Case study

Within the framework of the research project FutureWaterCampus funded by EFRE (European Regional Development Fund), the FWCInnoCIM working group dealt, among other things, with the conceptual design and development of a campus information management system (CIM). The aim was to support research and development and its monitoring.

OpenProject was one of the two software solutions that formed the basic framework for the Campus Information Management System. As project management software, it covers the aspects of collaboration, controlling and monitoring.
https://www.uni-due.de/zwu/futurewatercampus.php

Martin Piechullik, M. Sc.

University Duisburg-Essen
Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering
Institute for Construction Operations and Construction Management
Research assistant

OpenProject is a great project management software that supports both classic and agile project management and also contains many other useful features. The developed integration with the file management software Nextcloud makes it possible to link work packages with documents. This enables efficient, targeted and digital project work. What we also really appreciate is the possibility to host OpenProject on site, which gives us full data control.

OpenProject for the FutureWaterCampus

The Institute for Construction Operations and Management University Duisburg-Essen is using OpenProject for the development of the Campus Information Management System (CIM) for the new FutureWaterCampus. Thereby, the team is also involved in the actual planning and construction of the new campus.
With OpenProject, the team is no longer using to do lists or Excel files but enjoys using the Kanban boards to distribute tasks. This also guarantees that everyone is always up to date who is working on what.
After 2 years of development and usage in a smaller team, OpenProject will be rolled out to a large team of members across different disciplines to also collaborate on research projects.

Especially for the collaboration on research projects, the FutureWaterCampus and its teams will exchange plenty of documents.
And because data security and on-premises hosting are of utmost importance to them, they decided to sponsor the OpenProject Nextcloud integration.
It allows to link and display Nextcloud files and folders in OpenProject. Consequently, the productivity of users of both platforms increases significantly. In OpenProject, you can now find files directly in the respective work package.
This is a great example of an open source feature development. During the development, the teams from OpenProject and University Duisburg-Essen were in constant exchange via OpenProject for specification, development, feedback and testing to make sure University Duisburg-Essen’s needs are being met.

The benefits of OpenProject for the University Duisburg-Essen

On-premises

Internal hosting for data security and control

Open Source

Open Source provides full transparency and the option to add to the code

More transparency

All tasks clearly and directly at a glance. Everyone can see what has to be done by whom and by when

Cross-functional collaboration

OpenProjects connects interdisciplinary teams by providing a web-based system that contains all information for everyone at any time.

Which OpenProject features is the University Duisburg-Essen using most?

Work packages

Task management and team collaboration.

For all to dos, work packages are created in OpenProject, team members are assigned, they edit and change the respective status, assign it to someone else etc.

KANBAN Boards

Prioritize and visualize tasks.

The KANBAN board shows all work packages by status. It makes it easy to get an overview of what has been done and still needs to be done.

Assignee boards

Prioritize and visualize tasks.

The assignee board gives a good overview over the team’s workload. It is easy to move a work package from one assignee to the other with drag and drop.

Custom fields

Controlling and monitoring in research projects

The University Duisburg-Essen uses custom fields and custom work package types to create a quality score card. Thereby, the progress of the KPIs of several projects is used to calculate the progress of the parent project.