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Do you consider BaseCamp to be a project management tool?
Collaboration tools, such as BaseCamp, sometimes show up in lists for project managers. Is it really useful for project management?
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10 Answers
BaseCamp is a rather limited tool for project management. It is a decent tool that has its strength in small teams (often distributed) and sharing with clients. Its management components, interconnecting or linking needed elements, no versioning in documents (or anything else), etc. usually a least optimal choice. Working with teams who have used wiki in the past makes BaseCamp frustration much higher. Projects planning and tracking of inter-related project components is really poor, if non-existent. Complex projects with many dependencies and modifications are near impossible to handle in BaseCamp. If your resources and processes are not set, have a really strong experienced project manager and on something other than relatively straight forward consistent projects BaseCamp is a really rough fit other than a simple repository.
There are many tools and distributed services that are similar to BaseCamp that are easier to use, enable ease of working (collectively and collaboratively), and are actual work spaces with much better tracking. Sorting out the team or organizations needs that had them considering BaseCamp is often an opportunity to find a good fit.
The consideration of BaseCamp is often a good sign they need solutions beyond what traditional project management tools provide. This is a really good sign. There are other tools that can be a much better fit, but being open to thinking beyond the traditional options, which often don't fit well either is a good step forward.
Michael,
I don't think Basecamp can stand on its own as a complete project management tool unless the scope of the project is quite narrow and the timeframe of the project quite short. Having said that, I still consider it a project management tool and mentioned it as one of my favorites in your recently-posted related question: http://www.focus.com/questions/operations/what-is-your-favorite-project-manag...
I haven't found a single tool that performs all tasks or jobs required for a successful project. Just as it requires assembling the right combination of people to be successful, it also requires assembling the right set of tools. Basecamp has been useful for collaboration between multiple development teams as well as assigning early-phase tasks to team members. This allows the overall project plan (managed by another tool) to be clear of granular detail but still having a way to monitor progress.
Yes it's very useful we use it to manage the projects our teams are on across the world.
@Himali, please don't spam the groups. You gave this exact same answer on another Q&A. Thank you for your cooperation.
I think it's very important to see Basecamp in context of the project management approach of it's makers. The traditional project manager will look at Basecamp and immediately balk at all of the ways in which it does not do what traditional project management processes require.
However, if you take Basecamp in context of how 37signals approaches project management, then I think you'll find that the tool is quite effective. Check out the book they published in 2006 (available at https://gettingreal.37signals.com/) for insight into their approach. I believe that it's only within the confines of that project management approach that Basecamp can be fairly evaluated as a project management tool.
Beyond project management though, we use Basecamp extensively as a collaboration tool with our clients. It is an absolutely wonderful platform to act as a quick communications tool where all specifications and conversations around those spec's are saved for future reference. I highly recommend it in that capacity.
While BC has features that benefit project management, it lacks many classical project management features that many would consider necessary for it to be considered a project management tool.
That being said, the defining features or project management software are somewhat up in the air. Some methods have been tested with minimalistic approaches to project management (i.e. basecamp) with success, and some with failure. While there are others that include more than necessary features, but these turn out to benefit project management even more and other processes within a business as well, such as collaboration, task delegation, combined with CRM and billing (i.e. WORKetc). I think that every business has separate needs when it comes to defining project management and that's why it has so many unique approaches.
While BC has features that benefit project management, it lacks many classical project management features that many would consider necessary for it to be considered a project management tool.
That being said, the defining features or project management software are somewhat up in the air. Some methods have been tested with minimalistic approaches to project management (i.e. basecamp) with success, and some with failure. While there are others that include more than necessary features, but these turn out to benefit project management even more and other processes within a business as well, such as collaboration, task delegation, combined with CRM and billing (i.e. WORKetc). I think that every business has separate needs when it comes to defining project management and that's why it has so many unique approaches.
I agree with others that for simple projects with dedicated resources and no shifting priorities or uncertainties that might jeopardize the schedule, Basecamp can be a decent option. Ahh, if only all projects were that simple!
I've always been stunned at the lack of scheduling and resource management functionality in Basecamp, and this is why I personally am a much bigger fan of LiquidPlanner for managing complicated projects. But, maybe for something like a maintenance project with dedicated resources, Basecamp could be an ok fit.
I am involved in using BaseCamp with the small groups I work with, and I find it to be very effective!
Hey for Project management I use DeskAway. Its a amazing tool with a clean user interface. It has excellent features like DeskMail, Timer and many more. It is also well integrated with FreshBooks, Google Docs etc. Do give it a try.... www.deskaway.com
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