Laura Quinn at Idealware.org published an excellent survey of tools for project management, “Six Views of Project Management Software.”

We had fun reviewing and contributing to the article. This came at a most auspicious time because since the summer, we have been reviewing our own project management systems and procedures. I found it useful sharing favorite tools and, more importantly, competing priorities within the whole broad spectrum of project management.

The most important thing I got out of the process is a confirmation that had been growing for me that no one tool best meets all project needs. In particular, systems geared toward effective communication between the consultant and the client won’t usually be the same systems as those that work best for tracking issues or technical planning for a web site implementation.

If the client-consultant project team stays together across several projects, systems could converge. But especially where teams includes nonprofit program leaders and managers not experienced in guiding technology projects, the team needs to focus first on achieving a basic collaborative communication framework.

Basecamp stands out as a great on-line resource in this regard. We have been using it for some time for some projects and will standardize on it for typical engagements. BaseCamp handles some things very well: creating a repository of project documents; providing easy way to collaboratively edit specifications and goals statements; setting milestones in the overall schedule for the project; attaching detailed task lists to those milestones; and having day-to-day blog-like discussion about the work.

It is not a particularly deep or feature rich system, but what it does, it does well. It provides an engaging, enticing, intuitive experience.

What else do our project teams need? If a project mostly needs discussion and document sharing, without task lists and so on, and if it could benefit from integration with the rest of one’s web site, we use our own adaptation of the drupal “fileshare” and related modules for team discussion and planning. Where web and database development projects need detailed tracking of work on issues and software bugs, we will continue to need an “issue tracker.” We also will be updating to a new system to replace our older web tool. Most of our projects also need detailed time tracking system. Our trusty Microsoft Access but web-accessible database faces overhaul next year. And for initial ad hoc planning and discussion for the beginning of a project-to-be, it’s hard to beat Google Documents and Spreadsheets. Especially where teams from multiple companies are involved, we sometimes have found the full bore detailed planning of Microsoft Project useful, but this is not our usual situation.

This range of tools corresponds to the arsenal the Idealware article described. Check it out and join in the discussion.