Off and running ...

At last, Planix launches after weeks in alpha release, months in development, and years in the making. The questions it tries to address are two we’ve seen in all shapes and sizes of organizations and projects: “When will it be done?” and “Are we on track?” The ‘it’ here is a custom software application. Software estimation is part art and part science. While we don’t claim to have cracked the secret code to software estimation with Planix, we do hope we’re well on our way to ‘democratizing’ the seemingly arcane process for everyone.

Planix leverages the best practices and concepts provided by estimation frameworks such as COCOMO (COnstructive COst MOdel), Function Point Analysis, and Use Case Points while sprinkling in a handful of our own successful techniques for estimating, planning, and negotiating the development of software. While these best practices are incredibly powerful, historically, they’ve been hard to implement in a repeatable way because of their complexity. Our goal with Planix is to empower teams by finding ways to make estimation and project management understandable without requiring them to have a PhD in software estimation or Microsoft Project.

With the release of this Private Beta version we hope to get crucial feedback to refine the application before our public release. We recognize this is a living application that will continue to evolve, and we have a queue of both refinements and new features which we are already actively managing. We thank you for taking us up on our invitation, and look forward to your input.

Please email any input you do have to feedback [at] planixonline.com

Happy estimating.