Eric Swenson
Director Product Management| Elsevier
E. Northport, Ny, United States
I have a project coming up for a client that is insisting on hosting their online PM-Collab system "on premise". Further, they are insisting on open-source -- and their budget is below 4-figures (meaning, they really don't want anything with any licensing or support fees, period).
I have a lot of experience with commercial-grade SAAS/ASP hosted solutions over the past 10+ years and could make a recommendation based on their requirements on the commercial front easily. But my experience on the open source front is limited. I've looked at Project.net and it seems great, but the Oracle requirement is getting in the way (client wants MySQL). I'd like to find something that is commercial open-source, at least, in the event that the client does, indeed, realize later that it is nice to have some guaranteed support services available in a pinch.
If anyone has any recommendations on this front, I'd appreciate it. Feel free to send offline response or contribute here. THANK YOU!
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Mark Price Perry
Business Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT International
Orlando, Fl, United States
Hi Eric,
No doubt a PM-Collab system in support of a client project can take many forms and, in essence, be different things to different people. And of course, many collab platforms offer "lightweight" project management and many PM offerings provide "lightweight" collaboration. Have you had a look at the gantthead PMO Management Package? It is not open source; there is a small setup fee. But there are no ongoing fees for support, etc, which sounds like what your client is seeking. There are a number of very good open source offerings for project management like Projity's OpenProj (recently acquired by Serena) and Open Workbench now part of CA per their acquisition of Niku some time back. These are desktop packages - alternatives to Microsoft Project. Not knowing more of your client's needs, current and desired state of project management, and existing IT infrastructure and tools, it is always hard to offer a silver bullet. And sometimes, what they think they want (initially) and what they really want (after fact finding) might be two different things.
I would offer that we see more and more organizations adopting an "architecture approach" to project management that at a high level has three distinct components:
- Project Management - project management scheduling packages and PPM tools, etc.
- Collaboration - platforms like information sharing, workspaces, teamsites, document folders, etc.
- Project Management Content Assets - processes, policies, guidance, templates, dashboards, learning resources, etc.
The "architecture approach" makes full use of the infrastructure and capabilities that an organization already has and seeks to avoid duplication of functionality and investment whether measured in dollars, time, or support. Even free can have a cost. For example, if an organization already has SharePoint and is using it for collaboration, then any "lightweight" collaboration features of a PM system might be unneeded and a duplication of already existing capabilities. As collaboration is an enterprise-wide activity, most organizations prefer to have but one collaboration platform - as opposed to multiple collab capabilities peppered about various point tools in support of different user groups, departments, and teams. Also, point tools come and go, but the key IT infrastructure and application platforms of an organization stay around for quite a while. An "architecture approach" may not only prove to be cost effective for the organization, but it may also offer much greater longevity of use and value. Hence, my recommendation would be to both have a look at what the client has asked you for - a free open source tool for PM and collab, that runs on MySQL, that can be implemented for less the four figures and that has no recurring costs or fees and have a look at an "architecture approach" that may give your client a different way of looking at their needs, their current state of capabilities relative to project management, and the best approach to get to and sustain their desired state. Good post and good luck..!
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