TaskJuggler

What is TaskJuggler?

TaskJuggler started in 2001 by Chris Schläger and has evolved from a command‑line report generator to a full‑featured scheduling engine. The early years focused on generating HTML reports, while from 2005 to 2010 a KDE‑based GUI was available, giving users a visual interface similar to MS Project.

It is aimed at project managers and technical planners who need a flexible, data‑driven approach. Unlike the commercial tools it offers a text‑based project definition file that can be version‑controlled.

Compared with FastTrack Schedule or Microsoft Project, TaskJuggler feels more like a scripting language than a WYSIWYG editor. It requires learning its own syntax but gives precise control over resources, constraints and dependencies.

Best for: Project managers who prefer a script‑based, version‑controlled planning tool over WYSIWYG interfaces.

Key features of TaskJuggler

• Text‑based project definition files
• Advanced resource allocation and constraint handling
• Command‑line engine that outputs HTML reports
• Built with Qt and KDE libraries
• Cross‑platform (Linux, Unix, Windows)
• Free and GPL‑licensed

Tips for Windows users

If you come from FastTrack or MS Project, you’ll need to export your data to CSV or XML and then import it into TaskJuggler’s .tjp file format. The syntax is line‑based: tasks, resources, and constraints are defined in plain text. Shortcuts are minimal; navigation is via the command line and the generated HTML reports. Workflow shifts from drag‑and‑drop to editing the .tjp file and re‑running the engine to see updated schedules.