A year in Basecamp
About 18 months ago, we at Jitscale were looking for a tool for straightforward project management that allows management of these projects within the tool.
Numerous packages (open source & closed source) were reviewed. One was more suitable than the other, but none generated the ‘YES!-effect’.
Until we hit the site of an American company: 37signals. Several Jitscale employees already used a service offered by 37signals: Backpack. A great tool that allows you to create to-do lists, which can also be used as sort of interactive rough drafts to work on together with more people. It takes comments, scribbles, photos, links etc. Each person the draft is shared with, can add or remove things. An exceptionally handy tool for, for example, compilation of Christmas dinner, organization of a stag party, anyway, countless uses once you are used to the flexible way of working.
It turned out, the same 37signals also provides a ‘collaboration tool’ aimed at project work. Basecamp.
Basecamp is in fact an extended version of Backpack. Basecamp enables you to create multiple projects with access control on account level. Each project has several possible ways of communication such as Messages, Writeboards and Chat. Plus, there are some crucial integrated project aspects like Milestones, To-Dos and Documents. The minimalism of functionalities (only the bare necessities) and the overview that comes from that, make Basecamp a powerful package.
Basecamp is not downloadable and only purchasable as on-line service. This makes management superfluous. And that’s great for a management business as Jitscale, as we rather manage our client’s applications than our own.
A year ago I assigned all projects to Basecamp and, with regard to projects, we started working primarily from this package. I can honestly say it was a resounding success. Today, I can not imagine ever having worked without it.
Major advantages are highly fast communication between client (client project members) and internal project team, clear communication history, document sharing, and central To-Dos and Milestones. No more emails between project members themselves and so no delay in ongoing matters due to holidays, etc. All project documents are available to all project members by means of well-built version control. It’s easy to create to-dos or to allocate them to someone else. Also with regard to planning, there is indistinctness. Milestones are clear and crisp.
Sometimes you do notice clients have some problem finding their way to Basecamp. First reflex is to send an email. I usually kindly request them to post that same comment/question in Basecamp. After a while clients start to notice in Basecamp response is quicker than in emails and all, already gathered, information can be found quickly in one central location. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with it, the added value automatically becomes apparent.
Additional advantage is it makes telecommuting easier, as the workplace has become practically virtual.
Our experience regarding downtime is very positive. Exactly twice the service was unavailable in that one year. The time to solve the problem was reasonably short (an hour to an hour and a half), with afterwards an extensive rapport explaining what went wrong and how this will be prevented in the future. A familiar way of working to us. So that explains why this package fully meets all expectations.
Jim Nijkamp
Projectmanager
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