Kiss Microsoft Project goodbye

If you use Microsoft Project, you might want to seriously consider three alternatives that run completely on the Web. In addition to supporting more contemporary features right now, and getting updated with even newer gadgets more frequently than Microsoft can muster, these products, being completely Web-based, offer much more robust collaboration tools.

First up: Liquid Planner. We saw this product at Demo 2008 but it will be on stage again at the Under the Radar conference that I'm moderating on Thursday. This tool's special sauce is its embrace of uncertainty. Users can put in best-case and worst-case estimates for their tasks, and the product combines all the estimates to tell you how likely you are to make deadlines, and also which sub-tasks are the most critical to achieving project goals.

Then there's Clarizen, the 2.0 version of which comes out this week. This product has a very nice, very Web 2.0 user interface, but what I like best about it that most users will never see the UI: managers can set up projects on the Clarizen site, but people responsible for delivering on those projects never have to use it. The product sends e-mail queries that users can update directly, bypassing the main site and the $50 monthly per-user fee as well.

Finally, there's the specialized Mumboe, which we'll also see at Under the Radar. This is a Web-based "CLM" (contract lifecycle management) app, but it's apparently one of the first to have a completely free subscription tier. The tool tracks the documents that go into a business agreement, and lets you specify start and end dates, deliverables, commitments, and tracking metrics. You can delegate tasks, of course, and also see your entire list of deliverables and commitments on one dashboard screen. Mumboe will also be at Under the Radar.

Join me at Under the Radar!

I stink at project management and can't offer an expert opinion on these products, but I do think that if you are a project management software user, you might want to try one of these Web-based tools. Of course, don't forget to also check out Basecamp.

[quickbase]

I would recommend that you also check out or review QuickBase. It's online application platform that basically let's you build your own collaborative web application. But even if building one doesn't strike your fancy, you can use one of the pre-built web apps for things like project management.

Link: http://quickbase.intuit.com

[Jim Nielsen]

Pricing for storage AND monthly seats is no way to win customers, ala quickbase. Our bake-off is between AtTask and Daptiv.

[tom Termini]

Project management is crying out for web-based collaboration. But what about the other aspects of data and information knowledge workers need to incorporate into the work process? Moving a knowledge-based organization towards the Kaizen goal of continuous improvement calls for integrated tools. The software-as-a-service model is an excellent value for small-to-medium (SME) organizations who want the same tools as the big boys, but at a per-seat or transaction-based price. http://www.bluedog.net/workbench is a prime example.

[MadLyb]

I have to disagree with your suggestions.

While I welcome the competition to an excellent, but aging product, the reality is storing Project Management data that may contain sensitive information outside the firewall is just not going to happen.

[Jim Nielsen]

To comment on only three when there are over a dozen SaaS, web-based offerings in this category is a bit of a disservice. Take a look at this comparison for a better glimpse of what they can actually do: http://project-management-software-review.toptenreviews.com/ or even this site http://blog.softwareprojects.org/top-10-project-management-software-websites-32.html . I have been in project management for over 20 years, and MS Office is a default because it started out cheaper, and you had to give up a lot that the others already had - like Project Workbench. Speaking of, check out the REAL MS PROJECT KILLER - back for a second life, it is the all new, open source version of PWB: http://www.openworkbench.org/images/stories/Articles/pmi-open-workbench.pdf

[harrismoin]

broken link for basecamp ... correct link is http://www.basecamphq.com/

[JakeCamp12]

Why not use a real scheduling tool like the one made by Primavera Systems called Primavera 6.0? Project has been garbage since they started selling it. At least with Primavera 6.0 you get a true critical path method schedule.

[treet007]

Project management (PM) and contract management are not the same thing, so to recommend Mumboe as a PM tool is too hasty. There are also different plugins for Microsoft Project, such as Critical Chain method of scheduling (http://sphericalangle.com/), which still makes MS Project relevant. Finally, if the project schedule and resource management are being administered in a Program Management Office (PMO), the PM scheduling tools have to support PMO backend systems to upload/download PM information, so these Internet-based PM tools won't just cut it in a PMO environment.

[heimangil]

By the way, Clarizen will also be at Under the Radar this week, presenting as part of the Graduate Circle.
For those who think that companies won't embrace SaaS based business solutions due to firewall concerns, we'll be happy to put you in touch with some of our big and small customers who have crossed the chasm and are reaping the advantages of a hosted AND secure solution.

[onlineadministration]

Just to let you know that the basecamp address is wrong its www.basecamphq.com

thanks - great article though

[mihaione]

Try BlueAnt from Proventis.

It's fully web-based and has all the PPM collaborative functions you need and more (Gantt chart, resources allocation, etc.).

http://www.proventis.net/website/live/index_en.html

[lemonyz]

Well, you give people just 3 alternatives. For example, I use Wrike.com. It's a great project management service that I chose out of a dozen similar products. Why I chose it? Cause it's integrated with email, it lets you build and flexibly structure tasks? hierarchies and it offers Gantt charts and time-tracking options. By the way, I know that they were going to take part in the Under the Radar conference. At least they were presented there last year. You might wanna check them out.

[Sheeva1]

One over arching reason why SaaS will not work for organizations outside of the U.S. - The Patriot Act. It forces without due legal consideration the dissemination of personal and private data of both organizations and individuals. And not always for reasons of security. With no real oversight or checks and balances it's oppressively draconian at best.

Even the risk that a company started and operated on non-U.S. soil might be "bought", merged, etc. with a U.S. company is enough to warrant serious and lengthy determination of the value of the these "on-line" based services.

For so many reasons the control of data, corporate and individuals, must be the foremost reasons for risk assessment as long as there is U.S. legislation such as the Patriot ACT.

[jimmied43]

I think these are really great, but has anyone ever thought about putting your priceless projects on the Internet where anyone can get hold of it. What I'm saying is where is the copyright protection for your data in these online software programs. Who really owns it? This is going to be one of those long, protracted battles through the courts in my opinion. MS project may not have caught up with the bells and whistles the other guys show, but at least it has a lisence that I own.

[jmcquie]

You forgot the one piece of software that is used more for project management than any package you listed - Microsoft Excel. It is not my preferred PM software - but I have seen more project plans in Excel than anything else.

The major advantage of it is that everyone has a copy for other reasons and you don't have to pay $500 to $5000 for a copy or a subscription to view the plans. Even if I create and manage a plan in Project, I will often publish it in Excel for project stakeholders. The major disadvantage is Excel is a calculation tool not a project management tool - it is too easy to set up impossible plans in Excel.

Before the professional project managers reading this start a flame war, read the next paragraph.

People's approaches to project management seem to fall into 3 categories that I call light, medium, and heavy. Light is a simple checklist of things that need to be done - Excel dominates here - the author's writeup of some of the web tools indicates that this is all what they do. Medium includes some dependency and resource analysis - MS-Project dominates here. Heavy encompasses serious, complex project management managing multiple skillsets, intricate handoffs and detailed planned versus actual reporting -software such a Primevera are the way to go.

[indrekK]

Try something simple and intuitive - www.yutiti.com . Most of project management solutions are easy to make a schedule but hard to reschedule. Our easy drag & drop functionality makes it a real RESCHEDULER.

[dishevel]

Thanks to everyone who posted alternatives. I bookmarked them all. Here is another open source alternative: http://www.dotproject.net/

[smithmm]

Another option is the multiplatform OnePoint Project. Looks nice, clean interface, runs on Macs too.

http://www.onepoint.at/

[smithmm]

OnePoint Project has a version for Linux too.

[spparikh]

Good stuff. You can give DeskAway (www.deskaway.com) a try too! Its simple, powerful and affordable. Plus, reporting is inbuilt. What I noticed is that a lot of the simple tier 1 tools had no project reporting - beats the whole purpose of pm

[kyle68]

A really important aspect of project management is obviously capturing requirements easily. There's a few on-demand solutions, this is a good one -- www.gatherspace.com

[Web-CRM]

We actually take the project management concept a whole lot further and integrate it with timesheets, billing, document management, help desk support, third party / client log in and more. www.WORKetc.com