Basecamp

[cullen]

I haven't posted in a while and I have to say it's nice to be back. After being moved around in the company I was in, I have officially started my own business so I can come back to the visualization world.

 

With that said, I have been looking at serveral project management packages and have just started using Basecamp. http://www.basecamphq.com/

 

I'm curious if anyone else is using this and if so, what are your thoughts on it?

 

Have you found anything associatied with it that is helpful for our industry?

 

Thanks,

crw

[moshenko]

Hi -

 

I used Basecamp for several months, and actually had a few clients trying it out with me. Here are my thoughts on Basecamp in particular (some of these things may have changed since I last tried it) and web-based project management in general:

 

Pros:

- The overall vocabulary of Basecamp is very good. Milestones, in my opinion, are a great method of structuring a project;

- The interface is quite easy to get used to, although the whole dhtml "look" is getting very tired (why does it all look the same?);

- Pricing is very reasonable and easy to justify;

- Doesn't rely on linking to big desktop components (like Office);

 

Cons:

- There was no way to display a spcified range of project milestones for all projects. The dashboard was hard-coded to show only an overview of the next two weeks of milestones, which was fine for some things but generally crappy for long-term planning;

- Poor email support. One cannot email to a specific project as can be done with most message board systems;

- Doesn't like to big desktop components (like Office). I found that if I added tasks in Basecamp I ended up with two task lists: one in Basecamp and one on my desktop. Since these two didn't talk to each other it was kind of silly.

 

IMO, web-based project management applications require one to change the way the way in which one works on a fundamental level. They are geared towards those who are completely free of the traditional software environment, which is why I list integration with Office as both a pro and a con. For example, Basecamp allows all tasks to be sync'ed via iCalendar, but if you use Outlook as your email client you are out of luck. The two things that I find particularly problematic about web-based project management in general are:

 

1. The separation of file storage into multiple locations.

 

If I, as a business owner/operator, go through the trouble and expense to set up a proper file storage scheme in my office(s), how do I deal with a second system that attempts to break that chain by storing files in a "central" location? How do I make a record of communication in a format that I can refer back to (in the case of Basecamp, what do I do with an exported xml list of all of the information from my site)?

 

2. The lack of alternate methods of useage such as email.

 

If someone in your project team breaks the chain and sends an email to the rest of the team rather than posting something on the site, your project management system falls apart. The problem with an entirely web-based system is that all of the members must fully participate. In my experience, most clients do not want another layer of administration to deal with. What if one of my clients had 5 companies to deal with, and each of them used a different web-based project management system? The client would revert back to sending email messages, of course. At that point the web-based systems cease to function.

 

I can see where Basecamp may be quite useful for some. If you deal with many contractors that are in multiple locations then you may find it amazing. I just couldn't get it to be fully adopted by all the people that it needed to be, and that meant that it was completely unused. In general I haven't found any project management systems that really perform the way in which I want them to perform, and maybe part of the problem is not really knowing what I want them to do. I was kind of hoping that I would find one that would make me say "Ah, that's what I need!", but so far that hasn't happened (although Basecamp seemed like that at first).

 

You should try it out and report back here. I would be really interested to see how you like it and what kind of problems/solutions it brings up.

 

Good luck!

[cullen]

Thanks for your reply. This is the kind of info i was looking for.

 

I'm currently using it for my second project. Things worked great for the 1st but like you said, it doesn't sync with Outlook. This is one of the main things that i need just because I'm always on the go and use my ppc like crazy.

 

One of the issues I've found is that I can't link a specific task to a milestone. I would like for a completed task to also complete the milestone. The client that I'm working with now is actually going to be using 2 different west coast offices and 1 midwest office so it will be interesting to see how it works for this.

 

I totally agree on the e-mail thing. I've been working on an operating procedure to post as the 1st message and give "the rules" so to say.

 

Thanks for your input, I'll keep you posted.

 

crw

[Clausbang]

Hi

 

We have used it in several smaller website projects. For the larger 3D projects and the standard ones (TurnTool archviz) we have a custom build system.

 

It has been alright for the purpose (smaller website projects), and is using ideas from for the next iteration of the custom system

 

/Claus