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Software Review: ProjectManager.com [2016]

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General Information
ProjectManager.com was last reviewed in 2013. It’s time to review the software again and see what has changed.
Name: ProjectManager.comVendor: ProjectManager.comHosting options: OnlineCosts and plans: The Team plan for up to 10 users is $20 per user per month (this is actually cheaper than the equivalent plan a few years ago, which was $25 for up to 5 users). The next pricing tier costs $15 per user per monthly. You can also access premium training and enterprise support on the Group plan if you have more than 50 users. Free 30-day trial. Languages: EnglishCurrency. The timezone you choose determines the currency and date format for your account.
Basic Features: Building Projects
It is easy to create a project. Click on Create a New Project to enter project details, including the budget and rate of resources. The screen will take you to the enter task screen.
The task schedule can be edited by you, and you can add tasks to it. You can also populate the Gantt chart on your right side (woo! A proper Gantt chart). You can also add milestones and dependencies.
You can upload documents to tasks, or add documents to the main project directly from the homepage. This allows you to store your Project Charter at a higher-level than task-related documents such as requirements specifications.
While you can’t open multiple projects at once, you can view all of your projects from the dashboard.
Other Features: Budgets and Timesheets
ProjectManager.com offers timesheets which are very useful, especially if you bill clients for work. I noticed that only tasks on the project plan could be completed by team members. This is no longer the case. You can now record admin time such as holidays, team meetings, and the handy bucket task “Misc”.
You can add budget information and expenses to projects. It’s easy to add expenses. Although you don’t have the obligation to assign an expense to a task, you can do so if you wish. It can also be set up as a recurring expense, such as a payment to a contractor or a monthly subscription, and then forget about it.
Entering an expense in ProjectManager.comYou can add financial rates for the project and also at user (resource level). It’s not difficult, although I had to consult the help screens in order to figure it out. It did help me realize that the help pop-up should remain open even if you navigate away. It would be so much easier to find unfamiliar functionality if it opened in another window.
Dashboards and reports
The reporting functionality is still impressive to me. There are many reports available, and the latest release added additional reporting features like custom columns and tweaks to the workload reports. Dashboards provide a snapshot of the project’s progress in real-time. They are great for project sponsors and other stakeholders who don’t have the time to read status reports. You can export data to Excel or PDF, or view it online.
If you need to manipulate more data, there are cost reports that show the time, expenses, and project budget. These can be exported to Excel. The Roadmap view is a great feature that shows you the high-level phases of each project in the portfolio. You can drill down if necessary.
The roadmap view shows all open projects.Collaboration Features
ProjectManager.com emphasizes their collaboration features. You can use instant messaging, discussion functionality, and comment on tasks. You can subscribe to replies and it keeps a record, which is useful for audit purposes.
You can also record up to 5 minutes audio directly into the tool and then share the file with your team. This feature is becoming more common in other places, such as coworking spaces.

Ferdinand
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Project Failure: We are at It Again Serendipity happens. I replied to a student Inside pmStudent eLearning with what turned to be an article about project success and failure. Shim wrote, “Projects failure rates?” a few days later. The conventional wisdom is wrong! His blog is amazing. I began leaving comments, and it quickly became one of those comments that should be its own post. Chaos I mean the reports that various organizations have on project failure rates. Shim outlined the following in his post:
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Project Failure: We are at It Again Serendipity happens. I replied to a student Inside pmStudent eLearning with what turned to be an article about project success and failure. Shim wrote, “Projects failure rates?” a few days later. The conventional wisdom is wrong! His blog is amazing. I began leaving comments, and it quickly became one of those comments that should be its own post. Chaos I mean the reports that various organizations have on project failure rates. Shim outlined the following in his post:
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