Articles
Guides & FAQ
SEO guides and answers on project portfolio management, planning, resources and budgets.
Guides
What is a Gantt chart? A guide for project planning
A Gantt chart visualizes tasks, dependencies and timelines — the backbone of project planning.
GuideThe complete guide to project planning
From business case to schedule, budget and risks — how to plan a project that delivers on time and on budget.
GuideThe complete guide to resource management
Plan, schedule, forecast and allocate people, technology and budget — balancing capacity and workload.
GuideThe 5 phases of the project management life cycle
Initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and closure — the five phases explained.
GuideThe critical path method (CPM) in project management
The longest chain of dependent tasks that sets the shortest possible project duration.
GuideRACI matrix: roles and responsibilities in projects
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed — clarify who does what on every task.
GuideProject risk management: identify, assess, mitigate
Detect, evaluate and minimize the risks that can affect scope, schedule or budget.
GuideProject management glossary: key terms explained
Agile, baseline, critical path, deliverable, RACI… the essential project management vocabulary.
GuideWhat is a retro planning (reverse schedule)?
Reverse scheduling starts from the deadline and works backwards to date every task — so you never miss the delivery date.
GuideProject management KPIs: the key indicators to track
KPIs turn project data into decisions — measure schedule, budget, quality and resources to keep delivery on track.
GuideThe steering committee (COPIL) in project management
The steering committee is the governance body that arbitrates, decides and steers a project toward its objectives.
GuideHow to build a project action plan
An action plan turns an objective into a concrete list of tasks, owners and deadlines — the bridge from strategy to execution.
GuideWhat is a PMO (Project Management Office)?
The PMO is the team that defines standards, governance and visibility to deliver projects consistently across the organisation.
GuideThe best alternative to Microsoft Project
Looking to replace MS Project? Here is what to look for in a modern PPM alternative — and how FoxPlan compares.
GuideWhat is project management?
Project management is the systematic process of planning, executing and controlling resources and activities to reach a defined goal.
GuideHow to define your project scope
A project should be large enough to cover every deliverable, yet small enough to stay manageable. That balance is the scope.
GuideEverything you need to know about the project schedule
A real project schedule is more than a timeline: it is a shared reference the whole team can work from.
GuideThe complete guide to creating a project budget
Nothing gets delivered without money. Building — and holding — a project budget is a core project management skill.
GuideThe complete guide to project monitoring
Once the plan is published and work has started, monitoring is what keeps the promise of the plan credible.
GuideWhat is a project deliverable? Definition and examples
A deliverable is any tangible result a project hands over. Defining them precisely is what turns an objective into work that can be planned.
GuideThe project team: roles, structure and how to build it
Whatever method you follow, it is the project team that carries a project to completion — provided its roles and its availability are real.
GuideEverything you need to know about the project sponsor
Every project needs a sponsor: the business leader who champions it and removes the obstacles that threaten it.
GuideThe guide to project reviews
Executives regularly want assurance that a project is on track. The project review is how that assurance is produced.
GuideThe quick guide to the project kick-off meeting
Projects that start badly rarely recover. The kick-off is where expectations become explicit.
GuideThe quick guide to project reporting
Reporting means giving each stakeholder the right level of information — not sending everyone the same document.
GuideWhat is a sprint in agile?
A sprint is a short, fixed period during which a team completes a defined amount of work — the heartbeat of agile delivery.
GuideThe quick guide to the daily scrum meeting
The daily scrum inspects progress toward the sprint goal and adapts the sprint backlog accordingly — in fifteen minutes.
GuideThe guide to Scrum values
Scrum works only when teams live its five values: commitment, focus, openness, respect and courage.
GuideScrumban: definition, principles and when to use it
Scrumban blends Scrum and Kanban: the cadence and rituals of one, the continuous flow and pull system of the other.
GuideThe ultimate guide to the product backlog
A well-prioritised backlog communicates everything the team intends to spend time on — including what the client never sees.
GuideHow to build an agile roadmap
A roadmap describes how a product will evolve over time — and gives the team the context its daily work needs.
GuideUnderstanding SMART goals in project management
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound: five criteria that turn an intention into an objective.
GuideThe guide to the project communication plan
Effective internal and external communication is a condition of project success — and it deserves a plan of its own.
GuideProgram management: steering a set of related projects
A program groups projects that share an objective, so the benefits are managed at the level where they actually appear.
GuidePractical tips to become a successful project manager
Project management is hard to predict. A few habits make the difference between reacting and steering.
GuideHow to choose the best PPM software for your projects
Every solution looks alike on its website. The choice becomes clear once you start from your own constraints.
GuideWhat makes the best project portfolio management software
In PPM, organizations need prioritization, resource optimisation and strategic alignment. Here is how to judge a candidate.
GuideHow to identify the best project management software for your team
Project management is central to modern operations. The right software depends on team size, work type and governance needs.
GuideKey project management strategies for industrial projects
Industrial projects combine complex logistics, tight schedules and strict quality standards. They need a structured approach.
GuideThe most time-consuming PMO activities — and how to reduce them
PMOs lose most of their time to data collection and consolidation. That is exactly the part a tool can absorb.
GuideProcess improvement examples for project management
Concrete, low-cost changes that make project delivery more predictable — most of them organisational rather than technical.
GuideCAPEX and OPEX: what the difference changes for your project
CAPEX buys an asset that lasts, OPEX pays for running the business. The split decides who approves your budget and how it hits the accounts.
GuideWBS: breaking a project down into work you can plan
The work breakdown structure turns a scope statement into a hierarchy of deliverables small enough to estimate, assign and track.
GuideWorkload plan: how to build one and actually steer with it
A workload plan compares what your teams can deliver with what your projects demand — and shows the overloads while there is still time to act.
GuideV-model: stages, strengths, and when agile fits better
The V-model pairs each design stage with the test that will validate it. Rigid where requirements move, unbeatable where they must not.
GuideProject dashboard: which indicators actually belong on it
A dashboard exists to trigger decisions, not to reassure. Six indicators, read by the right audience, beat twenty that nobody acts on.
GuideEisenhower matrix: from tasks to project arbitration
Two axes — urgent and important — and four quadrants that tell you what to do, schedule, delegate or drop. The same logic scales to a portfolio.
GuideBusiness case: justifying a project before committing
A business case compares what a project will cost with what it will bring — and with the cost of doing nothing. It is a decision document, not a sales pitch.
GuideFeasibility study: the five angles to examine
Before asking whether a project is worth doing, ask whether it can be done at all — technically, financially, organizationally, legally and in time.
GuideProject milestones: what they are for and how to place them
A milestone has no duration and consumes no resources. It marks a moment the project must be able to prove — and it is the only date a sponsor really reads.
GuideMacro planning: framing a project before going into detail
A high-level plan of ten to twenty lines, built before the detailed schedule. It is what you commit to — the detail is only how you intend to get there.
GuideProject prioritization: how to arbitrate a portfolio
Scoring projects is easy. Deciding which ones stop is the hard part — and it only happens when the ranking meets capacity.
GuideTop-down or bottom-up: two ways to build a plan
One starts from the target and divides it. The other starts from the work and adds it up. Serious portfolios use both, and the gap between them is the information.
GuideOKRs: connecting company objectives to projects
An objective says where you want to go; key results say how you will know you got there. The hard part is what happens when a project serves none.
GuideThe specification document: what it must contain
A specification is not a wish list. It is the document against which delivery will be accepted — which means every line has to be verifiable.
GuideIT project management: what makes it different
IT projects fail less on technology than on three specific traits: an invisible product, shared teams, and a legacy that has to keep running.
FAQ
What is Project Portfolio Management (PPM) software?
PPM software gives visibility and oversight to prioritize and manage projects and resources across the portfolio.
FAQWhy use a project management software?
Track deadlines, responsibilities and progress, improve coordination, and deliver on time and on budget.
FAQIs FoxPlan free? Pricing of the PPM software
Yes — FoxPlan offers a free plan with planning and resource management, plus paid Professional and BI options.
FAQWhat are the three tools in portfolio management?
Project planning, resource management and budget management are the three pillars of portfolio management.
FAQWhat is a PERT chart in project management?
A PERT chart maps tasks and dependencies to estimate the time a project needs — and find its critical path.
FAQWhat is an S-curve in project management?
An S-curve plots cumulative progress, cost or effort over time — a fast way to see if a project is on track.
FAQWhat is agile project management?
Agile delivers work in short, iterative cycles, adapting to change instead of following a fixed upfront plan.
FAQWhat is a project charter?
A project charter is the short document that formally authorises a project and defines its objectives and scope.
FAQWhat is a stakeholder in project management?
A stakeholder is anyone with an interest in a project — and managing them well is decisive for success.
FAQIs project management software really difficult to learn?
It does not have to be. Adoption depends far more on how the tool is introduced than on its feature count.
FAQIs FoxPlan data stored in France?
Yes. All customer data of the FoxPlan project management solution is stored exclusively in France.
FAQFoxPlan is available in the UGAP catalogue
Public bodies can acquire FoxPlan through UGAP, the French central purchasing body, without running their own tender.
FAQHow students and teachers can use FoxPlan
The Professional version of FoxPlan is free for students and teachers — a professional tool in the classroom.
