KPlato
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Any user who has worked with a project management software will get used to KPlato’s interface and menus. Since project management has its common jargon such as “tasks”, “resources”, “paths”, these are embedded in the menus with the same names so you do not have to learn the program, except what is where. The interface is consistent with KOffice’s interface, the functions are accessible with one click. However, some important points are under development. Resource leveling (you can assign the same resource to more than one task unless you add task links or create constraints for not using the same resource with more than one task) and network view of the project are still not implemented.
In the other areas, the application is very well usable. You can see your project’s structure, timeline, breakdowns in accounts, task and resources, summary tasks, milestones, critical paths, different types of calendars and different scheduling of constraints. Gantt chart view is of course available.
We need to mention also that you can keep track of the accounts within KPlato. You can plan your costs taking payments dates and periodicity.
Since KPlato is part of KOffice we expect integration with Kontact in the future releases. It will add value to KOffice and Kontact if a project calendar and the tasks assigned in KPlato can directly be shown in Kontact. This is a point that developers should work into because we see this integration in Evolution-Planner, although for the time being, you need to export from Planner and import to Evolution.
Although KPlato is usable we do not recommend KPlato for critical applications and for production. It has not reached the stable release yet and users are better off if they use it the same way as using a beta program.
