Project Success of WITTE Automotive GmbH

The Search for Complex PM Software

One of WITTE Automotive's goals is to standardize project management throughout the company. This was approached using different tools such as Microsoft tools like MS Project, SharePoint, and Excel. However, it turned out that WITTE could not introduce a standardized project management for all departments using this system landscape.

In 2017, the company started looking for project management software. The tool should meet the complex challenges within the globally operating organizations. WITTE Automotive necessarily needed a tool working seamlessly with Jira and Confluence. It should also enable a realistic visualization of the schedule.

The company evaluated several providers of project and schedule planning.

After an intensive test phase, they decided to go with Planforge. So far, WITTE Automotive has licensed 80 manager users and 500 Jira users.

Transparency and Comparability in the Portfolio

Despite the successful implementation of its internal and external projects, the company needed to improve the comparability of the portfolios.

With Planforge, the company can now standardize its development projects and compare portfolios. To do this, they have created and customized their own templates in the software, such as the default schedule. The project managers find it convenient that the templates are automatically updated for all current and new projects.

The Timeline as a Reporting Tool

For WITTE Automotive, the Timeline (or schedule) is an important reporting tool for steering committees, where up to 15 projects are presented in a short time. It helps project managers show relevant stages, work packages, and milestones at a glance.

In contrast to detailed Gantt charts, the Timeline immediately shows where the project currently stands. For the project managers, this view provides a clear overview since it is purely about the key points of planning. Planforge's Timeline will be adapted to the requirements of WITTE Automotive in the future and will be used in steering committees.

The Backbone for Management and Employees

The company sees Planforge as the backbone of the projects, where users can find all tasks and schedules. The project managers no longer work on the same lists concurrently. They handle all tasks directly in the software.

For the employees, Planforge is a tool that clearly displays tasks and projects. The relatively "dry" topics like schedules are now presented comprehensibly so that the employees can relate to them. Now, each team member is more involved and has a good overview of the project status.

Seamless Integration with Jira

One of the most significant advantages of the software, according to the company, is the direct connection to Jira. Project managers do no longer have to enter data twice because everything is automatically synchronized. They have no problems handling the interface, as the data is displayed similarly to Jira.

WITTE Automotive uses the integration also for task management. For example, project managers assign tasks to the appropriate department via Jira. At the same time, they receive an overview of the tasks and their status in Planforge.

WITTE Automotive thus gains the desired system landscape that can work together with existing tools. This was an essential factor for the company because now all departments can use the project management software.

A PM Tool Evolving with Witte Automotive

As an innovative company, WITTE Automotive is constantly evolving, which also changes the demands on project management. Therefore, they were looking for a software provider willing to incorporate new ideas and features into the project management software.

For WITTE Automotive, it was a key factor that Planforge responds to the individual topics of the company. By now, the software provider has already integrated one desired feature of WITTE Automotive.