Help me manage my projects

April 14, 2008 4:20 PM

We think we need project management software, but we have no idea what features to look for. Help!

Hi. We're a web team at a newspaper. The team is one designer (and a second one sometime soon), two content producers, one code monkey (me) and our boss.

I think it's fair to say that newspaper people are not so good with long-term projects. If it needs to get done today, it will get done just fine. If it needs to get done after that, it will fall into chaos. But we have some long-term projects that we really don't want to screw up. As the team has grown from one person a couple years ago to soon-to-be six, we haven't developed a good way to keep track of deadlines and responsibilities.

So we need to keep track of what we're up to. Deadlines, to-dos, who's responsible for what, a way to keep notes/brainstorm for things that are way out on the horizon. So we need project management software of some sort, right?

Google tells me I have near infinite options as far as PM software goes. But I don't know how to narrow the field.

Here are my concerns:
- I don't want to adopt a program/workflow that will be so cumbersome that we'll abandon it. It needs to be super painless.
- I don't want to adopt a program/workflow that we'll quickly outgrow as we evolve our way into a system that really works for us.

Here's what I want to know:
- What features are absolutely essential and why?
- Are Gantt charts really the awesomest thing ever? Why?
- What software have you used and loved?
- Any tips for making your coworkers actually use the software (semi) religiously?

Here's some requirements, etc.:
- It probably needs to be web-based. Some of us are on Macs, some of us are on PCs, and we all work from home sometimes.
- On the other hand, we have an Exchange server, so Mac people are using Entourage (2004, although we may get upgrades eventually) and PC people are using Outlook (2003, although they may also get upgrades before long). If we can get organized using the task management and calendaring features of those apps, that would likely get certain coworkers to comply more reliably. Is that worth considering?
- Oh, yeah, we're broke. This needs to be cheap/free. And monthly fees are friendlier to our budget than a big up-front cost.
- Major points for prettiness. Previous efforts to use a less-than gorgeous app (Trac) were met with general disinterest. Cliche web 2.0 slickness is actually a plus.

I'm thinking about Goplan (hi, Goplan people). Comments from people who've used it are very much appreciated.

posted by katieinshoes to technology (9 comments total)

I've found Basecamp to be pretty excellent. All web-based and it looks quite slick. It's pretty flexible, so it's level of complexity can be adjusted pretty easily. I don't pay the bills though, so I'm not sure how much it costs.
posted by Nelsormensch at 4:43 PM on April 14

I tried to push Taskfreak on my team, but it didn't take.

It's free & open source. Check the online demo, see if it fits.
posted by bxg at 4:53 PM on April 14 [4 favorites]

I second Basecamp. My department is using it, and it's fairly pain-free. We are also a mix of Macs and PCs - no trouble on that front. There's a free plan you can use to test it out, and then they have several tiers of monthly-paid plans depending on how many simultaneous projects you need to manage. No Gantt charts, but we haven't really missed them. FYI, we have seven people managing about fifteen or twenty projects.
posted by kram175 at 5:04 PM on April 14

I third Basecamp. Makes communication so much easier and they are adding new things all of the time.

Also not a steep learning curve.
posted by gomichild at 6:31 PM on April 14

Why do you need software?

There's a couple of basic tasks that need to happen with management of longer-term projects. The first thing is that you need to set intermediate goals. The second thing is that you need to track progress against those goals. The third thing is that you need to make sure the sum total of the intermediate goals is the deliverables.

Basically, what you need is a nazi with a big wall calendar. On my newspaper staff in community college (a weekly) we partitioned off one whiteboard as a giant calendar. The managing editor was responsible for being the mean bitch (which she pulled off well because everyone loved her) and for checking to make sure that on a day when something was marked as due, it actually was done.

Software will help you do this, but something like BaseCamp is far too easy to ignore unless you live in it, and I don't think you will as a newspaper staff.

Designers are visual people. Get something visual where every day they're reminded that they have a goal coming up that day.
posted by SpecialK at 10:10 PM on April 14

... and put it where they can see it the moment they walk into the office in the morning.
posted by SpecialK at 10:10 PM on April 14

Hi back! We built Goplan because we weren't happy about the other solutions out there (Basecamp included), so it is very much a product of our own needs. I think it's hard not to sound biased when I'm one of the guys behind the product you mention on your post, but I promise I'll try.

Both products (Goplan and Basecamp) lack Gantt chart support, for instance, which some teams use to manage their time, so if you need those, you'll probably create them with some other tool (I use OmniPlan on the Mac for that). Gantt charts are not essential though: they're pretty much a way to see tasks in a timeline view. What you need is a system to collect what each person on the newspaper team needs to do and when. And since you're working remotely sometimes, a way for people to communicate. That, both Goplan and Basecamp do effectively.

So, answering your questions:

1) Gantt charts are not essential if there's a good mechanism to see pending tasks and their due dates. If you need them and whatever you use doesn't have them, use an external solution (I use OmniPlan and export the charts to PDF and upload to Goplan often)

2) What you absolutely need is a way to keep track of tasks and their due dates. Also a way to share notes and files with everyone on the team, and possibly a system to converse in real-time. Bonus points if the solution allows you to subscribe to a calendar on iCal or other calendaring software, because it'll integrate with what people typically use which makes adoption much easier. Goplan does that, and I think Basecamp does too.

It's hard to say "use X" (still wish X = Goplan, naturally) because in the end you're going to have to give these solutions a try to see if you like them and if they suit your needs. And if you end up giving Goplan a try let me know what you think, because we're always looking for feedback from small teams like your own to know how we can improve. Good luck!
posted by fredoliveira at 2:58 AM on April 15

Are all of these web based apps located on a remote server or a framework you can download and host locally. I ask because I might be interested in this, but wouldn't be able to host proprietary/export restricted info remotely.
posted by jpdoane at 12:04 PM on April 16

HI. We use a product called The Professional built by a company called Aprimo. I guess Aprimo's real focus has been larger companies but they created this real cool, web-based application that does everything relative to gantt charts, production workflows, digital assets. It is different from basecamp in alot of ways, (we considered them too) in that Basecamp frankly is just too basic an application. The Professional also comes with a team of support so you don't have to worry about implementation or on going training cause they do it for you.

If I can be of help let me know.
posted by MRM Girl at 1:03 PM on May 27