Castellan Systems

A “Condotiero” (or its more common Condottieri in Italian) were the leaders of the professional military free companies (or mercenaries) contracted by the Italian city-states and the Papacy from the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance. In Renaissance Italian, condottiero meant "contractor". In contemporary Italian, "condottiero" acquired the broader meaning of "military leader", not restricted to mercenaries. In other words, a condotiero was a leader who accepted and perform or delivered a contract. In the same way a Project Manager is contracted to deliver a project (i.e. a contract).

Condotiero is an application that helps the project manager and the whole team manage a project’s progress from initiation to completion. It interfaces with various Microsoft Office 2013 applications like Word, Excel and Project to produce various project related documents.

While there are other project management tools available in the market, they tend to focus on project planning & scheduling, task management and reporting. Condotiero covers all those facets of project management and more to support not only the project manager but also the rest of the team during the project execution. Besides project planning & scheduling, task management and reporting, Condotiero supports the Project Manager and the Project Team to perform such tasks as estimating, scheduling, requirements management, risk analysis & management, decisions, action, defect and issue tracking, document control, status reporting, calculating cost to complete and tracking & monitoring status against the plan. While other packages out there highlight they cloud-based solutions, at Castellan Systems we believe that project data can be sensitive and should be protected. We've worked for many government agencies which require extra levels of security. Maintaining their projects' data within their vendors' firewall is a very important requirement for such agencies.

Condotiero has been designed by a project manager while working as a project manager. Every facet of Condotiero has been tested while performing those tasks in many projects. It has been refined as lessons have been learnt in actual use of the package. We actually use it internally to manage all of our projects. If we find that there is something else we need to do in a project, it finds its way into a new release.

You partner Condotiero with ClockKeeper, our timesheeting system (read more) and you have an unbeatable combination.

Note: Condotiero has optional add-ons that can be purchased separately which add functionality to the core system. Please see the add-ons and Artificer pages.

So what does Condotiero do?

Condotiero is the next generation application from ProMan; but unlike ProMan it's not limited to just one project per database. It's an application that can be used as an enterprise PM tool or by individual Project Managers or consultants to better manage their projects. Besides having all of the functionality of ProMan, it incorporates far more functionality to better support the Project Manager's efforts.

It can be used by the whole team, not just the Project Manager, and it can function as a dashboard for management to gauge the performance of the overall project portfolio.

Condotiero allows you to record the project labour and expenses estimates. It also calculates revenue estimates based on the labour and estimates.

To support the above, Condotiero allows for the definition of rates tables, containing both internal and external rates per roles. Each individual project can then be linked to a specific rate table.

It also allows actual team members to be assigned to these estimated tasks; it will monitor and send out email notification to these team members when any of their assigned tasks are overdue for start or completion.

Condotiero records actual labour spent on each task and calculates cost. It also tracks actual expenses charges. Condotiero can print an invoice detail report to which a cover letter/invoice can be attached and then sent to the client(s).

Condotiero calculates % complete of a task. It uses one of three methods: Milestone based (spec’d, coded, tested, completed), Actual / Estimate or Elapsed time.

It sends out notifications to team members whenever any of the risks, actions, issues, defects or decisions which they've been assigned are overdue.

Condotiero can be used for minor projects (or tasks), large projects or very large projects which are broken into several sub-projects.

Condotiero can be used for internal or external (i.e. client) funded projects.

Condotiero can, for large projects or very large projects, allow for them to be are broken into several sub-projects.

Condotiero imports estimates from Ms Excel using the Estimating Workbook template provided in the package.

Condotiero can also export estimates to Ms Excel by populating the Estimating Workbook template provided in the package.

Condotiero can generate project schedules in 2 ways. It provides a built-in scheduling facility to create Gantt charts, and therefore project schedules. This facility can:

• Create a project schedule using the tasks and assignments estimated;
• Update a project schedule;
• Update planned and forecast dates as well as task duration and milestone status;
• Update the project's planned and forecast S-Curve;
• Forecast resource requirements based on the project schedule;
• Determines and highlights the critical path; and
• It displays and schedules any milestones that have been defined for the project.
• It now has a simpler but improved scheduling facility which also displays percentage completed and planned resources.

It can also interface with Ms Project to allow the user to:

• Create a project schedule using the tasks and assignments estimated in Condotiero;
• Update a project schedule with revised project tasks details;
• Obtain from the schedule planned, forecast and actual start dates as well as task duration and milestone status; and
• Update a project schedule with actual labour, remaining labour.

Condotiero prepares and tracks forecasts to complete.

Condotiero can build a forecast based on the schedule generated or by "reading" a project schedule generated in Microsoft Project. To assist with that project schedule generation, the project scheduling facilities mentioned above is provided.

Condotiero supports the execution of a risk review/analysis workshop.

Condotiero assists in generating risk action plans.

Condotiero generates a Risk Management Workbook; template are provided in the package.

Condotiero tracks 3 types of Quality processes/reviews; these processes are aligned to recognised project methodologies and in particular they meet SEI’s CMM requirements. Those processes are:

• Work Product Review (WPR)
• Intergroup Coordination (IGC)
• Quality Stage Gate (QSG)

When a new phase is started, Condotiero assumes that a new proposal will be generated; therefore, a project definition WPR, proposal QSG and IGC Part 1 checklist become due. When tasks get created, the associated quality stage gate of the WBS is used to determine new WPR(s), QSG and IGC requirements. When all the tasks related to a particular WPR, QSG or IGC requirement are completed, this WPR, QSG and/or IGC need to be completed.

Project Work Product Reviews (WPR) are perform at certain stages of the project execution to review the quality of the various deliverables produced by the project. These are performed by other members of the team and/or key independent technical resources.

Condotiero records the details of the review required can be entered as well as the results. Condotiero caters for multiple reviewers.

Documents that should be included in the review can be attached. Once the WPR request has been defined, email requests to all of the defined reviewers can be sent with the WPR form and any attached documents.

Project Inter-Group Coordination Reviews (IGC) are a means for the project team to participate actively with the other engineering groups so the project is better able to satisfy the customer's needs effectively and efficiently.

Condotiero can initiate an IGC review; the questions will be customised to the particular IGC stage in question. The results of this review can be recorded.

Approvers to be identified and sent email notifications, with the IGC form included in the body of the email, requesting their review and approval of the completed checklist. The email will include voting buttons which can be used to return the review decision back to the requestor.

Project Quality Stage Gate Reviews (QSC) are evaluations by which a project is authorised to progress from one life cycle phase to the next. It’s a collaborative practice in which key stakeholders play an important role in assessing the project’s overall health and quality of execution. The QSC is a phase-driven go/no-go decision point where project activities are reviewed to assure it is appropriate to proceed to the next phase.

Approvers to be identified and sent email notifications, with the QSG form included in the body of the email, requesting their review and approval of the completed checklist. The email will include voting buttons which can be used to return the review decision back to the requestor.

Condotiero allows you to record project variations and generates and prints Change Control Forms which can then be used to obtain approvals for the variation budget.

Condotiero imports estimates from Ms Excel using the Estimating Workbook template provided in the package.

Condotiero can also export estimates to Ms Excel by populating the Estimating Workbook template provided in the package.

Condotiero generates a project S-curve and other financial based graphs.

Condotiero performs Earned-Value calculations.

Condotiero prints timeline and earned-value reports.

Condotiero records & tracks Risks; it assists generating risk action plans.

Condotiero records & tracks issues and actions; these are then used when generating a status reports.

Condotiero records & tracks defects; these are then used when generating a status reports.

Condotiero records & tracks project decisions; these are then used when generating a status reports.

Condotiero generates an Issues & Actions Log; templates are provided in the package.

Condotiero generates a Defect Log.

Condotiero will notify a team member when they've been assign to resolve a risk, action, issue or defect.

Condotiero generates document identities and tracks details of documents.

Condotiero provides a built-in Document Management facility where these documents can be stored within the database and provides version control. Documents can be checked out and checked in and while there are checked out no one other the person who checked it out can check-in an updated version, as well as, document distribution details.

If a hardcopy is stored within a project file, Condotiero can record this location can also. If the document pertains to correspondence, the details of who sent it and who received it can also be recorded. Additionally, search key words can be added.

It’s linked to the various other parts of the system where document ids are required for easy allocation of ids.

Condotiero records customer requirements, allowing for the linking of related documents held within the Document Management facility in the application.

Condotiero records system design details related to the requirements, allowing for the linking of related documents held within the Document Management facility in the application.

Condotiero records technical design details, including component details, allowing for the linking of related documents held within their Document Management facility in the application.

Condotiero records agreed acceptance criteria.

Condotiero records component inventory details.

Condotiero generates “Requirements Traceability Matrix / Component Inventory Checklist” and “Acceptance Criteria” documents; templates are provided in the package.

Condotiero records unit, application, integration and acceptance test plan details.

Condotiero generates “Test Plan” document; templates are provided in the package.

• Provides Project Status Reporting and overall forecasts.
  
  
• Track project milestones.
  
  
• Generate and print a Project Tracking Status Report and the Project Status Report; templates are provided in the package.
  
  

Condotiero provides team members with a list and schedule of the tasks they’ve been assigned across all projects they are working on.

It will display a list of open tasks assigned to any team member; this list can be viewed as either just the current active tasks or all assigned tasks. The list can also be printed.

It will display a schedule of open tasks assigned to any team member. The schedule can also be printed.

Condotiero provides inbuilt Emailing facilities. Emails can be imported from your Email Server without the need for an Email client like Microsoft Outlook. These Emails can be linked to current open projects, portfolios or programmes (depending on the application) which are then stored within the database along with al of the project data and documents loaded.

Emails can now be printed.

Condotiero can also send Emails through your Email Server without the need for an Email client like Microsoft Outlook. These Emails can be also be linked to current open projects, portfolios or programmes (depending on the application) which are then stored within the database along with all of the project data and documents loaded.

Condotiero provides inbuilt Instant Messaging facilities. Conversations can be maintained with other team members. Messages can include attached files. Team members need only have access to the SQL Server instance where the database is held in order to be available for conversation. These conversations are also stored within the database.

Messenger now features a more graphical interface.

We even provide the Messenger as a standalone tool that team members that don't regularly used them, you can load this standalone tool at startup and maintain contact with your teammates.

As well as all of these tasks, Condotiero assists the Project Manager in other ways. Please check it out; it's available for download on a 30-day trial.

Condotiero is available in 5, 10 and 50 user licenses; but we're happy to negotiate any other arrangement. Just contact us.