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I own a small design studio in Virginia. This year, we've gotten a lot busier. As a result, we're finding that the calendar built into Mac OS X El Capitan is no longer sufficient for tracking ALL of the projects we have in the works. Can somebody recommend a good project scheduling app? I don't think we need a full-blown project management solution, but perhaps we will in the future, so I guess that should be a consideration as well.
Basically, we want something simple that will help us keep track of all of the projects we have in the works and their associated deadlines. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
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It may not be pretty, but we use Excel and OneNote and it works pretty well for us.
Each team creates Gantt charts in Excel for an overview of what is being worked when and by whom. And we have detailed project notes in OneNote. The organization of OneNote is actually a lot more robust that I realized when we first started using it and everyone can add notes and update it and it syncs across to everyone else.
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Depending on your requirements, Basecamp might fit the bill.
Basecamp 3: Manage projects, groups, and client work.
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There's a different solution for every workflow. Really depends on how you work, how much detail you want to track, how much collaboration you want and whether you want the ability to use more features later (rather than researching and shifting platforms again when your needs grow).
we're finding that the calendar built into Mac OS X El Capitan is no longer sufficient for tracking ALL of the projects we have in the works
Where exactly is your current solution falling short? What's missing? What do you need to track? What do you think you'll need to track in 12 months time?
Do you only want to schedule deadlines or manage and track the tasks leading to each deadline?
If you need something automated that goes beyond Excel, calendars and Gmail - which is effectively a manual system with admin overhead and prone to error - there are plenty of Cloud solutions.
Comprehensive PM platforms are not necessarily for big companies. Small studios often micro manage every detail. My wife works in a small team of 5 in a university. None are trained project managers but they have a PM-style of workflow (projects and tasks with deadlines) and want to track every detail so they use Best Online Project Management Software - ProWorkflow
Another option is Trello but that uses a specific Kanban PM approach.
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I have used DaPulse for project management. Excellent for teams. I use Billings Pro to track all of my projects as for time and billing.
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Great suggestions! Thanks everyone.
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Basecamp is a good one I use it with my students often.
For work and bigger teams, I prefer Asana.
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A producer I work with at Johnson & Johnson loves Smartsheet (Online Project Management Software | Smartsheet​).