Online Project Management
Posted by Jeremy Wortsman on 17th March 2010
It's been a busy past few weeks here at JW headquarters, so I'm putting part two of Pricing Your Work on hold for the time being and moving onto a subject a bit closer to the matter at hand, which is project management.
Those of us lucky enough to work in a large studio with proper account managers and job bags may not have to worry about such things, but when starting and out and working solo, it is absolutely essential to ensure that all phases of work from estimating to invoicing are managed as flawlessly as possible. If you are in a period of downtime, this can be a great period to get some systems in place.
I know I harp on a bit here about off-the-shelf online services, so it's no surprise that I'm going to weigh in quite heavily for the most life-saving piece of software that we use here at JW called Basecamp, by web geniuses 37signals.
Basecamp is many things to many people, and some of you have maybe participated in another companies Basecamp project, or are already using it. The best part about it is how versatile it is, and could be used for a variety of creative businesses, no matter where you are in the world.
In short, Basecamp offers a dedicated online space for you and your client to work through a project. While it has email notifications as part of the package, to not have to rifle through a pile of emails, especially when you are working across multiple projects or clients, is a major relief. Add in to-do's, deadlines, large and fast file storage, group chat (on some accounts), and you can finally delete those old excel files and weird finder colour codes to manage your workflow.
The hardest part about using an online system with your clients can be getting them to adopt it, which is why over time we have made some custom screencasts and text files that we use to automate the process, but while there can sometimes be resistance to adopting a new way of working, 9 times out of 10, our clients have such a great experience on basecamp, that they see it as a valuable service we offer, and often keeps them coming back to us, knowing that there is a definite and easy way to work through a project from start to finish.
37signals has some other great products that integrate with Basecamp, such as Highrise, a robust contact manager (which I hope to cover as a general topic in the future), as well as a great API that integrates with some of the other programs we talked about in online bookkeeping, so you can link Basecamp jobs to your online invoicing system.
Furthermore, the overall philosophy of business that 37 Signals promotes and discusses actively on their blog, Signal vs Noise, as well as their books, is something that spreads through their software, and in some cases, into the actual way we do business.
I know it sounds like I am somewhat of an evangelist for them, but I suppose thats the idea in some ways. And at the end of the day, that's good business!
What about you? Do you use any online project management tools? Any tips and tricks? In the coming weeks I hope to address other aspects of the actual project management process and how to keep things on track, and what to do when things go wrong, or most importantly, why...
1. By michaelbirchall on 20th March 2010 @ 5.33 PM
I've been using Action Method by Behance for my project management.
http://www.actionmethod.com
It's fairly good - as it forces you to tick off things as you do them - this is from their site -
Action Steps are more important than anything else, and our system is organized around them. Too many project management systems either exclude a "task" functionality or minimize its importance. We believe that success comes down to identifying what needs to get done, who needs to do it, and then making it happen
Comments
View In Forum