The Search for a Project / Task Management System.
By Thomas von Schimonsky, Levade Corp.
For over a month I have been searching for a Project Management / Task Management software solution that would help Levade’s management and development team in their collaborative effort to organize and track the continuous development of our CadenceQ software project. As our project complexity and project team grows so does the need for system that can helps us keep control of the development process and at the same time maintain the dynamism found in simpler projects and groups.
I. Some Selection Criteria
Here are a few basic criteria I established for reviewing potential software solution candidates:
A. General Criteria:
- Allow straightforward collaboration between team members
- Allow easy access to outside team members – possibly a web based system.
- Allow tracking of multiple projects / subprojects
- Allow for a quick overview of project hierarchy tree
- Allow for project elements to be moved within the hierarchy tree.
- Allow assignment of different user access rights on a project by project basis
- Allow for document management related to the projects
- Allow team member to easily view their open issues
- Maintain a balance between feature richness and simplicity of use
B. If Browser Based - Criteria:
- Exhibit as little latency during navigation as possible
- Have a GUI that best approximate non-browser based applications.
C. If Open Source Software - Criteria:
- Being in a mature stage in development
- Display signs of “momentum” in the project.
- Are there many “followers”?
- What are the plans for future versions?
- Amount of information and online resources available.
D. If a Non-Open Source - Criteria:
- Trial license scheme that Allows for comprehensive testing. Too many software developers limit their “free to trial” phase to only one user seat which does not allow for a through testing of the system in a team setting.
- Cost per seat and discount on multiple seats. Of course, for a start up company budget is always a concern.
II. Basic Sources of Information and Some Promising Choices
We looked into various software solutions. One source of information I found helpful was a list of different Project Management solutions listed on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_project_management_software
Two open source solutions listed here which I found interesting and which I found to be close to our objectives:
- Project.net (http://www.project.net/) This system is feature rich and seems quite robust. One drawback I found is that the system is designed to work exclusively with an Oracle database. While the developers indicate that one can use the free Oracle Express version, that limitation of database choices turned me off as most of our experience is in MySql.
- Todoyu. (http://www.todoyu.com/) This open source project promises to become a powerful option with a well design web interface. Unfortunately at this point the system does not seem mature enough. For example, at the time I reviewed the system it had not been translated into English yet (It is German).
Another source of information was by searching some of the popular download sites such as http://www.download.com and http://www.twocows.com. The steps I take to screen possible candidates while searching these sites are roughly as follow: 1. Search by different keywords (many good software solutions are not categorized correctly or do not appear in certain keyword searches one would think logical). 2. Sort search selection by different criteria (most popular, ratings). 3. Read description. 4. If available look at screen shots 5. Read “official” reviews and user reviews (with a grain of salt). 6. Visit developer’s web site. By now one should have reduced the selection to a few candidates. 7. Download the latest version and test.
After following this screening process I came up with two software systems that called my attention:
III. The Choice
I finally decided for Project Kaiser Software system. Here are the main reasons for my selection:
A. First of all the system met my General Criteria:
- Allows straightforward collaboration between team members.
- Allows easy access to outside team members — web based
- Allows tracking of multiple projects / subprojects.
- Allows for a quick overview of project hierarchy tree.
- Allows for project elements to be moved within the hierarchy tree.
- Allows the assignment of different user access rights on a project by project basis
- Allows for document management related to the projects
- Allows team member to easily view their open issues
- Maintains a balance between feature richness and simplicity of use
B. It met my criteria for a browser based system:
- Exhibits as little latency during navigation as possible
- Has a GUI that best approximates a non-browser based application.
C. It met my criteria for a non-open source system:
- License scheme allowed for comprehensive testing. The system developers allowed for a comprehensive evaluation period – free and unlimited use for the first 5 users.
- Cost per seat and discount on multiple seats. The system is reasonably priced for licenses over 5 users – It starts at $450 for 25 user licenses. Typically other comparative system runs for at least $50 to $100 per user.
D. Other reason and comments:
- The system was easy to install and implement
- The system is browser based yet with snappy response time and intuitive GUI.
- The system is not overblown with features; thus easier to understand and easier to implement because of decreased resistance by users to embrace it.
- The development roadmap outlined by Project Kaiser is in line with my needs. Some future features listed that interest me include:
- Notification methodology
- Time Tracking
- SCRUM support
- The system works well for content management into “Public Folders”. We plan to use Project Kaiser’s “Public Folders” as a knowledge base for our product. (Wiki, Discussion Forum, Documentation.)
- The system is built in Java and therefore platform independent. We installed it in our Linux server without issues.