Managing projects with no resources

March 31, 2009 12:55 PM

I would like to use project management software to track medium- to long-term library public services projects. I need it to be a) free, b) web-based, and c) hosted. Am I SOL?

Unfortunately, my workplace does not have any PM software at all, and while I've pointed them to several open-source alternatives, I highly doubt (based on experience) that anything will be approved and installed before at least a year. We users have no admin rights, so cannot install anything on our machines. Likewise, we have no budget to pay for a hosted system.

I am particularly interested in open workspaces and assignable tasks and milestones. (Opengoo is my favorite so far.) I fiddled around with Google Sites, but I am not a designer, and lacking a template, I'm finding it slow going.

Advice and solutions are much appreciated. If there's no hope, well, I'd like to know that too.

posted by cereselle to computers & internet (5 comments total)

Tracks is a web-based implementation of the GTD methodology, but it's extremely flexible. In fact, one of the complaints about it in the forum is that it doesn't implement GTD strictly enough. That may make it perfect for you, though, since you can use it exactly how you want to while ignoring the whole GTD aspect.

I've been using it for personal day-to-day management for a few months and think it works fairly well.
posted by odinsdream at 1:06 PM on March 31 [1 favorite has favorites]

Tracks looks really good, except for this part:

The Tracks interface is accessed through a web browser, so you need to run a webserver to serve the Tracks pages up to you. This isn’t as daunting as it sounds, however: Tracks ships with a built-in web server called Mongrel which you can run on your own computer to serve the Tracks application locally.

Given that I can't install and run anything, this won't work. Neat thing, though.
posted by cereselle at 2:51 PM on March 31

How about something with 37signals?

Basecamp has a free option, if you scroll to the bottom of this page.
posted by chiefthe at 5:31 PM on March 31

Dreamhost offers several installs: http://dreamhost.com/hosting.html and has non-profit accounts: http://dreamhost.com/hosting-nonprofit.html
posted by reddot at 7:17 PM on March 31

Maybe Saiku? It's free for life; unlimited storage, tasks, and users and all that good stuff.
posted by Theloupgarou at 10:18 PM on March 31