Project management software

Draft

Definition

• “Project management software is a term covering many types of software, including scheduling, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication and documentation systems, which are used to deal with the complexity of large projects.” (Wikipedia: Project-management software retrieved, 17:17, 15 September 2006 (MEST))

See also project management.

Technologies

Types

(some of these come combined)

• Planning and scheduling tools help to organize a project in terms of work-packages assigned to people and milestones to reach. (the essence of project management in the "classic" formal sense). These tools also include various information/monitoring tools like task lists for people, progress reporting etc.
• Ticketing applications assign tasks to people and can monitor progress. This can be combined with calendaring software.
• Help desk applications are similar.
• Groupware applications that include task management tools.
• Learning management systems include student management tools like homework management or progress metering regarding course materials to study.
• Special purpose environments for project-oriented teaching
• Environments for agile methods, e.g. collaborative writing tools like wikis or blogs.
• Collaborative planning software (also includes groupware and social software aspects)

Related tools

• Group Decision Support Systems
• ...

In education

There are 2 big categories of usage:

• To scaffold and monitor project-oriented learning designs of all sorts, e.g.
  • project-methodology-based learning designs(these follow industry's project management principles)
  • project-based learning designs, an example would be "Wiki-supported project-oriented learning".
  • inquiry-based learning, problem-based learning etc.
• To manage educational technology projects, as part of an instructional design method.

Links

General links

• Wikipedia: Project-management software

• Project Manager's Homepage (see the links section)

• Michael Greer's list of PM, ID, and ID/PM References

• DMOZ entries

Software packages

Directories

• Project Management Software Directory by Capterra

• List of project management software (Wikipedia).

• Project Management Software Directory at Infogoal's Project Management center.

Open source and/or free desktop applications

• Planner (Linux)

Open source and/or free web-based applications

• PHProjekt (Web-based). PHProjekt is a modular application for the coordination of group activities and to share informations and document via intranet and Internet. Components of PHProjekt: Group calendar, project management, time card system, file management, contact manager, mail client and 9 other modules.
• dotProject is a volunteer supported Project Management application.
• Achievo
• Keystone is web-based ticketing system for keeping track of tasks and other items within a small to medium sized work group. (Free for less than 10 users).
• Tutos is a tool to manage the organizational needs of small groups, teams, departments ...
• eGroupWare is a free enterprise ready groupware software (contacts, appointments, todos, ProjectManager, TimeSheet, Workflow engine etc.)
• ActiveCollab is a web based, open source collaboration and project management tool (The light version is free). Still beta on 12:17, 12 May 2007 (MEST).
• GForge helps you manage the entire software development life cycle.
  • GForge (Wikipedia page).
• Wrike (Free online task management collaboration tool, a kind of collaborative planning software.
  • Wrike (Wikipedia page)

Mediawiki extensions (could work in this wiki ...)

• Semantic Project Management is a semantic MediaWiki extension that enables the user to display and export project structures. I.e. it helps collaboration (as opposed to measuring it). See this Gannt chart demo at kit.edu.

Special purpose tools for education

Note: Educators don't necessarily need "educational tools". Any project management or other tool - that fits a given purpose and that a specific group of learners (and teachers) are able to use - will do.

• NoteStar is an Internet utility to assist in the preparation of research papers. Teachers and students can set up research projects with topics and sub-topics. Students may then take advantage of NoteStar's many features to collect and organize their notes and prepare their bibliography page.
• See also LMS that have student management / control features