Selection of a task management system (Project & Task management)
The post is quite large, and if there is a desire to understand the question, you may need a thoughtful reading.
I ask you to help determine the system that will breathe new life into the relationship between employees and tasks.
As it seems to me, the problem of effective joint task management is very relevant for many small teams.
After the system is selected, I am ready to write a report on the “Project Management” blog for those who, like me, feel it is time to put things in order in management. If you are interested in such a report - write about it in the comments, please.
I work in a small architectural company (there are 10 of us). We are engaged in designing, and then accompanying the construction of small objects. In addition to my direct work, I am de facto responsible for organizing the operational management of tasks.
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I'll start with the history of management in my team. When we first started and there were only three of us, all tasks fit on one sheet of paper. Later, a simple Excel plate appeared. Once a week we carried out planning meetings, and I wrote down who was responsible for what, deadlines, after which I distributed to each a sheet with tasks. Then I started using Mindjet MindManager, the program itself is very good (including there are convenient shortcuts by which I filter tasks by different criteria). Tasks assigned to employees, I send in a hierarchical list for the internal manager. But under the task of management, this program is not sharpened, and now its capabilities are obviously not enough - the number of projects simultaneously in operation regularly exceeds five, and the number of tasks within a project can exceed one hundred. There are so many tasks that we ceased to hold the planning meeting, in order to discuss them all the working day is not enough :)
I began to be interested in ready-made solutions, primarily those that are oriented under the web interface.
Superficially penetrating into the capabilities of the proposed systems, I formulated for myself the requirements:
Low price. The system should be free or inexpensive. We are ready to pay for a convenient system of about 300-500 dollars a year.
Ease of deployment and configuration. We do not have a programmer who could for months delve into the subtleties of the system and write complex additions to it.
ToDo List. It is important that for each employee the system prepares a to-do list - a list of tasks collected from various projects that need to be done today, now. It is desirable that such a list is well tuned (for example, sorting by importance, by urgency, etc.). After all, this is the section that employees will need to use most often.
New events. It should be realized informing the user about new events related to him. For example, someone gave a new comment to the task in which I was marked as a contact. Or someone assigns me a new task. It is time to do some deferred task. I wish it was not just sending email alerts.
Hierarchical (tree) structure of tasks. Since the number of tasks within our projects is large, we need the possibility of building tasks within the project into a hierarchical structure. It is desirable that the degree of nesting of tasks is not limited.
Comments to the tasks. We need the ability for users to comment on the task - in order to discuss the tasks not through the internal messenger, but directly in the system - this is much more effective.
Internal messages. A good addition if one user can send another message that is not tied to a task.
Tags (labels). It would be very convenient if any number of tags could be attached to the task (and maybe to any object), and accordingly, it would be possible to manage the tags and quickly find all the tasks related to the tag or set of tags .
Search. A good search must be implemented in the system. It is a lot of tasks, search will be often used tool, and it should be effective.
Contacts. Be sure to be able to maintain contact on tasks. These are office workers (users of the system who are entrusted with tasks), as well as external contacts (contractors, suppliers, customers, etc., associated with the tasks). It is necessary that several people should be attached to the task - for example, a manager, a performer and an external contact.
It is also desirable to quickly find all the active tasks associated with this contact - for example, I call the contractor, press a couple of buttons, I see everything that we have associated with it, along the way I ask questions for different tasks. Ideally, it is desirable that it is convenient to keep all external contacts in the system at all (now we are using a simple, web-based contact base, written on php + mysql ourselves)
Gantt chart. It is theoretically desirable that the system have the ability to work with tasks on the Gantt chart, and / or the ability to export to Microsoft Project. (Although, to be honest, I don’t use old Gant in my daily work.)
Access control. Need the ability to block for some users the level of access to certain objects of the system.
File storage The idea of ​​file storage looks good, i.e. so that the file (or image) can be attached to the task. It will be convenient in many cases.
History of action. All user actions are recorded and you can see who made what changes.
Backup. If we are talking about working on a remote server, it would be desirable to be able to make a backup copy of this whole outrage, because in case there is no access to this server, the work will instantly arise, it’s terrible to think about the consequences.
Speed ​​of work It is necessary that the system works with good speed (so that you do not have to wait for a reaction for a few seconds)
Russification is desirable, though not required.
I have tried several systems that are incl. recommend here on Habré.
Www.comindwork.ru was the first to test, registered an account there, tried the main features. The system is almost completely Russified.
The most important thing that I did not find is the hierarchical structure of tasks. With our number of tasks (I looked at the statistics - there are more than 500 of them), it is impossible to work without a structure, especially considering that some tasks are inherently subtasks for larger issues.
There is a ToDo List (though the settings are not very rich), the system at first glance corresponds to the rest of the criteria to a greater or lesser extent.
The projects.zoho.com system is very similar to the previous one, it also registered, it is Russified, but terribly, immediately switched back to English. The first thing I checked is the task hierarchy. Here the situation is slightly better - there is a hierarchy, but it is only two-level, which is not enough for me.
WebAsyst I have not tested, because judging by the description of the system, only one contact can be attached to the task, there are no comments to the tasks, no shortcuts, etc., i.e. It does not meet many criteria.
www.trackstudio.ru
Installed locally. I installed it, tested it.
With the hierarchy, everything is fine, the depth of the hierarchy and the type of child tasks are configured. There are also wide opportunities for contact hierarchy (for example, one performer may have several managers). Access control is also worked out in great detail. The system is quite complicated to set up, you can't figure it out on the fly in one evening, but judging by everything, you can rebuild it for yourself in a week as you need and are comfortable, then grind slowly.
There are comments on the tasks, thanks to which the state of the task also changes (states can also create any that you need)
The problem here is different - the Todo List is not as such, if the user has dozens of different tasks for different projects, it is not clear how to navigate - what is urgent, what is important, what to do first. Notifications about new events are also missing (except for the possibility of sending notifications by e-mail). No shortcuts, etc. functions have become familiar in our time social. networks and other web 2.0
Those. the system is very thought out in terms of the possibility of customization for specific business processes, but in my opinion, it is not very convenient in daily routine use. However, maybe I did not dig deep enough in it? Hardly…
[UPD] Added: I really didn’t dig deep enough, the program developer responded in detail to the points on the official program forum .
[UPD 2] Added: Murz in the comments for the second part makes an important addition from the experience with this system
Please help me with the direction of further search. What system can satisfy my (perhaps too high) requests? There are a lot of different systems, which ones should be tested yet?
I would also be grateful for advice or feedback from someone who uses such a system in their team’s work - maybe I incorrectly set priorities and accents, and something else comes to the fore in real use?
[UPD] Continued: The choice of a task management system, part 2.
I ask you to help determine the system that will breathe new life into the relationship between employees and tasks.
As it seems to me, the problem of effective joint task management is very relevant for many small teams.
After the system is selected, I am ready to write a report on the “Project Management” blog for those who, like me, feel it is time to put things in order in management. If you are interested in such a report - write about it in the comments, please.
I work in a small architectural company (there are 10 of us). We are engaged in designing, and then accompanying the construction of small objects. In addition to my direct work, I am de facto responsible for organizing the operational management of tasks.
')
I'll start with the history of management in my team. When we first started and there were only three of us, all tasks fit on one sheet of paper. Later, a simple Excel plate appeared. Once a week we carried out planning meetings, and I wrote down who was responsible for what, deadlines, after which I distributed to each a sheet with tasks. Then I started using Mindjet MindManager, the program itself is very good (including there are convenient shortcuts by which I filter tasks by different criteria). Tasks assigned to employees, I send in a hierarchical list for the internal manager. But under the task of management, this program is not sharpened, and now its capabilities are obviously not enough - the number of projects simultaneously in operation regularly exceeds five, and the number of tasks within a project can exceed one hundred. There are so many tasks that we ceased to hold the planning meeting, in order to discuss them all the working day is not enough :)
I began to be interested in ready-made solutions, primarily those that are oriented under the web interface.
Superficially penetrating into the capabilities of the proposed systems, I formulated for myself the requirements:
Low price. The system should be free or inexpensive. We are ready to pay for a convenient system of about 300-500 dollars a year.
Ease of deployment and configuration. We do not have a programmer who could for months delve into the subtleties of the system and write complex additions to it.
ToDo List. It is important that for each employee the system prepares a to-do list - a list of tasks collected from various projects that need to be done today, now. It is desirable that such a list is well tuned (for example, sorting by importance, by urgency, etc.). After all, this is the section that employees will need to use most often.
New events. It should be realized informing the user about new events related to him. For example, someone gave a new comment to the task in which I was marked as a contact. Or someone assigns me a new task. It is time to do some deferred task. I wish it was not just sending email alerts.
Hierarchical (tree) structure of tasks. Since the number of tasks within our projects is large, we need the possibility of building tasks within the project into a hierarchical structure. It is desirable that the degree of nesting of tasks is not limited.
Comments to the tasks. We need the ability for users to comment on the task - in order to discuss the tasks not through the internal messenger, but directly in the system - this is much more effective.
Internal messages. A good addition if one user can send another message that is not tied to a task.
Tags (labels). It would be very convenient if any number of tags could be attached to the task (and maybe to any object), and accordingly, it would be possible to manage the tags and quickly find all the tasks related to the tag or set of tags .
Search. A good search must be implemented in the system. It is a lot of tasks, search will be often used tool, and it should be effective.
Contacts. Be sure to be able to maintain contact on tasks. These are office workers (users of the system who are entrusted with tasks), as well as external contacts (contractors, suppliers, customers, etc., associated with the tasks). It is necessary that several people should be attached to the task - for example, a manager, a performer and an external contact.
It is also desirable to quickly find all the active tasks associated with this contact - for example, I call the contractor, press a couple of buttons, I see everything that we have associated with it, along the way I ask questions for different tasks. Ideally, it is desirable that it is convenient to keep all external contacts in the system at all (now we are using a simple, web-based contact base, written on php + mysql ourselves)
Gantt chart. It is theoretically desirable that the system have the ability to work with tasks on the Gantt chart, and / or the ability to export to Microsoft Project. (Although, to be honest, I don’t use old Gant in my daily work.)
Access control. Need the ability to block for some users the level of access to certain objects of the system.
File storage The idea of ​​file storage looks good, i.e. so that the file (or image) can be attached to the task. It will be convenient in many cases.
History of action. All user actions are recorded and you can see who made what changes.
Backup. If we are talking about working on a remote server, it would be desirable to be able to make a backup copy of this whole outrage, because in case there is no access to this server, the work will instantly arise, it’s terrible to think about the consequences.
Speed ​​of work It is necessary that the system works with good speed (so that you do not have to wait for a reaction for a few seconds)
Russification is desirable, though not required.
I have tried several systems that are incl. recommend here on Habré.
Www.comindwork.ru was the first to test, registered an account there, tried the main features. The system is almost completely Russified.
The most important thing that I did not find is the hierarchical structure of tasks. With our number of tasks (I looked at the statistics - there are more than 500 of them), it is impossible to work without a structure, especially considering that some tasks are inherently subtasks for larger issues.
There is a ToDo List (though the settings are not very rich), the system at first glance corresponds to the rest of the criteria to a greater or lesser extent.
The projects.zoho.com system is very similar to the previous one, it also registered, it is Russified, but terribly, immediately switched back to English. The first thing I checked is the task hierarchy. Here the situation is slightly better - there is a hierarchy, but it is only two-level, which is not enough for me.
WebAsyst I have not tested, because judging by the description of the system, only one contact can be attached to the task, there are no comments to the tasks, no shortcuts, etc., i.e. It does not meet many criteria.
www.trackstudio.ru
Installed locally. I installed it, tested it.
With the hierarchy, everything is fine, the depth of the hierarchy and the type of child tasks are configured. There are also wide opportunities for contact hierarchy (for example, one performer may have several managers). Access control is also worked out in great detail. The system is quite complicated to set up, you can't figure it out on the fly in one evening, but judging by everything, you can rebuild it for yourself in a week as you need and are comfortable, then grind slowly.
There are comments on the tasks, thanks to which the state of the task also changes (states can also create any that you need)
The problem here is different - the Todo List is not as such, if the user has dozens of different tasks for different projects, it is not clear how to navigate - what is urgent, what is important, what to do first. Notifications about new events are also missing (except for the possibility of sending notifications by e-mail). No shortcuts, etc. functions have become familiar in our time social. networks and other web 2.0
Those. the system is very thought out in terms of the possibility of customization for specific business processes, but in my opinion, it is not very convenient in daily routine use. However, maybe I did not dig deep enough in it? Hardly…
[UPD] Added: I really didn’t dig deep enough, the program developer responded in detail to the points on the official program forum .
[UPD 2] Added: Murz in the comments for the second part makes an important addition from the experience with this system
Please help me with the direction of further search. What system can satisfy my (perhaps too high) requests? There are a lot of different systems, which ones should be tested yet?
I would also be grateful for advice or feedback from someone who uses such a system in their team’s work - maybe I incorrectly set priorities and accents, and something else comes to the fore in real use?
[UPD] Continued: The choice of a task management system, part 2.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/74842/
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