Open Source Collabtive Makes Project Management a Breeze

by Lisa Hoover - Oct. 15, 2009Comments (8)

When you're collaborating with a team that's flung across the globe, sometimes you need collaboration software with some heft to help you get the job done. Open source Web-based project manager, Collabtive, might be just the tool you're looking for. It has several features that make it a great alternative to proprietary alternatives like Basecamp.

Collabtive can handle unlimited projects, tasks, lists, and milestones, and there's no cap on the number of team members that can access the project manager. Each user desktop gives an overview of projects, tasks, messages and a calendar. It's easy to minimize the modules or export data with just one click.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Add a project with all the accompanying details like due date, budget, and team members. Use the editor to add images, links, bullet points, and videos in four different formats. When you add dates to tasks or projects, they'll automatically show up in your calendar. A single click opens a new window with details of what's due that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's easy to message other team members right from Collabtive and tag messages for easy search later. As is true in the project screen, you can add images, videos, links, etc. to anything you send.

My messages @ Collabtive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Collabtive tracks your activity and generates a report that shows time spent per project or cumulative hours across all projects. You can also filter report data for more granular information.

My projects @ Collabtive

 


 

Collabtive is completely themeable and available in more than 25 languages. Export reports and activity logs in PDF format, and sync your calendars via iCal. While Collabtive may not be feature-rich enough for extremely complex project management needs, it's great for small teams that just need to make sure everyone's on the same page.

Collabtive report

 



Shailesh Patel uses OStatic to support Open Source, ask and answer questions and stay informed. What about you?



8 Comments
 

Opengoo.org has some good BaseCamp-esque features too. Worth checking out.


0 Votes

I've been using Collabtive for a a bit now, starting with version 0.6. I don't know if I'm the "target" user, as I'm a service type company with a need to track my hours. When it comes to doing my invoices, it would be nice if the Filter options on the time records actually worked. This is a known issue, and the fix is non-trivial (i.e. multiple files need code changes, according to a forum post, which are then overwritten with the update). The newest version (0.6.1) did not address this issue.


This is very inconvenient (aka a blocking issue) for my particular use case and has resulted in a planned migration to something else. While I understand the code is in active development and this issue will likely be addressed in future point releases, it's too late for this "customer".


Beyond that, Collabtive is not a bad tool for tracking projects and tasks. But there are alternatives available.


0 Votes

Interesting post. I still have to go over the details here.

Always good to see new tools and new ideas.


For your info, we are trying a new forum (based on the great technology of stackoverflow and stackexchange) about project management.

It is basically a web applications for asking and answering questions with very nice features of reputation (digg-like) that should hopefully bring all the good questions and the good answers to the top.


Have a look if you are interested.


0 Votes

forogt to post the link!


http://imanage.stackexchange.com/


0 Votes

This is NOT a project management tool. It is a tool for managing _software_ projects! I tried to use it for "regular" projects a few months ago, but it failed because of:

- Tasks only had due date (no start and stop date / duration)

- No dependencies between tasks

- No Gannt diagram and the developer said there will be none

Besides that, it is a great looking and user friendly software that I recommend! But I wouldn't call it a project management tool... ;-)


0 Votes

Lisa,


I don't think Project Managers are waiting for alternatives for basecamp, they are looking for something that is much better than basecamp (not just a clone with another design).


For over 3 years now I have not yet seen something that wasn't, in its essence, a basecamp clone.


http://www.pmhut.com


0 Votes

It does indeed look like a viable alternative to Basecamp, though like someone mentioned it clearly has the taste of a software development projects tool. And regarding better tools then Basecamp, now uesers can really choose, there are a lot of available options, depending on your budget and business needs like Comindwork, @task, CentralDesktop and a few others.


http://www.comindwork.com


0 Votes

Now a days business competition is growing more and more. So every business person want to save their time in any project . So they are using different type time tracking software and tools on their project work. I have also very good experience of one time tracking software. Employee Time Tracking Software provide really nice and systematic service for project work.


0 Votes
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