Project management application: Activecollab

Since I began freelancing, project management amounted to IM, email and phone calls. In an attempt to create a place for clients to manage projects thus allowing me more time to complete projects had forced me to invest in an web based management system.

I have been looking around for a while, and having trialled MANY there was always something which stopped me from continuing using them. It was either its complicated interface, confusing process or running costs.

About a year ago I discovered ActiveCollab. AC was an open source project which started off life as an alternative “host on your own server” Basecamp.

Since then its popularity had steadily grown, forcing the developers to take the product more seriously, to the point where they recently released the first commercially available version, 1.0.

I knew of its impending release so decided to wait to see if it would fill the gap. First impressions were that it was more than a mere upgrade. It had been completed redesigned and developed from the ground up. The interface has a nice, easy on the eye feel to it with well laid out sections.

The demo left a lot to be desired, access wasn’t at an administrative level so a lot of the features weren’t available to test. The only way you could test everything would be to purchase a license.

Whilst waiting for the release of AC, I stumbled across another application created by a company called StuffedGuys. Nova Factory has a similar feature list with one additional feature which, for me, made it stand out from the crowd. NF had the ability to carry out discussions via email. As a user, I would initiate a discussion about, for example, an area of an active project. The system would email a group of recipients (either the client or team members). Once the recipients replied, the reply would automatically append itself to the discussion within NF. This meant that team members and clients would not need to login to the system to leave comments and could instead reply to the emails.

The cost of NF was considerably less and had been around a lot longer. Yet I decided to go for AC. Why? Because of the development team, improvements are being made all the time, with bug fixes and general usage. They also seem keen to listen to their user base and take on board suggestions, many of which are about adding email based discussions, a feature which NF has.

AC was released on the 5th October so it is fair to say there are a fair few bugs and issues that need ironing out. But their near instant support response goes a long way in reassuring you that the money spent was worth it.

How has it been so far?
Installation was a breeze, create the database, go through the wizard and you are up and running. The downsides so far are the bugs and issues that have come to light. There is a slowly expanding help section, but the forums are a hive of activity so you can expect a response to most queries. There is an API if you feel like adding new functionality, unfortunately there is next to no documentation on this… yet.

Summary:

Design 3/5
Looks really slick, but from a usability perspective it could do with better use of colours to highlight changes on the dashboard.

Features 3.5/5
Has plenty to begin with but could do with more e.g. email based discussions, and let’s face it. Will anyone ever give it a 5?

Ease-of-Use 3/5
Has bugs and issues which need resolving.

Documentation 3.5/5
Would have been nice to have had a comprehensive help section from the start.

Value for Money 3.5/5
Until issues have been resolved, will remain at three and a half.

AC has a long way to go before it’s the polished product we would like it to be, fortunately with the team behind it, you can’t go wrong.