Is Project Managment software what I need?
January 25, 2018 1:25 PM Subscribe
I am managing a project that has a couple of requirements. Primarily, I need to be able to log individuals and keep records on them. For example Person X needs to be e-mailed about thing A, Person Z finished task B and needs confirmation, etc. (and this would included being able to have multiple items per person). It would be great if there were some ability to sort by records or keyword. Secondarily, I would like to list and manage steps/elements as I develop new processes, and, additionally, I want to set-up regular repeatable tasks.
It sounds to me like I need some sort of project management software, but I have no idea what sort. Most of what I have seen seems to be geared toward my secondary needs. Furthermore, I know next to nothing about project management terminology (gantt, scrum, etc.??). So, I don't even know how to search for the right app.
I'd like the project to be open source, but paying for something isn't a deal breaker.
It sounds to me like I need some sort of project management software, but I have no idea what sort. Most of what I have seen seems to be geared toward my secondary needs. Furthermore, I know next to nothing about project management terminology (gantt, scrum, etc.??). So, I don't even know how to search for the right app.
I'd like the project to be open source, but paying for something isn't a deal breaker.
This isn't an app and you can't sort by keyword, but Bullet Journaling is a flexible system of note-taking I use to manage projects. http://bulletjournal.com/ Some people go crazy with it and design custom trackers, I just use the base system. It's basically a framework/short hand for organizing information and tracking it.
posted by edbles at 2:23 PM on January 25, 2018
posted by edbles at 2:23 PM on January 25, 2018
Perhaps you are looking for Customer Relationship Management software (CRM)? You probably won't need a high-powered CRM unless you are dealing with thousands of clients, but I'm not very familiar with any programs that are open source.
posted by singinginmychains at 2:39 PM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by singinginmychains at 2:39 PM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]
Hmm, it seems like a ticketing or "story"-based system (e.g., Trello, Redmine, Jira) could work well for your needs. Then each item to be done can be done through a ticket, which can be set up to automatically email the person to whom it's assigned when updates are made. So instead of emailing person X about thing A, if person X is in your organization or an external stakeholder, they could be added as a ticketing-system user, and then you can just document the question in the ticket, assign the ticket to person X, person X gets an email notification of the update and logs into the ticketing system, person X adds the needed info to the ticket and assigns it back to you, and you mark the ticket done or resolved once that's set. Then you can create a new ticket with any actionable task that comes out of that information-gathering ticket. E.g., first ticket is "Gather info and requirements for thing A" and second ticket is "Create thing A" and includes the info from the first ticket. Then the second ticket is assigned to the person who needs to make or do the thing.
Your other scenario works great with this too. Person Z would have a ticket for task B, and when they need review and confirmation that the work on task B is good, they can add a link or attachment with the work done in task B and assign the ticket to whoever needs to review it. In systems like this there's generally no limit to how many tickets a user can have assigned to them unless you set one. Then you can also search by words in the ticket or even add labels or "components," in Jira terminology, that describe a type of work. Alternately, you can use "epic" tickets to connect smaller pieces of work that are part of a larger whole. You can usually link together or "relate" tickets to each other in these types of systems, too, so you can connect sets of information or tasks. In Jira you can specify the relationship (e.g., one ticket relates to, blocks, is blocked by another, etc.); I think you may be able to in Trello as well. I know Trello has the ability to create repeated tasks, and then you can also clone or copy individual tickets or sets of tickets in various ways in all of those systems. You can also bulk manage tickets' attributes in most of them, e.g., searching for and selecting a group of tickets, then applying a specific label or component to them all, resolving them all, or adding an epic to them all.
In Redmine and Jira, you can also modify the stages or states that tickets go through, so you can create a custom workflow that way. What's nice about ticketing systems like this is that they cut down on how much you have to do yourself; if you can get your team onboard with using it along with you, they can update their own tickets with info, change their status to accurately reflect what's been done, etc. It's a great way to get transparency and distribute the work of keeping track of a project. These systems also let you set up "boards" that show all the cards or tickets or stories (each system has its own terminology, but those are basically the same thing) in play in a project, prioritize them, show their status and other attributes in columns, etc. And each user usually has access to view both any relevant project boards you give them access to and a board with only their own tickets.
You can definitely set up a Trello account for free and try this out. I'm not sure off the top of my head about Jira and Redmine, but I think Redmine is open-source, so it's probably also worth looking into for your needs.
Otherwise, in case it's useful background terminology: Gantt charts are just a way of visually showing how one task flows to the next; they're better not to know about, to be honest! You don't need to use them to use systems like this. They're usually part of a "waterfall" methodology or set of practices, where tasks are planned and completed in discrete stages of a project that flow one to the next. Scrum, on the other hand, is a set of practices and roles teams can learn to use to work in parallel and self-organize. In scrum, you don't plan out and gather every single requirement for every aspect of a project before beginning. Rather, you create tickets for pieces of the project, break them into smaller tickets as needed, then assess their relative priority and value and work through them in the order of what will bring the most value to the project over a specific period of time (e.g., a "sprint" of 2 weeks), with a specific set of regular meetings to help the team organize to achieve their goals. That's probably a rather insufficient summary of what scrum is, but you also don't need to know what it is in-depth to use a ticketing system.
I hope some of this information helps. I'd suggest setting up a free Trello account and poking around in it, as well as demoing Redmine here.
posted by limeonaire at 4:42 PM on January 25, 2018
Your other scenario works great with this too. Person Z would have a ticket for task B, and when they need review and confirmation that the work on task B is good, they can add a link or attachment with the work done in task B and assign the ticket to whoever needs to review it. In systems like this there's generally no limit to how many tickets a user can have assigned to them unless you set one. Then you can also search by words in the ticket or even add labels or "components," in Jira terminology, that describe a type of work. Alternately, you can use "epic" tickets to connect smaller pieces of work that are part of a larger whole. You can usually link together or "relate" tickets to each other in these types of systems, too, so you can connect sets of information or tasks. In Jira you can specify the relationship (e.g., one ticket relates to, blocks, is blocked by another, etc.); I think you may be able to in Trello as well. I know Trello has the ability to create repeated tasks, and then you can also clone or copy individual tickets or sets of tickets in various ways in all of those systems. You can also bulk manage tickets' attributes in most of them, e.g., searching for and selecting a group of tickets, then applying a specific label or component to them all, resolving them all, or adding an epic to them all.
In Redmine and Jira, you can also modify the stages or states that tickets go through, so you can create a custom workflow that way. What's nice about ticketing systems like this is that they cut down on how much you have to do yourself; if you can get your team onboard with using it along with you, they can update their own tickets with info, change their status to accurately reflect what's been done, etc. It's a great way to get transparency and distribute the work of keeping track of a project. These systems also let you set up "boards" that show all the cards or tickets or stories (each system has its own terminology, but those are basically the same thing) in play in a project, prioritize them, show their status and other attributes in columns, etc. And each user usually has access to view both any relevant project boards you give them access to and a board with only their own tickets.
You can definitely set up a Trello account for free and try this out. I'm not sure off the top of my head about Jira and Redmine, but I think Redmine is open-source, so it's probably also worth looking into for your needs.
Otherwise, in case it's useful background terminology: Gantt charts are just a way of visually showing how one task flows to the next; they're better not to know about, to be honest! You don't need to use them to use systems like this. They're usually part of a "waterfall" methodology or set of practices, where tasks are planned and completed in discrete stages of a project that flow one to the next. Scrum, on the other hand, is a set of practices and roles teams can learn to use to work in parallel and self-organize. In scrum, you don't plan out and gather every single requirement for every aspect of a project before beginning. Rather, you create tickets for pieces of the project, break them into smaller tickets as needed, then assess their relative priority and value and work through them in the order of what will bring the most value to the project over a specific period of time (e.g., a "sprint" of 2 weeks), with a specific set of regular meetings to help the team organize to achieve their goals. That's probably a rather insufficient summary of what scrum is, but you also don't need to know what it is in-depth to use a ticketing system.
I hope some of this information helps. I'd suggest setting up a free Trello account and poking around in it, as well as demoing Redmine here.
posted by limeonaire at 4:42 PM on January 25, 2018
The new Salesforce Essentials is for small business and $25/mo/user (up to 5), but there’s a bit of a learning curve to accomplish some of your goals, and I’m uncertain of the limits to automation at that level. Teamwork is not a CRM, which is probably best for your contacts, but it’s a nice and straightforward project management tool and their customer service is great.
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 11:25 PM on January 25, 2018
posted by AnOrigamiLife at 11:25 PM on January 25, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by ananci at 1:45 PM on January 25, 2018 [1 favorite]