The PlanMinder Software

The PlanMinder is a self-hosted project planning tool that automates the process of project scheduling and updating. It helps project teams keep their schedules updated based on actual work reported. Automatic feedback from daily work results in continuous project planning. The tool also factors in uncertainties and risks, or changes in scope, priorities, and resource availability to display if a project schedule will meet a deadline or not, so users can make decisions and adjustments.

Let’s take a closer look at The PlanMinder and how it can benefit your team.

Table of Contents

• The PlanMinder : Features and Strengths
• The PlanMinder Pricing
• Who Uses The PlanMinder?
• The PlanMinder Supported Language
• Case Studies
• Why Choose The PlanMinder?
• Company Info

The PlanMinder : Features and Strengths

Project Planning, Milestone Prioritization, and Automatic Scheduling

The PlanMinder provides users with a project plan where they input tasks and activities as well as their priority and order. Users divide projects into activities and set lines of dependencies. They also enter the estimated duration of work for each activity, how uncertain the estimates are, and the team member assigned for the activity.

The software lists project milestones and schedules activities based on priority and dependency. Users can now see probable dates when a milestone will be reached. They can drag and drop milestones to change priorities and will immediately see the effect on the project plan.

Deadline, Resource, Uncertainty, and Risk Management

The PlanMinder includes a deadline management feature where users can change a milestone into a deadline. It will calculate the probability of meeting the deadline on time, and users can monitor this number so they can make adjustments.

The Chronos view displays the schedule for the most likely outcome of each activity in a timeline like in a Gantt chart. From this view, users can spot bottlenecks or under-allocation, and visualize the uncertainty of a schedule in different ways. A project manager can then reassign tasks to optimize the schedule.

Time and Progress Tracking, Reporting, Monte Carlo Simulations, and more

The PlanMinder has time tracking and timesheet features for team members to track the hours they have worked on activities. The information helps update the plans and schedules. Users can also update the estimates for activities to make them more accurate as the work progresses.

The project reporting tool enables users to display an overview of the present state of all projects and the progress of individual projects. Reports can show accomplished work, remaining work, and accumulated uncertainties. Historical data also allow teams to have a reference when estimating new projects. Other features include tracking of billable hours, a Scenario mode to simulate different scenarios and their effects, external activities, checkpoints, and a mobile-friendly web interface.

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The PlanMinder Pricing

The PlanMinder is a self-hosted service that requires a PostgreSQL database on a local Windows- or Linux-based server. It can also run on a virtual cloud-based server from DigitalOcean or with AWS’s managed database Amazon RDS. The full version costs €8.50 per user per month.

Interested users can download a 60-day free trial that includes a license for 12 developers after registering a database. A developer is a user assigned with tasks, included in schedules, and reports time. Each developer requires a license on the server. A license key is for the database, not for any specific developer or user, so developers may come and go, and teams may vary in size.

Users that read project reports, look at schedules, or follow up costs using The PlanMinder do not need to purchase a license. After the trial period, teams with seven members or fewer can click the Free Tier Mode checkbox and continue to use the software but without the Monte Carlo simulation and associated uncertainty calculations feature.

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Who Uses The PlanMinder?

The PlanMinder is ideal for a small team working on projects in any industry. Small to midsize businesses working on multiple projects that need to manage different types of risks and uncertainties will benefit most from using the software.

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The PlanMinder Supported Language

The PlanMinder supports English only at present.

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Case Study

Therese E. is a developer in an IT company looking for a project planning tool. After setting up the database they need to use for The PlanMinder, Therese and her team immediately realized the benefits of the project planning tool. Planning and managing projects have become easier since the software does most of the difficult parts. Now, her team needs less guesswork and can make more decisions based on actual data as projects progress and change. It gives a clear overview so it is much easier for the team to decide where to put more effort to meet deadlines.

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Why Choose The PlanMinder?

The PlanMinder is an innovative tool that factors in uncertainties when users create estimates to mitigate human issues such as too much optimism, bias, or weakness in grasping probabilities. Also, continuous updates improve the accuracy of information so users can make better decisions. Lastly, smart feedback and automation allow project teams to spend less time on administering the project and more on the actual activities to deliver a valuable project.

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Company Info

The PlanMinder is a product of Auspicia AB, a privately held software company based in Sjulsmark, in Piteå Municipality, Sweden. It was founded in 2018 by Martin Forsberg and Ronja Frimalm. The mission of the company is to make a tool for project planning that can help users predict and handle the future in a more scientific way.