Asana booked the Plymouth hull survey for Tuesday, but the tide's wrong and the surveyor's pass expired, and it knew neither
Custom project management software for a Plymouth marine or defence firm typically costs £35,000 to £95,000 over 3 to 6 months. Asana, Monday, Jira, and ClickUp manage tasks and timelines well; they can't reason about tide windows, berth availability, clearance eligibility, or vessel constraints, which are the realities that actually decide when marine and dockyard work can happen.
Marine and dockyard projects don't move on a calendar alone. A hull survey can only happen at a particular tide, a berth has to be free, the vessel has to be available, and the surveyor has to hold a valid dockyard pass and the right clearance. Asana will cheerfully schedule the task for a day when the tide's wrong and the surveyor's pass has lapsed, because it has no concept that any of those constraints exist.
So your project managers do the real scheduling in their heads and a tide table, using the PM tool only to record what was already decided elsewhere. The plan in Jira looks neat and is quietly fiction, until a slipped tide or an expired pass blows a milestone everyone thought was safe.
Where the off-the-shelf tools fall short
- Tasks scheduled against calendar dates with no regard for tide windows
- No check that a berth or the vessel is actually available on the planned day
- Clearance and dockyard-pass eligibility ignored when assigning marine work
- The real schedule living in a PM's head while the tool records fiction
Custom project management: what Plymouth teams actually get
Custom project software encodes the constraints that govern marine and dockyard work: it schedules a survey only within a valid tide window, checks berth and vessel availability, and won't assign someone whose pass or clearance has lapsed. The plan in the system becomes the real plan, so a milestone is trustworthy and a slipped tide is caught when it's planned, not on the morning the work was due.
Feature priorities for Plymouth teams
What we build under project management in Plymouth
Digital Heroes builds the full project management stack for Plymouth teams. Typical engagements cover Monday.com alternative, Jira integration, time tracking, team collaboration software, workflow management and custom project management software.
- Your projects are governed by tides, berths, and vessel availability
- Clearance and pass eligibility must gate task assignment
- Your real schedule lives outside the PM tool because it can't hold the constraints
- Slipped tides or expired passes regularly blow milestones
- Your projects are office or software work with no physical constraints
- Asana, Monday, or Jira already reflects your real schedule
- Task and timeline tracking is all you need
- Budget won't support a bespoke build yet
The honest cost picture for Plymouth
| Project scope | Typical cost | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| PM core with tide and berth-aware scheduling | £35,000 to £55,000 | 3 to 4 months |
| Added clearance-aware assignment and risk alerts | £55,000 to £78,000 | 4 to 5 months |
| Full PM platform integrated with ERP, HR, and field tools | £72,000 to £95,000 | 5 to 6 months |
Timeline: what happens, and when
Exactly what you get
You get project software that plans the way Plymouth marine and dockyard work actually happens: surveys scheduled only inside valid tide windows, berth and vessel availability checked, and tasks assigned only to people whose clearance and pass are current. The plan in the system is the real plan, milestone risks surface early, and the scheduling that used to live in a PM's head and a tide table finally lives in the tool.
How to choose a developer in Plymouth
Find a team that takes physical constraints seriously. Ask how they'd schedule a survey around tides, how they'd check berth availability, and how they'd block assigning a surveyor whose pass has lapsed. Confirm the tool pulls clearance and resource data from your HR and ERP systems so constraints stay accurate, and don't pay for this depth if your projects have no physical constraints at all.
- Scheduling that respects tide windows, berths, and vessel availability
- Clearance- and pass-aware task assignment that blocks ineligible work
- A plan in the system that matches reality instead of recording it after the fact
- Early warning when a tide, berth, or expiry threatens a milestone
- Integration with your ERP, HR, and field service tools so constraints stay current
- More expensive than an Asana, Monday, or Jira subscription
- Constraint-aware scheduling depends on accurate tide, berth, and clearance data
- Teams comfortable with a familiar PM tool face a change-management hurdle
- For office or software projects with no physical constraints, off-the-shelf PM is plenty
- !A vendor who treats tides as just another deadline; ask how scheduling respects a tide window
- !No clearance-aware assignment; ask how it blocks an ineligible surveyor
- !No berth or vessel availability; ask how the plan knows the dock is free
- !No milestone risk alerts; ask how a slipping constraint surfaces early
- !Ignoring HR and ERP data; ask how constraints stay current
Most Plymouth teams pricing project management end up comparing notes on field service management, booking & scheduling, mobile app too; the systems share one data spine.
Rohan advises mid-market and enterprise teams on ERP, CRM and custom software, and has led delivery on dozens of business-software builds.
Writes for Digital Heroes, shipping business software for 2,000+ brands across 55+ countries since 2017.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't Asana or Jira handle our marine projects?
They schedule against calendar dates and have no concept of tide windows, berth availability, vessel constraints, or clearance eligibility. For Plymouth marine and dockyard work those constraints decide when a task can actually happen, so the real schedule ends up outside the tool. Custom software puts it back in.
How does tide-aware scheduling work?
The software knows the tide windows a task requires and will only schedule it when the tide, berth, and vessel all align, rather than dropping it on an arbitrary calendar day. That stops a survey being booked for a day it physically can't run.
Can it stop us assigning someone whose pass expired?
Yes. Task assignment checks clearance and dockyard-pass eligibility and blocks anyone who isn't valid, so you don't discover on the morning of a job that the surveyor you scheduled can't actually go on site.