GoPlan: Basic Project Management

GoPlan is project management application that uses the simplicity of blog-style posting as an interface to manage projects, to do lists, and notes. It has a simple, straightforward functionality that gets to the essentials of project planning.

Let’s take a stroll through its features. As we create a new project, GoPlan prompts us to choose the functions we would like with that project, letting us check off any tabs we don’t need. If we want them later, we can add them from the project settings. Once we’ve created a project on the free plan, we see a series of tabs — each with a basic functionality. Opting as we did for the free plan, we were excluded from the chat and calendar functions which would have appeared under their own tabs.

The first tab, Dashboard, is a summary of all the others, allowing the user to quickly see activity on the project, and what they may need to act on. As we fill in notes, tasks and tickets in GoPlan, the Dashboard is refreshed to show the latest updates. There’s also an RSS feed available from the Dashboard so that you can follow all of the latest activity of each project in your favorite reader. The following tab, Notes, allows users to create notes attach files, with the option of sending an email notification to the project team. This is useful for communicating without leaving the application. From the Note page on we see the GoPlan interface in action: a posting window common to the GoPlan application that has the text modifying tools that have become standard for blogs (WISYWIG).

Following the Notes tab is the tab for the Blog, where project members can write project updates that are available through a public RSS feed, which is useful for communicating progress to clients or other people outside of the project team. The fourth tab is for Tickets, where users can create a special kind of task with  a priority (high, medium, low), a severity (trivial, minor, major, critical, blocker), and a place to attach files. Tickets are either in an open or closed status, can be assigned to any team member, and there are links for quickly identifying unassigned tickets, your tickets, and closed tickets.

The next tab is for Tasks, which can be categorized, given due dates, and assigned to team members. “Quick Create” fields in the sidebar of the Tasks tab are helpful too. You can also create subtasks for a task, though it is not currently possible to move a subtask to a different (top-level) task, or change a top-level task to a subtask. You can however reorder your tasks within your categories by dragging them into the sequence you wish.

The last tab is where you can upload files, which can go as high as 25gb with one of the paid plans. GoPlan also lets you categorize files under the Files tab. SSL encryption, chat, project archiving, and calendar functions are all available with paid plans. RSS feeds for up to the minute updates are available at all levels.

One of the interesting features of GoPlan is their offer of a developer API for integration within your company’s infrastructure, which would allow you to implement unique project management functionality for your company’s specific workflow. With this it’s possible to make a custom GoPlan integrated with your file system, contact management software, etc.

There were some detractions to GoPlan, most notably the interface which may be awkward for new users. The similarity in layout between pages, and lack of cross-linking between tabs can have some users making errors. There is also no way to integrate graphics into the the tabs - even when images are attached to notes or as files they become a separate link - which makes sharing graphs and visuals difficult. Yet, as project managers go, GoPlan has all the elements you would want and a few more: tools for organizing, tracking, and communicating. To find GoPlan and similar applications, there is the Listio search manage+projects.

Next in this series: Basecamp: Project Management In The Suite

Application: Goplan
Listio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/Goplan/
Website: http://www.goplan.org

Manage multiple projects using Goplan's user interface. All your projects are immediately accessible from your account dashboard, next to your assigned tasks, issues and calendar events. Track project progress through task management, calendaring, note sharing and issue tracking. Additionally, real... Learn more

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Tags: manage, organize, projects, rss, tasks
Posted in: Project Management | Respond
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