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Basecamp is an on line project manager which could easily compete with MS Project eventually. It is currently useful and has the basic features any project manager may need. However, the extensive collaboration features of project are not in evidence. (They may be there, but I could not find them, so they are not intuitive IF they are there. ) The site offers project planning and collaboration on line with a calendering extension and email capabilities. Collaboration is fairly easy on line and the owner can set permissions separately for each user. There is a write board for collaboration real time or ala BBS style where people add as they access and can scroll through and read all the other comment to which they have access. With Backpack the user can integrate the write board with todo lists and milestones created for each project.
The help files are simple FAQs and screenshots, which are a little fuzzy even on a high quality monitor. The tutorials are not animated, but barely readable screenshots. There seem to be no controls for text size on the site, though there is formatting and colors and themes. There do not seem to be many options for rearranging the dashboard. Compared to the price of MS Project, it is not as much bang for the buck, though it is cheaper. It is a bargain if the company has many users and many projects.
The interface is fairly easy to use, and one really does not need help files to get started, but if there are more functions available I have not been able to find them. There is a file sharing utility via ftp server, a calendaring function, resource management and task assignment. However, there is no overall project creation tool, and no tutorial or guide for using Basecamp for project management. The sites most valuable information is that contributed by the users, hints and how-tos in the testimonials, exchanges of information in the forums.
There are some interesting free programs on this site: write board, tada's and backpack. Write board is a nice clean whiteboard which can be used in collaboration rather like a bulletin board. The Tadas is a nice todo list and the Backpack integrates all of these. For the todo and the tada lists, it is nice that the checked items automatically move to the done side, but one cannot make a list and then create separate todos from the list. Each must be added separately. The logo display function is nice as far as size goes and the choice of a white background or not is nice if it worked, but it did not, like a few other things.
Some of the links only worked in Firefox, the recommended browser for the site, and gave us a page cannot be displayed in MSIE 6. MSN is not even supported. It was also not easy to find my way back to the logon. The site would benefit from a function which either emails a link or plants a linked logo on the desktop. The target audience seems to be medium sized companies and organizations.
Large organizations and companies would probably opt for something with a desktop application which is shared on the Internet, such as MS Project. The pricier project managers include tools not in evidence here, like grant charts and automatic task assignment notifications, collaboration meeting setup with auto notify and separate modules for each section of a project, stakeholders sigh on and sign off, comprehensive scheduling with multiple milestones and dependencies. In essence, this site, while useful, falls far short of what is available for a reasonable price elsewhere. There is a lot of competition in this market sector. Most professional project managers would find this rather simplistic. It also has no reporting functions, which are a primary task of the Project Manager.
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