systems used throughout the world from servers, smartphones to embedded systems is Linux Operating System.

Software Project Management is an art and science of planning and leading software projects. Large scale organization where many teams work on various aspects of software project design and development. How does this organization maintain the progress of the project? The task allocation to the teams, assigning deadlines, monitor the progress of individual members and team members etc. There are various software project management tools available used by organizations. Can the same be applicable for academic institutions as well? There are various open-source platforms available for software project management.

Redmine

Redmine is a flexible project management web application. It is developed using Ruby on Rail Framework. Its cross platform and cross database. Redmine is open source and released under the terms of the GNU (General Public License v2).

Features

1. Multiple projects support

• All active projects can be viewed by user even it has facility to archive the existing projects
• Permission can be set to the group of users who can view and edit the active projects

2. Role based Access Control

• Role is a collection of restrictions imposed on various users of the project.
• Each member of a project has one or multiple roles or permission for the project
• A particular use may have different roles for different projects

3. News, Documents and File Management

• Users can publish news about the project or any subject.
• It includes a title, summary and detailed description. The summary will be displayed in the area.
• Similar to news, the support document can be attached to the issues. Document can be added in the form of attachment to the email applications.
• Files in the project can be enabled or disabled as per the requirement of the project.

4. Time Tracking

• Time tracking allows the user to track the progress of the project. How many hours of work logged to a specific issue or project? Each entry of “spent time” can be categorized by activity and further explained with comments.

5. Multiple Database Support

• Redmine provide access to wide variety of databases and databases composed of information which can be used for analyzing and extracting the knowledge from data and apply to the current working project
• Database supported are

                                               i.          MySQL

                                              ii.          PostgreSQL

                                             iii.          Microsoft SQL Server

ProjectLibre

ProjectLibre is the open-source project management software with both a free open-source desktop and an upcoming Cloud version. It works as an open-source standalone replacement for Microsoft Project.  It has a whopping 5,000,000 downloads in 200 countries and it has been translated into 29 different languages. It has been written in Java so basically it will be run on any platform due to portability of java and its JVM. ProjectLibre’s initial release was back in 2012. ProjectLibre Cloud is an upcoming web-based application. It will be a Multi-user Multi-project application.

Features:

1. MS Project compatibility

●    ProjectLibre is compatible with Microsoft Project 2003, 2007, and 2010, so it will open these files. It also has import/export capabilities. A similar ribbon UI allows users familiar with MS Project to easily transition to ProjectLibre.

●    Users can also manage budget, expenses, resources and duration

2. Core PM Functionality  

●    It has functionalities like Gantt charts, network diagrams, work breakdown structure charts, resource breakdown structure charts, earned value costing, and resource histograms.

●     Users can set dependencies, create a project baseline, and use multiple calendars to define working and non-working days for different resources. It also has reporting functionality, such as for displaying project details, resource information, task information, and others

3. Cloud

●       Now unlike the desktop version it can now be handled by the user at any time anywhere they want. And now it can handle multiple projects by multiple users at a time.

●       simple project portfolio management features will also be available. A team dashboard will allow project collaboration from members in different locations. Pricing will be offered on a simple monthly subscription.

Other features of ProjectLibre include a huge community using it. And it has social media presence on Facebook and twitter. Target market of ProjectLibre is a small to midsize businesses which have a single project requirement. Some of the notable clients of ProjectLibre are The Clinton Foundation, Giorgio Armani, McKesson, Abbot, IBM, Turner, STMicroelectronics, Flextronics, Kiewit, Accenture, EADS, Cisco, AMD, Caterpillar, Medtronic, Boeing, and Husqvarna.

FengOffice 

Feng Office Community Edition (formerly OpenGoo) is an open-source collaboration platform developed and supported by Feng Office and the OpenGoo community. It is a fully-featured online office suite with a similar set of features as other online office suites, like G Suite, Microsoft Office Live, Zimbra, LibreOffice Online, and Zoho Office Suite. The application can be downloaded and installed on a server. Feng Office could also be categorized as collaborative software and as personal information manager software.

Features:

            1. Collaborative:

·        All data (objects) within the system can be linked to one another

·        This possibility provides great power and flexibility to the organization of information, since it allows reflecting every information relationship, regardless of their format or location.

            2. Tasks templates:

• The basic task templates engine allows you to define a set of tasks needed to complete a process.
• This way, every time a user is starting a process that is already known to the organization, the system will guide those responsible for executing it step by step.

            3. Reporting:

·        Feng Office reports allow you to visualize, print, and export to Excel or PDF all data from the system.

·        The basic reports module includes some pre-defined reports and the possibility of configuring more simple reports through the custom report’s basic engine.

            4. Extensibility And Personalization:

·        Custom properties are additional attributes that can be added to objects.

·        With this powerful feature, the system can be extended and customized so that it allows every data within the system to be registered in a structured and specific way.

·        Combined with reports features and advanced templates, the multiple dimensions, and the text customization, this feature makes Feng Office a powerful management platform, capable of supporting the automatization and management of any activity or operational or business process.

            5. CRM/Client Management Features:

·     The client management suite is composed of several modules for your client’s pre-sale, sale, follow-up, support and maintenance management.

·     Each of these modules is optional and configurable so it can be adjusted exactly to your business management.

EGroupware

EGroupWare is a free open-source groupware software intended for businesses from small to enterprises. Its primary functions allow users to manage contacts, appointments, projects and to-do lists. It offers an online calendar for appointment management, contact management with CRM, tasks, emails and project management, as well as an online file server. These basic functions are supplemented by the integration of chat, video conferencing and remote desktop modules to create a sophisticated home office solution. The groupware networks all information on an online company platform that runs in any desktop browser, independent of the operating system. In its mobile version, it also runs nicely on smartphones and tablets. 

Features

1.     Saves time and money

●       The software networks all information on an online company platform so that all appointments, customer information and tasks can be accessed immediately

●       It runs independently of the operating system on every desktop browser and runs as mobile versions on smartphones and tablets.

2.     Customizable and flexible

●       The modular structure allows users to activate only the applications one needs for their company which makes it much easier for the users to start with EGroupware.

●       With the concept of user-defined fields, categories and types, EGroupware is suitable for every business and can be individually adapted according to the customer needs.

●       One can do the customization themselves directly with the graphical user interface without programming knowledge.

3. Cost-effective

●       EGroupware is open source and uses open-source software’s like MySQL, MariaDB databases and Apache web servers to operate the software. Using open-source software’s therefore saves you a lot of licensing costs.

●       The use of the EGroupware Community Edition is even free of charge for you. Through the software subscription EPL which is chargeable users receive extended business functionalities, software updates and support.

Some of the other functionalities EGroupware offers are Calendar Management, Contact Management, Content Management, Document Management, Project Management, Real Time Editing, Task Management, Version Control and Video Conferencing, all these at one place.

Comparison chart

Features	Redmine	Project Libre	Feng Office	E GroupWare
Free	Y	Y	Y	Y
Multiple Project Support	Y	Y	Y	Y
Role based access control	Y	N	Y	Y
Gantt chart and calendar support	Y	Y	Y	Y
SCM Integration (SVN, CVS, Git, Mercurial)	Y	N	N	Y
Time Tracking	Y	Y	Y	Y
Forums per Project	Y	Y	N	N
Multi Language Support	Y	Y	Y	N
Multi Database Support	Y	N	Y	Y

Conclusion:

Redmine provide majority of features required for smooth handling of task in accordance to the software project management and even for project designed and developed at academic’s institute. Open-source community, free software, forums, document attachment’s, multi-user support, permission for level of user, multi database support. This all makes Redmine a good option for academic institutes.

References

1. https://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki
2. https://www.projectlibre.com/
3. https://fengoffice.com/documentation/doku.php
4. https://www.egroupware.org/en
5. Open-course Image (https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdev.to%2Ft%2Fopensource&psig=AOvVaw1mWWCDJUd9ycpWlfmHog8Z&ust=1621404316071000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPjCgdfH0vACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD)
6. Redmine Image (https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFile%3ARedmine_logo_v1.png&psig=AOvVaw3t147synW6JriVdpIQ6-rn&ust=1621404355665000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCNDU_unH0vACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ)
7. Project Libre (https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.g2.com%2Fproducts%2Fprojectlibre%2Freviews&psig=AOvVaw0ohKj-Mm5Fj-07E9TPxKwB&ust=1621404379724000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCIjj2vbH0vACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ)
8. Feng Office Image (https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFeng_Office_Community_Edition&psig=AOvVaw1nDeCuQ67uCYzBw4mU4fz6&ust=1621404490977000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCJiEy6rI0vACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ)
9. E GroupWare Image (https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.egroupware.org%2Fen%2Fpress&psig=AOvVaw166qagOKRbtx075O3yb6--&ust=1621404533779000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCMjri8DI0vACFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD)