Kovair IT Project Management

• Automated and customized task-based process along with the provision to create tasks manually.
• Scope for defining parallel tasks for same or different sets of resources- considered a unique feature of Kovair IT Project Management solution, enabling one to implement and manage multiple tasks independently.
• Design custom task forms with artifacts that need to be exposed to resources that will accomplish the task.
• One-click navigation to Requirement Management Tools, Test Management case, Issue Management Tools, and others directly from within the task form.
• Impose assignment policies on the resources to accomplish the task. The policies can be one of three types – Queued task, individual task, and one task for all.
• Close association of task with timesheet, which allows the resources to record time against each task.

Process flow

• All resources involved in a project can record their actual time spent to accomplish each and every assigned task and can also enter notes/descriptions to justify their efforts on a regular basis.
• Time spent by a resource on an external activity can be recorded under “Unspecified Task,” enabling further analysis of the resource’s efforts during a project lifecycle.
• Timesheet submitted by resources automatically follows the organizational hierarchy and moves to the supervisors for approval / rejection.
• Restriction or flexibility can be imposed on accessibility of timesheet data through Kovair’s pre-defined user privileges.
• The Project Manager can view information about the effort spent on the project in a number of ways, for example: viewing the timesheet of individual resources for any specified period of time, or viewing the summary of hours spent on the project.
• Various analytical reports can be created for analysis of the actual effort spent by resources involved in a project.

• Resources are considered in terms of roles such as Architect, Designer, Developer, Tester, Build Manager, and Project Manager, with the facility to set cost per hour for each role involved in the project.
• Meters for both system pre-defined and customized analyses are allowed for resource management analysis. System pre-defined meters are: resource needed in terms of number, estimated duration, estimated cost, total effort hours, and percentage utilization of resources.
• The Effort Matrix allows you to retrieve a set of existing records as per certain filtering criteria, and then specify role-wise effort for each record of that set.
• In the Kovair IT project management process, you can set limits against system pre-defined meters.
• Kovair’s IT project management process allows you to prepare different scenarios by adding a set of records (say, requirements) in a release. The application analyses the scenario (i.e., allocation of a set of records in a release) based on the limits set in the meters. This is typically known as “What If Analysis.”
• Both auto and manual requirements distributions are allowed. During an auto distribution, the requirements get allocated among the specified release buckets while honoring the meter values specified for each and follow the rank sequence of the requirements. During a manual distribution, lot of permutations and combinations are allowed with the list of requirements.
• For each scenario you can view the Gantt Chart that clearly displays detailed break-up of the scenario (a set of records added in a release) with Start Date, End Date, Resource Name, Cost, and Effort required for managing complete lifecycle of each record considered in the scenario.
• You can create multiple scenarios in the Kovair application and then compare each pair of scenarios. The visual representation of comparison helps you select the most suitable set of resource allocation for a project.
• Every time you do an analysis or an auto distribution, the application does a distribution of requirements but does not make any changes to the data. Once you arrive at the final optimal solution, you can commit to a scenario. This will permanently update the Planned Start Date and the Planned Finish Date of the Release buckets.

• Reports can be created on different components of a project ranging from the workspace level to entity and task levels.
• Nine types of reports can be defined- Tabular Report, Tabular with Summary Report, Form Report, Form With Summary Report, Distribution Metrics Report, Matrix Report, Trend Report, Custom Crystal Report, and Work Report.
• Reports can be viewed separately by navigating to different areas of the application, and also from the centralized ‘Dashboard.’
• Dashboards can be configured with logical combinations of different gadget types – Catalog, Gantt chart, Meter, Report, External Links, and a set of existing records based on a search criteria.
• Dashboard in the Kovair application provides drill-down functionality.

A project can have multiple dashboards such as Analyst’s Dashboard, Integrated Project Management Dashboard, Manager’s Dashboard, and Tester’s & Developer’s Dashboard.

• Bi-directional Integration between MS Project and the Kovair application:- On the one hand, you can export data from Kovair and modify them in MS Project on the other hand you can add records directly from MS project add-on.
• Defining WBS:- WBS can be defined using system pre-defined or custom defined relation types between entities, filter options available for task, and lookup values defined for entity attributes, which are available in MS project add-on. During synchronization, data are exported in MS project according to the defined WBS in Kovair.
• Viewing Gantt Chart:- MS project add-on allows you to view user -specific Gantt chart. All one has to do is select the user and the period specified by "From Date" and "To Date".
• Task Exporting:- Kovair allows you to export the tasks in MS project, and then level them among the resources. After successful leveling, you can import those tasks back to the Kovair application.
• Creation of New Tasks:- If you are already logged in to the MS project add-on setup, you can create new tasks in MS project and import them back to the Kovair application.
• Task Allocation:- Using the MS project add-on setup, you can allocate tasks among resources as per the working days defined in the calendar available in the Kovair application.
• Planning:- MS project add-on provides the facility to estimate the planned duration, planned finish date and other planning data at task level, entity level or project level. After necessary planning is done in the MS project, planning, actual and baseline data of the line items can be imported back to Kovair.