When planning to purchase a mind mapping software program to enhance project quality and fulfill project management needs, OpenMind 2 is versatile yet simple to use. It is certainly a good choice.
| OpenMind – The Tool | Rating  |
OpenMind Project management software, a handy product from the manufacturer Matchware, offers a set of useful project management tools which contain a special visual mapping web-based techniques which comes complete with mind mapping theories designed to help understand complex ideas and convert them to simpler forms. It not only ensures the smoothness of projects but also reduces completion time of several project-related tasks.
| OpenMind – Features and Layouts | Rating |
OpenMind, with its user-friendly spreadsheet layout, increases the overall efficiency of a project management system. It has a number of tools that are extremely useful and handy to operate. For instance, it has a keyboard navigation system that helps in managing common project-related activities like addition, edition or deletion of project tasks without much hassle. But what steals the thunder is the specialty of this tool – the core mind mapping options/techniques. It provides users the flexibility of viewing the projects in visuals and explains the inter-relation of project tasks and project milestones effectively to the users. Since the technique used in this tool is a visual map, it gives everyone a fair chance to present their ideas in multiple ways, with timeline view and chart time-related activities included. And, as far as layouts are concerned, they are available in a variety of templates, with different wizards and multiple ClipArt options.
| OpenMind – Mind Map Building | Rating  |
If the talk is about OpenMind software and there is no mention of mind mapping techniques, then you would definitely be missing the most important aspect of this software. In fact, OpenMind is the name given to the Business Edition 2 and the Edition 3 has been named Mind Mapping Project Management Professional (which was earlier named as OpenMind Version 3). OpenMind, with its mind maps building options, has a host of features to offer to its users. OpenMind helps users locate and visualize different maps with a special support system which incorporates graphics, websites, spreadsheets, charts, links and other related external resources. OpenMind provides sharing of these resources through its viewer in various formats like MS-Word or PowerPoint or HTML. Also, it has a filtering option that supports inter-linking of different maps and helps in organizing and prioritizing various tasks.
| OpenMind – Collaboration and Human Resource Management | Rating  |
OpenMind has an integrated email-based communication system designed to facilitate communication and resource sharing among all the individuals who are related to a particular project or a project management system. Whether it’s project team members, project managers or project sponsors, this email system is easy to use. But there is only one disadvantage. It does not support a dashboard system for easy project collaboration among various project participants and intending users. However, there is also a facility that helps integrating Microsoft project and importing various existing projects to OpenMind for easy collaboration and inter-dependency.
OpenMind has its own advantages and disadvantages as far as Human Resource Management (HRM) is concerned. Although OpenMind supports Microsoft Project Integration and allows importing of projects and resources without entering any additional information, it does not allow sorting of these resources in one group and nor does it provide any platform for forming a project management department based on skill-assessment procedures.
| OpenMind - Help and Support System | Rating |
In a nutshell, OpenMind Project Management Software has all the standard project management facilities but it lacks some basic tool-based features. To check the project progress, one always have to open the software since there is no provision for automatic notification of progress check. But, all said, OpenMind is one of the most attractive software packages that provides multiple variations for a single project and this is found in no other software. One gets a chance to view projects in multiple views with its visual map technique. Whether it’s task list, Gnatt chart, time-line or mind map, OpenMind ensures project smoothness in a number of ways. OpenMind has a great help support system and it has a forum which helps users solve their queries related to the usage of the tool. One can also see the FAQ section to get familiar with what the tool is all about. There is absolutely nothing difficult when it comes to learning OpenMind. For instance, adding tasks and milestones in the task list is as easy as entering data in a spreadsheet with keyboard navigation. The interactive Gantt charts, mind maps and timelines makes updating so simple – just by clicking and dragging the mouse.
Visit Matchware Website for more details on OpenMind and its latest offerings.