xPlan App Reviews

I just installed the software and when I opened it, nohing happens! I want my money back!

Fast, easy and without any overhead. Projectmanagement in a snap for freelancer or small companies. Schnell, einfach und ohne overhead. Projektmanagement im Handumdrehen für freelancer oder kleine Firmen.

Over the course of the last year or so, Ive tried my hand at a number of PM software products to help me deal with my rapidly growing number projects more efficiently. Ive tried most of the commonly high-rated products, but found them to be somewhat cumbersome to deal with despite claims that PM experience is not required. Arguably, I could take the time to learn any of the highly rated competitors products and take advantage of all the bells and whistles they offer but I dont have the time nor the patience, nor do I really need all of their bells and whistles. Projector was the answer for me - it can’t get any easier than this. If you’ve never had any PM training, but handle more projects than ten PM managers combined, try this software out. Projector is simple to navigate and intuitive. Without any training, I was able to get started immediately after download. With respect to collaboration functionality, Projector is not there yet. That’s ok for me though – I prefer face-to-face interactions with my staff to determine their progression on a task and Projectors PDF export is a great option for handout at team meetings where status updates are discussed/verified and I have control of the big picture. Synchronization between the Mac and iPad also requires wired connection (via iTunes), but the vendor claims that wireless synchronization is on the way. Before you make the commitment to purchase, I would highly recommend you download the trial version from the vendor’s website and check it out for yourself.

This software is fun to use and pretty straightforward. It has a nice interface and you can easily dive in, even if you dont know anythig to project management software. Unfortunately, he doesnt have all the feature that a project management software should have, like the ability to take employees holidays into consideration when you develop a project. If you want to do this, youll have to buy another software (xTeam) from the same company. The fact is that I dont want to use two software to monitor the activities of my employees, I only want to use one - especially at that price. All in all, it is a very good software, but I wouldnt recommend it if you need to have a full project management solution.

I seldom write reviews, but in this case I have make an exception since I feel a bit misled. The xPlan calls itself project management tool and looks great on pictures. And that’s what it is: it is a project “painter” designed to create nice looking Gantt. However, it’s lacking professional project management abilities: - does not allow you to control task dependencies (e.g. child tasks needs to start 20 days before parent task) - does not allow you to set conditions for task’s start or end (e.g. start no sooner or later than…) - does not appear to trickle down date changes (unless I have not discovered a proper way to do that yet) to all dependent tasks (e.g. moving parent task, moves child tasks) - unable to customize the columns on the Gantt view - grid doesn’t behave like a true grid (e.g. can’t copy and paste from other grids, can’t select multiple rows, etc.) - key to delete a task is not mapped to any shortcut - you have use your mouse and click on the far corner on the bottom. Also for some reason, Delete under the edit menu is not highlighted, but yet the key on screen allows deletions. - unable to rapidly add data. Must use mouse and keyboard (separately) to enter data. Becomes very slow. I would classify this program a good to-do or task-manager utility, not a true project management program.

I bought this app to open and work on projects created in MS Project and exported to XML files. Everytime I tried to open XML file app crashed. Send bug report and example file to adnX support, but after one week no reponse.

I though that this software was going to be the answer to MS Project cranky interface but nope this is a good starting effort but no more. If you are looking for a formal scheduling program for your Mac, buy Fast Track 10 or run MS Project or Primavera with BootCamp. Hopefully the developer will realize that without direct import and export MPX (MS Project) files and Primavera, etc it wont capture a good share of the market. Same goes for all missing features such as the predecessors column, resource leveling, etc Lets see if version 4 comes with all the standard scheduling tools and features in a very user friendly interface

The newest version of xPlan is not downloading to my computer, Any of them. It starts and then just keeps re-starting.

The current version of xPlan is ok, but its not without its quirks and usability issues. For example… - Dragging and dropping tasks to reorder them isnt always intuitive, and the tasks in the Gantt screen arent numbered. - There is NO ability to hide or add columns to any of the views. (There is an option under View in the menubar to "Show Task Names", but this doesnt seem to do anything, and isnt contextual (it doesnt change or gray out depending on what screen youre on in the app)). - There is no way to distinguish between real days/hours, and man hours. This wouldnt be an issue if the app didnt include the ability to associate costs with tasks. But, since it does (the app gives you the ability to assigned a cost to each task by an hourly rate, the hourly rate of the assigned resource, or as a fixed cost), this becomes a real problem. For example, for projects where you need to track the duration of a task (how many days and hours from start to finish) as well as the actual cost of the resource, (a developer might spend 4 hours today, and 4 hours tomorrow working on the task), you need to be able to track man hours along with the actual duration. Otherwise, all costs will have to be calculated manually and then entered back into the task in xPlan as a "Fixed" cost (which, depending on the client, is considered really bad semantics). - Creating a link between 2 existing tasks does not change the start date of the 2nd task, even if it starts earlier than the 1st task ends. This happens even when neither task is constrained by any previous or subsequent tasks. However, two tasks in different phases that are connected by a link will affect each other if the dates are changed. There is probably a good reason for this, but the user isnt given any queues from the user interface as to why. - For $99, the app really should support exporting projects to the Microsoft Project MPX format. The developer explained to me in a support conversation that Microsoft doesnt necessarily support the XML format (they allow XML to be imported, but it can produce unexpected results, including errors). If the developer knows this, why wouldnt they incorporate the ability to export projects in the MPX format? Most other Mac/Project apps support this. - Additionally, for $99, the app should REALLY support importing Microsoft Project MPP files. Finally, the developer is just flat-out unpleasant to deal with. Their website is nicely done, and they do respond quickly to questions and emails. However, the developer really needs to (at most) reassess its internal culture, or (at least) improve the customer support experience. I have now asked for support on three occassions, and each time the response was short and rude. In each initial response to my inquiries, the support person made no attempt to further understand the issue; they also explained in no uncertain terms that the issue was my own to deal with (and that they had plenty of other customers who never had such issues, thank you very much!), and then made no suggestions for how I might troubleshoot the issue on my own. In my lastest request for support, I did see some improvement; their first response was the usual--a little snide, and very unhelpful. I replied back asking them not to insult me, and to please address my specific issue, instead of comparing me against the majority of users not having the same issue as me. Their second response still did not fix my problem (and continued to dismiss it altogether), but they did provide some troubleshooting steps I could try on my own. There have been other adnX customers that have posted similar concerns about this developer in reviews of other adnX products here in the Mac App Store. If you do decide to buy this app (and ultimately I do think it is ok--even if there are UI issues that will mess with your productivity, and there are other apps out there that have better features), you should do it with the understanding that the support culture at adnX is to berate their customers, rather than help solve their problems.

I recently started a small business and got this app to manage my project. So far it is delivering well. This was the first time I ever used a Gantt chart application and honestly I couldnt take to it at first but I needed to learn to see my plan visually happening so I marched on and used it. So far it is stable and there are no weird glitches that feel like the app is neglected in some way. Using it is also a lot easier than it looks and now that I got the hang of it, I can attest that it has surprisingly good features. For example, the way you can export information, or sort documentation that you have attached. It feels like Mac software which is one of the most important things for me when I buy software. Overall, this is a great tool and I recommend it for small business owners, and those looking to manage serious projects. Upgrade Requests: * Breakdown of cost per resource report should include Total Cost for Tasks Assigned * To-Dos are easy for quickies but if they can be linked to Task level items, it will make them even more useful

Great App because it is so easy to use. Very short learning curve. If you have ever used a Gantt chart you will be very happy with how quickly you can produce desired results, and communicate those results by exporting to PDFs. Highly recommend as a reduced effort way to manage projects.

Works well - I look forward to iCloud support (with your iPad application) so I can access my project from all my devices.

Ive used MSProject and OmniPlan in the past. For basic needs, like complex task design and resource allocation, xPlan is a wonderful instrument. The iPhone version is very handy, and (so far) seems to integrate seemlessly with its desktop cousin. Congrats to the phenomenal team behind this effort!

I have been trying to share my projects amongst devices via iCloud and it just does not work. There is not support for this issue, not even any outside support on the web. In the .pdf documentation that comes with xPlan it barely mentions iCloud let alone give users any idea of how to use the two together. What it says in the documentation is "xPlan can be used with iCloud", which obviously is no help to someone trying to actually do so. I must say that I have no other issues with xPlan but I am very frustrated with my purchase of this software since the integration with iCloud was a large determining factor for me. As well, I feel that when purchasing $100 software one should at least be given the tools to use it.

This app far away from a good project management tool. I expected easy navigation, an updated interface and simplicity in the user interface, but intstead entering a project becomes painful and on top of all the printing function has issues. Simple things like a screen which is sorted by date doesn’t update with new entries or converting a just created entry into another type (e.g. change a New Process to a New Task) is simply not supported and forces the user to delete and recreate the entry. Print opens as expected the printing options window but when you change the orientation of the paper (from portrait to landscape) it does rotate the paper but doesn’t realign the print content, which get’s you a landscape document with half of the printout on the paper. Overall a good idea, has potential but is by far not ready to use.

Ive tried a lot of planners and this one strikes the perfect balance of ease of use and functionality. The developer also supports this product very nicely and updates it regularily. Its a bargain considering the functionality. Beautiful interface also. Great project planning tool.

I was hoping to be able to use this package as an alternative to MS Project, but it’s extremely limited and doesn’t include many standard features such as automatic resource scheduling. While it looks very nice, I can do almost the same with Numbers or Excel.

There is no overview of multiple projects. You can simply only look at one project at a time.

Nice & simple. But need iCloud support, it must have with a $99.99 app. So please add this to the app.