Project Management Software

I pulled together a document for my supervisor on project management software. Thought it could be helfpul if I share it here as well.

Project Management Software Basics

·         Scheduling/Calendaring

o   Events which depend on one another in different ways or dependencies

o   Scheduling people to work on, and resources required by, the various tasks, commonly termed resource scheduling

o   Dealing with uncertainties in the estimates of the duration of each task

o   Visual display of information

·         Desktop or web-based (cloud)

o   Tasks lists for people, and allocation schedules for resources

o   Overview information on how long tasks will take to complete

o   Early warning of any risks to the project

o   Information on workload, for planning holidays

o   Evidence

o   Historical information on how projects have progressed, and in particular, how actual and planned performance are related

o   Optimum utilization of available resource

·         User Type

o   Personal/Single-user

o   Collaborative

o   Integrated (CRM or Q&A software)

·         Reports

List of Main/Most Popular Project Management Software

·         A comparison of different project management software on Wikipedia

·         Project Management Made Easy primer article

Microsoft Project

·         MS Project

·         Project Professional – EnPointe $500s to $1,000s or CDW $905

·         Project Server (built on SharePoint)

·         MS Volume Licensing

Basecamp

·         $24/mth to $149/mth for unlimited projects and 75GB

·         Tour and 30 day free trial

·         elegant, user-friendly web app fit for a freelancer, non-profit or any collaborative team.

·         while the service is a pleasure to use, its only drawback is that it does not store files for you - instead, it uploads files to your own FTP server and references them there

ActiveCollab

·         similar to Basecamp, the main difference between the two is that Basecamp costs while activeCollab has no such limitations and is free

·         you can install activeCollab on any server with PHP5 and MySQL

Project2Manage

·         online and free, similar to Basecamp

·          tracks multiple projects, to-dos, milestones, clients and companies for free online.

·         you can set up several users in your Project2Manage account, create to-do lists, assign tasks to users, set milestones with dates, post messages, and track project activity with RSS

·         interface is slick and modern but isn't quite as polished as Basecamp, and it includes advertising

GanttProject

·         cross platform, open source project management program

·         has all the normal project management features like project mapping, resource charts, etc.

·         is free

·         can import and export Microsoft Project files, making it easy to port your project in and out GanttProject as you need

Open Workbench

·         free, open source project management software similar to previously-mentioned program GanttProject

·         intended to replace Microsoft Project with functionality as close as possible to Project for free

Intuit

·         Intuit QuickBase online project management software

·         Free trial online download

Oracle

·         Primavera Project Management Solutions

·         Online download

Serena OpenProj

·         free, open source project management solution

·         industry's most advanced scheduling engine with Project-ON-Demand

·         has Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams (PERT Charts), WBS and RBS charts, Earned Value costing and more

·         manage projects in Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows for free

·         markets itself as a complete replacement for Microsoft Project and boasts complete integration with existing Project files and Primavera

Tom’s Planner

·         Online project scheduling and planning software

·         schedule out how your team will tackle a project over any given period using Gantt charts

·         built to look and feel just like a desktop application

Teambox

·         Online project management software

·         Pricing free (3 projects and 50MB) to $199/mth for 2000 projects and 250GB

·         works a lot like most project management software, but with a better flow of communication and overall organization – a social media like interactivity between collaborators

·         an open source project, you can also install it on your own server for free for no limits and full customization

Gantter

·         Web-based project management tool

·         interface that looks remarkably similar to Microsoft Project—and even lets you import and export your Project files

·         add tasks and resources just like you would on the desktop version of Microsoft Project

·          you can download the project as an XML file, which can then be imported back into Project

·         requires no account to use—making this worth a look for anybody dealing with project plans and TPS reports

ClockingIT

·         a hosted, open-source solution to managing team-oriented projects

·         robust features yield a gold mine of management tools and report generation

·         projects contain subsets of tasks, which you can filter by various criteria, like "Open Tasks" and "My In Progress Tasks."

·         GANTT charts visualize the project schedule and update with date changes

·         includes unlimited file storage per project