I’m writing this first actual “blog” entry to share FireBox’s project management experiences, specifically software applications built for it, and my decisions based on it.

A couple years ago, our workload became such that we needed to find a better way to manage multiple clients with multiple projects, track time, create schedules, etc. Up until then, “project management” consisted of hand-written to-do lists, stickie notes and whiteboard chicken scratches. From there, I’d progressed to using the Task manager within Microsoft Outlook, but that wasn’t worth much, and didn’t allow me to abandon the previous methods.

And So It Begins

So I set out to find something better. Something where we could keep track of all open projects, archive old ones, provide a repository for files and code, track hours and give our clients access to an “extranet” where they could track progress, view timelines, review designs, etc.

I started with my usual source for PHP solutions, and there was no shortage of options. I just checked, and today there are 102 entries in the “Groupware” category. In the last two years, I’ve probably installed and tested maybe a half-dozen of them. These include WebCollab, dotProject, and phpProjekt, eGroupWare and Copper Project. Other than having one-word, mixed case titles, these all had one thing in common. They just weren’t right for us.

Not to say they all totally sucked. Well, some of them totally did. Others had great potential, but were always lacking in some critical feature we needed. Next came web-based, hosted solutions. These include ACE Project, Intranets.com and Basecamp. Again, after looking through some demos and trials, I was disappointed. For the hosted apps, what made it even worse was their pricing schemes. A hundred bucks a month for unlimited projects? C’mon. We’re a small web shop and our clients aren’t exactly Coca-Cola. Next.

Then I started looking around for desktop apps. Microsoft Project seemed interesting, but the price has kept me from even trying to figure out what it does. I also liked the look of something called Studiometry, but it was a Mac-only app and I had not yet made “the switch” (which I just did in September 2005). I’d still like to try out this app, but it lacks the client extranet capability, which puts it out of the running. Maybe someday they’ll at least have an XML export.

We “Settle”

So in the end, I made a decision, and ended up using dotProject for about a year and a half. Overall, it’s a very good piece of software. It does a lot of things well, and some not so well. One recurring problem was that clients logging in were able to see more than I was comfortable with. And there was no easy way to modify that without tweaking the code ourselves. And it’s much harder to tweak code you didn’t write yourself.

But we did it anyway, and ended up creating our own client back-end so we could control what clients saw. Not perfect, but worked okay for a while.

Then the much-anticipated dotProject 2.0 was released. Again, it had some cool stuff. Better user management and fixed some of our issues on that front. But some new issues popped up. For one, 2.0 is slooooooooow. Even after tweaking things in the app and in mySQL, it’s still unbearably slow, especially considering we have it running on an internal webserver.

After a while, I realized that these small annoyances were resulting in my not using the software much at all, thus negating the purpose of project management software. I came to the conclusion that dotProject, while promising, was just too bloated to be efficient for us. It was time to start searching again.

The Search Continues, And We Give In To Hype

So back to Hotscripts, and seeing the same scripts over and over, demos I’ve looked at a dozen times, the same feature lists on every site, blah, blah. The folks at Copper Project just released their 2005 versions, but then raised the prices. Huh? I had been very interested in them previously, but was leery of the $300 pricetag. Then after a “customer survey”, they decided they weren’t charging enough. Guess I’ll never get to see that one. Moving on.

Over the last year or so, I’ve heard more and more hype about Basecamp. Everyone is talking about it, and they seem to be the shizzle right now. I’ve read interviews of and articles about 37signals and its founder, Jason Fried. Heck I even subscribe to the 37signals blog. After having Basecamp drilled into my brain I figured it was worth another shot. A year before, I’d tried one of their freebie accounts and didn’t get too much into it. I figured maybe it was time to try it out.

So I signed up for their “risk-free” month of their $49 per month service. This plan gives you 35 active projects and unlimited users. I didn’t like the idea of arbitrarily limiting my projects, but you can still archive old ones.

So the signup went very quickly and in no time I was configuring my Basecamp account. I have to say one thing. The GUI is done very, very well. One of the best interfaces I’ve seen. And certainly no lack of context-sensitive hints and documentation. While at times it felt like almost too much handholding, I could appreciate how it would help more novice project managers.

All that said, I have to say, Basecamp isn’t all that. 15 minutes into using it and setting up a project, I saw a half dozen things that could’ve been easily improved and a lot of stuff that made no sense. Take, for instance, their file attachment system. You actually have to upload to your own FTP server, which I think is a good idea for a hosted solution. But since you have to upload through their interface, they limit your uploads to a single file no larger than 10mb. Seems kinda dumb to me. I was thinking, why not let me upload files to my own server with my own ftp client? Then just let me browse my ftp folder from the Basecamp interface. Seems like a no-brainer.

Other dumb things include not being able to edit file descriptions once entered, not being able to add a basic description to a project, among others.

Well, Duh

It was then that I had an epiphany. After debating for months as to what would be FireBox’s first commercial application release, the solution had presented itself. If I can’t find something to suit my needs, I’ll build something myself.

So that’s it. As of now, FireBox is officially on the road to creating a new web-based project management application, specifically geared towards the needs of web developers and graphic designers. Hopefully we can release something by Christmas 2005, but we’ll see how it goes. Keep checking back for updates, and thanks for reading through this whole article