PD-Trak™ Frequently Asked QuestionsIs PD-Trak™ based on client/server technology? PD-Trak™ is intended to operate using a file server so that team members can access PD-Trak™ functions from the network. How often are new software releases made and what is the cost? PD-Trak™ typically has released three to five new updates each year. Since PD-Trak™ is provided through an annual license which includes maintenance and support, customers are entitled to these new releases anytime. However, PD-Trak Solutions will update one customer's installation once annually as part of its support fee. Updates to additional installations or updates more frequently than annually will be charged at standard rates. The annual fee shall include the upgrade of the top level PD-Trak application (main interface and management reporting functions) and supporting files and the upgrade of the primary project file template. Upgrades of secondary project file templates, upgrades of active project files to the latest version, and upgrades of secondary PD-Trak installations will be charged at standard rates. Can PD-Trak™ archive project files and documents? PD-Trak™ provides a methodology for archiving files and documents during the development process and for archiving the entire project file at the conclusion of the project Does PD-Trak™ handle electronic approvals and support workflow? Not currently. The philosophy behind PD-Trak is to use the project team's meetings as a means to coordinate and discuss team activities rather than use a workflow solution that is more appropriate for a "transaction-oriented" business process. Collaborative tools such as project rooms and web-based meetings can be used in conjunction with PD-Trak™ for distributed teams. Can I clone or copy a project and then modify the project information and documents to save work? Yes. When a new project is setup, it normally uses the blank templates. However, worksheets and documents from other projects can be easily copied and modified. However, care should be exercised to avoid a mindless exercise of creating various documents and worksheets without original thought, planning and collaboration. Does PD-Trak™ support a stage- or phase-gate process? Yes, the system supports a stage- or phase-gate process and is based on a stage-gate process The NPD process defined in PD-Trak™ is based on a gate review process. Project work is scheduled and budgeted by stage or phase using a Project Brief to summarize relevant information. The Project Brief is also intended to be updated and serve as a key part of the gate review. Task Plans are used to plan tasks, responsibilities and documents required for each stage or phase and track their completion. The MS Project® plan integrated within PD-Trak is structured based on the stages or phases and gate reviews. The various documents are structured where different sections are completed for each stage or phase. Documents are archived for each stage or phase. Your company's phased process is configured at part of the setup of the system. What training is provided and how many people are included? As part of the implementation and support proposal, we include training. There are typically four elements of training provided: 1) project manager/team leader, 2) team members, 3) projects administrator and 4) management. The PD-Trak Introduction training for team members is four hours in duration. The other three training sessions are approximately one day in duration. We suggest that one or two lead users be designated and participate in all of the training. We can conduct as many training sessions as required and base our implementation quote on your training requirements. Can I eliminate or skip over some steps in the NPD process with PD-Trak™? Yes, PD-Trak™ recognizes that not all NPD projects are the same. Multiple processes can be defined. For example, a comprehensive process for totally new products and a more streamlined version of this process for product line extensions or upgrades. In addition, if not all tasks in the pre-defined process are appropriate for a project, the Task Plans tool allows these unnecessary tasks to be flagged as 'Not Applicable' and additional tasks unique to the project to be added in a special section. What are PD-Trak's advantages over other similar programs? PD-Trak™ provides tremendous functionality for the price compared with other higher cost systems. It provides more detailed and usable tools where other systems are more general and require more effort to setup templates and tools. Finally, use of MS Excel® as a base makes it easy to learn and use. What kinds of companies is PD-Trak™ intended for? PD-Trak™ is intended for companies developing and producing consumer products and industrial products, software, or services in a wide range of industries that have or want to install a stage- or phase-gate type of new product development process (or more simply, a phased process with milestones that separate each phase). Can PD-Trak™ be used as is without any configuration and customization? Yes, PD-Trak™ is based on our NPD Process-in-a-Box™ stage-gate process that is built upon best practices and common NPD terminology. Therefore, it can be used as is without any configuration and customization. However, the majority of customers configure and customize PD-Trak™ to their process and documents borrowing a lot from the process and documents predefined in PD-Trak™. Can we customize PD-Trak™ and its documents to our particular NPD process? Our software configuration process will customize PD-Trak™ to your particular development process. In addition, our implementation consulting will customize the following: Task Plans to your tasks, responsibilities and documents; MS Project® gantt chart to your process tasks and typical timing; PD-Trak™ document templates to your process, and add additional documents and links needed. Does PD-Trak™ have a support manual? The software contains a variety of embedded help functions and detailed instructions. The four training modules are also integrated in the application and can be viewed electronically or printed out. In addition, since it is based on Excel and Word, which are commonly used by many, the learning curve is minimal. There are no other paper manuals provided. Does PD-Trak™ handle distributed team members and a distributed process? Yes. The network server architecture in conjunction allows multiple people to work with PD-Trak™ and maintain the results on a server. Can the PD-Trak™ establish different read / write privileges for team members? Access levels in PD-Trak define who has the ability to update various documents and tools. Can PD-Trak™ be browsed as a web page on the internet? The PD-Trak files, since they are standard Excel and Word files, can be browsed as a web page on the internet when using Internet Explorer, but PD-Trak's functionality is not available in this mode. Will PD-Trak™ lock records in use while allowing others to only read at the same time? PD-Trak consists of separate files for all the document templates and several separate files for the various project/process management tools for each project team. This will minimize potential contention problems. In addition, with the standard Excel protection function, Excel indicates that another user is accessing Excel and provides a read-only copy to a second user trying to access the file. Can the PD-Trak™ data be displayed in a bilingual template or translated into another language? Bilingual templates can be easily created and PD-Trak™ can easily be translated into another language since it is based on MS Excel. The only issue to be aware of is space limitations in fields in some form-oriented templates. How long have this product been around? The roots of this program date back to the mid 90's. It has been incrementally developed since that time, based on the experience of many (>100) project teams. Major improvements have recently been made to the user interface, and it is now based entirely around standard MS Office applications. How many business have been using this program?See the page on PD-Trak™ Customer List. For further information, please contact us at: info@pd-trak.com or at 925-484-8436. Portfolio Management Software
Resource & Pipeline Management Software
NPD Process Management Software © 2006, PD-Trak Solutions Stage / Phase-Gate Process Portfolio Management Software Pipeline Management Software Resource Management Software PLM Software Product Lifecycle Management Software Product Development Software New Product Development Software, NPD Process Management Software Stage / Phase-Gate Software Automating NPD stage / phase-gate process software project resource management project resource analysis project management software |