miw09_pm_sol

Author: Tomasz Miklis (4 AiR:Inf)

• Research open on-line project management and collaborative work software.
• Analysis of information available at official websites, Wikipedia and user forums.
• Comparison of functionality of different platforms.

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.

A project is a finite endeavour-having specific start and completion dates-undertaken to meet particular goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value.

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honouring the preconceived project constraints. Typical constraints are scope, time and budget. The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.

• The traditional approach
• Critical Chain Project Management
• Extreme Project Management
• Event chain methodology
• PRINCE2
• Process-based management

Group collaboration solution include following features:

• Dashboard - overview of data from all active projects,
• Messages - communication between team members,
• Milestones - project completion overview,
• Tasks - To-Do list features,
• Calendar - time frame for the project,
• Files - data exchange space for team members.

Main features:

• Summary page (projects overview)
• ToDo list
• Calendar
• Forum
• Archive

WebCollab is released under the General Public License (GPL).

Main features:

• Customisable project environment
• Security and permissions management
• Software project management tools (Universal Tracking Tool, Test Management Tool, Source Control Manager, Eclipse Integration)
• Collaboration Tools (Collaborative editing, Code Snippet Library)
• Communication Tools (Instant Messaging, Mailing List Manager, Forums, News, RSS Feeds)

„Lutèce d'Or” prize for „Best Open Source Project Undertaken By A Big Company”

Main features:

• To-do lists
• Milestones
• Messaging / Instant Messaging
• Calendaring
• File management
• Role based user permissions
• Timetracking
• Tagging
• Search
• Reporting (Excel, PDF)
• Exporting (ZIP, XML, RSS, iCal, vCard)
• Importing from Basecamp XML
• Multilanguage

Main features:

• Calendar (including support for scheduling of groups, resources and contacts)
• Contact-manager using an SQL database or LDAP
• Integrated IMAP webmail client (FelaMiMail)
• Infolog, an application for tasks and notes
• Element based project manager highly integrated with all other apps
• Resources management (inventory) and booking tool integrated into eGroupWare calendar
• File manager
• SiteMgr: web based authoring system with fine granulated access control lists
• Time-tracker application integrated with project manager
• Tracking of bugs or other, integrated with project manager
• Wiki
• Knowledge base

Main features:

• Projects and Tasks
• Companies, Departments and Contacts
• ToDo lists
• Resources (rooms, equipment et al.)
• Forums
• Gantt charts
• Access control via ACL
• Reporting
• History of all activities
• Calendar

Main features:

• Document management
• Contact management
• Project management
• Time management

Main features:

• To-do lists
• Milestone management
• Messaging system
• Email notifications
• File sharing
• Project Oriented Access Control Management

Main features:

• Multiple projects support
• Flexible role based access control
• Flexible issue tracking system
• Gantt chart and calendar
• News, documents & files management
• Feeds & email notifications
• Per project wiki
• Per project forums
• Time tracking
• Custom fields for issues, time-entries, projects and users
• SCM integration (SVN, CVS, Git, Mercurial, Bazaar and Darcs)
• Issue creation via email
• Multiple LDAP authentication support
• User self-registration support
• Multilanguage support
• Multiple databases support

Author's personal favourites:

1. Collabtive - functional, easy-to-use interface, sleek design, based on most popular commercial project management platform Basecamp.

2. OpenGoo - language versions (Polish support), report tools, suited for company use.