P2ware Planner applications allow very effective and even ten times faster creation of plans exploiting modern techniques and methods, in particular the product-based planning. Thanks to this technique, one can easily move from describing a project final product and main products, through planning schedules and resources, to defining of work packages and controlling their delivery.

	Work/Product Breakdown Structure Presentation of project products as a hierarchical structure allows a precise definition of the project scope, minimizing probability of omitting any project product. Identified products may be instantly described in all details or only selected properties. Product breakdown structures may be stored and used as a part or as a whole in other projects decreasing a time required for planning.
	Gantt Chart - schedule Gantt Chart is one of the most frequently used forms of schedule visualisation. Contrary to other planning tools, the chart in P2ware Planner is not created just at the beginning of planning but it is created automatically according to the product flow diagram and is mainly used for schedule elaboration and progress tracking. The planner allows inserting of buffers protecting the whole plan and activities feeding the critical chain. Using the Gantt Chart, a project manager can observe planned as well as current data.
	Work Packages P2ware Planner allows work packages creation and description. Work packages are sent to resources with information about products, activities, reporting requirements and hyperlinks to important documents. Work packages can be defined directly on Planner's views presenting activities, products, a product breakdown structure or a product flow diagram. It is particularly a useful and distinctive feature of P2ware Planner.

P2ware Planner allows for effective creation of plans but also plan execution. Built-in features such as work packages and checkpoints support project manager regardless of a management method followed.

	Sending work packages Work packages may be sent out to authorised people in three main ways depending on available software and approach: via e-mail, as saved and printed documents or using P2ware Planner Server. Each of these ways is aimed at providing people responsible for work packages with necessary information.
	Checkpoints Checkpoints determine dates when a person in charge of a work package has to deliver progress reports to the project manager. Checkpoints may be chosen on individually selected days or on selected weekdays.

It is a highly effective planning technique which may shorten a planning time even by 90%! P2ware Planner has the most advanced and efficient (compared to other planning tools) implementation of this technique and friendly user interface which makes planning even more easier. It allows to commence planning from identification and description of a project final product and other products (what has to be created or delivered), then create a logical structure and a sequence of their creation or delivery - the product flow diagram. Based on the product flow diagram, Planner generates an initial network diagram and Gantt Chart with activities default durations. The activity durations and start/finish times can be refined in subsequent steps as in standard applications.

Product Breakdown Structure Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) is a hierarchical structure of products identified in a plan, e.g. project plan, grouped in a logical way, facilitating project definition and managing its scope. It is also useful in managing programmes and project portfolios. The diagram is identical to a work breakdown structure (WBS) which in many other applications presents rather activity breakdown instead of the work breakdown structure. Products in the PBS are automatically presented on the product flow diagram (and vice versa).

Product Flow Diagram Product Flow Diagram (PFD) allows to define a logical sequence of delivery or creation of plan products. Products included in the Product Breakdown Structure are automatically visible on this diagram. Thanks to that, a person creating a plan defines a sequence of products by connecting products with arrows representing logical dependencies. Based on the PFD P2ware Planner generates automatically an activity network and a Gantt Chart.

Plan products are delivered or created as a result of planned activities. Their sequence and dependencies result from relations between products defined in the product flow diagram. Because the same product can be generally obtained as a result of various activities (e.g. computer program can be written by a programmer, or it can be purchased or developed by a contractor), duration of activities depend on a product delivery or creation method.

Activities in Planner are presented in several forms, as a table and as a network diagram or Gantt Chart. They are also used to define work packages - activities sent to people responsible for their execution.

By tracking progress of activities, one can easily control progress of a whole project.

P2ware Planner implements unique distinction of major activities, which are used to create or deliver plan products (on Gantt Chart such activities are marked with a small grey diamond on the right side of activity strip), from other activities and sub-activities.

	Activity tree In P2ware Planner it can be presented as a tree, which branches represent consecutive levels of sub-activities. It is particularly useful in cost estimation and control.
	Data filtering Filtering allows to browse tabular data of e.g. activities or risks (but not only) depending on various logical conditions. Due to this feature, it is possible to limit presented data even in a large project to these activities that are important at a time.

P2ware Planner allows to manage resources in both a single as well as multiproject environment, where projects are managed within programmes and portfolios. Resources can be of a 'work' or 'material' type, but using Planner Premium or For PSO one can define other non-standard types of resources and its properties.

	Resource sheet Resources in P2ware Planner are always stored in a resource sheet. It is a place where one can define all properties of resources, including units, costs, contact data or project roles. Resources can be local plan resources or can come from shared resource pool stored on Planner Server.
	Resource load diagram Resource load diagram is a useful tool to create realisable and feasible plans. Thanks to the diagram, a project manager can assess whether a resource is not overloaded. In a system integrated with P2ware Planner Server, a project manager can check resources workloads in other projects.
	Central resource managemente It is very common for organisations to manage resources centrally. In a system integrated with P2ware Planner Server, resources can be managed both in a single project as well as in a multiple project environment where resource loads are stored and available via Planner Server.

Virtually all contemporary methods and project management standards require a use of registers and/or logs. P2ware Planner allows to maintain risk register, quality register, issue register, daily log and lessons learned log. Entries to registers and logs can be linked to other plan objects, which is particularly useful in risk management. They all have a set of built-in properties, but with P2ware Planner Premium or P2ware Planner for PSO one can add custom properties required in a specific project, programme or organisation.

	Risk register Risk register is used to keep information about all relevant threats and opportunities related to plan and its execution. A properly selected set of properties allows to store risk probability, its impact on plan/project, proximity, describe the risk and proposed reaction and also set an authorised person for the risk. One of the important features facilitating project management with P2ware Planner is a possibility of linking entries in the risk register with other plan objects, e.g. products, activities or resources. Thanks to that when working with other plan objects one can simultaneously browse risks related to these objects.
	Issue register Issue register is used to keep details of problems, suggestions, change requests and other issues important to the plan and its execution. As with the risk register and other registers, it is possible to link issues with other plan objects, e.g. products, issues or resources.
	Quality register Quality register is designed for planning quality reviews of products and storing its results. One can assign quality reviews to a person or people responsible for it. A single product can have multiple quality reviews.
	Daily log Daily log is used to record all events related to plan creation and execution. In small projects it can also be used to store initial information about possible risks and issues. With P2ware Planner for PSO or P2ware Planner Premium organisations can tailor contents of the log to their requirements.
	Lessons learned log Lessons learned are an important element of the improvement of processes and project management of every organisation. A planner allows to capture all lessons learned without using other tools or files. With Planner Server, it is possible to group and analyse lessons learned from multiple projects, programmes or portfolios. Lessons learned can come from various projects.

Gantt Chart presents activities with relation to the calendar. They are presented as bars with defined start and finish times, showing relations with other activities. Gantt Chart in P2ware Planner presents activities, activities with corresponding products, subactivities and parent activities, feeding and plan buffers. On the chart one can track activities progress and compare it to planned, pessimistic, optimistic, the most probable and PERT times.

	Planned, actual timing and progress tracking Gantt Chart in P2ware Planner can present planned data and both the planned data with actual times and progress tracking of all activities. The chart presents also free time and a structure of activities and subactivities.
	Buffers Instead of creating time reserves for each activity, which usually results in significant increase in project duration, one can add a plan buffer at the end of a plan and feeding buffers. These are reserves for the whole plan or activities on a critical path or a critical chain to protect from delaying the project. Thanks to buffers, organisations can observe buffer consumption and take necessary actions without a need to change the plan permanently. Buffer consumption diagram is divided into three areas: green, yellow and red to illustrate a current state of the plan.
	Diagram tools Gantt Chart in P2ware Planner has several additional features allowing to customize diagrams and information presented on it according to individual needs or requirements, e.g. tooltips, customisation of popups and its content.

Reporting is one of the main tasks of project management team. P2ware Planner allows to create report templates and then within seconds to generate reports adjusted to individual needs of the recipients. For example, to create and send a report to stakeholders one would have to navigate to Report view, select available report template and then send generated report via e-mail.

	Set of built-in reports P2ware Planner contains a set of built-in reports. Report templates are grouped by types. Choosing plan templates, after several seconds one can view report in a required form and send it to the recipients. With P2ware Planner Premium and For PSO it is possible to customise the templates to particular needs of the user or organisation.
	Report templates editor If there are no required built-in reports, users may use report templates editor to create new report templates or modify any of existing reports. New report templates may be easily accessed by other users. Thanks to that, it is easy to implement coherent reporting standards in the organisation.

P2ware Planner user interface can be adjusted to particular needs or requirements of organisation, programme, project, team or a single user. Thanks to Planner customisation options, one can create plan templates meeting these requirements. This feature is used to hide unneeded data, choose actually required views, perspectives and properties to implement rule ‘zero bureaucracy and data overload in managed projects’.

	New properties and formulas Users of P2ware Planner are not restricted to the set of built-in properties. P2ware Planner Premium and P2ware Planner for PSO versions allows to add new properties of all popular data types. New properties can be also defined as mathematical or logical formulas considering properties of any plan objects.
	Hiding views and properties In some projects there is no need to use all properties or views available in P2ware Planner. In Planner Premium or for PSO, it is possible to hide in a plan template selected views, properties, related objects and perspectives. Thanks to that, such a plan template will contain only information needed by the organisation and will allow to avoid information overload.
	New perspectives Perspectives in views allow to switch between view layout and presented data in just a couple of seconds. Every view can have several perspectives which facilitate access to plan data. Creating new perspectives is very easy and helpful.
	Object editors Object editors are used for a detailed description of single elements of a plan, e.g. products, activities or risks. A layout of the editor can be defined by users to include not only built-in fields but also properties added by a user in desired format.

Data export and import is one of the important features of modern applications. P2ware Planner allows to save hours of work thanks to import and export options.

	Import and export Plan data may be exported to and imported from many popular data types cutting time needed for plan creation.
	Plan segments Plan segments are a mechanism allowing to create sets (segments) of plan objects to be reused in other created plans. Plan segments can contain many various objects, e.g. products, risks and other.

P2ware Planner Suite applications and in particular P2ware Planner Server, P2ware Planner for PSO and P2ware Planner Enterprise are used to build integrated project, programme and portfolio management systems.

	Publishing plans on the server While creating or just after creating the initial version of a plan, one can publish it on P2ware Planner Server. From this moment, other users may browse and edit plan simultaneously - depending on security settings.
	Planner Server P2ware Planner Server allows for a central project and resources management, generate and browse reports from various projects. User page allows currently logged in user to browse assigned to him data without need for navigating complicated tree of programmes and projects.
	Reports Reports in Planner Server facilitate browsing data from specific projects, resources, but also cross-sectional data, e.g. projects within a programme or portfolio of projects. Formats of such reports can be defined during or after the system deployment and can be defined by project support offices or other support offices.

Possibility of integration of Planner and other applications is one of the important features of P2ware Planner Suite. Integration is available on two levels. The first level is import and export from popular data formats. The second uses network services to add, modify or synchronise data across various applications with Planner Server as a central application.

	Excel, MS Project and other formats Planner Suite allows to export plan or its fragments to a popular file format such as pdf, html, xls, rtf, txt, and diagrams can also be saved as images. Integration with Microsoft Project and Excel 2007 ensures bi-directional data exchange.
	Dedicated integration components Integration components allow for integration unavailable in other standard solutions. Thanks to components created in programming languages, it is possible to exchange data in a way restricted only by programming language. The areas of such integration encompass ERP systems, export to HR systems or document management systems.