Which project management software?

[fly]

I'm an experienced developer who is soon being thrown in at the deep end of project management. There's no choice - it's not an ideal situation but the only other option is less experienced developers with equally little project management experience.

I'm reading up on project management and hopefully by applying my experience of which projects worked well and which didn't, I'll manage to manage it.

Can anyone recommend project management software that will suit a novice? I'm not looking for anything advanced, just somewhere that I can write down my thoughts and plans into organised structures which make it clear if I've forgotten anything and make it easy to see dependencies, break down tasks, etc.

I've never really used any project management software before so have no preference. Web based would be a preference so other stakeholders can easily log in for a look.
Should I just install Microsoft Project since it's so common and shouldn't have as steep a learning curve? Are there any decent free/open source solutions?

[48k]

What project methodology are you following? That will drive the choice of tool.

[fly]

It will be Agile, but I can't be more specific than that as I don't know anything more specific yet.

The kind of thing I'm looking for, to start with, is really simple. I'm currently making a list in Word of tasks to be done, eg:

1) Refresh company website
  1.a) Front-end design
    1.a.i) Research new design theme
    1.a.ii) Create development/test site
    1.a.iii) Install new theme on dev site
    1.a.iv) Test new theme
    1.a.v) Train website editors in new templates and tools
    1.a.vi) Deploy new theme to live site
  1.b) SEO
    1.b.i) Gather analytics data for past 12 months
    1.b.ii) Install new analytics tools
etc.

I'd like web-based software where I can write this list, including which resource is assigned to which task, estimates and dependencies. I'd like it to generate some nice charts for bosses who care about those, and be able to tick things off as they're done with updates to the charts.

That's all I need, anything extra will be wasted on me. But I need to start ASAP so being able to do the above without a steep learning curve is essential.

Edited by fly on Wednesday 15th November 11:47

[fly]

Update on this... I've tried out most of the popular free/cheap web based project management tools now... They all either have far too steep a learning curve, or are just too low on functionality.

MS Project is the most straight-forward but it's not cheap! This is a small-ish project and I'd need to set up about 5 accounts on it, which is close to £100pm. Maybe something for the future, but it's overkill for now.

The only thing I've found which does everything I want and is easy to use is OpenProject. It's not a nice interface and has plenty of annoying features, but it does the job.

Trello was very nice, but not useful for time management unfortunately.

[768]

Sounds like you just want a bug tracker.

Jira?

[rustyuk]

If you are following an agile methodology then you want nothing more than a white board and some post-it notes.

[jammy-git]

rustyuk said:

If you are following an agile methodology then you want nothing more than a white board and some post-it notes.

Or Tello for something digital and collaborative.

[fly]

I am still thinking about using Trello. It's a lovely interface, just a shame it's so light on functionality.

I suspect with this being my first project there may be some anxiety around deadlines so at the very least I think a burndown chart is needed to show progress. I see there are some plug-ins for Trello that offer this so I'll give them a shot, although worst case I can just track tasks and assign estimates, etc. separately in Excel.

[48k]

Estimates? Time tracking?

Not an agile project. Be careful!! Best of luck.

[Taita]

Asana?

[Autopilot]

fly said:

MS Project is the most straight-forward but it's not cheap! This is a small-ish project and I'd need to set up about 5 accounts on it, which is close to £100pm. Maybe something for the future, but it's overkill for now.
.

Typically only the PM needs Project as they are the person doing the planning. Can you not get one license for yourself and issue the plan as a PDF to the rest of the team?

I've used a few different bits of software but nothing really beats Project in my experience. It's great for simple plans as you just start typing or can use some of the more advanced functions if you want them.

[KevinCamaroSS]

Autopilot said:

Typically only the PM needs Project as they are the person doing the planning. Can you not get one license for yourself and issue the plan as a PDF to the rest of the team?

I've used a few different bits of software but nothing really beats Project in my experience. It's great for simple plans as you just start typing or can use some of the more advanced functions if you want them.

Agree with this, you can also get free software that reads MS Project files. Alternatively you could use Excel

[sgrimshaw]

MS Project on Amazon.co.uk:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Project-Profess...

Would assume that MS would have had these sales pulled from Amazon if hooky.

Also FWIW, OpenProject/Project Libre is ok ... but moving tasks is a massive PITA !

[sgrimshaw]

Did you try Teamwork.com ?

[Dave2P]

fly said:

Can anyone recommend project management software that will suit a novice?

Pivotal Tracker? Completely free for up to 3 developers so you can give it a spin with no commitment.

https://www.pivotaltracker.com/

Like Kanban on steroids I suppose and doesn't get in your way. Dependencies are dealt with by identifying "blockers" which feels a little unfamiliar at first but very flexible.

I've no connection, other than having been happily using it for a few years.

[768]

Autopilot said:

Typically only the PM needs Project as they are the person doing the planning.

In Agile?

[akirk]

have a look online at smartsheet...

[andyb28]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Interested in hearing more about this. Are you specifically talking about smaller agile type projects here, or any size project?

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Do you work for an internal department?
Almost all projects we are involved in are fixed price and being able to estimate accurately is really fundamental.

I am not having a go here at all, I realise different people do things in different ways, I am possibly hijacking a little bit, but would like to hear how others do it.

[CrutyRammers]

Quite refreshing reading this, I spend a lot of time holding off the ms project brigade. It does of course depend who your customer is, but if you're "doing agile", start from the principles in the agile manifesto. Of prime importance is regular reviews with your customers and expectation of change. Burn down charts are the work of the devil, they put the focus on proving you are doing work, rather than actually delivering products.
Keep it simple.

Edited by CrutyRammers on Friday 17th November 22:34

[andyb28]

Thank you for sharing, I found that very interesting.

I think I need to re-educate our customers.