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| MacProject | |
|---|---|
 Screenshot of MacProject 1.0 | |
| Developers | Solosoft,Claris |
| Initial release | 1984 |
| Final release | Pro 1.5 / 1993 |
| Operating system | System Software 6,System 7 |
| Type | Project management software |
| License | Proprietary |
MacProject was aproject management and scheduling businessapplication released along with the firstApple Macintosh systems in 1984. MacProject was one of the first major business tools for theMacintosh which enabled users to calculate the "critical path" to completion and estimate costs in terms of money and time. If a project deadline was missed or if available resources changed, MacProject recalculated everything automatically.
MacProject was written by Debra Willrett at Solosoft, and was published and distributed byApple Computer to promote the original Macintosh personal computer. It was developed from an earlier application written by Debra Willrett for Apple's Lisa computer,LisaProject. This was the firstgraphical user interface (GUI) for project management. There were many other project management applications on the market at the time, but LisaProject was the first to simplify the process by allowing the user to interactively draw their project on the computer in the form of aPERT chart. Constraints could be entered for each task, and the relationships between tasks would show which ones had to be completed before a task could begin. Given the task constraints and relationships, a "critical path", schedule and budget could be calculated dynamically using heuristic methods.
One of the early proponents of MacProject was James Halcomb, a well known expert in the use of theCritical Path Method. Using a Lisa computer housed in a case designed to fit under an airplane seat, Mr. Halcomb traveled the United States demonstrating this new technology in his CPM courses. In consultation with the software's developers he authored the bookPlanning Big with MacProject, which introduced a generation of Mac users toPERT and CPM.
In December 1987, an updated version of MacProject, called MacProject II, was introduced as a part ofClaris's move to update its suite of Mac office applications.
In 1991,Microsoft Project wasported to the Macintosh fromMicrosoft Windows and became MacProject's main competitor. However, after the release of version 3.0 of Microsoft Project in 1993, Microsoft terminated support for the Macintosh release.
MacProject 1.0 is notY2K-compliant as it cannot schedule tasks past 1999.
