What are you using for Project Management Software?

I have used a lot of the ones mentioned above. I am a web developer as well and have even tried to build my own. What it comes down to is that Basecamp is great, LiquidPlanner is great, ManyMoon is also OK—but there is still no "end-to-end" solution.

I've got my sites set on a new project called rule.fm (http://rule.fm). Go check it out. They have videos and screenshots to show off their product. It was supposed to be released in August, but they came out with an article on TechCruch about it and things exploded. They have since stepped back a little bit and are making they do this right. I'm assuming that they got lots of emails and feedback based on their feature set and companies came in with other ideas and wanting to partner up. Just my thoughts. Should be available in October some time.

Trevor,

I feel your pain with MS Project. We used that for years here and it proved almost too full of features to just use on a daily basis. We chose to add a 2nd PM system to test out and give our staff the option on what system to use. We went with an open source program Redmine (http://www.redmine.org). Since running the two side by side we have moved all of our projects to Redmine.

Take a look at it and see if it will work for the projects in your organization.

Trevor,

It seems there is not way here to make my contact information public.

We did do some modifications to the program to make it more project capeable. We are a tech company and most of our projects are very specific in scope and do not require all of the featuers of MS Project.

We were able to use Redmine to track task completion, projected completion, time accounting, and even internal billing. If you have someone internal who can devote a week to some open source programming you may be able customize it for your needs.

I have also attached a link that displays many different open source PM software options and compares them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_management_software

Rally (free for 10 but geared towards Agile/Scrum),

OmniFocus (not so much for collaboration but the best front end / methodology following the GTD principles)

Oracle | Agile Program Portfolio Management (buy through Oracle / expensive but really good collaborative program and project management),

BaseCamp (I'd start here and once you grow out of the bounds of it look elsewhere),

QuickBase (min $299/mo, built-in templates, can customize forever)

You should consider Projector, it is a good project management tool but with a focus on collaboration and time and cost tracking form all participating parties. It is also a (limited) Project portfolio Management Tool as well, so you can begin tracking resources centrally and manage several projects being done in collaboration. If you need to level resources and estimate completion time, etc. you will always need to use MS project to do this tasks. Projetor has a great import/export interface and will allow you to move your data to MS project for compoletion estimation, resource balancing and other reporting. Projector reporting capabilities is easy and impressive. Good luck. Also you pay only for the users you need - no acquisition costs!!! just lease!

I recommend TeamGantt. It's a simple online collaborative gantt chart. This allows you to create gantt charts for your projects and invite others to view and edit them. It's good if you are looking for something web based and easier than ms project.

If you are a heavy MS Project user, then products like BaseCamp probably won't be sufficient to meet your needs. Take a look at LiquidPlanner, Daptiv, and Clarizen, which are all serious, SaaS-based offerings.

There are many project management tools on the market, so you really need to think through what you want before buying. Figure out your primary goals and then try to find a product that has features needed to support those goals.

Try RationalPlan. It is easy to use and has an embedded project guide best suited for novice project managers. With the server solution you also get collaboration:
http://www.rationalplan.com/

Thanks to all for the good leads to my search.

I do believe that the only good solution for PM based software is not just to follow proper PM methodology. I also feel that without solid collaboration capabilities, PM is difficult to execute. The ability to remote access my projects in today's world is pretty much mandatory. My biggest issue is to find something that I can open up, start building the structure and start using in a few days. Another issue is cost; I can't spend thousands currently; perhaps one day :).

Where I am, they use SAP for account items, I'm not an accountant so I can't gauge their needs. SAP claims to have all kinds of additions you can buy to add to the system. My issue is that SAP is so overpriced it makes me feel ill at the thought of how much money we've given them.

In my perspective, people/companies are only really good at a few things. The ones that try to get too much in to only platform are typically weak is some areas (these are their 'added value' add ins). This causes their package to be somewhat weak in the overall view. For example: SAP is really good at Accounting, invoicing and inventory. Are they going to have a half-** PM structure that is mostly filled with jargon and partial structures? I'm not sure.

I would just love to have something that suits me rather than spending countless hours searching and evaluating software that tends to have serious flaws or missing needs. Unfortunately, these are not present until you test drive them and how much test driving is needed before you give a pass or a fail. I treat company $$ like my $$, so I won't stop until I break it and I’m good at fining flaws. :)

Here’s what I’m set out to look for (thanks for some pointers!)
• Low Cost
• Basic PM Structure or ability to disable features that follow complete PM methodology (small to medium projects)
• Remote access (Online). I would prefer to start on their server with option to migrate it to my servers at a later date. The purpose is to speed up deployment
• Collaboration tools (docs, discussions, ect).
• Automated notification on status changes, reviews, milestones, ect
• Dashboard type overview for multiple projects
• Would be nice if there were already templates for items like Business Cases, Project Charters, Communication Plans, Reviews and others as that would save me the time of building them in from scratch.

I’m going to look at and evaluate all the options mentioned by all of you, but it’s going to take me some time, I will return with the results.

If I’m forgetting something critical here, please let me know!

---Sorry for being so longwinded!—
Trevor

I recommend Basecamp.

Intuitive interface, basic functionality, and no elaborate training required. Especially when dealing with complicated projects, the easier the management tool, the better.

The creators of Basecamp also wrote an incredible book on start-up culture called "REWORK." I was so impressed with the people behind the company that I started using Basecamp as a result.

Trevor,

I've agree with Mara. I came from an enterprise software company running projects with five teams in five countries (USA, Canada, Germany, China, India) and was pulling out hair to keep my projects on schedule and within budget. I bought Basecamp and paid for it out of pocket instead of using our own tool. Basecamp was literally fun to use b/c I was behaving in such a productive manner. Imagine getting excited to do your job each day. The UI was simple, straightforward and made me feel like I was acting in a very operationally excellent way.

Getting Real and Rework are great pragmatic books. I'm reading Rework right now. Perhaps that's the place for you to start - read one of these books. If you like their philosophy maybe BaseCamp is right for you.

It's easy to analyze tools to death and never start. Basecamp lets you start immediately with no monkeying around. Whatever tool you pick make sure it's fun and easy to use, produces results quickly and doesn't require oodles of training for your users to start taking advantage of it.

--Brian

I agree with the points about Basecamp. I have also read Getting Real and recommend. I use Open Atrium, similar to Basecamp, mainly because it is a Drupal project and free for me to run because I have the server and expertise to run it. However, if I wasn't a Drupal developer I would be using Basecamp.

@Michael You said it! Basecamp is not a project management software but rather a collaboration one or an organizer.

Lucian, I am really confused by people who think they can manage complex schedules with BaseCamp, It's great for collaboration but I wonder what kinds of projects people are managing.

I suspect this thread has two set of contributors:
-- Hard core project managers who need industrial strength tools
-- Project "coordinators" who need to "herd cats" rather than create complex schedules

Both roles are important, but the tools and technologies each group needs are different. Newer products, like Liquid Planner to name but one, try to combine serious PM tools with a social, collaborative component. It's a good combination, in my opinion.

I'd have to agree with you on your view Michael. My main goal is to have a solid PM tool. The collaboration side of it makes the project flourish, but if the PM structure isn't there and isn't solid, it will not end up being a good project tool. I'd rather have a more stable focus towards the PM part of a platform than having a really nice wiki or doc manager. Best case would be to have it all, but that's hopeful wishing it seems.

Thanks Steve. Looking at this, I find it to be more of a software support tool for bugs, issues and such. Did your guys do any augmenting to this make it more Project capable? I wanted to ask you in a personal message, but was unable to find a way to do that, so I'm posting it here :). Hope you see it!

I've had experience using Basecamp and Projecturf (which are pretty similar to one another). They're good, but neither is the end-all, be-all project management Web app. I'm wondering if people have had any experience with any other Web-based PM solutions that are worth checking out.

We like Open Atrium, http://openatrium.com/. This is an open source project built on Drupal, http://drupal.org/. It is focused on collaboration much like BaseCamp. As Michael said above, if you are a heavy MS Project user these solutions may not fit. However, we used to be MS Project users and have found collaboration focused solutions to be a better fit for our team. We can configure and host an Open Atrium solution for you if you like.

Hi Trevor,
I understand that it will take a good deal of time to evaluate all of the tools out there, and there are SO MANY of them! I looked at the list you posted, and with the exception of the last item (templates), LiquidPlanner (http://www.liquidplanner.com) has all of the features you are looking for. LiquidPlanner is an excellent solution for robust scheduling & task management, coupled with a full suite of collaboration tools. LiquidPlanner is hosted so you wont be able to move it onto your server (but I think this is a good thing).

I wrote some blog posts comparing LiquidPlanner to some of the other tools out there (Wrike, Clarizen, Basecamp): http://thecriticalchain.blogspot.com/search/label/liquidplanner

Hope this helps narrow down the search a bit, good luck!

-dina

Good info, thanks.

After looking around, I may have found some good candidates. Does anyone have any comments on these:

Endeavour Software Project Management
Project.net
Project-Open
 
All are fairly comprehensive and are open source as well. I haven't evaluated them yet as they are still downloading. Any feedback would be great!

Trevor,
It appears that your intent is to follow several projects, status, and for it to be easily configurable rather than at the task level. If so, please visit my web site www.bizguardconcepts.com. My company is new and we just released a new Project Portfolio Management software product for tracking projects, providing visibility at multiple levels of the organization, provide Cost/benefit analysis, and management reporting. There is also a flavor of Change Management for Software delivery. It is quite intuitive, but you should probably judge that. I will gladly provide a demo over webex.

Since this is my first year with the product, I am offering zero purchase cost with a yearly maintenance fee or a SAAS model. Please check out the screen shots link on the "Products" page and feel free to contact me. No hard sell. I have personally used the predecessor of this product in a commercial environment to manage several projects and now use the new product as we develop multiple functional improvements to the product. There is much on the Roadmap including working with MS Project to track detail task level progress on spcific projects.

Project management tool should reflect your PM maturity. If you or your team has low PM maturity level and not planning to grow it then a basic PM tool like Basecamp, Zoho Projects will do the trick, but if you looking for something more scalable than you will need to look into something that is more advanced. There are many tools that you can explore and try just browse through that wikipedia page provided up on the page. But if you looking for something that is scalable and not extremely expensive, you might want to look Genius Inside's offering http://www.geniusinside.com

I've been playing with Project.net. Pretty slick overall. Not too sure yet, but it looks like it might be a good tool feor low cost. I still need to run some test projects through it yet.

Cheers

Hey guys/gals, just an update: The Project.net is a nice software with good capabilities. I'm not sure I want to use it though as it's a serious pain in the (you know what) to get installed and very difficult to work with in the background. The common user would never know, however, if you paid some good people to deal with its shortcomings behind the scenes - albeit they would likely not be very happy about it!

Reading Rework, I like their concepts. However as an entrepreneur, if I don't work like a workaholic, it will not get done. I'd love to be able to afford more people, but that is just a luxury I can't afford for now. Many good concepts in the book though, thanks for the suggestion.

Still on the prowl for the perfect PM utility. I'll keep all of you posted in the chance (fingers crossed) I stumble on to something! Cheers

Trevor, I posted a note above and would like to point you at www.bizguardconcepts.com. Please see our product, ePro. The product is somewhat aimed at IT Projects, but could be used for practically any project. The design is simple and meant to be intuitive and configurable to ones own process. If you contact me via my website, I could arrange for a demo. It may be worth the 1 hour demo time. Good luck in your search...

Teambox is getting a lot of positive reviews. You can find reviews and comment about most of those tools at http://www.getapp.com/project-management-software

Firstly you're going to want something that doesn't limit you/your business. Many project management solutions only offer a few core features, then sneakily set you in a path that only ends with tons of add-ons/other applications, huge monthly subscription bills, and a load of integration issues. Take the short cut here by getting exactly what you're business needs.

Second, collaboration is huge with project management. You are going to want something that allows you to collaborate on as many aspects of work as possible.

My recommendation here (call me bias, I work with them) is WORKetc. Their software is not only very cost friendly, but offers more features than the majority of solutions out there, combined. It's an all in one business management application with features from project management, CRM, and billing. If you are needing management in the projects area of your business, you could probably use management in your customer relationship and billing areas as well - if you haven't already got software in place. And if you do, this is a much more convenient solution in the sense that there is no cross application integration issues or higher fees.

Tons of export/import and integration options, ton of customization options, and yet a very simple and user friendly interface. It's worth checking out, man!

Here's a detailed comparison of the features from WORKetc vs other main competitors: http://www.worketc.com/compare

Have you looked at the DreamTeam Suite offered by DreamFactory Software?

The DreamTeam Suite offers enterprise grade project teamware that plugs and plays with your corporate cloud. Currently supported clouds include force.com, Windows Azure, Cisco Connect, Intuit Platform, and Amazon Web Services.

The DreamTeam Suite offers the following:

Enterprise Project Management Enterprise Project Management native to corporate clouds. It is ideal for professionals that require advanced project features including: Gantt charts, timesheets, expense reporting, resource allocation, portfolio management and a host of other best-in-class capabilities. DreamTeam offers frictionless project collaboration within your organization as well as with external partners. With Microsoft Project import, DreamTeam enables you to easily migrate projects to web spaces.

Enterprise Document Collaboration DreamTeam’s Document Manger allows users to store and share documents with colleagues and partners securely in your corporate cloud. It offers a “WebTop” for managing and launching virtual documents in a familiar desktop paradigm. Capabilities include versioning, desktop sync, and double click launch of virtual files using desktop applications.

Enterprise Portfolio Management DreamTeam offers a 360 degree view of your projects and includes an advanced manager’s cockpit for capacity planning, resource allocation/leveling, time & expense reporting and advanced project reporting across your portfolio. Our project calendar provides a contributor’s cockpit and includes a time sheet editor, task manager, risk and highlight monitors, and a host of other rich capabilities that help your team optimize and prioritize their day.

For additional information please visit www.dreamfactory.com or contact DreamFactory Sales at sales@dreamfactory.com. Please let me know if you have any additional questions or if I can be of further assistance.

About DreamFactory: DreamFactory Software is the world's leading publisher of rich web applications for cloud platforms. Our products combine the agility of on demand delivery with the performance of desktop applications. The DreamFactory Suite delivers enterprise class project, document and data collaboration software to over 4000 businesses using Force.com, Intuit QuickBase, Cisco Webex Connect, and Windows Azure.