LisaProject is the first GUI-based

project management software Project management software are computer programs that help plan, organize, and manage resources. Depending on the sophistication of the software, it can manage Software development effort estimation, estimation and planning, Schedule (workplace) ...

, conceived and programmed by Debra Willrett of SoloSoft for Apple's

Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA" * Lisa, stagename of Japanese singer Lisa Komine (born 1978) * Lisa (South Korean singer) (born 1980) * Lisa (Japanese musician, b ...

workstation. In 1981, Willrett realized that project management was a universal problem and that a GUI-based application would be a useful tool. She proposed what became LisaProject to

Trip Hawkins William Murray "Trip" Hawkins III (born December 28, 1953) is an American entrepreneur and founder of Electronic Arts, The 3DO Company, and Digital Chocolate. Career A fan of the Strat-O-Matic Football pen and paper games, Hawkins started his ...

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

. At the time, Apple was developing the

Apple Lisa Lisa is a desktop computer developed by Apple, produced from January 19, 1983, to August 1, 1986, and succeeded by Macintosh. It is generally considered the first mass-market personal computer operable through a graphical user interface (GUI). I ...

computer which had limited software. LisaProject is the first project management system to simplify the project management process by allowing the user to interactively draw their project on the computer in the form of a

PERT Pert or PERT may refer to: Ships * - see List of United States Navy ships: P * , a World War II corvette, originally HMS ''Nepeta'' * Pert (sidewheeler), ''Pert'' (sidewheeler), a 19th-century steamboat that operated in British Columbia, Canada ...

chart. Constraints can be entered for each task, and the relationships between tasks show which ones must be completed before a task could begin. Given the task constraints and relationships, a critical path, schedule, and budget can be calculated dynamically using heuristic methods. The resulting schedule data can be viewed as a Gantt chart. Although the Lisa ultimately failed in the marketplace, the largest installed base was

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, which had used LisaProject. In response to the demand for LisaProject from NASA and other customers, a new version called MacProject was released with the first

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

in 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lisaproject Classic Mac OS-only software made by Apple Inc. Project management software 1981 software