Basecamp: An easy trek though project management

Are you a project manager? You probably are, whether you realize it or not. As I said in my ACRL Virtual Conference presentation, "Libraries are full of projects. There are renovations, serials reviews, digitizations, system implementations, and new websites to name a few." Therefore, most librarians probably do some level of project management.

So, what if someone offered you a web-based project management (PM) solution where you can communicate with project team members, assign tasks and track completions, create a project calendar, store project related files, and have writeboards to work on documents and track changes? Would you jump at it? Two years ago I did and, a couple of months later, so did my Library.

The solution was and is Basecamp. Since I've worked with PM software/processes before, I know how cumbersome they can be. Basecamp isn't. It allows me to create a project at the level of detail that I need. I started out using it to manage the projects in my department (digitization) and it's now used throughout my library for projects of all kinds. (Note: My library currently subscribes to the Premium account for $99/month.)

You must be wondering how it works. First, invite an unlimited number of people to be users of your Basecamp account. Next, create a project by just naming it, then from your "people" list, select your project team. Now you're ready to create a To Do list, which basically lists the project's tasks. Each task can be assigned to one person and given a due date.

If you need to reorder the tasks in a project, just drag and drop 'em. Delete a task? Click on it's trash can. If someone is working on a task and wants to record information, there's a comment by task feature, which can also send emails to other team members. The project message board works in a similar way. And when the task is done, one click checks it off as completed.

Adding milestones and events to the project calendar is just as easy and file upload works just like most cloud storage uploads. Also, if you have projects and/or to do lists that are similar each time (like in digitization), you can create templates to be reused over and over again.

Once you've created To Do lists, added tasks, entered milestones, submitted comments, etc. the project dashboard give you a one page view of everything that's happened in the last week and due to happen in the next two weeks. There's also RSS and API functionality if you want/need it. Sweet!

Weaknesses? Well, the big ones for me are 1) you can only assign a task to one person, 2) there's no task dependency, and 3) tasks don't display in the calendar. However, Basecamp has a substantial user base who actively identify potential enhancements to the system and 37signals, the vendor, is pretty responsive to us. The three I mentioned are all on the radar with +1s.

As noted above, Basecamp isn't free, but it is reasonably priced and four different plans are available for small to enormous organizations.

There's lots of PM solutions out there, from sticky notes to big main-frame systems used by the government and military. Basecamp is just one option, but it is the one that works for me and my library. What are you using? (Leave us a comment!)