FW Editor: What are your plans or objectives for the near future?
Eugen Kocak: I am finishing documentation for the next release one of my products in these days. It is called Gaia, it is free-of-charge library and is intended for Java programmers. Then the next release of Hephaistos is planned. I want to make one of the most important project management and development tools from it, so my plans for the future are associated with this product.

FW Editor: How and when did you start writing the code for Hephaistos? What inspired you the most? Do you plan to develop new software, or are you more focused on optimizing the current ones?
Eugen Kocak: In the past I participated in several software projects - and nearly each of those projects showed defects in management. It seemed the project managers await some wonder. A surreal schedule, misjudgments and the inappropriate organization of the work, it all meant the hours and hours of effort over and above to build project to the given date. So, I can tell, my frustration was also my inspiration. One year ago I started to write Hephaistos. And because Hephaistos is the Java Swing client / server application (this is not the preferred solution at present, but it has some advantages against WEB based solutions), I had to first create a technology to support it, then I programmed the gantt chart component and also license validation framework. All these products are on the market now and they appear to be quite interesting for more and more customers. Of course, each product requires some customer support. And such support is the time-consuming work, so no new software is planned for now, I just want to improve the existing products.

FW Editor: From your point of view, which is the strongest Hephaistos feature? Why?
Eugen Kocak: I think the strongest feature is given by my inspiration: it is the ability to compare the planned and the real state. Hephaistos is the planner and the timesheet in one. Every user can see the planned task effort and the hours realized by the task assignee. The project manager can use it to improve the estimate in the future. And the project team member can check the feasibility of the given task in given time. This would eliminate the nervousness and the slips resulting from the bad estimation of an effort required by the project.

FW Editor: What new features should we expect in Hephaistos in the future? How do you plan to improve it?
Eugen Kocak: Currently, there is the initial version on the market. The next release is planned for november 2010, and it brings the resource and document management. In the future I will improve Hephaistos in two main directions: the profits for project managers and top management is the one. The second is the comprehensive tool for developers, which will support the requirements collection, analysis, modeling, documenting, and also Java programming and testing, and that all will work together with the project life cycle. So, the intentions are great and I hope, this product will become popular more and more.

FW Editor: Hephaistos is a great application and personally I love it. However, there are still many people who prefer to use similar software. What can you tell to convince them that Hephaistos is better?
Eugen Kocak: Hephaistos is just one from the thousends applications for the project management. Each one of them has some advantages, solves some problems and has its own customer club. There is no doubt, that Microsoft Project is great planner. Maybe you know Jira from Atlassian, which is great application for task processing. And many other. Hephaistos tries to put all the best features, you can know from the other applications, together. And this combination offers the overview and comfort to the users.

FW Editor: How can you describe Hephaistos in one single word? Why?
Eugen Kocak: Comprehensive. There is just the initial release of Hephaistos on the market, but it brings the project planning features and also timesheet functionalities. The next step will be the resource and document management. And then the features of the software development tool. So this is the word that describes Hephaistos - comprehensive.

FW Editor: Is there any full customer support service for the Hephaistos clients? If not, do you plan to create one in the future?
Eugen Kocak: The support is limited to the email support, but it seems that it is sufficient. The problem is usualy solved in the same day. I plan to build some discussion forum and also bug database to increase the customer support.

FW Editor: To end with, is there any message you would like to send to the Hephaistos users?
Eugen Kocak: The project management is vital and no one serious company can exist without it at present. I will be happy if Hephaistos will become the standard for project management. The future of this product is clear. So this is my message for the Hephaistos users and potential customers: use it. Your investment to acquiring new skills and / or to purchase a license (Hephaistos is free for small teams) will return in your own products - you will be able to deliver them in better quality, lower costs and shorter time than before.