The Anti-Blog Blog: Everyday Engineering and Architecture

Managing by Spreadsheet (mBS)

It never ceases to amaze how many of my customers with million dollar budgets still rely upon homegrown spreadsheets to manage their projects. Large or small, doesn't matter -- it's spreadsheet. Oh sometimes it's color coded to indicated status, you know, red for behind schedule, yellow for mostly on schedule but about ready to slip and green if it's lucky enough to be ahead or on schedule (what that purple, brown, orange color coding means I have no clue). About 1/2 the time it's up-to-date, the other 1/2 it's not and in some cases it's really far out of date. Many times it's shared via email and some of the times it's even kept out on the server were team members can download the latest copy. Heaven forbid they should want to change it themselves -- majority of the time they email their changes to the Project Manager or whoever "owns" the spreadsheet... ahem, project plan.

Come on, we all know organizations that do exactly this. Let's not kid ourselves we also do it as well ("Hi I'm Dave. I suffer from mBS syndrome")

The Trouble in Spreadsheet-town

The main issue is that project management by spreadsheet just doesn't do the trick. There's too much data re-entry (I'll send you an update via email and you update the sheet for me) and in most cases things aren't up-to-date. Additionally the data needed isn't tracked to the level needed (eg. the spreadsheets are really high level lest they cause even more data re-entry) and performance metrics really aren't tracked over time so you can't improve forecasting as the project goes along or apply some form of multiplier to the next project very easily.

The Trouble with Microsoft Project

At the other end of the spectrum, you've got Microsoft Project and other very high end tools that are capable of tracking the largest of large projects (like building submarines, sky scrapers, shopping centers and malls). These have too much detail and the tools themselves get in the way of managing the project. There's a genuine and legitimate fear of these types of tools.

Some Simple Options

Enter the web-based tools. There are now many offerings (almost too many in fact) that are web-based and occupy the middle ground between spreadsheets and the Microsoft projects of the world. Even better yet, there are now some specialized tools for managing Agile development work as well (eg. scrums and defects). Awesome!

At the very basic end of things, there's a category of project tools which really have a focus on the collaborative aspect of projects. The emphasis here is on collaboration and not necessarily enforcing good project management discipline or even capturing project metrics. What these tools is get the project plan and general info off someone's hard drive, laptop or home directory and make it a group effort. Keeping it up-to-date is no longer one person's job. Adding new issues or items is no longer one person's job. Everyone can see what's going on and if everyone keeps it up-to-date, then everyone sees the up-to-date data. Neat!
Some eliminate the need for the spreadsheet by providing basic task breakdown, other services out there simply add collaboration to that spreadsheet.

There are quite a few in this category but two I've recently run across that seem to be decent, one called Huddle and one called Basecamp. Think social network meets task / project management. Good basic stuff and better than mBS.

High End

At the high end you find things like Project Insight which, while not quite like Microsoft Project, can actually offer up about 75% to 80% of Microsoft Project's features via the web. Or for those just starting out, Project Insight can start smaller and offer something like 25% to 40% of Microsoft Project's core features in a workgroup edition.

I know. I know. What about Open Source or FLOSS (free as in libre open source software)? Yes Virginia, there are even open source offerings in this high end category. One such service and software package is called Project.net. Very feature rich and high end, yet open source. Yes, I put Project.net in the high end category.

Middle of the Road

Sometimes we can't simply get that $300,000 Italian sports car and must settle for a good old Chevy with a decent stereo system.
More middle of the road web-based project management adds true project management features beyond the collaboration. You're now tracking meaningful metrics such as time spent vs. projected, risk levels and issues, etc. Things that help you not only deliver the current project but also will help you plan / estimate the next one as well.

At the very low end of this category would be QuickBase from Intuit which I consider more a bridge between very basic and middle of the road. Good clean user interface (it's from Intuit, the Quicken people, would you expect otherwise?). No QuickBase isn't for complex projects or project portfolio management (PPM) but it's a decent online project management system with a good UI. I had a customer complain that QuickBase was too simple of a tool. Um, I got news for you it's still light years ahead of doing it by spreadsheets IMHO.

On the high end of the middle of the road (MOTR) category you find things like Daptiv's platform which can do many many things and even has an API you can develop integrated applications against if you are so inclined. Again Daptiv is a hosted solution like QuickBase.
If you're looking for something open sourced web-based either hosted or on-prem in the MOTR category, I like TeamWork -- it's award winning open source which also has an Agile component. Nice.

Ok, I confess I also like Copper for it's UI, is well done, modern and easy to use (can a UI be sexy?). The design reminds me alot of Apple Mac for some reason -- well done and useful perhaps?

One other one that's solidly in this category is Team Dynamix which more than a couple of my Higher Education customers use. Team Dynamix is something you can start simple and grow with but doesn't do much specifically with Agile.

Specifically for Agile

Agile development brings new things to manage in a faster paced environment. (Yes I've seen Agile management via spreadsheet. Again, no no no. Have we not learned anything from the project management by spreadsheet attempts?). Luckily there are some offerings out there to assist with Agile development projects.

I mentioned that TeamWork has an Agile module for managing the scrum, so it can do basic project management and agile scrum management which is pretty good. If you want something that focuses more on just the development aspects of agile projects, the Rally and VersionOne are a couple of options.

Rally kind of seems like the Microsoft Project in this category, really feature rich and often more than what people need so I am not so impressed with it. I'd also consider VersionOne as being at the high end of the agile project management tools here -- it does seem easier or perhaps a bit more user friendly though.

Personally, I also like TargetProcess, ThoughtWorks and AgileBuddy for tools that are crisp, easy to use and really beneficial in this area. ThoughtWorks is really high on the list, AgileBuddy and TargetProcess come in a close 2nd with VersionOne running 3rd in my mind.

Recent Recommendation

Recently I had an opportunity to take a look at one particular customer project. Doing quite a bit of development work and had a real need for testing, solid promote to production cycle management and upgrading their overall project management to something more than spreadsheets.
I basically told them to look at the ThoughtWorks product set of Mingle, Cruise and Twist right away for the development, testing and promotion cycle management. And then review Team Dynamix or Copper for the project management side of things. If I had to choose between Team Dynamix and Copper, my deciding factor would be project portfolio management (PPM) -- if PPM wasn't a requirement, I'd go with Copper.