While writing the communication plan for our project, I realized that there are so many ways to communicate and collaborate with our team without meeting face-to-face. In today’s world, where telecommuting has become a second nature for most of the companies, it is important to select right tools to connect people. The term ‘virtual teams’ will become a norm in the future. Telecommuting has increased by 79% between 2005 and 2012, according to the American Community Survey (source: NY Times).
The type of the tool will depend on the size of the project. The larger the project, more elaborate and standard industry tools will be required. I found various articles that discusses number of free resources available to readily connect with team members. 10 must-have personal project management tools:
- Asana – Created by co-found of Facebook. One can create dependencies between tasks and organize tasks by date or due date. It does not have a chat function. The free version has a limit of 15 people.
- Smartsheet – It offers prebuilt templates such as Dropbox, Salesforce, and Google Apps. There is no limit as to number of users. There is also a capability to produce Ganntt charts.
- Trello – It uses the Kanban model and refers to cards and to-do lists. It gives the project manager an overview a gauge to measure how busy a person might be. It is flexible and easy to use by dragging and dropping tasks.
- OneNote – This is a note taking tool or a fancy Microsoft Word. It comes with Micrsoft Suite, otherwise it can cost up to $70.
- Do – This is equivalent to having the meeting agenda and the follow ups in one place. It also interacts with Google Apps.
- Evernote – This is also a note taking tool and allows you to organize the notes and helps create presentations.
- AgileZen – This tool is equivalent to the Trello. It lets you create or manage tasks, invite others to collaborate, and instant message the team when necessary.
- Azendoo – This product has free storage along with the typical project management tools such as task assignment, track progress, etc.
- Teambox – This tool essentially replaces emails and text messaging. It lets to have thread of conversations which ensures that everyone is on the same page.
- Basecamp – This program has features including emails, organize groups, share documents in real time. Some companies using Basecamp include Twitter, Kellogg’s, Nike, and Adidas.
Some other not mentioned in this article includes GanttProject (similar to Microsoft Project), HipChat (chat room) and Google Apps (docs, calendars, and slides).
For our project, I have learned to use Trello and thus far my experience has been positive. Similar to the sticky note approach discussed in our class, Trello is an electronic format.
The trick is to select a right tool for your team. The project manager must evaluate the team needs, create a list of products that are necessary for the project, and compare the tools.
Source: 10 Must-Have Personal Project Management Tools http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-must-have-personal-project-management-tools.html Published on
Source: It’s Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting Is Fast on the Rise http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/08/your-money/when-working-in-your-pajamas-is-more-productive.html?_r=0 Published on March 7, 2014.
This post is relevant to me because my company recently implemented telecommuting. When this was implemented, there was a mix of people who were for and against it. I personally think that all these available tools can actually allow you to be more productive in a virtual environment than you otherwise would be working face to face in a physical office. These are great tools for personal use as well. I actually downloaded Trello today and am looking forward to trying it out. Thanks for the recommendations! Does anyone else have recommendations on these types of tools for business or personal use?
I wish I could say that this environment was relevant to me. Four years ago our large department started to pull in employees from home offices and required them to be in the nearest office at least three days a week. This was all after they created a work from home program a few years before. While we have a few telepresence rooms in each city, we do not have individual web cameras or use any of the tools mentioned in the post. It is somewhat frustrating for myself as a a younger employee in the company to work in this environment that is not using these tools. Kevin, per your comment, I haven’t had the chance to use any of these tools or know of others, but this class and beyond gives me a chance to try ones.
I have personally used couple of tools (such as Trello and Evernote) mentioned in the post and these are excellent tools to manage both, business and personal projects. Trello is an excellent tool similar to the sticky notes concept mentioned in the class but it is more useful as each card can be used to enter detailed information such as due date, checklist and comments. Also, there is no risk of losing the sticky notes. Apart from the tools mentioned in the post, I use one more tool called “Any.Do”. It is tasks and to-do list tool to organize any size projects, enter everyday tasks and share list with the people in the team. It has really good features like, recurring reminder, location based reminder, task sharing and speech recognition. I personally use this app on my smartphone and it definitely helps me to be more productive and it always keeps me reminding of the tasks that need to be completed based on the assigned date in the notification. I would recommend for both personal and business use.
Great article and post, Arti! It’s so helpful to know about these tools for managing projects, working in teams, and managing a busy schedule. I’ve heard of Asana, but haven’t had an opportunity to work with it yet. A co-worked told me about OneNote, and I started using the tool when I started b-school to help me stay organized. It’s been extremely helpful for managing work, school, and personal projects. This tool is really helpful for taking notes, and storing and organizing information. OneNote is also linked to and compatible with MS Outlook so I can use the tool to attach documents and draft notes to send to teammates. I’ve used it to send teammates/classmates class notes and ideas for projects. If you like to stay organized and keep information readily accessible, I would recommend this product.
I think another useful tool for project management is Doodle. It’s so helpful when dealing with scheduling. I don’t currently use it at my company, but am going to look into it as a possible solution. I work with a lot of different teams for scheduling client and internal availability, and sometimes those emails chains and calls can turn into a lengthy process. It would be great to use Doodle. The experience that I’ve had with it for scheduling non-work related committee meetings and even with my current team was really quick and efficient.
Sorry, this was for Bhumika! Thanks again for the post 😀
Informative article Bhumika and great post , even our Project team have explored various project management tools options and we started with like Doodle, google drive-hangout, Gantt project and for any new issue we prefer to sent an emails for immediate attention from team member but Team of eight, each comment from team member makes it such a long chain so that there is always chance to miss important point and its becomes very difficult to go back and look for contents,
i haven’t had chance any of those tools but would like to explore any other alternative to emails but with better efficiency. Teambox and Basecamp function looks similar to what I have been looking and would definitely try one.
Thank you for the post related to various project management tools. I have found it very useful. I think that everyone would agree that project management is not a simple task. Project manager assumes a lot of responsibilities including but not limited to defining scope, planning, keeping track of progress, deliverables, issues, communicating requests and results, and many others. It is very easy to get inundated in the amount of various tasks. Therefore, proper set of tools and techniques is absolutely needed in order to stay on track, be organized and lead the project to the successful completion. Good tools not only help to manage and standardize project management process, but also make the work more productive and less stressful.
Thanks for writing this great article! It’s very informative, and you included some great points to the equally great article regarding Telecom Billing System.
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