Are you looking for ways to streamline planning an ID’s project schedule?
Check out Harvest using the following link: https://www.getharvest.com/
(free 30-day trial)
Harvest has many time tracking and expense tracking features to
keep your current projects on the right path. Time tracking data can transfer right
over to invoicing. Overall, it is a simple system to use. It is compatible with
many other systems that companies may already have in place. The website lists
56 integrations. There are many valuable data analysis reports. Investing in
this software is an investment in granting the team insight into the following
three critical areas:
·
Understanding past data to enhance future
projects scope and pricing estimates
·
Knowing why particular projects yield favorable
profits and others do not
·
Recognize when it is a good time to grow the
company
Having a system like Harvest and
reflecting on past projects in systematic ways, allows for continual evaluation
of the company which provides longevity as well as opportunities for growth of
the company. The price is $12 a month for unlimited seats and unlimited
projects.
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(free 60-day trial)
This is a great program to plan, schedule, report, and manage the team, organized in one central digital location. Rather than having multiple spreadsheets in multiple locations, the information is clear, concise, transparent and at your fingertips within the HUBPlanner system. It provides an overview of the resource management for all ongoing projects. The most helpful feature allows the project manager to quickly visualize who may be over-scheduled with work and who may be under-scheduled to make better future project decisions. With a drag and drop scheduler, it is intuitive to use. The price of the software is between $7-$18 a month and there are no contracts, so it can be canceled at any time.
Lori,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful blog post. I like the first resource that you talked about. Harvest.com. Some great features look like it has a nice time tracking feature, which is intuitive and easy to adopt. It seems that this would be a nice addition to any project manager's repertoire. One thing I like about this time tracking feature is the ability to customize and set reminders. I can only imagine that a project manager's task list and schedule can get very hectic. With that, it might be nice to have reminders for myself and for team members. I think this feature would have been helpful in last week’s, “The Art of Communication,” email, phone-call, face-to-face discussion about one team member who needed something for his/her report from a different team member. Maybe, if they had Harvest and had custom reminders in the system, the person would not have forgotten to send their part of the project to this person. Food for thought. Finally, I think $12 a month is a small price to pay for a comprehensive resource like Harvest. Good find!
Your second resource is HubPlanner. I see right away that it is a little more expensive than Harvest.com at $17-$18 a month. This piqued my interest to learn if the price difference means that you get more value for what you are paying each month. On a quick look, it does look like it is a little more comprehensive. I like how it offers products and tools for resource management as well as time management. I think separating these two is valuable. One feature that I like about HubPlanner is the scheduler. It is nice to be able to look across the project and schedule different people and elements on one interface.
According to Yan et al (2020), cloud computing platforms have revolutionized project management in the way that it forms a resource pool where it can dynamically store and share data and applications related to the project. I think back on project managers from a few decades ago and marvel at how they used to be able to keep track of things without the use of the Internet. Amazing!
Amanda Valente
References
Multimedia Program: “The Art of Effective Communication”
Yan, Z., Wei, G., Dongdong, L., Lei, N., & Mengran, Y. (2020). University Research Project Management System Based on Cloud Platform. 2020 International Conference on Big Data and Informatization Education (ICBDIE), Big Data and Informatization Education (ICBDIE), 2020 International Conference On, 453–456. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICBDIE50010.2020.00112
Hi Lori,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing what you learned about Harvest and HubPlanner. Until today, I did not know about these two project management tools.
Harvest looks like a great tool to keep track of the entire project in one location. It seems Harvest is geared more toward the Project Manager since it tracks time, creates reports, and provides invoice and payment options. I do see that Harvest can be integrated with outside team programs such as Trello, Asana, and Slack.
HubPlanner seems like it is a great project management tool for the Project Manager and the entire team. It provides a space to house all of the vital information and resources needed for the project.
Hi Lori. Thank you for the quick review of Harvest and HubPlanner. Like Leanne mentioned above, both of these tools are new to me as well.
ReplyDeleteI especially like the feature with HubPlanner (n.d.) that allows project managers to quickly view a visual of all team members and their current assignments. That would prove helpful in insuring equal and logical distribution of tasks and workload, and could certainly aid in keeping projects on target.
Reference:
HubPlanner.(n.d.). https://www.hubplanner.com/
Penny Jordan
Lori,
ReplyDeleteYour reflection on the two systems were great to read. I agree that being able to reflect on past project and how they shaped the company is important. Projects provide the opportunity for members of the organization to gain knowledge about themselves and the company (Terzieva & Morabito 2016). This knowledge gained from completing project enables team members to reduce the need to spend time modifying or reteaching a skill and saving time for planning and production (Terzieva & Morabito 2016).
Reference
Terzieva, M., & Morabito, V. (2016). Learning from experience: The project team is key. Business Systems Research, 7(1), 1-15. DOI: 10.1515/bsrj-2016-0001.