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Business

Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points
Posted by Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points

Project Management Software

I know a lot of people on here are fans of Trello, Asana and and the likes. I use Trello in my personal life and I'm trying to get approval to use Asana at work. He problem is that I have to explain why I would use something other than the $408 license for MS Project that our IT department is offering. Any suggestions other than just "its better" or personal preference? Or should I suck it up and try to learn MS Project?

8 Answers

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Trello is basically a multi-person todo list designed for agile software development. Asana is a group organization app, it lets you coordinate on projects. MS Project is a single user timeline & budgeting app for dedicated enterprise project managers.

You should do a needs analysis, what do you need to manage around projects. What products fulfill which needs you identified?

Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points
Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points

I found out that another business unit we have is using Confluence/JIRA right now. We also have licenses for HipChat and I convinced my boss to let us evaluate it until the end of the year to see if it's a good fit for us.

However, for my own tasks/management I'm using Trello and I have to say it's been great. Especially to look at the previous day's cards when we have our morning scrum meeting.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm always looking for better solutions and will definitely keep your suggestions in mind.

Viva los Treehouse! (excuse my grammar)

Colin Marshall
Colin Marshall
32,861 Points
Colin Marshall
Colin Marshall
32,861 Points

You need to present a convincing argument that outlines the reasons why using Asana would add more value to your company than using MS Project would. Are there features that Asana has that MS Project doesn't that your employer could utilize? You also should be forthcoming and make them aware of any features they use in MS Project that they would lose by switching to Asana, and how this would effect their project management. Besides that, it's hard for us to say because we don't work for your company. You just have to think in the interest of the company instead of yourself in order to present a convincing argument to them or else they won't care.

Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points
Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points

James Barnett and Colin Marshall: Just found out I need to go through a huge lengthy process with an oversight committee. I wasn't trying to change the way my company operates on projects, we're pretty "siloed" and most business units do their own thing so I was hoping to manage my projects my own way but using cloud based services is something completely new here and we're pretty heavily invested in the MS Office products.

I agree about having a hard time recommending solutions when you don't know the company. It's hard to describe the culture too so I guess that's partly my fault.

But thank you for your input. I think I'm going to end up sucking it up and using the MS Project 2007 license I have available, at the cost of ~ $400.

Cheers!

Stefan Buttigieg
Stefan Buttigieg
10,065 Points

Keith, have you tried out Podio.com? It's free for the first 5 users :) ! Might be the ideal solution for you!

Axel Dekker
Axel Dekker
1,435 Points
Axel Dekker
Axel Dekker
1,435 Points

Have you tried Producteev? Works on all the operating systems and is well developed!

Tiago Martins
Tiago Martins
62 Points
Tiago Martins
Tiago Martins
62 Points

I'm using Trello but I also recommend http://viewflux.com/ (it's in beta)

Axel Dekker
Axel Dekker
1,435 Points
Axel Dekker
Axel Dekker
1,435 Points

Also recommending Asana!

Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points
Keith Doyle
Keith Doyle
25,973 Points

I'm dropping this plan of attack for the time being. However, I've started using Trello for my own tasks and love it. I'll make sure to keep all these great ideas in my back pocket.

Alessandro Maculotti
Alessandro Maculotti
4,954 Points
Alessandro Maculotti
Alessandro Maculotti
4,954 Points

Hi everybody! What do you think about:

Kin has a very low price and I tried free version it's very cool!