I have been testing a number of project management methods and tools for sometime. I’ve tried using my current note taking Apps:
- Evernote (Work related items)
- Spring Pad (Service no longer available) (Everything else)
- Catch (Food Diary)
But as you can imagined it’s not really doing the trick, so I went on to try new methods and applications. Due to budgetting reasons, I wanted it to be something open source. So i tried a number of them following:
***Please click here to see the result***
Podio had a nice interface and looked very nice but the flow of use didn’t feel right. Despite the flexibly it has with customisable “apps” it still had a rigid structure for the various entries. The views were also very limited, I couldn’t explore the various projects and tasks like I wanted them, nor could I work out the difference between the Tasks and Deliverables. I also wanted to see the various tasks together in one view, which it couldn’t do.
TeamLab was my second attempt. It was ok, not as nice as podio, but ok. Again it didn’t allow me to view my various projects together, but it did allow me to see the big picture without being assign to the task it self. The views were also kinda boring. Not that’s a bad thing, just not flexible enough for me.
So in comes Trello, which I’m very much at the testing phase for, but i have to say it looks very promising. I first heard about it along time ago, I remember watching the video and thought “that’s a nice idea, but i don’t need it yet” I thought I bookmarked it, but I was wrong… I actually thought Podio was Trello when I found it from various google searched for “Open source project management” So I was very happy when smashing magazine’s facebook fanpage had an articles about them. So here I am, just signed up and designed my first Broad, I haven’t deleted my Podio and Teamlab accounts just yet, but it’s feeling pretty good so far. I like how it lets you handle it how you like. It feels more like a selection of flexible tools more then a rigid “fill in the blanks” diary.
I will keep you all up to date on how I get on. I am also very interested in 6wunderkinder’s Wunderkit.com but unfortunately’s its only in closed beta at the moment, I look forward to giving it that a try once it’s open
*I am not endorsed by any of the companies or services I mentioned above