Merlin is a project manager for Mac OS X users. Merlin was created by German developers ProjectWizards who had a keen eye for integration with existing Mac OS X applications, ease-of-use and powerful features that previously were only found in Microsoft’s Project Manager on Wintel.

Merlin is extremely useful for anyone managing projects and having to decide about the allocation of project resources, the risks involved, and the tasks to be delegated. Projects can be started from scratch, but that is often a very difficult way of working which is only really well if you have a lot of knowledge or experience with project management. It is far easier to start with an outline or a mind map.

Merlin supports both methods of starting a project. It imports NovaMind mind maps natively, and OmniOutline 2 outlines. What you get when you start this way is a Merlin project sheet filled with tasks that all start simultaneously. Within Merlin, you can then organize the work for real.

Merlin’s integration starts with NovaMind and OmniOutliner, but it doesn’t end there. Each project can have many human resources allocated to it, and so Merlin offers the ability to drag addresses straight from the Address Book in the Merlin interface. Your next step in the proejct setup will be to decide when one task can start and the other must end. For these purposes, Merlin supports start-to-end period settings ---you define the start date and the time a task will take, and Merlin decided on the end date. The program also support the reverse: you set a deadline and task duration, and Merlin calculates when the task must start.

Many features of Merlin are idiot-proof. For example, some fields cannot be altered after you have set up the project, simply because if you were allowed to, the whole schedule would fall apart. Merlin also goes beyond traditional desktop project management, in that it provides a powerful yet elegant interface to risk management, and to issue follow-up. Risk management enables you to set risk flags associated with financial, time (deadlines slipping) and other risks that some events generate. Issues are somewhat like risks, though less serious. 

Merlin lets you filter information based on risks, dates, issues and other events that take place during a project. It also supports the entry of dates for meetings and the attachment of files. As soon as the project is set up satisfactorily, the defined jobs can start. To keep an eye on those tasks, Merlin allows you to export tasks to iCal. There they are converted into day-long events. This is the only criticism I have with regards to Merlin. In my opinion, there should be a choice whether you would like to export the project’s calendar as day-long events, or as tasks with a due date.

For readibility purposes, I think the latter would be a welcome addition; iCal simply becomes a chaos if you export a complete project into it as day-long events.

But that is the only criticism I really have. Merlin is a full-scale project manager, suitable for any project size and complexity. It makes wonderful use of Mac OS X technology and integrates intelligently with other applications. If you doubt a project manager is for you, there’s a downloadable version at ProjectWizards’ web site.