Open Thread: What Project Management Software Do You Use?
Posted May 7, 2009 in Open Thread, Tools/Resources 55 Comments »
Project management applications get a lot of attention here on FreelanceFolder, and with good reason — finding a good project system is an important part of creating a successful freelance business.
But finding the right project management tools for your situation can be very difficult. Even freelancer-loved solutions like Basecamp and ActiveCollab are only good for certain types of freelancers in certain situations. There are a number of generalized and free tools available too, but they are often complicated or lacking in a single crucial area.
Another option used by many of the bigger freelance businesses is to use a custom-made system. This tends to be expensive, but can seriously help long-term growth.
On the other hand, many freelancers simply rely on Google Docs or a whiteboard for their project management (and they do quite well with it).
How do you manage your projects?
- Do you use applications like ActiveCollab, Basecamp, or something else?
- What other tools do you rely on for project management? (Google Docs and/or a whiteboard?)
- How do you fit everything together into a unified and efficient system?
Share your answers in the comments…
About the author: Mason Hipp is an entrepreneur, marketing guru, and writer. He blogs about life and business at FreelanceFolder.com and is co-author of the Book The Unlimited Freelancer. Follow him on twitter @MasonHipp
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55 Comments
Tommy
May 7th, 2009 at 9:17 amI’ve tried just about every system you can imagine, including testing and setting up three different project management apps for a virtual software company I used to work for before I started working for myself. I found all of them lacking to be honest.
OK, “lacking” might be the wrong word. I found when you use a system with a team, of course if they don’t use it and add content, things fall apart pretty quickly. It is my experience most folks are not as anal about planning as most of us that would comment in this post.
Now I use a combo of Outlook ‘07, OneNote, and an old fashion legal pad. I’ve found the integration with Outlook ‘07 and OneNote made this almost a no-brainer.
I use Outlook for major project dates, follow-up phone calls, emails that needs a detailed response (logged as a task), RSS feeds on a topic I want to write a blog post on (again, logged as a task), and meetings/conference calls. I use the notes feature to document the conversations in meetings and then move them to OneNote (or the other way around).
But the core of my system, like detailed to-do lists is a legal pad. Maybe it is cause I am 39, but for me a legal pad and a mechanical pencil is still my favorite tool. Although I have read GTD I already had my own system and just made a few tweaks.
I have a specific way I break down a page (I section off part for “new” ideas for example), note the client, date, time, mark certain things as something that needs to be done, something researched, or something IMPT! (very important) so they jump up off the the page at a glance.
Of course I never throw any of these away. They go into a filing cabinet and I can’t tell you how many times it has saved my life to be able to backtrack something a few months, even years.
Now my system isn’t perfect, I am always looking for a better option.
The biggest problem is I tend to think better when I write, not type. So I do waste time I would prefer I didn’t, taking things from a legal pad to Outlook/OneNote. But at least for me this is what works.
Tommy
Jeremy
May 7th, 2009 at 9:18 amI have used Basecamp for some clients (they have it actually) and liked it enough, but for my needs its not a good fit. I really want something on my server, but not too complex. I liked ActiveCollab in the demo, but again did not decide on it. I have turned to an opensource program called Collabtive, which is simple but has the features I need. I have unlimited users, projects, etc, and full control over the software. I feel like if I’m working on a project, I should have have full control over the data on my server. I also heavily rely on email (who doesnt?) and have a solid organization system to keep track of details.
Ricky
May 7th, 2009 at 9:19 amI use Lighthouse for Project Management, it integrates with Hoptoad http://www.hoptoadapp.com to track Rails application errors.
Christian
May 7th, 2009 at 9:21 amSugar CRM – it is big but beautifull
Jakob Buis
May 7th, 2009 at 9:25 amI’ve used Basecamp and Highrise; before I moved to No Kahuna!
I recently dropped No Kahuna! in favour of an in-house developed tool
Mickey
May 7th, 2009 at 9:27 amNozbe for task management and simple notes, and Google Docs for detailed spreadsheets and creative.
Jeff Mackey
May 7th, 2009 at 9:32 amBasecamp for all active projects. Prior to project acceptance, all prospect interaction is tracked through Highrise. I do all estimating and billing through Freshbooks.
Vincent
May 7th, 2009 at 9:44 amCustom, in-house build solution. We couldn’t find a product that offers what we needed, but wasn’t too bloated or expensive.
Mandi Leman, Blellow CEO
May 7th, 2009 at 9:54 amWe’ve used Basecamp for several years, but the biggest drawback is the fact that you can’t assign & track due dates for tasks, just projects. It’s easy & intuitive – great for communication with teams, but if you have lots of projects going on simultaneously and lots of tasks for each, it’s not that good for keeping everyone on track. We use Lighthouse with our development team for Blellow. Just started using Deskaway for our core team & really loving it so far – has everything Basecamp does, but has a much better approach for task lists & keeping track of all tasks assigned.
Jim Anning
May 7th, 2009 at 10:02 amI’ve used lots – and there are loads of good tools out there, but always ended up using Omnigraffle or Visio as I also wanted to produce a simple one-pager that visually outlined the main workstreams and deliverables in the plan. Out of frustration I taught myself to code and built htttp://www.milestoneplanner.com . It basically re-produces the type of diagrams I used to draw in OmniGraffle, but is much quicker to build an initial plan, then v. easy to update when the plan (inevitably!!) changes. Its early days, but people seem to like what it does and I’m getting some good feedback.
Jennifer Hughes
May 7th, 2009 at 10:06 amI use Behance’s Actionmethod and I love it. Only draw back is sharing information with non-Actionmethod users. It’s great for discussion and quick task management, and it allows you to track due dates, and simultaneous project development/completion with my collaborators who have actionmethod accounts.
Chance
May 7th, 2009 at 10:10 amWe use Unfuddle for our web development business- it supports multiple projects, tickets, messages, a wiki-like notebook, and the biggest draw- built in subversion and git repos.
For developers it has some really handy features like commit parsing- when you check in your changes to a repo you can add simple comments like “resolves #27″ to the commit comments. Unfuddle will automatically attach the revision to the ticket and resolve it. It’s amazing.
http://www.unfuddle.com
Liz
May 7th, 2009 at 10:16 am5pm (http://www.5pmweb.com) – I love the interface. Also the Timeline view is a nice feature. Email integration is useful.
Easy to use – our team got into itwithout any training.
Colin Wright
May 7th, 2009 at 10:22 amI tend to use different solutions for different projects. If the complexity justifies it, I’ll go with something like Basecamp, but usually I find that Open Source solutions (or cobbled-together solutions) will suffice. Using a combination of Google Docs and a labled Gmail account will usually do the trick.
Alex Degaston
May 7th, 2009 at 10:38 amThe 4 biggest challenges in any IT organization are: (a) integration of process data tools, (b) ineffective meetings whose content/outcomes don’t integrate with the rest of the process data, (c) all the overhead time for tech workers that should be spent on technical tasks but gets spent on administrative tasks because their technical/administrative work aren’t integrated with the same tools, (d) focusing on the tools used for IT processes rather than where the data is stored and how it’ll integrate with everything else going on.
I’ve only found one toolset that really effectively works for project management in an IT organization. It’s called Microsoft Team Foundation Server. Is there anything else like it out there that combines its integration of a wide variety of tools through its customizable process template with work item tracking, version control, build management, reporting and project management? Any other product have as robustness in it as their process template?
Reggie
May 7th, 2009 at 10:43 amI stopped using Basecamp back in Oct08 because clients still just emailed me anyway. But I switched back to it and have really been pushing my clients towards using it to. So far so good. Plus with the many Basecamps app for the iphone allows you to manage projects while mobile.
Also use iBiz & iBank for tracking and managing all projects. Wish there were an iPhone app for that though too.
Sean Turtle
May 7th, 2009 at 12:09 pmFunnily enough we’re currently looking around for a solution to project management at work. If anyone can help with this, I’d really appreciate it. We need the standard setup, but something I need to include is the ability to print off a ‘job bag’ cover which helps us to track our work (all part of ISO procedures).
Been looking around for a weeks, all to no avail. If someone can help, you’d bee a huge help.
Thanks
Sean
Oliver
May 7th, 2009 at 12:21 pmWe use pbworks, formerly known as pbwiki, and DropBox. I love the free and organic structure of a wiki. We use it for our knowledge base, to plan projects and to document our processes, logins, contacts..
I love DropBox for its seamless integration with the OS.. it’s just like a regular folder. We use it for all files that don’t easily fit into the wiki, such as spreadsheets, mindmaps, drafts, articles, PDF files, videos..
Jason Pelker, Item-9 Consulting
May 7th, 2009 at 1:52 pmSimilar to the above comments, I find that project management software can be a tough sell, especially when the team’s responsibilities don’t overlap much. For my new consulting company, I was very interested in a micro-blogging PM, so I went with Staction, which has acted like a company status update/idea paste-board.
I’m eagerly awaiting the release of a similar product, Bantam. It seems to integrate better project management tools and best of all, several CRM components (which is one less software piece), including Facebook and Twitter client monitoring. Unfortunately, the app is yet to be publicly released–I look for my beta invite daily:)
Andrew Macdonald
May 7th, 2009 at 2:54 pmTo Sean and others look for project management solutions:
I’ve compiled a list of project management software lists and reviews at http://www.taskmerlin.com/project-management-software-directory.aspx which makes it much easier to find and evaluate what’s available. It also includes to-do list and GTD software.
For Microsoft Windows users, we’ve also developed a full-featured and GTD-friendly project management tool called TaskMerlin, which you may like to try at http://www.taskmerlin.com
Jerry
May 7th, 2009 at 3:46 pmI’m a freelancer and using 5pmweb.com for some time now – moved to it some time ago after years on Basecamp. Clients get it – it’s very easy to use. I use the email
integration a lot – forwarding emails from clients directly to 5pm to create tasks or add notes. I love it!
bogdan pop
May 7th, 2009 at 3:58 pmiCal + Billings + MobileMe :) Priceless
Gil Heiman
May 7th, 2009 at 5:07 pmIn the wide spectrum of solutions, between overly simplified (’grew out of’) Basecamp and the overkill MS Project, you find a range of solutions that makes the evaluation process very time consuming.
Our (www.Clarizen.com) solutions are very much catered to the entire project team, with a strong emphasis on usability, adoption, email integration while providing core project management functionality such as hierarchies, dependencies, gantt charts and reporting.
Add to that time tracking, expense management, issue tracking and customer billing and suddenly you are looking at a single suite of features that allow you to manage cross-organization operations and provide you with a consolidated view into your business. All this without needing to endure an ERP-style implementation with the associated costs and ever lasting life cycle.
Regardless if it is one user or 100 users, getting on board with Clarizen can take a matter of a couple hours, very similar to selecting Salesforce as a CRM or SFA solution.
For free lancers this can be very appealing and surely allow you to scale quickly as you land more contracts.
Joan Piedra
May 7th, 2009 at 5:58 pmActive Collab with several tweaks and in-house modules. It’s really great when you are able to modify it to work just as you want it to.
Debbie Campbell
May 7th, 2009 at 7:33 pmI use activeCollab. I used the free version for several years, but finally purchased it because I wanted the ability to save projects as templates so I could quickly set up milestones and tasklists for new projects. I’m very happy with it; it’s a one-time purchase rather than a monthly fee and installs on your own server.
Mali L.
May 7th, 2009 at 10:27 pm5pm! Why? Solid application with a very smart and customizable interface. I love the dual-panel layout on my widescreen. And the support is fast and responsive (that’s important for me). Great tool.
Brendan
May 8th, 2009 at 1:21 amIt was very interesting reading this post and all the comments. One of the most useful things I have come across to help me manage my projects is Digital Lizard Printing (http://www.digitallizard.com/graphic-designer.php) – they provide an online portal from which your clients, your colleagues or yourself can directly order images. It is an amazing time saver and is great for increasing customer satisfaction!
Francesco
May 8th, 2009 at 4:13 amI tried all the kind of project management softwares in over 10 years of work.
At the moment, with my software development team, I use a good old piece of paper, a B0 sized piece of paper (kinda giant sized piece of paper), using colored post-it and pencils, having the paper on the walls :p
We also spend many time in “time management” over “project management”, reducing to almost zero the time dedicated to phone calls, email exchange and useless tasks like that. 25 minutes of work, 5 minutes of pause.
Obviously, there must be a software collecting informations related to the project. Since I’m the project leader, I use Ms Project and I’m really happy with that.
I manage a small group of 7 people, so my situation is not so toxic.
Emails can be read/sent at the beginning and at the end of the day and just after lunch break, which is as flexible as you want.
So, after 10 years, I’m totally convinced that the project management is a direct consequence of the time management and that paper is always the best solution. People likes to play with postit and pencils, it’s like to let them go back to be kids and the energy produced is amazing! yeah… “produced”, not “spent”.
There i no project without a good management of the time.
I got this idea after watching the movie CastAway, something like 10 years ago.
cheers!
Totonowe
May 8th, 2009 at 6:54 amShame on me – I have not used any so far. Thanks for the post – it was an eye-opener for me and I need to pick up one. cheers!
Bob Page
May 8th, 2009 at 8:52 amAfter an extensive evaluation of most of the project management and collaboration offerings, I settled on ProjectPier (http://www.projectpier.org/), an open-source PHP application.
It installed easily on my web server and has all of the features that I need for my freelance writing business, including file management, messaging, and contact management. It has a clean interface and it is very easy to set up dedicated accounts for multiple clients. Individual user permission can be configured for as much or as little access as required.
It does not have heavy-duty project management tools, but I use other tools for that purpose anyway.
FreeLanCer
May 8th, 2009 at 9:36 amI use 5pmweb.com in my company also also considering getting an account for my personal use. It has a great interface and I don’t have to explain clients how to use it.
Frederick Pohl
May 8th, 2009 at 11:33 amMindManager is a great tool. I still used the old sketchpad and notebooks. But Mindmanager is the closest thing I see that can mimick the flexibility of brainstorming.
Alexandru
May 8th, 2009 at 4:25 pm+1 Vote for http://www.5pmweb.com They really are the best tool for project management. I think they are good alternative for the most known saas at this time.
Using them about 6 month and enjoying everyday.
JohnONolan
May 9th, 2009 at 7:14 amWe use BaseCamp and HighRise for everything and absolutely love them both!
Jennifer
May 10th, 2009 at 6:11 pmI currently use aceproject.com and it is good for my freelance business needs.
Tibi
May 11th, 2009 at 8:41 amRationalPlan can be a good choice for project management although it is kind of lacking collaboration tools even if they use some email notifications, reports…
http://www.RationalPlan.com
Bill King
May 11th, 2009 at 11:15 amI’ve used Basecamp, MSFT Project, MSFT Project Server, Excel, etc. Finally got tired of the huge time commitment associated with status reporting on a portfolio of projects (30+ just on my team alone). Plus, our C-level execs were often dismayed to see projects or initiatives they weren’t aware of, or projects that did not align with their objectives.
As a consequence, I left the big company and launched PPMLite (www.ppmlite.com). Import Basecamp projects, MSFT Project files, or use it as a standalone. The goal is _not_ to replace the myriad of project management tools, rather to provide a layer above it and allow for cross-portfolio reporting, alignment, and communications. Plus, we wanted to make it so simple that training is not necessary.
If you have the time, please check it out and give us feedback.
Thanks!
Bill
Zaki Usman
May 13th, 2009 at 4:49 amGood question. We provide a simplified version of product management designed for PSO at http://www.severa.com. What I found from my client base is that most were using pen and paper/excel sheets for time and project management. Some of our bigger clients had enormous ERP systems that they replaced with our simple SaaS solution. There are pros and cons to SaaS and traditional software. But if the SaaS model works for you, then it really pays off at the end of the day.
Glenn Perry
May 14th, 2009 at 11:29 amAs a freelancer, I use http://www.freshbooks.com for financial stuff (invoicing mainly) and http://www.aceproject.com to manage my tasks and contracts. FreshBooks costs a few bucks monthly and AceProject is free (it costs something if you need many users). I get exactly what I need without breaking the bank.
John
May 15th, 2009 at 3:10 pmWe use Intervals for our project management. It’s more of an all-inclusive project management tool that handles our tasks, time tracking, billing, invoicing, etc, all in one place. The nice thing about it is that we don’t have to use multiple applications. We just need the one. And it is an ideal tool for those in the creative industry, as it was designed and built by a web design/development agency that understands the ins and outs of managing creative projects.
http://www.myintervals.com/
Omar Figueroa
May 28th, 2009 at 4:08 pmWe use opengoo (http://www.opengoo.org/) and open source web office. It has everything you need:
1. File Manager
2. User Management
3. Task Management
4. Calendar
5. Contacts
6. And many other features..
Jed
May 29th, 2009 at 8:54 amWe use Feng Office. I’ve heard it’s similar to OpenGoo, but without the installation + configuration + maintenance hassle.
Paul Scout
May 29th, 2009 at 1:54 pmOn my day job on a engineering company I basically work MS-Project and a tiny application called Folder Scout [http://www.folderscout.com]. It gives you instant access on any folder organization scheme, no matter how deep or complex you hierarchy is.
You can also find some Tips & Tricks and Examples at: http://www.folderscout.com/TipsAndTricks.htm.
Rowen
June 15th, 2009 at 5:09 pmOur agency just started using a new project management software these past few weeks – and so far – we’re impressed (we have 12 full-time employees and didn’t need “the big guns” PPM). Projecturf is a scalable and affordable (and I’d almost say elegant) new web-based project management tool with unlimited storage space that is browser, platform and database independent – it’s a reasonable option for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a Microsoft Project alternative – or maybe a solution like AtTask was more than some needed (too much for non-Enterprise level folks). Some of our freelancers we outsource to have started using Projecturf as well – I’ll let them provide their own opinion.
The solution has unlimited storage on all plans; simple and effective workflow with three levels of system permissions: Administrator, Project Manager(s), User(s); Business-Class Reporting: Manage project milestones and tasks up-to-the-minute with Project Completion Reports and dynamic Gantt charts; Customize to match your company’s brand or needs. It includes both a development and design section specifically created for design firms and freelancers – but can be turned off if you don’t really need it. More info is on their website at http://www.projecturf.com Cheers!
FruitfulTime
June 18th, 2009 at 10:43 amWe offer a free to do list, task management software
http://www.fruitfultime.com/products/free/software/taskmanager-1/free-to-do-list-software.php
ChrisTheWinner
July 11th, 2009 at 9:21 amHi friends!
Just want to say hello! I’m Chris from the UK! I’m reading here for a few weeks! This is a great community! Just continue like that….
Chris
radha
August 17th, 2009 at 11:43 amiBow is a leading IT Services company, headquartered in Oslo, Norway with presence across the globe. iBow offer’s technology led business solutions across two SBU’s i.e. Application Software Services and Technology Infrastructure Management Services (Technology IMS).
IT Solution
Prabhat
August 31st, 2009 at 8:16 amDepends not only on the complexity of your projects but how you work. If you believe in “plan well” and stick to it, the choices are different. If you need to juggle multiple tasks with priorities that change on a daily basis, then you need something that will quickly allow you to change the project plans.
At Celoxis (http://www.celoxis.com) we’ve tried to accommodate different approaches. It can get as easy or complicated as you want. It has the complete gamut of tools including resource planning, Gantt, costing/budgeting, time& expense etc. Instead of simply trying to look pretty we’ve kept a balance between “pretty” and “logical”. The idea is that users should be able to get in, finish their items quickly and get out. Trust me when I say that this will get critical once you start entering “real” data and doing daily work.
Peter York
September 2nd, 2009 at 3:48 amIn our company we use ValleySpeak Project server. ValleySpeak Project Server can be used as a Microsoft Project viewer and more. Not only can the team members see Microsoft Project schedules, they can also submit updates for their tasks on the schedules. One of the important aspects of ValleySpeak Project Server is its browser based access to Microsoft Project files for Team Members. Project Managers can continue using Microsoft Project while Team Members can access project status from any computer running any operating system, leading to dramatically lower costs than buying Microsoft Project for each Team Member.
Andy
November 10th, 2009 at 3:13 pmI am using MS Project. It is takes time to learn this and develop best practice, but it is worth. The only issue is when I have to show my project plan to my customer. Most of them do not have Microsot Project. Unfortunately Microsoft does not provide free viewer of MPP files as it does for Word and Visio. Recently I discovered http://www.amiproject.com on-line service which allow me to upload my file and share it. My customers are able to view it on-line without need to install any software.
Tiberiu
November 11th, 2009 at 6:34 am@Andy You can also use MOOS Project viewer as a free viewer for Microsoft Project:
http://www.ms-project-viewer.com/
Weiseeinveway
December 15th, 2009 at 10:38 pmHi ya’ll…
I might be the first to say it, but most likely not the last: Seasons Greetings!!!
Weiseeinveway
diy solar panels
Terry Austen
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:03 amValleySpeak Project Server allows me to continue using Microsoft Project as my project management tool of choice, while allowing teams to publish, execute and edit in real time. Its been a great experience with valleyspeak for last almost 18 months
http://www.valleyspeak.com/index.php/product/features/
PM Hut
February 24th, 2010 at 1:44 pmWe use one developed in-house. Has some advantages that its custom built to our needs, and has some disadvantages that it’s another project to maintain this project. I don’t think it’s worth the overhead.
Online Outsourcing
March 8th, 2010 at 8:08 amNice post…I like the all the suggestions and the ideas to modernizing business for the better source of the modern profitable business.keep sharing.