ProTrack: A Software Tutorial

Abstract

ProTrack (acronym for Project Tracking) is a project scheduling and tracking software tool developed by OR-AS to offer a straightforward yet effective alternative to the numerous project scheduling and tracking software tools. The software has been built based on the results of the research studies discussed in this book and the many discussions with practitioners using earned value management. The scheduling and tracking approach is based on the current best practices of earned value management and the novel concepts introduced and tested in this book.

This chapter highlights the main characteristics of ProTrack that are novel compared to traditional project management software and presents an overview of the features discussed throughout the various chapters in this book. Section 7.1 reviews the main project scheduling options available in ProTrack. In section 7.2, the main earned value/schedule based project tracking possibilities are highlighted and discussed. Section 7.3 presents three novel optional engines that can be added to ProTrack to extend the capabilities of the software to automatic project generation, various simulation runs and time forecast accuracy calculations. In section 7.4, a demo experiment illustrates the use of ProTrack on a set of 9 generated projects.