Benefit: Integration

Simple tools get you nowhere if they don't play nicely together. If you have a bunch of simple tools cobbled together, you quickly find that the whole is an order of magnitude more complicated than the sum of the parts. This is true because the user needs to manage the "impedence mismatch" among all of the various piece-parts of the solution.

In contrast, an integrated solution is consistent in its usage model and in the way it handles the separation of concerns across the various subsystems or components that make up the greater solution.

Our vision for ProjectPipe was to provide everything that you need to manage a midsized project, from process guidance to source control, and put it all in a single integrated solution. We designed ProjectPipe for three types of integration:

  • Integrating the desktop and the web, via our "Right Client" Architecture
  • Integrating the various types of project data, via Tagging and Dependency Management
  • Integrating distributed teams by providing a universally accessible centralized repository for project data

How does ProjectPipe Provide Integration?

  • Desktop Integration: Rich Import/Export capabilities using MS Project and Excel
  • Automated Bugfix Workflow: The Subversion source code repository is integrated with the Issues list. Stating that a specific issue is fixed when you commit the changes in Subversion will advance the status of the appropriate Issue using ProjectPipe's integrated workflow.
  • Dependency Management and Visualization: Stop managing your Requirements, Tasks, Issues, etc. as discrete silos of data, since ProjectPipe allows you to manage links among different data types.
  • RSS: Need a custom integration solution? Simply subscribe to the appropriate built-in RSS feed (or roll your own from a custom query), and build your own off-board application
  • Consistency: All the ProjectPipe tools work alike, and have the same set of base features (Outlining, Queries, RSS, Workflow, Tagging, etc.

Who Lives for Integration?

  • The Business Sponsor who likes to be able to peruse the latest and greatest Project Plan, Issue List, etc. without bugging anyone on the project team for the latest versions.
    Since ProjectPipe houses all project data, the Business Sponsor has direct access to the most recent data
  • The Project Manager who "lives and breathes" MS Office, but needs to manage the dependencies across the various Requirements, Releases, Issues, Tasks, etc. Keeping all his project data in a bunch of spreadsheets was convenient at first, but doesn't give him the "big picture" of the health of his project.
    ProjectPipe has rich MS Project and Excel integration that allows the Project Manager to use ProjectPipe as a centralized repository for data, but generate MS Project files and spreadsheets to share with his peers or other stakeholders.
  • The Development Manager who tracks the bugfix activity of the offshore development team via an RSS feed. He strongly prefers RSS over email for this type of status update: He stays in the loop on his terms, his Inbox remains uncluttered, and his Blackberry stays quiet.
    ProjectPipe has pervasive RSS support. Any changes to project data, as well as the results of any custom queries can be rendered as an RSS feed.

Integration-related Features

ProjectPipe has a number of features designed to provide an seamless user experience: