Using Project Management Software for Efficient Race Car Development
Professional work during your studies
KA-RaceIng is a renown university group at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Every year, around 85 dedicated students develop and produce a new racing car to take part in Formula Student, one of the world’s largest design competitions. They are supported by around 850 alumni, who are there to advise them with their valuable knowledge.

Challenge: Organizing Capacities and Team Members
In the past, KA-RaceIng has repeatedly faced challenges in organizing capacities and team members. These challenges were tackled by introducing the PLANTA Project and PLANTA pulse project management software solutions.
Project Management Software Replaces Excel Sheets
At the beginning of the season, KA-RaceIng uses PLANTA Project, to plan the upcoming tasks, appointments and the agenda and to get a good overview. This provides them with a comprehensive overview of all project steps. In the course of the season, the tasks are then planned in depth using PLANTA pulse. For example, team members and tasks can be managed efficiently during events such as the rollout of the new racing car. Before the introduction of PLANTA, KA-RaceIng used Excel spreadsheets. However, they did not offer the necessary functions for efficient project management.
Advantages of PLANTA Project and PLANTA pulse
PLANTA Project is primarily used by the team leaders, while PLANTA pulse is used by all persons involved to plan sprints or to prepare larger events.
PLANTA Project allows the team leaders to find out at the beginning of the season at which point of the process problems may arise at a later point in time. This means that critical paths can be avoided from the beginning.
However, PLANTA pulse also plays an important role. It provides a good overview of the tasks and work of the individual team members, but also of the team as a whole. This agility helps the members of KA-RaceIng enormously, for it means that they can always react in good time and adapt their processes. They can do all of this from their smartphones while they are working on the race car and don’t have a PC to hand. The PLANTA software offers KA-RaceIng a good overall package that supports them in the stressful planning and design process. They already have the opportunity to work with professional software during their studies — as will be the case later in their careers.

Using PLANTA since 2022