Spider Project

Spider Project is a project management software, developed by a Russian company, Spider Project Team.[1]

Spider Project
Screenshot of the Spider Project Professional demo version, showing the demo construction project
Websitewww.spiderproject.com

Introduction

Spider Project is primarily a tool for project and portfolio scheduling and associated resource, materials, cost and risk management. It does not have features like project-related communication management, issue tracking, and document management.[1][2] [3]

According to Spider Project's publisher, the product provides CPM functions and metrics, and can calculate critical path drag, which tells the user how much each critical path activity delays project completion.[4] [5] Spider provides automatic scheduling, driven by resource allocation and resource leveling, and does not stress manual scheduling features.

Spider Project's publisher says it is closely linked with "Success Driven Project Management (SDPM)"[6] —a methodology, developed by Spider Project Team, which describes how scheduling-related project management is done. Other project management software tools can use SDPM methods by adjusting the method to match that tool's functions.

Spider Project Team promotes project management in general, as well as PMBOK Guide specifically in Russia. General director of Spider Project Team Vladimir Liberzon[3] is a vice president of the PMI Moscow, Russia Project Management Institute Chapter. Spider Project Team is a PMI Registered Education Provider[7]

Members of Spider Project team have spoken at several PMI and International Project Management Association (IPMA) Congresses and Conferences.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Historical roots

Spider Project began in the Soviet Union. The Soviet economy was characterized by several factors:

  • It was a centrally planned economy. As a consequence planning methods and techniques, and their mathematical background were subjects of high importance. In 1963, a Central Economic Mathematical Institute was founded with the main goal of "introduction of the mathematical methods and computers in the practice of planning, creation of the theory of the optimal control of the national economy. "[15]
  • In the Cold War, the Soviet Union had to compete with much more economically powerful and resource-rich western countries.[16] This required efficient use of available resources. In 1975, Soviet mathematician and economist Leonid Kantorovich won a Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on the optimal allocation of scarce resources.[17]

Spider Project Team claims that Spider inherited some of those planning methods developed in the Soviet Union.[13] As an example, they say it is distinct from similar project management tools because of its resource planning and levelling algorithms and related features that target optimizing constrained resources, materials, and finances.[1]

Notable features

Resource Leveling

Resource leveling is emphasized in most of publication about Spider Project.[1] Though no academic-level report is available with comparison of the resource leveling algorithms of different project management tools, Spider Project has shown the best results among other tools compared in limited tests conducted by members of the professional Planning Planet forum (tests were conducted based on library of Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problems (RCPSP), made available by Technical University of Munchen).[18] [19]

Resource Productivity

Spider supports activities with type "productivity". When specific activity is marked to be a productivity type, user needs to specify productivities of resources, assigned to this activity. Duration on such activity will then be calculated by Spider and will depend on the combined productivity of resources, assigned to this activity.

Skill scheduling

In addition to conventional assignment of resources to activities, Spider supports assignment of resource Skills. In this situation user has to create table with relation between resources and skills. One resource can have one or more skills, equally every skill, can have one or more resources assigned to them. During project scheduling Spider automatically selects the actual resource, which will be assigned to activity. The decision which resource to assigned will be based on resource skills, productivities, costs and user defined priorities.

Variable Resource Assignment

In addition to conventional assignment of resources, when user specifies a fixed amount of resources assigned to a specific activity (e.g. Brick Layer [500%]), Spider supports situation, when user specifies a range (minimum and maximum amount of resources) required for activity. In this situation activity will be ongoing if minimum amount of resources is available, and if and when more resources become available, they will also be assigned to this activity.

Market share and geography

No independent data Spider Project's market share exists. Spider Project team claims Spider Project is used in almost 30 countries,[1] and believe Russia and Ukraine have the most installations.

Having its head office in Moscow, Russia, as well as several representatives in Russia, Spider Project Team has also partners in the following countries:

The largest projects known to have used Spider Project are:

Software releases

Between 2007 and 2013 Spider Project released an average of 1.8 releases per month.[29]

Architecture

Though used for multi-user portfolio management, Spider does not have a server. It manages portfolios using the same software that manages individual projects. It does this with a distributed architecture, through software features and organisational procedures. This includes:

  • Consolidating individual projects over a computer network into a portfolio, followed by redistributing projects, in case information in them has changed. This procedure must be executed regularly, following a schedule update cycle.
  • Keeping information in "Corporate Reference Books, " which must be identical for all projects of the portfolio (e.g., resource information, resource calendars etc.). Corporate Reference Books should be protected by file system access control. If Corporate Reference Books are updated, those working on individual projects must synchronize them with their schedules (e.g., to use new resources, etc.).

Language support

Spider Project is available in English, Russian, Romanian and Portuguese and Spanish.

Software versions

Spider project is available in four versions, which differ in functionality and price:[30]

  • Professional
  • Desktop Plus
  • Desktop Lite
  • Lite

The Professional and Lite versions are also available in demo versions. The demo versions provide most program features and have no expiration time, but have a limit of 40 activities (though any number of project phases).

A Spider Project licence lets users access and distribute to any number of other users a Spider Project Viewer. Spider Project Viewer can open and analyse Spider Project files and generate reports, but not modify the project file.

Further reading
  • Possi, Marcus (2012). Spider Project 4th Edition. Lulu. ISBN 9781300044444.

References
  1. Cotterell, Steve (Jan 2014). "Spider Project Professional". project manager today. Archived from the original on February 6, 2002. Cite journal requires |journal= (help) Alt URL
  2. Goff, Stacy (January 21, 2010). Other Voices: Visions for the Project Management Software Industry. ISBN 978-1-933890-96-8.
  3. Goff, Stacy A. (2009). "9. Visions For the Project Management Software Industry" (PDF). Project Management Circa 2025. Project Management Institute, Inc. ISBN 978-1-933890-96-8. Archived from the original on 2009.
  4. Devaux, Stephen A. (Jan–Feb 2012). "The Drag Efficient: The Missing Quantification of Time on the Critical Path" (PDF). Defense AT&L Magazine of the Defense Acquisition University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-03-13. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. Adedeji B. Badiru; Samuel O. Osisanya (23 January 2013). Project Management for the Oil and Gas Industry: A World System Approach. CRC Press. pp. 159–. ISBN 978-1-4200-9425-1.
  6. BODEA, Constanţa-Nicoleta; PURNUŞ, Augustin (2012). "PROJECT RISK SIMULATION METHODS – A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS" (PDF). Management & Marketing Challenges for the Knowledge Society: 565–580. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. "Spider Project Team record of a PMI R.E.P. (Registered Education Provider)".
  8. "The Application of Success Probabilities, Success Driven Project Management/SDPM,and Some Critical Chain Concepts to the Oil & Gas Industry in Brazil; Presented at the PMI College of Scheduling 5th Annual Conference".
  9. "From Russia with love: truly integrated project scope, schedule, resource and risk information".
  10. "Finding opportunities in problems".
  11. "Tools and techniques for corporate project management".
  12. Russell D. Archibald (13 March 2003). Managing High-Technology Programs and Projects. John Wiley & Sons. p. 361. ISBN 978-0-471-26557-3.
  13. Archibald, Russell; Liberzon, Vladimir. "The Application of Success Probabilities, Success Driven Project Management/SDPM, and Some Critical Chain Concepts to the Oil & Gas Industry in Brazil" (PDF).
  14. "Project Perspectives" (PDF). IPMA (The annual publication of International Project Management Association 2013).
  15. "Official site of Central Economic Mathematical Institute" (in Russian).
  16. A Comparison of the US and Soviet Economies: Evaluating the Performance of the Soviet System (PDF) (Report). CIA. 1999.
  17. "Leonid Vitalyevich Kantorovich page at MacTutor History of Mathematics archive".
  18. "Test report on comparison of resource leveling engine of Microsoft Project, Primavera, Asta Powerproject, and Spider Project".
  19. "Comparison of resource levelling algorithms of different Project Management tools".
  20. "Web site of ANTAL GROUP, Spider Project partner is Belarus and Kazakhstan" (in Russian).
  21. "Web site of Ecthoth, Spider Project partner is Brazil".
  22. "Web site of Spider Management Technologies ROMANIA, Spider Project partner is Romania" (in Romanian).
  23. "Web site of SPIDER MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES, Spider Project partner is Ukraine" (in Russian).
  24. "Web site of Spider Project USA, Spider Project partner in the USA".
  25. Нефинансовый отчет об устойчивости развития и экологической ответственности (PDF) (in Russian). Олимстрой. Государственная Корпорация. (Olympstroy. State Corporation). 2011.
  26. "Документы для ответственных исполнителей. Пример заполнения Сетевого графика строительства (Documents for subcontractors. Example of network diagram)" (PDF) (in Russian). Олимстрой. Государственная Корпорация. (Olympstroy. State Corporation).
  27. "Строителей объектов саммита АТЭС-2012 "подсадят" на Spider Project" (in Russian).
  28. "Implementing Project Portfolio Management in a Telecom Company (Originally published as a part of PMICOS 2009 Annual Conference)" (PDF).
  29. "Spider Project releases".
  30. "Spider Project versions".
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