Calendar / Project Management Solutions
I’ve researched several different options for the request of a Calendar for some level of project management, and, after researching plus a discussion with Daniel Spillers over in Computing Services, this is what I see as our options
Excel
We can use Excel templates for keeping up with timelines and creating basic calendars for discussions at meetings.
Example: Academic Calendar. Note: Use the tabs at the bottom to navigate between months.
These can be easily shared over a network share folder, published on the web, and, if we used a plain style, plugged into my own Adobe templates to give them a little bit of style. One of us could begin a template and put it in a network share folder for someone else (the dean for example) to edit and manage. When the time came, myself or Anne could print that out for use in meetings, and it could be put on the web for folks over at Benton to download and print.
I really think that this is what we should start with since it’s the simplest solution, and if we decide that we need to have a more robust solution then we have quite a few options relevant to the different degrees of management that we may need.
Price = $0
Sun Calendar (UALR Resource Calendar)
We can set up a shared calendar that can contain projects/events and tasks/notes related to those projects within a calendar. This is actually a pretty cool option. We already have one actually: ExP Resource Calendar (thanks Daniel).
We have the ability to manage timelines, send invites/notifications to events, check to see who is available during certain times (if everyone keeps their personal calendar up to date), send out reminders, make notes on events/projects, etc. Also, the calendar can be printed out for use in meetings.
I think this would be a good solution for very lightweight project management on a degree of basic timeline management and managing who can work on project.
Price = $0
Web Based Project Management
Obviously, this would give us the ability to create projects that could be monitored in terms of who is assigned to the project with what tasks, what their workload is like, what the timeline on a project is, and how it all fits into the over all scheme of other projects. Being online, the projects could be accessed from anywhere.
Goplan
Price
- Free = 2 Projects with 4 Users per project (no calendar)
- $10/month = 12 Projects with 8 Users per project
- $20/month = 30 Projects with Unlimited Users
- $50/month = 100 Projects with Unlimited Users
- $100/month = Unlimited Projects and Users
It’s hailed as a very good application, but what I don’t like is that the files reside on their server, not ours.
Basecamp
Price (all include Unlimited Users)
- Free = 1 Project
- $12/month = 3 Projects
- $24/month = 15 Projects
- $50/month = 35 Projects
- $100/month = 100 Projects
- $150/month = Unlimited Projects
Also hailed as great, but it all goes on their server, which honestly isn’t just a huge deal.
Active Collab
Price = $399, and, as I understand it, that gives us the license forever. Even if that was only for one year, then it works out to be about $35 per month. You get unlimited projects and unlimited users. And, to please me, we install it on our servers. Support and upgrades cost extra.
It seems to me that Active Collab used to be the small kid on the block compared to Goplan and Basecamp, but they seemed to have grown up recently. I thought that the interface was impressive (you can customize it) and intuitive. This was the only one of the three that I tried out, but I still think that it’s the better one.
Project Management Software
Microsoft Project
I imagine that everyone is somewhat familiar with this program. It offers all the convenience we would expect from a project management software package. It we don’t already own it then the cost is somewhere around $500.
A Host of Open Source PM Software
A search on Google leads you to quite a number of options: Google Search for “open source project management”