By Daya Sugunasingha MCIOB, MRICS, Senior Planner, Bovis Lend Lease
Daya Sugunasingha is an advocate of Asta Powerproject as Asta have consistently listened to the wishes and needs of the man on the work face "THE PLANNER" and improved and developed the software accordingly. But he adds that you have to examine all other software available and chose the one that delivers the end produce you require.
Here is what Daya has to say about Asta Powerproject and project management software through the years:
I have been in the field of construction planning since the days before computers were in use for planning in the UK. I remember the very shaky start of the introduction of the first software packages.
I was an Activities Chairman for the CIOB South London Committee going back a good few years now, when I arranged a demonstration of a piece of software for planning for the CIOB members. The evening was not a resounding success because the computers or the software kept crashing.
The story now is very different. There are so many good packages on the market that it is a problem to find the one best suited for your specific end product requirements.
During the many years in the Planning Discipline I have used many planning software packages including, P3, Suretrak, Open Plan, Asta Powerproject and others.
For Open Plan and P3 I loved the way you could manipulate the programme data via the use of their data bases, but and this is a big "But" I did not like the fact that you had to work on the data in the dark. By this I mean that you did not see the effect of the build up or changes as you worked. You were in fact working the mechanics to achieve the end result i.e. the Bar Chart.
In around 1984 Microplanner planning software had a version for the DOS computers and one for MAC. They were two different ways of working. The DOS way was working in the Engine Room the MAC way was making use of icons and graphics. The problem was that most of the industries in this country were into using the IBM processor and therefore it did not catch on.
The advent of MS Windows opened this method of using computers and made the use of software within the grasp of every one as the old saying goes "a picture is worth more then a 1000 words". The problem in the beginning was that the computers were not able to handle the larger up front memory for the graphics. But not any more as computer power is more then capable and improving by the day.
In Asta Powerproject you use the screen to draw the bars and logic links, or not if you do not wish to. And it uses "drag and drop" to add calendars, resources, Codes, etc, etc on to the bars. It is all-graphical and yet it can do all you could do with the "other way of working" and it does it better.
I am not going to attempt to list the vast capability and specification of Asta Powerproject, but I would urge you to get yourself a demonstration copy and experience its power and ease of use
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