Enact Enterprise System
Reviewer's Guide

Product Highlights

ActionView, ActionTask, and ActionPlan from Enact Enterprise System are the industry’s first enterprise-scale software for projet program management, coordinating and tracking tasks, people and resources collaboration in real-time over the web. ActionView allows executives, managers and workers within a company, as well as customers, partners and suppliers, to access personalized, up-to-date information on all of an organization’s project-related activities through a single web site. Corporations should think of ActionView as a real-time portal for all project-related information. ActionPlan is an enterprise project scheduler and task manager that facilitates team collaboration on projects over organizational and geographical boundaries. With its easy to use interface and real-time updating of schedules as tasks are completed, ActionPlan is a project management system designed for the masses. Lastly, ActionTask allows Team Member or external partner to update his/her assigned task by simply click on the check box. Any progress change will update ActionPlan and ActionView in real time so that the progress of project details are at the finger tips of managers and executives.

Enact Enterprise System is the next-generation of enterprise applications – completely modular and web-based so that they can be easily used with the existing infrastructure.

Provides location independence Project portal with customizable views of information based on role Real-time updates of information Modular applications so you use what you need Hardware independence through Java Support for standard infrastructure

Getting Started

System Requirements

This section lists the supported platforms, minimum and recommended hardware requirements, and software requirements for Enactex Products. The server must be installed. Users can choose to work with Enactex Products from the thin client (browser) or Enact Desktop Client.

Enact Enterprise System - Enact Collaboration Server:

Supported Platforms 
Enact Collaboration Server can be installed on the following operating systems: 

• Windows 2000 workstation or server, with Service Pack 4
• Windows XP Professional (Workgroup Edition only), with Service Pack 1
• Solaris/SPARC, version 2.8 with the latest Sun patches 
• Solaris/SPARC, version 9
• Red Hat Linux, version 8 and 9

Minimum and Recommended Hardware Requirements 
The following list includes minimum and recommended hardware requirements for Enact Collaboration Server. 

• Windows 2000/XP: Pentium III or higher--recommended 
• Solaris: UltraSparc2 machine or higher-- recommended 
• 600 MHz processor or higher--recommended 
• 512MB RAM--1GB recommended 
• 3GB disk space--10 GB recommended 

Software Requirements (Enterprise Edition only)
The following software must be installed on the computer on which you are installing Enact Collaboration Server. 

• SMTP-based email system or an SMTP-compliant gateway to your email system (for emailing task information) 
• Web server--choice of one 
  • Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), version 5.0 (Windows 2000 only) 
  • Apache Web Server 1.3.2.2 or higher (Solaris only) 
  • Apache HTTP Server 2.0 (Red Hat Linux only)
• Database server--choice of one 
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 
  • Oracle 8.1.7  
  • PostgreSQL 7.3.2 (Red Hat Linux only)
    
• LDAP or Directory servers--choice of one:  
  • SunONE Directory Server
  • Microsoft Active Directory
• Web browser--can install more than one
  • Netscape Communicator 4.79
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 5.2.2 (Mac), 5.5 or 6.0 (SP1)  
  • Safari 1.2, with Java 1.4.2
  • Mozilla 1.4

Thin Client (access from browser):

Supported Platforms 
Enactex Products can be accessed from a  browser on the following operating systems: 

• Macintosh OS 10.1.3 (IE 5.2.2)
• Macintosh OS 10.3 (Safari 1.2)
• Windows 98
• Windows 2000 workstation or server (with Service Pack 4)
• Windows XP (with Service Pack 1)
• Solaris Sparc version 2.8 with the most current patches
• Solaris Sparc version 9
• RedHat Linux 8 and 9
• Sun Java Desktop System

Minimum and Recommended Hardware Requirements 
The following list includes minimum and recommended hardware requirements for browser access to Enactex Products. 

• 128 MB Ram
• ISDN or faster connection--recommended if accessing Enac Collaboration Server via a  modem

Software Requirements 
One of the following software must be installed on the computer on which you are accessing Enactex Products from a browser. 

• Web browser--can install more than one
  • Netscape Communicator 4.79(does not support offline access)
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 5.2.2 (Mac), 5.5 or 6.0 (SP1)
  • Mozilla 1.4 or above
  • Safari 1.2

Enact Desktop Client 

Enactex Products can be accessed from the Enact Desktop Client on the following operating systems: 

• Windows 98
• Windows 2000 Pro Workstation or Server (with Service Pack 4)
• Windows XP Pro (with Service Pack 1)
• Solaris Sparc version 2.8, with the most current patches
• Solaris Sparc version 9
• Red Hat Linux 8
• Mac OS X
• Sun Java Desktop System

Minimum and Recommended Hardware Requirements 
The following list includes minimum and recommended hardware requirements for Enactex Desktop Client access to Enactex Products. 

• 128MB Ram

Software Requirements 
The following software must be installed on the computer on which you are accessing Enactex Products from the Enactex Desktop Client.

• Web browser (for viewing online help)--can install more than one
  • Netscape Communicator 4.79 (Solaris)
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 5.5 or above
  • Mozilla 1.4 (Red Hat Linux & Sun Java Desktop System)
  • Safari 1.2 (Mac)

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Recommended Configuration for this Evaluation

For the purposes of this evaluation we recommend the following configurations:

Enact Enterprise System 5.4 - Workgroup Edition

• Windows 2000 Professional or XP Professional
• Microsoft Internet Explorer for browser

OR

Enact Enterprise System 5.4 - Enterprise Edition

• Windows 2000 for server (the client may also run on the same system if desired)
• Windows 2000 SQL Server
• Internet Information Server as your web server
• Microsoft Internet Explorer for the browser

If you are using this recommended configuration, you can use the following for a quick installation

Server Installation

Enact Enterprise System is a web-based applications. The client is a Java applet and therefore does not need to be installed. For review purposes, you can run both client and server on the same Windows system if desired.

For the Workgroup Edition, you will only need either Windows 2000 or XP operating system.

1. Be sure to remove any web server or application which occupy Port 80 before installing Enact Enterprise System 5.4 Workgroup Edition.
   
   Note: You must be logged on as administrator or someone with administrator access to install Enact.
   
   
2. After downloading Enact or inserting the CD, double click on the enactentwin.exe or enactwg.exe (for Workgroup Version) file (in the software directory on your CD) and follow the instructions on the screen.
   
   
3. Proceed through the installation, filling out the appropriate information and installing Enact Enterprise System.
   
   
4. Go to your web browser and type in the following URL, replacing the name of your Enact Collaboration Server machine for "localhost" (If you are running clients and server on the same machine): http://localhost/Enact/index.html.
   
   
5. Be sure to bookmark the Enact Launch Page as home page that appears.
   
   
6. Select Enact Login and login as "Bob sample user" with "Bob" as the password.

Points of Interest

Enact Enterprise System is generally used by the following three different groups of people:

• Executives for viewing a quick summary of the project status.
• Project Managers for creating project plans, schedules, and summaries
• Team Members for checking project status, managing their tasks, and accessing critical project information and documents.

The following section will walk you through how these individuals would view, set up, and use project schedules, task lists, and project home pages.

Logging in to the Enact Enterprise System

Once you have logged in, you will see Enact dashboard (or console), which is your project workspace or portal to all of your project-related information.

Since this is the first time that you have accessed Enact Enterprise System, you can choose which components you would like to view and which view you would like to access upon subsequent logins. For the purposes of this review, make sure that each component is selected and choose "ActionView" as the component you would like to see upon logging in. You will not see this dialog again when logging in, but the information can be changed at a later date by selecting "Personalize…" in the "Options", menu.

Click on the Ok button in the lower right hand corner of the window to begin. This will open up your ActionView. You may see the assigned tasks listed on your Dashboard. ActionView allows Executive and Manager to see their desired project programs and portfolios in a highly abstract summary, called Viewpoint.

Software Designed for the Whole Organization

Enact products are designed for a diverse audience of users. Because a project participant can be anyone from an executive to an administrative assistant, the Enact products is designed with simplicity and immediate productivity in mind. For example, a team member may only have access to a ActionTask of projects and a task list. A manager may have access to creating and modifying both ActionPlan and ActionView projects and assignments, and a system administrator may have access to creating and modifying users.

ActionView Highlights

ActionView

The ActionView console is where all users including executives, project managers, and team members can track key projects and overview a project in a project summary format (or Viewpoint). You will see that your ActionView is currently empty. Click on the Add button in the lower left to open the list of projects to select from, and double-click the "Projects" folder, then double-click on the "Samples" folder to expand the folder. For this demo, check off the box for the "Sample Product Launch" and the "PeopleSoft Deployment" projects to include in your ActionView. Then click on OK. Your ActionView should now list the projects you selected showing the project’s name, manager, when it was last updated, and a red/green light status. Click Show Details in the bottom right, and the screen will split to show the project summary and a list of milestones (overdue milestones are highlighted in red). Adjust the screen split to see more or less detail. By using the arrow keys, you will move the gray selection bar through the projects.

You can sort the projects in your ActionView console by any of the column criteria by simply clicking on the column header. To see detail ActionView project summary (or Viewpoint), just click the hyperlinked Viewpoint of your choice.

 

Three Different Views of Project Information

Now, click on the "PeopleSoft Deployment" hyperlink. This will open up a new window with a more detailed view of a project – the project’s home page. By looking at the top of the column on the right, you will see that you are now looking at the Team view of the project. This view provides the project team members with information that is critical to them, including team status, project milestones, deliverables, related documents, etc. "Mouse over" the milestone diamond with your mouse, and each of the milestones are fully shown in the tool tip. Scroll down and you will see the additional detailed project information.

If you click on the Management or Partner view at the top of the column on the right, you will see views of the project information that was customized specifically for them. When creating a project’s home page, the project manager, decides what information each person sees by customizing the different views and assigning access rights to each user or to a group of users.

Simple Editing

Go back to ActionView console. To edit a Viewpoint, first select a Viewpoint by click on small icon on the left of the Viewpoint name. Then, click on the Edit button on the bottom of the ActionView console. The editing dialog is now opened. The first several sections are standard project information – and are fixed as available for all views. The checkmarks on the right of the edit screen indicate who will see each section– Team, Management, Partner. The standard sections are selected and grayed out. However, each of those fields have customizable content. The project manager simply types new content into the boxes.

 

Project Icon

ActionView allows a project manager to add a representative image to each project. Select an image for your project home page by clicking the Image button and choosing a file or URL.

Status

The status of a project is easily changed by clicking on the red/green/yellow light status indicator. Alternatively, you can create your own textual status by clicking the Custom… button.

Schedule

With ActionView you can manually create milestones by clicking in the milestones table and selecting "Add Row" from the "Table" menu or you can easily link milestones from an ActionPlan schedule by clicking on the "Select…" button and choosing the schedule you would like to link to.

If you choose to import your milestones from an ActionPlan schedule, you can choose to have them automatically updated in real-time from the linked ActionPlan schedule. If the "Update milestones automatically…" check box is selected, the completed checkmarks and percent completed will then be grayed out as this information is pulled from the associated project schedule. Uncheck the check box, and then you will be able to edit manually.

Alternatively you can import milestones from Microsoft Project or any other MPX compatible product.

Customizable Sections

Customizing the standard format for a project’s home page is very simple for the project manager. Below the standard project sections are the customizable sections. You can add/delete, move/edit the section as well as select who can view each.

To add a new section below the "Team report", place your cursor on the bullet next to it and click. The section becomes highlighted. Now click on the New Section button at the top left and select " List". Type in "Next Meeting Agenda" next to the bullet, then click below "Bullet List" and select each line to add agenda items. Then click on the check marks to the right to determine who can view this section. For the purposes of this review, make sure that only the "team" section is selected.

To move a section, select the bullet on the left side of the section and drag and drop it to place within the report where you want it.

Document Repository

Project documents, files, and links can be inserted into the project’s home page, so that you have a project repository for all information. Click on the "Team Report". Select any word in the text box and you will see the Insert Link button appear. Click on this button and a dialogue box that allows you to add a URL, attach a file, or select an ActionPlan project schedule will appear.

Other Live Links

Continue scrolling down the edit dialogue. You will see the "Financials" section and the "Resource" section. Both of these can be updated automatically from the ActionPlan schedule, or can be updated manually. Additionally, if the live data is only appropriate for one audience, you can have all live data for the "Team" view and create other tables of data that might be more appropriate for "Management" or "Partners".

Resources

A list of all personnel on the project can be typed in, linked from an ActionPlan schedule, or pulled in from a LDAP or Active Directory server. These can be e-mail links so that when you click on a name you can e-mail the individual. There is also an "e-mail all" option so that you can e-mail the entire team at once.

Preview

Click on "View" button on the top of the ActionView editor that you want see in detail and you can then see a preview of your project home page in each of the three different views. When you are finished with your edits, click on Save to save any changes.

Access

The project manager decides who has access and what type of access they have to each ActionView. Go to the File menu, and select Properties, and you will be able to select the level of access for each person. Clicking on Add brings up the LDAP menu so that you can add new users or groups to the project.

 

ActionPlan Highlights

Go to the main Enact Dashboard screen (or the main console). The ActionPlan modules are listed on the left side of the screen.Click on the "ActionPlan" button on the right hand side of the window to begin. This will open up your "ActionPlan" dashboard. "ActionPlan" allows you to organize your "ActionPlan" project and "ActionView" viewpoint files. You may create folder or sub-folders that is most suitable for your needs.

Tasks

One of the most difficult aspects of project management is keeping the schedule updated. ActionPlan does this for you by distributing task lists to all people involved in the project. As the users change the status of their tasks, the project is updated automatically. If a task is not completed and is overdue, its task bar appears in red.

Projects

There are two types of projects that are can be created, an ActionPlan schedule with detailed tasks and assignments, and a ActionView with summary information. For ActionPlan schedules there are the following four project statuses:

• Template – One of ActionPlan’s more popular features is to build project "templates" that others can use to create similar projects. Templates allow organizations to reuse the knowledge built by themselves or others running similar projects. By using the "Save as" option from the File menu, any project can be saved as a template. There are several templates and sample projects already set up. To view these sample projects, including the ten (10) templates specific to Enterprise IT projects, double click on any of them.
• Draft - A "Draft" project is used for the planning stage of a project. A draft project is not yet ready for publication, so its tasks are not distributed and the resources are not yet allocated.
• Active - An "Active" project is one that is in use. Its tasks are distributed via the HotSheet client and/or e-mail to the individuals or groups involved in the project.
• Complete – A "Complete" project is one where the tasks are no longer distributed, and the resources are shown as available for other projects.

Document Management & Revision Control

Enact also allows you to check in other document from your local computer so that you can manage your project related files along with your Enact's ActionPlan. In addition, all document types, regardless it is Enact's ActionPaln or Viewpoint, or MS Word, Excel , PDF, are snapshot, revision-controlled.

Users - managed by ActionAdmin

All user information is stored in an external LDAP or Active Directory database. If you don’t have one, the Enact software would require at least a database server installed before it create a user directory for you. If you click on the Users section, you will notice that there are some sample users already set up for you. You can set up additional users and determine which users have access to ActionPlan so that they too can create projects. You can also enter an hourly rate for a user to help you track project costs. You can create groups to which you can assign read/write permissions for documents and folders, or assign project tasks. For this evaluation, you will use the sample users or create your own list of users using ActionAdmin. See below:

 

Roles

When building a template, you may not want to assign tasks to individuals because those tasks may get assigned to different individuals over the course of multiple projects. Instead, you can set up roles for this purpose. When you use the template to create a project, you will be asked to map each role to the actual user who will carry out those tasks. Click on the Roles section under ActionAdmin and create additional roles if desired.

 

 

Assignments

The Assignments section lets you see how resources are allocated across multiple projects so that you can properly assess their availability and/or see potential scheduling problems before they happen. Select several users and click the View button to see the details of the allocated time for each user. The chart shows how much of the selected resource’s time is allocated overall and how much time is allocated to each project. You can assign people to a group based on their skill sets, then if you need a certain skill set, you can check the availability of that group.

 

Setting up a project

Go back to the Projects section and under the New menu select New ActionPlan Schedule to create a new project. In this example, we will create a project for rolling out a new software product.

1. First select task labeled "new task" in the task list. Click on the New Milestone button to create a new milestone and type "product release from engineering". Tab over to the constraint column and select "Fixed" by typing "f" or by clicking on the down arrow that appears on the right side of the box. Now click in the Start Date column and select a start date by clicking on the down arrow and choosing a date from the scrollable calendar.
   
   
2. Click on the New Task button and type "product announcement". In the right side of the ActionPlan window – the "timeline" – click on the "product release from engineering" milestone and drag the dependency arrow that appears down to the "product announcement" task. This will create a dependency on "product release from engineering" so that the "product announcement" won’t happen until the product is released from engineering. If the product release date changes, the product announcement date changes with it. Go ahead and change the product availability date and notice how the product announcement date changes with it.
   
   
3. Create a New Task below the product announcement task called "web site update". Click in the "Effort" column and type "5d". Level of effort can be typed using "d" for days, "w" for weeks, "h" for hours, or "m" for minutes. Because this task is to be completed before the product release, you can create a dependency by dragging the dependency arrow from this task up to the "product release from engineering" milestone. By double clicking on the dependency line, you can change the lead/lag time. Once you type a value, the dialog changes to show you when the lead task should be completed with respect to the dependent task. In this example, what you really want is the task to be completed "as late as possible" before the release. When scheduling task constraints, a drop down menu lets you select from multiple choices, such as "As Soon as Possible" or "Fixed Finish". Depending on the type of task constraint that you select, ActionPlan may calculate the associated constraint dates or you will enter this information. Dates that ActionPlan calculates are grayed out and cannot be edited. For this example, select "As Late as Possible" in the "constraint" column so that ActionPlan will calculate the task’s start and end dates. Assign this task to "Inga", one of the sample users. To do this, click in the "People" column, click Other Users, and then select the checkbox for "Inga".
   
   You can build a list of the team members that appear in the pull-down menu under the People column by selecting them from the overall user list. Once you have assigned a task to them, they become a part of the team. This makes it very easy to see the team members and select the appropriate one for the task. ActionPlan also saves you time by entering the team member(s) from the previous task by default in new tasks.
   
   
4. Create a New Task called "write press release" and assign the task to Inga and Bob by checking both names. You will notice that the duration is adjusted automatically to take into account two people working on the task. Make this task dependent upon "product release from engineering" by dragging the dependency arrow from the task up to the "product release from engineering" milestone. This will make the task happen as late as possible before the release.
   
   
5. Create a New Task called "press interviews" scheduled "as late as possible". Make this task dependent upon "product release from engineering" by dragging the dependency arrow from the task up to the "product release from engineering" milestone. Assign this task to Bob. Select the task, and then select Multi. You will notice the task bar adjusts so that this task can be done simultaneously with the other tasks.
   
   
6. Continue building your project and assigning tasks (be sure to assign several tasks to Bob) until you have several tasks, dependencies, and assignments. In order to create umbrella tasks and sub tasks use the Indent and Outdent buttons after selecting the task. Other potential tasks are creating data sheets, gathering customer references, and creating an advertising campaign.
   
   
7. Click on the magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner of the Gantt chart. ActionPlan allows you to view your schedule by week, month, quarter, or year.

You can also add notes to a task by double-clicking on the page icon next to the task name. These notes can be used to communicate status, issues, and additional information for any task. The notes can also include links to other html documents, ActionPlan projects, or store computer files. When adding task notes, a time/date/user stamp is inserted automatically and the cursor is positioned at the top of the note for editing, so that a chronological record of task notes is maintained.

When you are done, select Set Status under the File menu and select ‘Active’ to publish your new project. You will notice that it is now listed as an Active project in the Projects tab. In a real planning scenario you may want to keep your plan in "draft" form for a while so that you can do "what if" analysis. For the purposes of the next exercise, make sure the project is Active.

 

 

 

ActionTask

"A Piece of Action for Team Member and Partner"

 

Collaboration

One of the most difficult aspects of project management is keeping the schedule updated. ActionPlan does this for you by distributing task lists to all people involved in the project. As the users change the status of tasks, the project is updated automatically. If a task is not completed and is overdue, its task bar appears in red.

Go to the ActionTask section by clicking on ActionTasks in the main Enact console screen.

 

Scroll through the dates at the top of the task list to view the tasks as they are scheduled in your project. When you check off an item as completed, it is automatically updated in the associated project schedule. Find one of the tasks that you created in your schedule and click in the box to the right. Now go back to the project schedule window and notice that the task is grayed out in the timeline.

Now go back to your tasks list and select the view using the controller in the upper left corner of your task list. You can view your tasks by day, week, month, or all tasks at once.

Select a task and then click the Show Details button. When you change a task’s details, the new status of the task is updated automatically in the project plan.

Click on Options. If you would rather view your tasks through e-mail, ActionPlan can e-mail you reminders of your tasks. You can also work offline if you are using a laptop computer.

Project Plan Analysis

ActionPlan helps you understand critical information by allowing you to view the project a number of different ways. Going back to your ActionPlan project, click on Filter in the lower right corner of the display. ActionPlan lets you view the project by person, date, and overdue tasks. (You can use the filters individually or together.) This will help you analyze such things as who is assigned the most tasks, and which tasks are late. To understand the allocation of users on an individual project, go to the Tools menu and select Assignments.

Linking Projects

Many times large projects incorporate other smaller projects. In our example, updating the web site could be a separate project run by the person responsible for that task. The person running the web site project needs these smaller projects to be hooked into the main project to know if milestones have changed.

To link projects, you create a project summary by exporting key tasks and milestones. In our example you would select the milestone "product release from engineering" and click on the Export column, which toggles the green flag icon on/off. Then, select the "web site updated" task and click on the Export column. A project summary has now been created. (Note: You need to save the project to make the summary available.) You can now create a new project and select Import Summary from the Task menu. Select the summary from your original project. You can now create dependencies between new tasks and these imported milestones. When milestones are changed on the main project, those changes are reflected in all projects importing that project summary. The project contains a hyperlink to the imported project, so clicking on the link will open that project.

Microsoft Project & Excel Import/Export

ActionPlan is designed to coexist with other project management systems like Microsoft Project & Excel. Data can be imported and exported so that people familiar with Microsoft Project can still use it for the planning stages of the project, then import the plan into ActionPlan so that the rest of the team members can take advantage of ActionPlan’s collaboration features.

To import a schedule from Microsoft Project, first save it in MPD or XML format in Microsoft Project. Then import the file into ActionPlan by clicking Import in the Projects tab of the ActionPlan LaunchPad. ActionPlan creates a new project plan with the information from the original Microsoft Project schedule.

To export an entire project plan to Microsoft Project MPX format, open the project plan in ActionPlan. Select Export... from the File menu. Choose the destination for the exported file.

Summary

ActionView, ActionTask, and ActionPlan  are powerful products that enables an entire organization and its partners to access real-time, critical project information. These products provides the following benefits:

• Increasing project success by giving everyone from executives to team members real-time access to all the project information they need to get the job done.
• Increasing productivity by simplifying the project management process through real-time project updates of task status and project reports.
• Improving customer satisfaction by providing a web site where they can get critical project updates.

Facts at a Glance

Product Name	ActionView ActionPlan ActionTask ActionAdmin
Version	5.4
Market	Teams of people doing IT/Software projects
Public Availability	October 1, 2004

Contact Information

Enactex, Inc.
555 Bryant St. #261
Palo Alto, CA 94301
E-mail: info@enact.cc
World Wide Web: www.enact.cc
Tel: 650.325.6900
Fax: 877.218.6990

For technical support contact:
support@enact.cc
650.325.6900

If you have any questions or require further information, please e-mail us at info@enact.cc