Liquid Planner is a web based project management solution that is easy to use. Collaboration with team members is built in. Because it is web based everyone sees the latest, up to the minute, copy of the project plan.
Lots of companies have tried to solve the project management and tracking problem. The trick is to find the right balance between complexity and ease of use...powerful features versus simple tools.
Liquid Planner has focused on a couple areas that strike that balance. Most project planning tools require you to declare a "single point" starting date and end date. The reality is that most times you aren't certain about the end date. So, Liquid Planner lets you enter a date range like 6 to 8 weeks. As the project goes along you can refine your estimates. They manage uncertainty with what they call Probabilistic Planning.
Huddle is an online network of workspaces. Huddle combines your social and work relationships in one place. They have the basic tools needed to get the job done. Huddle has a project planner tool, a document filing cabinet, whiteboards to share ideas, and notifications and alerts for items that need attention.
Huddle can build a workspace launched directly from Facebook, and it will leverage your Facebook connections to form a project team. LinkedIn integration is coming soon.
Huddle is web based so collaboration with team members is easy. Huddle is a SaaS application so it can scale up with your needs. They are using a Freemium business model. You can do three projects for free. You can do 10 projects for $20 per month and 25 projects for $49 per month.
Huddle is open for business now. Check it out at Huddle.net
Nice overviews of Liquidplanner and Huddle.
How would you contrast these two offerings?
I am asking from the perspective of a software management consultant who is helping start-ups manage their software development schedules and deliverables - eliminating surprises as much as possible...
Thanks...
Posted by: Kryten | January 31, 2008 at 04:52 PM
Another one to check out is Intervals. We developed it as a web-based task and time tracking application with the "right balance between complexity and ease of use" for our web development firm.
http://www.myintervals.com
Posted by: John Reeve | January 31, 2008 at 06:34 PM
Well, LiquidPlanner looks good. The only thing I don't get is how am I going to make my team do something in 2 days, when they know they have upto 5 days to do the job.
As for Huddle, my Facebook contacts are my friends, not my project team. I wouldn't like to bother them with my projects. I don't see any other advantages in Huddle. So far, I'm with Wrike.com and see it as a better web-based project management app for our team. It's got great emsil integration and lets us slice our projects differently.
Posted by: Rolan G | June 24, 2008 at 08:08 AM
Great post! I myself have tried some of these and was successful in some and got failure in others. being a freelancer one major thing required is a central system so that wherever you are you can access things in an easy way.
Initially we used basecamp (www.basecamphq.com) for project management purposes and it changed the email email games we used to play. Though we find out some even better product named Proofhub Proofhub (www.proofhub.com)which provided the same or you can say better services at a cheaper and effective price. The thing is that wherever you are your work should be effective enough to attract more business.
Thanks for the post
Posted by: Sam | June 21, 2009 at 09:50 AM