Merlin (Software)

Merlin is a project management software for Mac OS X. Developed by Project Wizards GmbH, Germany. The application supports project managers in the preparation of a project plan, tracking of transactions, the allocation of resources and the management of budgets. The program also includes a reporting system and allows users to visually represent the resource utilization as a bar chart. The publishing of projects allows multiple project managers to work simultaneously on one or more projects. This can take place the joint work in the local or global network. Through the optional modules for web and iPhone sharing accesses to projects from other system platforms, such as Windows and Linux, done using a web browser. For larger teams there with Merlin Server is a professional server solution that makes it possible to provide centrally from a project folder projects for all services. In this case, these fee-based server software is a system extension that can unlimited number of projects for Project, Web and iPhone -sharing publish without Merlin or the respective projects must be open, as is the case with the client.

Revision history

Merlin 1 was first officially released in November 2004 after it was previously used internally by the company's project manager. Since then, the application has been continuously developed and two years later, in November 2006, ProjectWizards Merlin published 2 Since version 2.5 - released in January 2008 - may work on projects together over a network user. With version 2.6 the opportunity to work on projects in the web browser, and followed up with the iPhone sharing. The Merlin iPhone app can be downloaded for free from the Apple iTunes Store. As of version 2.7.4 and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is supported. 2.7.9 With a better connection to Things and collaboration with MS Project has been improved. With version 2.8 compatibility has been optimized for Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion". Since version 2.9 Merlin and Merlin Server OS X 10.8 is "Mountain Lion " compatible. The update to 2.9.2 for Merlin and Merlin Server provides to compatibility for the upcoming release of OS X 10.9 " Mavericks ".

Current version numbers are:

  • Merlin and Merlin Server 2.9.2 for Mac with support for OS X 10.9 Mavericks
  • ( Merlin) projects 1.4 on the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with support for iOS & 7

Functions

The application supports various import and export formats that enable the exchange of data with other applications. These include formats of Microsoft Project as well as mind maps of NovaMind, MindManager and Freemind. Other standards such as XML, XLS, OPML, PDF are also supported. The interaction between Apple's own applications and Merlin works smoothly. Therefore, a direct sync with iCal is possible, resources can be transferred directly from the address book and the user can automate workflows using AppleScript.

Operations can be linked together in accordance with traditional project management dependencies, which is shown graphically in a bar chart and a network. The application also calculates the critical path and displays it in the Gantt chart and network diagram. In addition, Merlin offers a graphical comparison between planned and actual project progress, with the expected completion of the project is calculated. Merlin can also represent with work and life, as well as the utilization of the process and calculate time based on this information.

Publish and collaborate

Since version 2.5 you can use together with Merlin projects. To this end, a project is published and other users can open the shared project on the network or over the Internet remotely. After each backing up the data base all the updated data is automatically transmitted to the connected users and displayed. With the optional Merlin Merlin Web and iPhone- modules, the projects for the web browser or the iPhone and iPod touch can be published.

To some data from access to protect other, different rights for users and user groups can be defined. These apply to both the project file as well as for the requests of the respective applications on the project.

Elements

With the six predefined types of elements, it is possible to store various project-related information within the project by being appended to the corresponding activities or groups. This provides a central gathering place for many types of information that are collected during the project. The six element types are:

  • Checklist - to keep a to-do list to processes in a process in mind.
  • File - documents of any format can be saved or linked. Including e -mails. File changes can be fitted with the optional versioning.
  • Risk - to risks track, deal with it and to judge them.
  • Event - Project -related events.
  • Information - a mini - CRM for the project. Here all sorts of information relating to the transaction can be held.
  • Problem - track issues that arise during the project.
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