Project Management Software/System you use

[Lobão]

Hello everyone,

My name is Leonardo, mentor from team #1860 from Brazil.

I´d like to know if you use any free license software or web-based system for project management for your team.

I have the idea to implement this on our team so we can make it more professional and easy to integrate everybody.

Thanks

[Tim Sharp]

We have used Trello for the last three years. The basic version is free. We are very happy with it.

https://trello.com/

[guniv]

We're also using Trello and it's great! Highly suggest.

[Sperkowsky]

We use trello along with Slack. They work together very nicely.

[Lobão]

Thanks for the sugestion
I'm going to try this one and during season I give a feedback to you

Anyone else have other softwares in use?

[SenorZ]

I've been trying to get the team on Kanbanflow.com ...very similar to Trello. Though Trello has apps! I think I'm switching to Trello.

[Foster]

We have used Trello for the last three years. The basic version is free. We are very happy with it.

https://trello.com/

Love the example they give




Buy it, then drill the holes and then measure! And they have completed the first two steps!?! Wonder how they knew what size to buy and where to drill?

Oh wait, I'm being told that is standard practice on lots of teams The comment on the task is great "Ugg, going to need a new drill bit. Dang."

Back on topic: https://www.openproject.org/ is OK for small projects like an FRC build.

[gblake]

A general comment is that "Project Management" is not one single thing. It can mean all kinds of different things to different people.

There are some common project management themes because of the way the universe works (such as "you can't assemble parts you don't possess", or "you can't finish writing an article about your complete FTC season until the season ends"); but there are many different ways to handle the rest of whatever you decide "project management" is.

Pick a method that gives you the answers you will use to accomplish your current or next activity(s). In other words, pick a method that produces results that you will "consume" in some way.

Avoid methods, or products, that record/track/produce a lot of information that might look pretty, but that doesn't affect what you do from one day to the next.

A whiteboard and a stack of post-it notes can work much better than more complicated methods for many projects. On the other hand, I know some of the other methods/products mentioned here can also work very well. I have used some of them successfully.

Bottom Line: Let the type of project (the work to be done, and the types/locations of the workers) determine the method you use. Don't let the method determine how you will organize the project.

"Don't let the tail wag the dog."

Blake

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by gblake

Pick a method that gives you the answers you will use to accomplish your current or next activity(s). In other words, pick a method that produces results that you will "consume" in some way.

Avoid methods, or products, that record/track/produce a lot of information that might look pretty, but that doesn't affect what you do from one day to the next.

A whiteboard and a stack of post-it notes can work much better than more complicated methods for many projects.

These are some great points.

In an ideal world we would all be physically located in a similar space, with access to all the resources that we need. Then if we needed something we'd just go over and talk to the right people.

Some teams can literally do that, and so may not need as much tracking on a website or other software tool. You'll just annoy everyone if you introduce too much process.

Post-it notes on a wall are actually a great, low-tech way to keep track of tasks and their progress. Advocates of "agile" development methodologies actually promote literally doing this. Naturally 3M is all on board too:

http://www.post-it.com/3M/en_US/post...s/agile-scrum/

[Michael Hill]

We're using a combination of Eclipse Papyrus SysML (Free), Google Docs (Free), and Microsoft Project (not free).

SysML is for the Systems Engineering (product breakdown, Concept of Operations, etc.), Google Docs is for sharing documents (N^2 diagrams, design review documents, trade studies and the like), and Project is for Gantt charts and resource/schedule management.

[nuclearnerd]

This is our 2nd year of www.basecamp.com. It's free for educators, and super useful. The great thing is that it integrates those students & mentors who you won't ever convince to log in to a new site - Basecamp will send them emails, and they can respond by email.

[*Rachelle*]

I had never thought of using a program of this type (Trello specifically), do you guys think this is mainly beneficial to large teams or would you recommend it to a small team as well?

[Beaker]

Originally Posted by *Rachelle*

I had never thought of using a program of this type (Trello specifically), do you guys think this is mainly beneficial to large teams or would you recommend it to a small team as well?

I would recommend Trello for a small team. Given, we aren't a small team, but we do use Trello to manage the Programming and Website teams, which are normally groups of maybe 10 to 15 people.

When using Trello I make a list for each project, then I make 2 general lists, "Open Tasks" and "Finished." I give each project a label and I also create a scale of difficulty with the labels so that people of different skill levels on my Programming team can choose to work on tasks that fit their skill.

Since we have increased our use of Trello recently, we feel more organized and it seems like we are getting a lot more done. It's rewarding to put cards on the finished list.

[*Rachelle*]

Originally Posted by Beaker

I would recommend Trello for a small team. Given, we aren't a small team, but we do use Trello to manage the Programming and Website teams, which are normally groups of maybe 10 to 15 people.

When using Trello I make a list for each project, then I make 2 general lists, "Open Tasks" and "Finished." I give each project a label and I also create a scale of difficulty with the labels so that people of different skill levels on my Programming team can choose to work on tasks that fit their skill.

Since we have increased our use of Trello recently, we feel more organized and it seems like we are getting a lot more done. It's rewarding to put cards on the finished list.

Thank you for the input! Right now I am using Excel and I color code different tasks to indicate importance, it automatically throws red on top and green on bottom. I also have a details column and places where I can put names, notes, and dates. I simply "strike through" the row when complete or hide it.

[Chris_Elston]

We run dotproject on a webserver.

http://www.dotproject.net/