PM tool with offline mode for remote collaborators?
Erkan M. ALPMANInterim Exec| C3 Executive OutcomesSwitzerland
Hello all, greetings from Switzerland.
I'm helping some friends in getting their sh** together. It's a small team of 10 in a startup mode. They might greatly benefit from a collaborative project management tool but they have some unique challenges tied to their environment. I am only familiar with MS Project in a corporate deployment. I have been researching a lot. Have crossed a few interesting solutions I'm exploring. I would welcome alternative advice from professionals. Here is the deal:
Main unique challenge: The situation involves remote project members that need to travel to places with scarce or unreliable internet. Hence an OFFLINE MODE is a must have. These project members don't need to plan/manage the project but only to have knowledge of tasks assigned to them, log progress and issues. And synchronize automatically upon reconnection. Smartphone/android-based app would be ideal.
Capabilities needed:
Gantt/calendar views,
Task creation & resource assignment
Dependencies management
Progress tracking
Kanban board or some to-do list
Issues tracking
Alerts
Dashboards
Basic budget $ management (not time)
Approvals
The team if formed by a project owner that approves project and oversees progress through dashboards; one or two co-project managers that plan, organize and manage projects and up to 6 traveling project members that need to know tasks they need to do and report on completion or issues. They have IT support but it's best to avoid high-profile setups requiring SQL/server managers.
Any thoughts? Saving Changes...
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Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
Erkan, I am no expert but I have similar questions. Outside of major metropolitan areas, internet can be very limited or even non-existent. This is a big reason why cloud-based applications haven't been fully embraced at the rate software companies predicted five years ago. They didn't understand life outside their own corporate headquarters.
I asked a Microsoft agent and confirmed that Project Online Professional can be used offline. It will synchronize with OneDrive when you reconnect, similar to the way Microsoft Office 365 works. This costs €25.30 per month. (Project Essentials is much cheaper but does not work when offline. Project Professional is a one-time fee of €1,509.00 and is supposed to work with Project Online, but it's really designed to work with Project Server.)
I have used SmartSheet as a good alternative to Project. The price for SmartSheet is slightly cheaper, but they don't seem to have a good solution for offline work. Their only recommendation (that I could find) was to export your entire project to Microsoft Excel for offline work.
There may be better alternatives. I'm curious what solutions others have to offer. Saving Changes...
Stelian ROMANProject Manager| MicroSafetyCarlingford, New South Wales, Australia
Try one drive or google docs but you ask a lot for free.
All online tools are designed on the assumption that you have connection to internet. technically synchronising is no as easy as it looks. Imagine that each of the 10 people have changes over a week.
My advice is to use planning, segregation of tasks or an agreement on weekly synchronisation in a meeting.
A good example of "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools". If there is no communication between sites there should be communication between people when they meet, Saving Changes...
"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT's relativity."
