

Ask HN: What tool do you use for managing non-technical projects? - bryanwb

I have been looking for a decent non-technical group project management tool for years but still been unsatisfied. What do you use?<p>I am most interested in how to manage projects like launching a new product, server migration, designing a new marketing strategy, or hiring a design department. There are many great tools like Trac and Redmine for managing programming projects but afaik the same does not exist for non-technical projects.<p>Here is what I am looking for in project management software. Feel free to add your own requirements.<p>1. Tasks to be done, with deadlines<p>2. Important events during the lifetime of the project<p>3. Visualizations like Gantt charts to track the progress of the project, but aren't critical.<p>4. Tracking staff resources assigned to the project<p>5. Managing documents related to the project, like meeting notes, contracts, Service Level Agreements, etc.<p>6. Easy for truly non-technically inclined staff to use<p>At my past organization, a tiny non-profit, we used redmine for managing non-technical projects. It was functional but far from ideal. I now work for a giant multinational and there is still a tremendous need for a good, easy-to-use project management app.
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catlike
I have almost completely migrated project management tasks to Basecamp, but if
Gantt charts were important/needed for me (I used to generate them) I would go
back to using <http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omniplan/> it is OSX based,
but has worked very well for me. There are a couple video tutorials on the
site I suggest watching to get a feel for whether or not you'd enjoy using the
software.

Good luck!

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bryanwb
can you comment on how well basecamp has worked for you and what kind of
projects you have used it for?

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brianwillis
There's the very famous Basecamp (<http://basecamphq.com/>) by 37signals. No
gantt charts though. If you buy 37signals' argument that effective project
management is about communication and not planning then you won't really need
them.

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bryanwb
I agree that gantt charts aren't critical but I do think that planning is
pretty darn important esp. when your staff is not entirely composed of well-
organized self-starters

