Project Management and Collaboration

When more than two or three people work together to complete a project, as occurs constantly in the activist community, it can be difficult to keep track of logistics: who’s doing what and when, what the status of individual tasks are, and what steps might be taken to keep things running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Project management technology greatly simplifies these tasks, allowing you to focus on the substance of your work. As the work of your organization expands in scope, so does the potential benefit of employing a project management solution.

Another, related type of software, known as collaboration software or groupware, allows groups of users to electronically collaborate on projects through a common interface. The primary function of groupware is to streamline communication and coordination between group members, including the management of content created and modified by multiple users, typically through the use of customized, access-controlled mini-web sites. However, most groupware does include a basic project management component, at the very least. If your organization often finds itself internally juggling multiple versions of documents as they are developed and revised, a groupware solution may help simplify the process and allow you to work more efficiently.

Both project management software and groupware are available as retail products as well as free, open source applications. Generally, these applications must be run on a web server in order to be fully functional, but if your organization already maintains a web site, your hosting provider may offer to install them on your server, usually for an additional fee.

Project management and collaboration applications vary significantly in functionality, cost, and ease of use. Fortunately, there are enough of them on the market that it is relatively easy to find the best solution to meet your specific needs.

Applications

Microsoft Project

(Estimated Price: $300-$1000)
www.microsoft.com/office/project/
This is far and away the most popular and full-featured project management solution on the market, and is supported by numerous how-to books, training  courses, and implementation consultants. It is available either as a standalone application to track project status on a single computer (in “Standard” and “Professional” versions), or in conjunction with Microsoft Project Server and Microsoft Project Web Access (the combined package is called Microsoft Enterprise Project Management, or EPM) so that its database can be accessed and updated by authorized users via the internet. EPM features require a web server. As a stand-alone application, it can be used to develop project plans, manage budgets and workloads, and track progress. Unless you already have access to it, however, it might not be worth purchasing a copy until your organization’s needs surpass those that can be accommodated by the open source and DIY solutions described below. A 60- day free trial version is available at http://www.microsoft.com/office/project/prodinfo/trial.mspx

DotProject

(Freeware)
www.dotproject.net
DotProject is an open source (free) project management tool. It is compatible with MS Windows NT, 2000, and XP, as well as Linux. Its current release isn’t as full-featured as MS Project, but these additional features are only necessary if your organization manages multiple complex projects simultaneously. Unlike MS Project, DotProject cannot function as an offline application, requiring a web server in order to run. The product’s web site features a free demo.

Microsoft SharePoint

(Pricing varies)
www.microsoft.com/sharepoint
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services is a free add-on to Microsoft Windows Server 2003. A commercial, enhanced version, Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server, is also available. Many web hosts offer SharePoint access for an additional recurring fee, without no additional software required. Its chief strength over competing products is its integration with Microsoft Office and extensive document versioning features, and its major weakness is a fairly complicated interface that can be intimidating to novices.

BaseCamp

($0 to $150/month)
www.basecamphq.com
BaseCamp is the major competitor to Microsoft SharePoint. It’s been around longer, and as such, reflects years of finetuning which are evident in its simple, elegant, and user-friendly interface - its major advantage over SharePoint. BaseCamp runs on the company’s own  servers, as opposed to yours. The company offers a number of different service levels, currently priced between zero (for a very limited version) and $150 per month. The $50 and up packages include SSL, an important feature if you’re concerned with data security. Its document versioning features are weak, but can be supplemented with additional freeware applications such as KnowledgeTree (www.ktdms.com) and Contineo (contineo.sourceforge.net).

DIY Project Management with Web-Based Spreadsheets

Yahoo Groups, mentioned earlier in this module, offers a very basic set of collaboration tools to mailing list owners and users, including a web-based spreadsheet application. Although the extraordinary popularity of Yahoo makes it somewhat less secure, these features may be a good starting point for many organizations seeking to explore project management and collaboration applications.

Another alternative to consider is Google Spreadsheets, which offers considerably more functionality than Yahoo’s version. The tool is available at http://spreadsheets.google.com. Note that all the same security issues that apply to Gmail (see the Email section of this module) also apply to other Google services.

Anyhow, let’s take a look at the steps required to use Yahoo Groups for project management. Once you understand the basic concept, you’ll be able to easily do the same thing with Google Spreadsheets, should you decide to do so.

1. Begin by establishing a group on Yahoo Groups, or logging in as the group owner to an existing internal group you’ve established using the service (for more on Yahoo Groups and mailing lists in general, see the Mailing Lists section of this module). If you need help doing this, see Yahoo Groups Help at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/groups/index.html.

2. Once you have logged into your group page as the owner, click on “Database” on the left side.

3. Click on “Create Table” on the right.

4. Under “Choose a Template”, click on “(empty)”.

5. This brings you to the Table Edit screen. Here, you’ll set a name, such as “Task Tracker”, and a description for the table you’re about to create. This is also where you will specify which types of users are allowed to modify different aspects of the table.

6. Enter a name and description.

7. The next section asks you to specify which features will be available to different types of users. They can be set to “Anyone”, “Group Members”, or “Group Moderators or Table Owner”.

• “Anyone” means precisely that – access to this feature will be granted to anyone who can find your group’s page, regardless of whether they are subscribed to the group (unless access to the group features is disabled by the Group Owner, by setting “Features and Options” in the “Settings” area to “Only Moderators” or “Off”). There are few, if any, situations in which you
would ever want to grant access to “Anyone”.

• Setting a feature to “Group Members” will restrict access to that feature to users who are subscribed to the group.

• “Group Moderators or Table Owner” restricts access to only users with Moderator or Owner status, plus the user who created the table, if that person is not a group Moderator or its Owner.

8. Decide who will be able to add records to your table once it’s complete. In order for your organization’s members to take full advantage of this table, you’ll need to set this to “Group Members”.

9. Decide who can edit or delete records. In order for your organization’s members to post updated information on the status of the tasks to which they are assigned, this will also need to be set to “Group Members”. If you do so, you can adopt a voluntary policy permitting only certain individuals to delete records. If you see lack of enforcement as a potential problem, you may set it instead to “Group Moderators or Table Owner”, but subscribers will then need to provide their updates to someone who has the necessary access to edit the table.

10. Decide who will be able to edit the table itself – that is, to add, remove, or edit the column names, or even to delete the entire table. Set this to “Group Moderators or Table Owner”.

11. Enter the names of the columns in the order you want them to appear on the table, left to right. In our sample, we entered “Committee”, “Category”, “Description”, “Status”, “Person Assigned”, “Deadline”, “Last Revision”, and “Notes”.

12. Click on “Create Table” near the bottom of the screen.

13. Your table is now complete, and ready for records to be added to it.

14. You can now add or import records using the appropriate options at the bottom of the table. For help using these features, simply click on “Records Help” near the upper-right corner.

15. Here’s an example of what a completed table looks like with several records entered:

16. That’s it!