openproject/help/getting-started/openproject-introduction.md

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Introduction to OpenProject

Welcome to OpenProject! We are glad to have you here. In this section we will cover an introduction to project management with OpenProject as well as general topics regarding OpenProject.

Overview

Popular Topics	Description
About OpenProject	What is OpenProject?
First steps to get started	The first steps to get started with OpenProject.
The entire Project Management Life-Cycle	Find out more how OpenProject supports the different project phases.
OpenProject products	What is the difference between the Community, Cloud and Enterprise Edition?

About OpenProject

OpenProject is free and open source software for classical as well as agile project management to support your team along the entire project life-cycle. OpenProject is available in more than 30 languages.

OpenProject is licensed under GNU GPL V3. The source code is freely published on GitHub. We understand free as in free speech. We do offer paid subscriptions for our software.

OpenProject exists since 2011 and is a fork of the deprecated ChiliProject which was a fork of Redmine.

First steps to get started

To get started with OpenProject, there are a few easy steps to follow:

1. Get an account and sign in
2. Create a new project
3. Invite team members to collaborate
4. Create work packages
5. Set up a project plan

The entire Project Management Life-Cycle

OpenProject offers a full feature set to support project teams along the entire project management process:

OpenProject enables project collaboration and communication without system interruption from the initial project idea until project closure and documentation.

The following sections provide links to the documentation for each project phase:

Project phase	Documentation for
Project concept and initiation	Collect ideas and specify project scope and deliverables: set up a project, document initial ideas, project description, invite members.
Project definition and planning	Create a project overview with detailed information, set up a project plan, create your roadmap.
Project launch or execution	Manage all project activities, such as tasks, deliverables, risks, features, bugs, change requests. Use agile boards with your teams, document meetings, share news.
Project performance and control	Create and manage project budgets, track and evaluate time and costs. Have custom reports for accurate, current insight into project performance and allocated resources.
Project close	Document project achievements, lessons learned, best practices and easily summarize the main results of a project. Archive projects for later reference and lessons learned.

Project concept and initiation

OpenProject supports the initial set-up and configuration of a project structure.

Features	Documentation for
Create a new project	Create and set up a new project in OpenProject.
Set up a project structure	Create a project hierarchy to structure your work in OpenProject.
Document ideas	Create first ideas, tasks, rough milestones.
Project description	Describe the goal and the way to reach them for your project.
Invite members	Invite your team to collaborate in OpenProject.

Project definition and planning

Create a project overview with more detailed information, set up your project plan, structure your work, create a roadmap.

Features	Documentation for
Project overview	Create a project overview with important project information.
Project plan	Set up a project timeline.
Structure your work	Create work packages and structure your work
Roadmap planning	Create a roadmap for your project.

Project launch or execution

Manage all project activities, such as tasks, deliverables, risks, features, bugs, change requests in the work packages. Use agile boards with your teams. Document meetings, share news.

Features	Documentation for
Work packages	Create and manage all project deliverables, tasks, features, risks, and more.
Boards	Manage your work with an Agile approach in the flexible boards view.
Meetings	Plan and document your project meetings and share minutes with all your team.
News	Share project news with your team.
Wiki	Document all important project information and keep it up to date with your team.

Project performance and control

Create and manage project budgets, track and evaluate time and costs. Have custom reports for accurate, current insight into project performance and allocated resources.

Features	Documentation for
Dashboard	Visualize your progress within a project or project overarching (coming soon).
Budgets	Create and manage budgets in your project.
Time tracking	Track time for any work within your project.
Track unit costs	Track unit costs for your project.
Time and cost reporting	Have accurate detailed reports of current spent time and costs within your project.

Project close

Document project achievements, lessons learned, best practices and easily summarize the main results of a project. Archive projects for later reference and lessons learned.

Features	Documentation for
Wiki	Document all relevant project information, lessons learned, best practices, results, and more.
Project archive	Archive your project for further reference and documentation.

OpenProject products

What is the differences between the Community, Cloud and Enterprise Edition?

OpenProject can be used in three different Editions, either on-premise or as software-as-a-service.

• Community Edition: self-installed on-premise.
• Cloud Edition: we host it, incl. premium features and support.
• Enterprise Edition: self-hosted version, incl. premium features and support.

To compare the features side by side, please visit our Feature Comparison page.