Project management is the art of planning, organizing, communicating and managing resources to address the goals and objectives associated with a given project. I suspect all of us at one point or another have looked for “that tool” which will help us manage projects in an open, friendly and efficient way. As one might suspect, there are many products in the “cloud” to pick from; some are free, others are not.
A well-known product in the project management genre of software is Basecamp – basecamp.com. It supports the management of multiple projects at a time and features messaging, to-do lists, files sharing, milestone management and tracking. It integrates well with email, and mobile apps allow use in a very distributed manner. People that use it talk about it’s ease-of-use and the ability to collaborate with others who are distributed geographically.
UNL Extension purchased a level of service in support for the Community Vitality Initiative. Leaders report that it’s become an effective tool in communicating and organizing project resources in one place. The current service level supports 100 projects and 40GB of storage; however, should demand require it the service level can be upgraded. Recently, the Technology 2020 Planning team has started using it and efforts are underway to make it available to Action Teams.
I’m guessing its popularity will grow because it offers teams a simple and friendly interface (dashboard) to manage one’s projects. As for training, Basecamp offers access to educational guides, FAQs, tutorials, cheat sheets, and even live educational classes, which are well done and easy to join.
If you are interested in learning more about Basecamp please feel free to contact Sheryl Burbach, sburbach2@unl.edu or me at dcotton1@unl.edu.
-- Dan Cotton