The Project Plan 365 University Licensing Program
Introduction
This program is for all universities that offer courses on Project Management and for accredited academic institutions offering PMP certifications. Academic institutions offering such instruction may not provide (or have on hand) the latest in project management software, or are doing so at great expense either to the student or for the institution. However, as any experienced project manager will tell you, mastering good PM software is critical to the success of a graduate going forward.
In this regard, we are providing eligible institutions with a licensing scheme for Project Plan 365 that provides PM students with a free license to use while studying or gaining certification.
Why Project Plan 365?
For starters, PM students and educators need sharper pencils than what Microsoft Office provides. For example, if you are preparing a project network diagram, you could use Microsoft Visio to knock one out, but the data used will not be linked to a project schedule or project budget, at least not without a lot of additional make-work. Same goes for when you need a Gantt chart; you could use Microsoft Excel and a template to prepare one, but again, your original data is orphaned, making it harder to say, prepare a resource accounting for all the work planned.
In short, students and educators can benefit from an all-in-one and dedicated PM tool to complete or design class assignments more efficiently.
Attributes of a Good All-In-One PM Tool
A good all-in-one PM tool will include the following:
- A visualizer for laying out projects (think mind maps) and for breaking down the work (think WBS) - or a way to easily import visualizations constructed in other products, into the PM tool itself.
- A database for all related project data - for linking the essentials - such as risk management plans, project charters and scope statements.
- A PM data engine that can perform PM-related calculations like critical paths, over allocations and cost tables without a fuss, and on simple devices such as smartphones.
- A scheduler, to build schedules automatically based on project data, such as task durations and resource availability.
- A report & dashboard generator, to communicate project progress and to highlight milestones achieved.
In addition to the above key attributes, a good all-in-one PM tool works on whatever device or platform you do, such as tablets and smartphones – and on the PC, Mac or Linux platform.
How the Project Plan 365 University Licensing Program works...
The Project Plan 365 University Licensing Program works like this:
- The university or certifying organization first sends us a request using this contact form.
- On acceptance of this request, Housatonic will provide the organization with a block of licenses that students can use for one year, and which allows them to access Project Plan 365 apps using whatever device they own (PCs, Macs, Android / iOS smart phones and tablets are all supported).
- The institution can then distribute the licenses to eligible students (students register the application with us on first-use). This license allows students to use the app for one year, which can be renewed for another year on request.
- Educators also have access to our library of training materials, and are free to use these materials as they see fit.
For more on the licensing program, see this post on our knowledge blog.
Final Thoughts...
Since all of us at Housatonic were once (or are now) project managers, and students of project management at some point, we know from experience that anyone learning the PM trade can benefit from using a good PM app during their studies and on later the job.
In order to “pay it forward” to those coming up behind us, we are donating licenses to project management students and educators, in hopes that our software will help them during their studies - and well beyond into their careers as project managers.
