Thread

I am also looking forward to Stephen Slater offering this for the community.
As with all shared projects, with the culminated abilities of everyone, we can even turn this into a better performing Project Management System? I dunno, but the possibilities are endless for these types of projects.

Just look at the craze David Allen started with GTD this and that! I’ve been an avid user of TiddlyWikis for over a year now, I’ve got a ton of notepads, sticky notes, and index cards littering my workplace, because I can not find a method that works for me. Perhaps, with a little inspiration from this project by Stephen Slater, I can best utilize this to work for me.

Hey…

I wanted to drop in and say I’ve been working on pulling together these templates and polish them enough for you guys to find usable.  Meanwhile, I’d love to hear what your biggest needs are in project management.  What are must haves?  Also, on the flip-side, what are your biggest gripes in your current project management setup?

Look forward to hearing from you.

What are must haves?

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and NOT request anything special - AT ALL!

WHY?
because I’m very interested in your ‘current’ Project Management as you’ve stated in Post#5 above:

I’ve tried BaseCamp, OmniPlan, CopperProject and a variety of others.  None of them have really tickled my fancy.

So, I started delivering a project management portion of every site that I develop.  For instance, I’m using a schedule, mockups, documentation, sytle guide and issue log weblog. This allows the client to stay up-to-date with much of the development process but this evolves into a nice maintenance application once the initial build is complete.

Schedule:
The schedule weblog uses the calendar tags of the weblog module to lay out the production schedule.

Documentation
I start most projects with a Statement of Work then I go to Wireframe Mockups and sometimes a variety of other documents are born.  This portion ends up being a table with a link to download documents, version numbers and dates.

Mockups
This is mostly used during the design process.  I’ve set it up like a blog, so I can post a “first review” and allow the client to comment.  Since I allow five revisions with each design, each entry ends showcasing the evolution of the design.  It also allows you to capture some very valuable comments from your client.  I work with a couple larger companies and it really works well because a variety of stake-holders can give their opinions that you sometimes do not hear during in-person meetings.

Style Guide
With each site, I document the mark-up strategy (commenting, validation, etc…), colors, CSS, images, etc…  This style guide allows a central location for future designers/developers and even yourself to learn how the site is structured.

Issue Log
This is the big one!  I set this one up blog style with a SAEF to allow the client to fill out issue logs.  This is a perfect way to allow clients to supply changes, updates, etc… A client can initiate the issue and then comments allow you to go back and forth with the client until the issue is resolved at which point you can have a custom status to close the issue.  This ends up being a TODO list.

Once all this is built, you can supply it with every site you develop.  IMHO, since each site has it’s own ‘project management panel’, it begins to be a pretty elegant solution.  Also, it makes for a great selling point when you present your methodologies to your client.

Anyway, that is my approach.  I hope it’s helpful.

haha… “must haves” are features that you cannot live without.  Some people feel attached to certain features and wouldn’t consider using something unless it was included.  So, I was asking if you guys felt strongly about something that I may not have or could tweak to better fit your needs.

Thanks for responding.

Hi Stephen,
Honestly, your whole setup sounds like an amazing system. I would *love* to get my hands on it.
I’m not sure what your first page login/landing page looks like, but it would be great if it showed some milestones or ‘please responds’ (it sounds like it might) for the client.
Additionally, and this is super easy to do I think, have a way that teh client gets an email when I input some new milestone or mockup or entry, etc.

I like how it keeps everything contained in one easy to track manner. My only reserve is that by keeping it on the client’s site, a developer could potentially get pooched if the client decides to block access and then bring suit or complaint, and the developer no longer has access to the communications as a log. But there are probably ways around that, too, including comment email notifications.

Thanks for developing this!

I’d be interested in checking this out as well.

Stephen, I would agree with Reese’s comment. I think i’d need to really grasp how it works before I could make requests as to what it should include. He also brought up a good reservation about the site getting “pooched” (that’s a technical term). What are you thoughts on that?

Hi guys…

You guys must have E.S.P. (Extra Sensory Perception), because over the last few days I’ve been laying the groundwork to pull it back in under one managing domain (ie, your domain).  I’m working on a multiple client, multiple people per client, multiple project scenario (get that?)... all this will be driven by the membership module of EE.

I have a special case where it works better on their server.  I have it set-up where I work closely with the IT team of my client.  It just works better if it’s on their server because they use the portal as much as I do.  I do not think this will be a good scenario for all, so I’m changing the approach.

Stay tuned, I’m making progress, but I’m juggling my work schedule too.

Stephen, Thanks for the update. 😊

He also brought up a good reservation about the site getting “pooched” (that’s a technical term).

Yes, highly technical term. Feel free to borrow and reuse at will 😉

I have to add that I look forward to seeing Stephen’s PM system as well - what a great left field piece of thinking and I suspect real easy to add to each project because you can quickly copy/upload the templates but the great thing is yu can just log into the site to see where you got to! Love it.

Count me in! Thank you Jambor-ee for pointing out this thread..

I’m seriously interested too.

My must haves for project management:
1- Message board
2- Time schedule with milestones
3- To-Do List with attribution
4- Member/Access right management
5- File-Manager with upload/download rights per project
6- Time tracking

basecamphq.com is pretty near to our ideal project management software.
The downsize is they charge 49$/month to get these features.

I’m curious to know if and how that could be done with ee.

My must haves for project management:
1- Message board

Having a message board would go well beyond the scope of this project. It would require the user have purchased a personal/commercial license + the forum module.

I beleive this project should focus on just a well-coded system of templates that can be used with core as well as personal/commercial licenses.

Stephen, just to support your efforts here.

I think if it is convenient for you to release this, the best is not to try to add on to it now.

We would be very privileged, I think, to have use of your base arrangement. 

If you want to get involved in further features, and/or a fair charge for a module, ready to hear about either when you want to get involved with them.

Kind regards,
Clive