The other day, I was invited to a discussion on why projects (in fact, most projects) do not succeed and we figured out that usually it is because of no conscious effort on project management. One of my colleagues highlighted that freelancers, especially those working in a team, often have to spend considerable amount of their project time in identifying, scheduling and prioritizing project tasks. This usually results in project delays and unmamanged priorities. This can be easily avoided by using some simple and free project management tools. Most online project management tools are free to use and provide basic set of project management functionalities like task and schedule management, performance tracking and project reporting.
Today’s post lists some popular and free project management tools that freelancers can use online to improve their productivity and project management skills. Most of these online project management tools will allow you to create your own project workspace, manage personal and group tasks, collaborate online with project team and get instant overview of project schedule and overall progress.
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Free Online Collaboration Tool: Google Docs
Google Docs is an excellent application for collaboration. You can create and share documents and spreadsheets and collaborate with your team/clients in real-time. Being a browser-based application – the requirements to get up and running is very minimal. Storing your work online means they’re readily available anywhere with an internet connection.
A Free Project Management Application for Freelancers: Solo
Solo is a free project management application for freelancers. The simple, elegant, and intuitive interface means Solo is much easier to use than other free project management apps. Easy to use installation wizard to guide you through the process. Requires a linux server, PHP 5.3+, and MySQL.
Free Online Meetings and Project Collaboration Software: WebEx
Meet, collaborate, and share in a whole new way. It’s easy to prepare because everything you need is in one place. Share anything on your computer and generate ideas fast.
Collaborate with colleagues across your organization, or halfway across the planet. Meet online and share files, information, and expertise. WebEx increases productivity and keep you connected.
Team Collaboration Software and Private Social Networking Tool: Yammer
Yammer is a freemium team collaboration software and private social network service. Yammer is used for private communication within organizations and is an example of enterprise social software. Access to a Yammer network is determined by a user’s Internet domain so that only individuals with appropriate email addresses may join their respective networks.
Online Project Management App: Freedcamp
If you are looking for a nice free online project management app, then you should check out Freedcamp. This tool positions itself as the closest free alternative that you will ever get to Basecamp. This means you can work on unlimited projects, with unlimited file sharing, the same way you would work on Basecamp without signing up to monthly plans.
Freedcamp also gives you the ability to import Basecamp projects to Freedcamp by using the API key. Once set up, you can do almost anything Basecamp can do including adding to-do’s, discussions, milestones, time-tracking, project messages, notifications, discussions, RSS feed, and more.
Open Source Project Collaboration Tool: Collabtive
Collabtive is web-based project management and collaboration software. It is open source software and provides an alternative to proprietary tools like Basecamp. Collabtive is written in PHP and JavaScript. Collabtive is intended for small to medium-sized businesses and freelancers.
Collabtive can be used for an unlimited number of projects, and your team can have any number of members. The tool can be used to set and track time as well as project milestones and also to manage files. Users can download time tracker reports, synchronize their calendars receive e-mail notifications when a document has been changed.
Free Online Collaboration Tool: ProjectPier
ProjectPier is a Free, Open-Source, PHP application for managing tasks, projects and teams through an intuitive web interface. It must be downloaded and installed on your own web server. ProjectPier will help your organization communicate, collaborate and get things done Its function is similar to commercial groupware/project management products, but allows the freedom and scalability of self-hosting.
Simple, Effective Online Collaboration Tool: Scribblar
Online whiteboard, real-time audio, document upload, text-chat and more. Scribblar is the perfect online tutoring platform.
Online Task Organizer: Trello
Trello is a free web-based project management and collaboration application. Trello uses a paradigm for managing projects known as kanban, a method that had originally been popularized by Toyota in the 1980s for supply chain management.
Projects are represented by boards, which contain lists (corresponding to task lists). Lists contain cards (corresponding to tasks). Cards are supposed to progress from one list to the next (via drag-and-drop), for instance mirroring the flow of a feature from idea to implementation. Users can be assigned to cards. Users and boards can be grouped into organizations.
Free Project Tracking Software: AceProject
Project tracking software to manage your tasks, timesheets, documents and expenses. AceProject offers a collection of features pulling from the best of professional project management applications, such as Microsoft Project, in a more simple to use task management system.
Real-time Project Collaboration Tool – Vyew
Vyew allows you to meet and share content in real-time or anytime. Upload images, files, documents and videos into a room. Users can access and contribute at anytime. It comes with many useful collaboration and conferencing features such as: whiteboarding, video conferencing, screen sharing, voice-over-IP, contextual discussion forumsm voice-notes and activity logging.
EGroupware
EGroupware is free open source groupware software intended for businesses from small to enterprises. Its primary functions allow users to manage contacts, appointments, projects and to-do lists.
Wiggio
Wiggio is a Web application with a focus on group collaboration. The platform was designed to be easy and straightforward, even for the least tech-savvy members of your group. It provides everything you need to work productively in your groups, without bogging you down with complexities and unnecessary features.
Integrated Action Tracking & Collaboration: Traction TeamPage
Traction TeamPage makes it easy to communicate, work together, find what you need, and stay on top of what’s happening in your business. TeamPage integrates action tracking, Twitter-style status, threaded discussion, collaboration, social networking, and deep search. TeamPage connects people, actions, what you create or find in TeamPage, the public Web, your company’s intranet and your line of business systems.
Open Source Project Management Tool: DotProject
dotProject is a volunteer supported Project Management application. There is no “company” behind this project, it is managed, maintained, developed and supported by a volunteer group and by the users themselves.
Open Source 3D Virtual Collaboration Toolkit: Open Wonderland
Use Open Wonderland to build your virtual world! Create dynamic learning environments, collaborative business applications, or interactive, multi-user simulations. Start with a blank slate, or modify an existing world. While some types of worlds can be created by end-users or 3D artists, this toolkit is designed primarily for developers familiar with the Java programming language.