In today’s Web 2.0 world there are more and more contractors who work from home and/or work for other companies down the road, in the next city or even in the next country.
For example, right now I am writing this article from my home where I work full time, and I log into a web based administration panel to post it. Working from home gives me the flexibility to work on many projects whenever I want.
But sometimes such flexibility can cause problems. Especially when you have workers spread out throughout the globe. Project management in such a situation becomes critical especially if you are trying to building a business or just rely on that next complete project to keep yourself afloat.
That’s why a new service called WhoDoes is so great. It is a free, web based project management system.
If you are like me you have tried a lot of project management systems – both web based and local software. I’ve found some to be either woefully inadequate or too much for me. But WhoDoes seems to fall somewhere in the middle. It is easy to use, quick and best of all you don’t need project management training to use it (although some knowledge of project management is a definite asset).
Getting Started
Setting up a project is quite simple. Simply log into your free account (if you haven’t already done so, create one) and add a new project. Currently new free accounts are limited to 2 projects.
In the Project Planning Area is where you define the project, assign resources, time estimates and so on.
It is also here where you assign accountability for the project.
From this point forward, any project you create or are otherwise a part of (i.e. if you are a resource on another project) any tasks and projects show up on your personal workspace:
As you can see, the home page shows your current tasks and projects, and even provides a handy calendar along the right of the screen highlighting your upcoming tasks.
Adding Resources to Tasks
As mentioned above, creating a project is as simple as logging in and going to the “project” tab and adding a new project. However you will soon find that you can’t proceed with the project until you assign resources to the tasks:
Here you add a resource to the task.
Tracing project tasks in the Journal
WhoDoes provides an intuitive journal which allows you minute-by-minute progress updates to your project plans.
As you can see, timestamps are added to the tasks as they are completed. You can even filter events.
Project Collaboration
Of course no project management system would be complete without some way for the team members to communicate with each other. That is why WhoDoes also provides an area for discussion and comments.
Here you will find a chronological ordered list of all comments made by team members.
This type of communication system is handy because it can keep all discussion pertaining to the project in one centralized area.
Document Storage
Yet another important aspect of project management is the ability to store and share documents which pertain to the project.
WhoDoes also incorporates a centralized area for storage of documents and other electronic materials needed for the project.
Simply browse to the file, name it and upload it and it becomes available to all team members.
This can be particularly useful if you need to share project specific details such as mockups, contractual details, contact information or anything else.
Is WhoDoes vigorous enough?
This is a question you may have to ask yourself. Can you get away with a lighter duty project management system that is free? Or do you need something more robust which may cost a little money?
If you only need to manage smaller projects with limited resources then at this point WhoDoes is fine.
However if you plan on managing much larger, more complex projects then perhaops this iteration of WhoDoes won’t cut it.
But remember that this is an early version of the software and chances are pretty good that as it matures, more functionality will be built into it.
