Project Management

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Low-cost all-in-one solution for non-profit

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Hello,

I am a member of an food cooperative. We have just started our organization and are looking for a simple tool to manage our projects and follow people's involvement (time).

The greatest challenge is to encourage all the members to be proactive and assume responsibility. There is a small group of people who sets up the goals and defines tasks and requirements and we need the rest of the members to easily see and accomplish them.

We are currently using Facebook for communication and Trello (Kanban is great for us, we also appreciate Gant add-on) for project management. It doesn't work well, because most of the people aren't even looking at the tasks, they don't know how to deal with the kanban tool and don't want to learn. We can't force them to do this, because they are not our employees. I think that all-in-one application could help to slowly familiarize them with the new tools.

We have our own servers so we're open to open-source self-hosted solutions. At this moment we have 30 members, but we expect this numer to grow in the coming months up to 100+.

Bitrix24 suits our needs pretty well, is completely free, but horribly complicated for a regular user.

I will also appreciate every advice and suggestion of helpful resources about management of non-profit organizations, because there is no manager among us. I am learning, but it's a slow process, because it's almost a completely new field for me :)

Thanks in advance for your help!
Magda
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Mitchell Thompsett Newport, United Kingdom
Hi Magda,

I might have just the thing for you, but would like to understand your requirements and budget a little bit more. We have a solution called iCoPlan that can be fully implemented and operational within 1 week.


Thanks,
Mitch
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Rahul Patekar Project Manager| Xebrium Ca, United States
Hello Magdalena,

If you are looking for a simple tool to manage your projects and follow people's involvement (time), I would suggest you try out Xebrio.

Xebrio is simple and intuitive and has a kanban view that can solve your problem. The internal communication feature is specifically designed to incorporate 'all in one' view.

But I guess the real problem is that the team members are not willing to actively use a tool that you propose.

The solution lies in explaining to employees the benefits of a project management tool.

Real quick things you can do is to come up with a document explaining 'How to effectively use a project management tool. Send this doc to both internal and external stakeholders and ask if they have some more suggestions.

Incorporate their suggestion - This will motivate them to actively engage with you and your team through a tool.

Thanks
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Carmieshra Gorman Los Angeles, Ca, United States
Greetings Magdalena,
What you have described is similar to an experience I have had with volunteernon-profit work. Like with any other project, team members will be paperwork shy, and only able to give what they can - after they make time. In my opinion, such a dynamic condition requires a tool built with a focus on making communication easier. I attended a Cisco Webex webinar on the hybrid work environment and Cisco is incorporating a lot of great features that may suit you and your team’s needs. Of course there are other packages with similar features - MS Teams for instance however, you have to decide which tool is best for your stakeholders.
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Justin Fu Senior Systems Engineer| Parsons Bristow, Va, United States
thanks all for info
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Vijay Suryavanshi Project Manager - Engineering| RECARO Aircraft Seating Plantation, Fl, United States
There is not reporting structure or control since the organization has volunteers and apparently it is Flat like Facebook. I wonder how such organizations work. Agree with Carmieshra.

That being said, Gantt chart is to visualize Project tasks or deliverables over a time schedule. idea here is to have a detailed plan with resource allocation.

Kanban gives an overview of the various tasks and categories them to (To do, in progress and done). Idea here is to identify bottle necks and assign more resources if necessary.

It all starts with a top-down approach - Capacity planning.

How many people are there and how many hours they have committed to work in a week?

The project goal, road map and phases have to be broken down to deliverables and finally tasks.

Use MS project like I said, to assign task or deliverables using Gantt chart

Once you know the above it is easier to track if someone committed to their tasks or not.

Also, develop an action tracker with various important actions to be completed and follow up weekly. Remember actions are important things which together can have various tasks.

Hope this helps.
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1 reply by Latha Thamma reddi
Apr 20, 2023 3:29 PM
Latha Thamma reddi
...
very informative
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
If people don't want to use and be trained on Trello, what makes you think they'll want to do it for another solution?

Managing volunteers is all about appealing to the "better angel of their nature". The fact they volunteered means they care enough to be there. You need to make it easy for them yet inspire them to step up, when necessary.
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Vijay Suryavanshi Project Manager - Engineering| RECARO Aircraft Seating Plantation, Fl, United States
Inspiring the team is the job of the founder who are to be good leaders. If Project Manager can do that, it is an added bonus.

The team doesn't have to do anything except use Kanban board. If not, this can be done by the PM. (There are simple digital Kanban available.)

Rest of the suggestions given can be implemented by Project Manager. The problem presented by Magadelna clearly is Resource Management and trying to track "Who is doing what".
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Latha Thamma reddi Sr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC Technology Mckinney, Tx, United States
Managing volunteers is all about appealing to the "better angel of their nature". The fact they volunteered means they care enough to be there. You need to make it easy for them yet inspire them to step up, when necessary.
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Latha Thamma reddi Sr Product and Portfolio Management (Automation Innovation)| DXC Technology Mckinney, Tx, United States
Nov 17, 2022 1:38 PM
Replying to Vijay Suryavanshi
...
There is not reporting structure or control since the organization has volunteers and apparently it is Flat like Facebook. I wonder how such organizations work. Agree with Carmieshra.

That being said, Gantt chart is to visualize Project tasks or deliverables over a time schedule. idea here is to have a detailed plan with resource allocation.

Kanban gives an overview of the various tasks and categories them to (To do, in progress and done). Idea here is to identify bottle necks and assign more resources if necessary.

It all starts with a top-down approach - Capacity planning.

How many people are there and how many hours they have committed to work in a week?

The project goal, road map and phases have to be broken down to deliverables and finally tasks.

Use MS project like I said, to assign task or deliverables using Gantt chart

Once you know the above it is easier to track if someone committed to their tasks or not.

Also, develop an action tracker with various important actions to be completed and follow up weekly. Remember actions are important things which together can have various tasks.

Hope this helps.
very informative

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