All other members of the project team use the WBStool web access. (For some work packages the project leader will also be the responsible person and then he will also use the web access in his role of a responsible person for a work package.)

The connection among the team members is established by the unique nicknames, which everybody gets with his WBStool-Registration.

As soon as a team member uses the WBStool web access (login), he can find (after JAVA has loaded) the collection of all work packages , he is responsible for – from all projects, in which he is participating. Now the user can arrange his work packages on the screen per mouse click/move, as he likes.

At the top of the screen the user can see his personal resources histogram for the actual calender weeks.

After this, registered users can go to the WBStool-Homepage, log in there and manage their work packages among all projects they are associated with.

Actual data, which was collected by responsibles on the basis of single work packages in this web-access, will then by copied back into the specific project in the WBStool.exe, when the project manager uses the option “Sync Server” again.

(P.S.: WBStool web-access needs JAVA.)

    Public Shared Function DataGridView2Bitmap(ByVal myDataGridView As DataGridView) As Bitmap
        Dim g As Graphics = myDataGridView.CreateGraphics
        Dim oldSize As Size = myDataGridView.Size
        Dim totalSize As Size = myDataGridView.PreferredSize
'
        myDataGridView.Size = totalSize
        myDataGridView.ClearSelection()
'
        DataGridView2Bitmap = New Bitmap(totalSize.Width, totalSize.Height, g)
        myDataGridView.DrawToBitmap(DataGridView2Bitmap, New Rectangle(New Point(0, 0), totalSize))
        myDataGridView.Size = oldSize
    End Function
'
'
    Private Sub PrintImage_PrintPage(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Drawing.Printing.PrintPageEventArgs) Handles PrintImage.PrintPage
        Dim destRect As RectangleF = e.MarginBounds
        Dim ratio As Decimal
        Dim myGridSize As Size = myDataGridView.PreferredSize
'
        ratio = myGridSize.Height / myGridSize.Width
        destRect.Width = Math.Min(e.MarginBounds.Width, myGridSize.Width)
        destRect.Height = destRect.Width * ratio
        destRect.Height = Math.Min(e.MarginBounds.Height, destRect.Height)
        destRect.Width = destRect.Height / ratio
'
        destRect.Location = New Point(destRect.Left + (e.MarginBounds.Width - destRect.Width) / 2, destRect.Top + (e.MarginBounds.Height - destRect.Height) / 2)
        e.Graphics.DrawImage(DataGridView2Bitmap(myDataGridView), destRect, New RectangleF(0, 0, myGridSize.Width, myGridSize.Height), GraphicsUnit.Pixel)
        Application.DoEvents()
    End Sub

If you want to see it in action print the costplan in the WBStool.

In the WBStool I move the mouse over the WBS-elements – selecting a specific element by that – and use the keys <Ins>* and <Ctrl-Ins>** in order to compose all the phases and work-packages.

That gives me all necessary empty (only numbered) elements in the structure. In case of a mistake I can use <Del> to delete an element. Or I drag and drop elements using the mouse. Of course I can also use the context-menu with right mouse-click on an element for creating and arranging the elements in my plan.

When the structure fits, I change to the list of WBS-elements using the menuitem “View/COST”. There I enter all descriptions for the elements by typing the text into a cell, pressing <ENTER> and typing the text into the next cell.

At the end I check everything with menuitem “View/WBS”. If some descriptions are too long, I can change the card-type from “small” to “large” in the menu “Options/CardType”.

In the context-menu of an element (right mouse-cklick) I can also set an element to “Milestone” if necessary.

* new element ** new sub-element

(The file is saved in XML-format. I can look into that data via notepad or internet explorer).

Then I move the mouse over the empty element of the WBS shown in WBStool as root-element of my new project and press <RETURN>. Now I can write the name of the project into that element. Pressing <RETURN> again finishes the edit-mode.

With menuitem “Options/Level0″ I can define the first outline number as 1 or nothing. The project phases then get “1, 2, 3, …” or “1.1, 1.2, 1.3, …”

Selecting the other options I can set several values for my project, e.g. the currency symbol, the average internal cost for one working hour or the colors for the presentation of my WBS in WBStool.

Sample WBS

Then I start the “WBStool.exe”, wait a second, and see the sample work breakdown structure shown in the WBStool.

If that does not work, I install Microsoft’s .net-Framework and start the WBStool.exe afterwards.

From the first start of the WBStool.exe on I find a WBStool-shortcut on the desktop of my computer which I use from then on to start my WBStool.

P.S.: In order to install the WBStool MS Project Integration I extract the WBStoolMPP.dll-file into the directory of my WBStool.exe (see above). If necessary I install the Microsoft Interop-Assemblies (follow links on the download page).