Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Project Management Applications

I need an online, free, colaborative tool for project management. I have reviewed what is available from a list on wikipedia. Initially all I wanted was something easy to share a project plan but what it has done has made me rethink what project management software is all about.

I have long held the opinion that Gantt charts are only pretty drawings that every project seems to require and are just as quickly discarded as the project comences. What is requires is a document that is more engaging and dynamic.

From the list the following have jumped out for not much reason at all appart from their relative completeness and some unique features that I think make them interesting for further review.

OpenWorkbench (obw.1.1.6.exe) - is a stand alone app that I have used before. It appears to be going through some sort of update as the owner CA has taken down the app's website. It can still be found on wikipedia and the exe on the web (and 1.1.4 on SF). Cant say I used it much and there are issues with round trips to MS Project and only supports 2003+ xml based project files for export.

OpenProject - is a nice stand alone that has a very basic interface. I am a bit more inclined to use it because f this reason. Still has issues with round trips to MS Project and only supports 2003+ xml based project files for export.

OpenERP - seeing this app listed in a project planning software list really made me start to think left field in what I need. Integrating planning into the project execution at an enterprise level is really what is

Endeavour - is really right out there with a spectifically targetted industry and functionality required to execute and manage the required tasks. Specifially agile based software development, user requirements, functional planning and task execution.

phpGroupWare - looks like an interesting group of functionality that could be implement on a colaboration portal. Not sure what to do with it but I guess something will come up.

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