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| Developer(s) | LiquidPlanner, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | January 27, 2006 (2006-01-27) |
| Platform | Ruby on Rails |
| Type | Project management software Collaborative software |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | liquidplanner |
LiquidPlanner, Inc. is a company that develops online project management software.
The company was founded in 2006 in Seattle, Washington. Its first beta version went public in 2008.
LiquidPlanner is a platform-independent, online project management system which features range estimates (e.g. 3–5 days) to express the uncertainty in project schedules. The collaborative software is accessible via web browser or through its Android application.
History
LiquidPlanner was founded by Charles Seybold and Jason Carlson in 2006, launching a public beta at the DEMO 08 conference. In November 2017, Todd Humphrey became CEO of the company, replacing Liz Pearce. In 2018, the company received $2 million in funding from investors. In February 2020, LiquidPlanner was dubbed by Purch Group's Business News Daily as the best online project management software for analyzing overall company data in 2020.
Software
Built using Ruby on Rails, LiquidPlanner is the industry’s only priority-based, predictive online project management solution and claims to be the first software as a service (SaaS) based project management solution to allow users to express uncertainty in their task estimates using ranges. The application employs a probabilistic scheduling engine that is claimed to build more accurate schedules.
Several authors have noted that estimating in ranges (e.g. 3–4 days, 1–3 hours) is preferable to single-point estimates (e.g. 1 hour, 2 days). Steve McConnell states "simplistic single-point estimates are meaningless because they don't include any indication of the probability associated with the single-point." Project management and scheduling methodologies such as Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) generate best-case/worst-case ranges. However, the preponderance of popular project management software does not readily accept ranges as inputs for estimates.
LiquidPlanner accepts ranges as estimates and infers a probability distribution from that range. It then uses the distributions and the relationships between tasks and people to calculate a distribution for the project as a whole. By exposing the uncertainty in estimates the developers of LiquidPlanner claim that the uncertainty can then be managed.It then tracks the evolution of these estimates over time. From these uncertainty measures over time it can plot the history of the project estimates. This type of plot is often referred to as the Cone of Uncertainty.
Project managers create workspaces and invite users to participate in a way similar to LinkedIn or Facebook. The workspace can contain multiple projects and keeps a running narrative of tasks, comments, documents, and other project collateral.
In September 2011, LiquidPlanner introduced their free mobile app that connects the LiquidPlanner online project management workspace to the Apple iPhone and iPad. This app is no longer available in Apple play store as of 2024.
The LiquidPlanner application programming interface (API) enables project managers to programmatically interact with their LiquidPlanner workspace. With the API, most of the LiquidPlanner project management actions can be automated. For example, you can create a task and then post comments, track time against it, and mark the task done when completed.
LiquidPlanner was founded in 2006. released its first public beta in 2008.
Funding
LiquidPlanner is privately held. It was the first recipient of capital from the Seattle-based Alliance of Angels seed fund in June 2009.
See also
References
- "Software project management tool clarifies project uncertainty". SearchSoftwareQuality.com. February 21, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-27.
- ^ "Project management company LiquidPlanner, now profitable, raises more cash, 12 years after launch". GeekWire. 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
- ^ Clint Boulton (February 3, 2008). "Project Management Startup Could Be a Fit for Google". eWeek. Retrieved 2008-02-27.
- "LiquidPlanner CEO Liz Pearce steps down, replaced by League co-founder Todd Humphrey". GeekWire. 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
- "LiquidPlanner Review 2020 | Online Project Management - Business News Daily". www.businessnewsdaily.com. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
- Chris Kanaracus (January 28, 2008). "LiquidPlanner adds probability to project planning". NetworkWorld. Archived from the original on March 3, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-27.
- David Daly (September 12, 2007). "Accurate Estimates". Outside of the Triangle. Retrieved 2008-02-28.
- ^ McConnell, Steve (2006). Software Estimation. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. pp. 6–9. ISBN 978-0-7356-0535-0.
- ^ Mike Gunderloy (February 28, 2008). "LiquidPlanner: Sophisticated Online Project Management". Web Worker Daily. Archived from the original on March 6, 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-28.
- "LiquidPlanner raises cash". American City Business Journals. 2009-06-19. Retrieved 2011-07-01.