How Do You Manage Your Projects?
Posted September 24, 2007 in Productivity 17 Comments »
Is your current project management system doing the job for you? Or are you struggling with a collection of notepads, post-it notes, and a flurry of client emails cluttering up your inbox?
If you’re not managing your projects in a way that a) makes it easy on you, b) leaves no room for misunderstanding with clients c) keeps things from falling through the cracks, and d) won’t break a freelancer’s bank account, then you need to find some tools pronto. Here are some suggestions …
- Basecamp – The ultimate in simplified task lists, Basecamp lets you manage to-dos quick and dirty, and even assign tasks to others. While some might find its lack of advanced features frustrating, it continues to serve an audience who want a short-learning-curve way to handle client task lists and manage their milestones.
- Goplan – A more full-featured project management solution with extras like file management and calendar synchronization, GoPlan is doing well since its launch 6 months ago. A detailed review can be found here.
- Zoho Projects – Technically Zoho is a full online suite of applications, but they offer a team-based project management solution that might fit your needs.
- Central Desktop – A wiki / project management hybrid, this offering has a strong calendaring function, though it’s email alerts could use a few more options (current minimum is updates every 2 hours rather than instant updates when something changes status).
- Huddle – Described as a “collection of secure online spaces,” Huddle allows you to do project management tasks but has integrated instant messaging in the works.
This Is Just The Beginning
While these are only a handful of the wide collection of online project management tools out there, it’s a good pool of applications to evaluate if you’re looking to manage projects online. These tools by themselves might not meet all of your needs, but checking them out will definitely help you refine what it is you do want out of an online project management tool.
Now It’s Your Turn – How Do You Do It?
What tools do you use to manage your projects? Leave a comment below and let us know how you make your business hum.
About the author: Dave Navarro is a business productivity coach who loves showing freelancers how to make more money and have more time for themselves. Get more of the good stuff at Rock Your Day or follow Dave on Twitter.
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17 Comments
Peter Chester
September 24th, 2007 at 8:55 pmWe’ve been using Copper Project Manager but are now actively investigating alternative options including writing our own.
Copper is beautiful, however it is slow and poorly architected. The UI is more beautiful than usefull.
One thing I like is that you can buy the PHP source code and modify it. However, it is a pain and very difficult to modify in such a way that it can be updated.
Ben Prendergast
September 25th, 2007 at 4:44 amHi Guys,
Just thought I’d reply to the above comment, and inform everyone that our 2008 version has just been released, which includes an all new UI (designed principally for usability) as welll as enhancements to the core code base (we’ve tested a speed increase of around 80%, using Ajax, compression, and other technologies to speed things up) .
Some would disagree that it was slow before (it all depends on the server and internet connection really) but few would disagree that it is now faster than its contemporaries.
Come and check it out. http://www.copperproject.com
Kevin
September 25th, 2007 at 7:14 amWe use OnStage Project Portal. It is fast, well designed, and their customer service is fantastic.
Andrew
September 26th, 2007 at 3:38 amYou should definitely check out TeamWork Live: http://www.teamworklive.com
We’ve been using it for a few weeks and we are hooked. They advertise themselves as Basecamp Plus. They have a great project management tool with an internal Gmail-like messaging system that ties everything together very well. I also really like their notification system which allows you to be alerted of events of interest to you, such as when a team member updates a task you are assign or completes a task you created.
Dave Navarro
September 26th, 2007 at 9:52 amThanks for all the comments, guys – I’ll definitely check out the links.
Christine O'Kelly
September 29th, 2007 at 10:09 amI searched and searched for project management tools to use about a year ago and settled on 2 project management tools from 37 Signals – I love this company! I use Backpack and Basecamp on a daily basis. Backpack is great to organize your own life and schedule and Basecamp is excellent when many people are collaborating on a project.
What I love about 37 Signals is that the applications are not bloated will all kinds of crap you don’t need. You can start using these right away because they are simple and intuitive. This is CRITICAL especially when you must get clients to use your project management system. If it’s too difficult, some will rebel and not use it or use it resentfully – which defeats the purpose of a project management system in the first place!
Great topic!
Christine
Will The Computer Guy
September 29th, 2007 at 11:11 amSince I a single project manager for my projects I have used the open source application called Freemind
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
This is a freeform mind mapping software. I created two nodes off the main node. One node for “Active Projects” and one node for “Completed Projects”. You can export to HTML or Image formats, and freely move nodes around as needed.
What I like about most about this program is that I can see all my projects all at once and get details at a click.
Will
Casey
October 1st, 2007 at 7:52 amI’m using Wrike http://www.wrike.com/. It’s very inexpensive and saves me time. Wrike’s is pretty easy to use, so even my clients love it. I share some of my projects with them, so they could track the progress with me. I’m also a huge GTD fan and Wrike helps me with it too. Here’s an interesting post from their product blog http://www.wrike.com/blog/7/10/2007/Wrike_helps_you_get_things_done
Jon
October 6th, 2007 at 3:16 amI have to say I love freemind (more for brainstorming and “getting ideas down”), I use all the time, but 37signals is really nice, basecamp is great, and also Writeboard for collaborative writing :)
AIC
October 15th, 2007 at 9:59 pmOrg-mode for Emacs. Since I use Emacs for everything else it’s a perfect solution. But it’s worth even using it on it’s own, great solution for GTD.
http://orgmode.org/
http://dto.freeshell.org/notebook/OrgTutorial.html
Editor @ WhyBaseCampSux.org
October 29th, 2007 at 1:38 amNot being a fan of Basecamp or 37Signals (read about why at my Basecamp bitch site), I’ve compiled quite a list of Basecamp Alternatives (some of which are open-source) here:
http://www.whybasecampsux.org/#alternatives
Hope this helps those looking for project management solutions other than Basecamp.
Tim Howell
December 4th, 2007 at 9:26 pmHave a look at ActionThis. It’s a great looking web application that works well, combining planning and task management capabilities with some intelligence to ensure tasks and projects get finished – its focus is on execution.
What’s more, it also features a client for Microsoft Outlook, so you can manage your email and tasks all in one place – online or offline.
Alexei Krus
February 21st, 2008 at 3:59 pmHello,
You may want to review http://www.comindwork.com if you need more functionality and flexibility than Basecamp can offer, including wiki, blogs, cases management, milestones, project & personal dashboards, files, etc – interconnected and with fine-grained permissions set for every item.
Alexei.
Thomas Pee
February 21st, 2008 at 6:37 pmHmm, looks complicated, for my money tools like Copper offer the right amount of features without confusion.
Check This Online Collaboration Software
June 29th, 2009 at 6:03 pmHyperOffice is another great team collaboration software . It is the most integrated suite in the market, with messaging features and well as collaboration features. Most of the solutions mentioned here do not include messaging features (web and mobile email, Outlook integration, shared contacts, calendars and tasks). In addition, HyperOffice also offers the option of integrated web meetings and online databases.
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