RationalPlan Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 7.7 out of 10

Score

7.7 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for RationalPlan are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Competent and Cost-effective: Many users have found RationalPlan to be a very competent and cost-effective project management tool. They appreciate that it offers a low-cost option for high-level project planning needs, making it a valuable solution for managing projects on a budget.

Simple and Easy to Use: Users have mentioned that RationalPlan is simple, straightforward, and easy to use. Its good interface and intuitive features make it accessible to both experienced professionals and those new to project management.

Versatile and Compatible: Users like the fact that RationalPlan is native to the Mac and runs on different operating systems, making it versatile and compatible. This allows them to seamlessly work with their preferred devices while collaborating with team members who may be using different platforms.

Reviews

4 Reviews

Great value for a company that wants to enable personnel to plan and execute more effectively

Rating: 8 out of 10

March 6, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

RationalPlan provides our project group with a cost-effective scheduling solution across multiple functions. We run many projects and having a tool that is comparable to MS Project but less than 4x the cost is very appealing. When I have had questions I was able to contact customer service and receive a response quickly. Keep up the great work.

Pros

Intuitive interface
Critical Path Highlighting
Baseline Capability
Customized Fields
Ability to integrate and email persons assigned tasks

Cons

Duration at top level only in days (no options to change). Not so fun when running multi-year projects and trying to convert to weeks months on the fly in meetings
Ability to customize built in reports (even if it was done outside and you had to use fields provided)
Printing flexibility for reporting

Likelihood to Recommend

Appropriate as a great alternative to MS Project. RationalPlan provides most of the features needed to develop and maintain mid-level complex schedules.

Less Appropriate for large complex schedules of long duration. These can be a challenge due to Duration at top-level. It is also a challenge to generate reports for management - reporting feature is limited.

Verified User

Project Manager in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

RationalPlan fits our needs as project planning tool

Rating: 9 out of 10

March 4, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

RationalPlan Single is used as a project planning tool.

Pros

Runs on Linux and Windows.
It Can read Microsoft Project files.
Contains all functions needed for easy to use project planning

Cons

I don't miss anything.

Likelihood to Recommend

RationalPlan fits well for our purpose of planning and monitoring single projects.

Verified User

Engineer in Research & Development (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Rational Plan Multi - Best Project Management Platform

Rating: 10 out of 10

November 4, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use RationalPlan Multi to manage my project portfolio in the region. Multi really helped in getting my projects organised.

Pros

Portfolio view is great to get a feel for how your programme is running at a glance and which areas possibly might require attention. The fact that you can customise your view by adding your own columns is another plus.
All project information in one tool is a big plus for me considering the amount of projects we run with. This really improves efficiency and saves me time. You have the ability to add documents to tasks, manage risks, email resources tasks due for projects they are assigned to(might need some refinement depending on your requirements), material db with costing etc.

Cons

While the portfolio view is great is becomes difficult/cluttered with many projects. Highlighting master projects will help. Creating a tree view for master project and its sub projects would even be better.
Reporting is a big part of any project. While rationalplan has reports for key areas the presentation of these reports could really be improved. Make it more presentable. Add some burndown charts. I hate to compare you to MS Project but they do reporting really well in MS Project.
The email function is another great idea. Would be great if one had an option to either email an entire portfolio or by active project. At times I’m still scoping certain projects and if the WBS is not yet complete then this incomplete project is also communicated via email which leads to frustration in the team. You don’t always want to communicate tasks for all projects to all resources.
One need to be able to: Email per project
Email entire portfolio (as currently the case)
Email by resource (send pending or outstanding tasks to the resource in question)
Add a portfolio dashboard with graphical speed and bar charts giving you a glimpse of late projects, projects slipping, not started in progress etc., for your portfolio.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's got its shortcomings but is still the best PM tool in my opinion.

Justin James, MComPM, Prince2

Operations Project Management in Corporate at Vodacom (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Needed a plan quick with minimal cost and setup.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

November 3, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Used for a project for a customer. Also using agile scrum tools for bottom up management.

Pros

Simple interface easy to use.
Runs natively on mac and is reasonably priced for what I need - high level project planning.
Does way more than what I actually need it for.

Cons

Milestones should be a primary option instead of 0h to create one.

Likelihood to Recommend

Great for agile projects that need to define a high level project plan.

LeRoy Mattingly

Chief Architect in Professional Services at About Objects, Inc. (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

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Reviews and Ratings

Rational Plan Multi - Best Project Management Platform

Rating: 10 out of 10

November 4, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use RationalPlan Multi to manage my project portfolio in the region. Multi really helped in getting my projects organised.

Pros

Portfolio view is great to get a feel for how your programme is running at a glance and which areas possibly might require attention. The fact that you can customise your view by adding your own columns is another plus.
All project information in one tool is a big plus for me considering the amount of projects we run with. This really improves efficiency and saves me time. You have the ability to add documents to tasks, manage risks, email resources tasks due for projects they are assigned to(might need some refinement depending on your requirements), material db with costing etc.

Cons

While the portfolio view is great is becomes difficult/cluttered with many projects. Highlighting master projects will help. Creating a tree view for master project and its sub projects would even be better.
Reporting is a big part of any project. While rationalplan has reports for key areas the presentation of these reports could really be improved. Make it more presentable. Add some burndown charts. I hate to compare you to MS Project but they do reporting really well in MS Project.
The email function is another great idea. Would be great if one had an option to either email an entire portfolio or by active project. At times I’m still scoping certain projects and if the WBS is not yet complete then this incomplete project is also communicated via email which leads to frustration in the team. You don’t always want to communicate tasks for all projects to all resources.
One need to be able to: Email per project
Email entire portfolio (as currently the case)
Email by resource (send pending or outstanding tasks to the resource in question)
Add a portfolio dashboard with graphical speed and bar charts giving you a glimpse of late projects, projects slipping, not started in progress etc., for your portfolio.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's got its shortcomings but is still the best PM tool in my opinion.

Justin James, MComPM, Prince2

Operations Project Management in Corporate at Vodacom (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile