This is the Open Workbench FAQ, which contains the most frequently asked questions about the Open Workbench application. If you have an additional question, please contact us by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  or post it in the forums.

Content 

• What is Open Workbench?
• What is the difference in functionality between Microsoft Project and Open Workbench?
• What exactly is "open source" and why does it matter?
• Is Open Workbench really free no matter how many users I have?
• How large and active is the Open Workbench community?
• How can I learn to use Open Workbench?
• What languages does Open Workbench support?
• What platforms does Open Workbench support?
• Can I convert a Microsoft Project file to an Open Workbench file, and vice versa?
• How do I get Open Workbench?
• Do developers need any special licenses in order to work with the Open Workbench code?
• Are there any parts of Open Workbench that are not provided to the open source community?
• Why should I register on the Open Workbench website?
• How do I report enhancement requests or bugs for Open Workbench?
• Can any developer just check in enhancements and bug fixes and have those changes become part of the Open Workbench code?
• What are my support options for Open Workbench?
• What is Computer Associates’ relationship with Open Workbench?

Questions & Answers 

Open Workbench is an open source desktop scheduling application. Released in 2004, it’s a free and powerful alternative to Microsoft Project. Open Workbench contains all the functionality that project managers expect in a world-class scheduling application, including creation of complex work breakdown structures, resource assignments and leveling, etc.

Open Workbench and Microsoft Project have similar functionality, but Open Workbench has superior functionality in several areas that are critical for project management. For complete details on the functional similarities and differences, visit the comparison page.

Open source is the publication of an application’s source code into the general population, where users and developers are free to modify the source code. Working with software that resides in the public domain offers real, practical benefits to users: lower costs, higher quality, and more rapid innovation. Moving to an open source model can potentially reduce costs and risk for many IT organizations in companies of all sizes.

Open Workbench can be downloaded and used for free for any number of users. Also, Open Workbench can be used by individuals or any type of organization.

There are over 100,000 people currently using Open Workbench as their desktop scheduling application, 50,000 users in the Open Workbench forums, and almost 40,000 downloads. Join our forums at www.openworkbench.org.

There are several ways to learn how to use Open Workbench. First, you can download the latest documentation, tutorials and sample projects under the Downloads section. You can also review the Open Workbench community forums to see what topics are being discussed by your peers. For more comprehensive training, you can also request the interactive Open Workbench Training CD, available for only $150. For details contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

Open Workbench is available in English, French and German.

Open Workbench is currently supported on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

If you have Microsoft Project 2002 or later, you should be able to save your project plans as XML files. Open Workbench can then import the XML file and edit the project plan.

The latest version of Open Workbench (OWB r1.1.6) can be downloaded from Downloads section. Developers can also download the Open Workbench source code for OWB r1.1.4 at Source Forge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/openworkbench), the world’s largest open source software development website. Source Forge has the largest repository of Open Source code and applications available on the Internet, and it provides free community services to open source developers. Currently, the Source Forge website hosts about 100,000 open source projects and has almost 1 million registered users.

Open Workbench uses components produced by other software vendors. To work with Open Workbench, you need the following:

• A license for Microsoft Visual Studio 2003 or later.
• MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class) components from Microsoft (a Visual Studio license provides access to these components). 
• Rogue Wave's Objective Grid & Objective Toolkit components. 
• Version 1.3.1 or later of Sun's Java Runtime Engine, which can be downloaded from http://www.java.com.

Open Workbench’s scheduling algorithms are currently not open sourced and will be maintained by CA Inc. (Computer Associates). Open Workbench developers will be able to use all other parts of Open Workbench without charge or restriction.

Registering on the Open Workbench website allows users and developers to become community members for Open Workbench, including the ability to submit enhancement requests, report bugs and post updates to community forums. Registered users who make substantial contributions can also become Forum Moderators.

Any Open Workbench user can log bugs at in the Open Workbench Forums. Once logged, developers in the community may fix the bugs and submit the fixes for approval to the webmaster. If accepted, the fixes will be added to the Open Workbench code and be available to the rest of the community.

Any registered Open Workbench developer can post thier changes to the Open Workbench Forum, where the webmaster and community will review the changes to ensure that the they are reasonable, fix what they intended to fix, and do not introduce new bugs or performance problems.

To continually improve the Open Workbench application, any bug fixes or modifications of the original Open Workbench code should be published to the Open Workbench community. However, while public sharing of code is recommended to continually improve the application, any functionality that is new code can be kept and maintained by contributors as their own intellectual property.

The primary avenue for obtaining support for Open Workbench is through the Open Workbench community. End users and developers may request help through www.openworkbench.org. Users and developers can also purchase commercial-grade support through Computer Associates. Computer Associates offers Open Workbench support under the following terms:

• Annual support costs $3500 for every 50 end users within an organization.
• Support is offered on only publicly available source code, and not proprietary code.
• Please call Computer Associates support at 888-550-6458 for detailed terms and conditions.
  

Computer Associates acquired Niku, the original developer of Open Workbench, in 2005. After many years of developing and supporting Open Workbench, Niku made the application available as an open source application in 2004. Computer Associates continues to be an active proponent of Open Workbench by periodically responding to enhancement requests and bug reports posted by the general community.