FastTrack Schedule Now Tracks Resources

A formerly simple project-visualization tool takes on added complexity with expanded capabilities.

Dan Littman, special to PCWorld.com

AEC Software's FastTrack Schedule has always made project planning simple. With it you could slap down tasks, make a few guesses about deadlines, and knock out graphs and reports without sweating over detailed project-management procedures. But with version 7.0, the freewheeling, let's-try-it personality of previous versions now takes a back seat to powerful new capabilities.

New Face, New Features, New Price

Version 7.0 has a new price--$100 more than before. FastTrack Schedule is now $299 for Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and NT 4.0, and for Mac OS 8.6 or later. That price strikes me as a little steep. (A version for Palm OS 3.0 or later costs $99; you can also use it to sync schedules with the desktop version.)

However, when I first launched FastTrack for Windows, I had to blink. The program displayed so many palettes and toolbars, all laden with mysterious icons, that the window didn't fit on my 800-by-600 display. I jumped into the new Organize Palettes controls, similar to Microsoft Word's Customize feature, to rearrange and remove menu commands and other functions.

With the interface under control, I created a quick schedule. In the time line view (called a Gantt chart), I typed the task names in rows, arranged tasks and subtasks in the collapsible outline, and clicked on each task's row in the time line to drag a bar that indicated the task's estimated start and finish dates. That's enough to provide a rough picture of whether a project can adhere to its schedule.

To pinpoint which project phases could become bottlenecks, I created dependency links between bars to constrain tasks, preventing them from starting before the completion of tasks that logically precede them. While project-management pros work with constraints that only a logician can understand, FastTrack provides just three simple ones. For example, a "start-to-finish" constraint would remind you that you can't start bulldozing a construction site until your bank disburses the cash you need to rent a bulldozer.

I asked FastTrack to identify my project's critical path, a new feature that outlines the sequence of tasks whose delay would cause the most problems. The critical path becomes essential when a project reaches a certain size. In a small project, you should be able to figure out by yourself which tasks are potential bottlenecks. And by entering actual dates beside the estimates, you can quickly see if a bottleneck is approaching.

On Course With Resources

One of version 7.0's new features is its ability to manage resources. You can set up a database of resources--such as welders, machinery, lumber, or meeting rooms, for example--and include information about their cost, availability, and so on. You can then assign resources to scheduled tasks. A histogram (another form of time line) shows which resources you've over- or undercommitted. And the main chart tracks your financial situation by displaying cash flow along the bottom.

Managing resources adds another dimension of complexity to FastTrack, just as managing people and equipment adds complexity to any real project. However, the program may not go into enough detail for some users. For example, FastTrack's resource management lets you split a resource across multiple tasks in a single project, but it can't track resources committed to more than one concurrent project. As a result, if your schedules don't fall into neat (nonoverlapping) blocks, you probably need Scitor's PS8 or Microsoft's Project 2000.

After learning to cope with resource management, you may appreciate another new FastTrack 7.0 feature that makes it easier to step back and see the big picture: A calendar displays all tasks moving in parallel.

FastTrack Schedule 7.0 has many smaller enhancements. It offers even more filtering and reporting capabilities, with templates and scripts that automate extraction of information from projects. It has a superb manual and on-screen help. And I liked the convenience of swapping FastTrack files between my PC and a Palm device, though I wonder if an engineer at a job site could really see the big picture on the Palm's tiny screen. You can also save schedules as HTML tables so that anyone with a browser can view them. The Windows and Macintosh versions are file-compatible as well, so users in cross-platform environments can not only view schedules but also modify them.

But FastTrack's main attraction is still its ability to show a project in simple relief--even if now you have to push aside some trees to see the forest.