I enjoyed reading your book recently and wanted to ask your opinion on which project management product you would recommend to a small U.S. based development company Ms Project or Macromedia Sitespring?

We work with 12 to 15 people who are broken down into different teams for different projects, depending on the size and scope of each
project.

I am the owner and am looking for a way to coordinate this whole thing
online and have read some of the specs of the new sitespring product
which sound interesting.

I already own MS Project (98 I believe) which to date haven't used
much but have scheduled some training for myself and my teams in the
use of this product. I will have to buy an upgrade to take advantage
of the online part of it and don't know if I should spend that money
on the training and upgrade or scrap it and move over to the
Macromedia product instead.

We currently use most of the Macromedia line of products to do our
design & development anyway and thought it might make sense to stick
with them for the project management and version control product.

Your expertise and knowledge would be much appreciated.

I was just curious if any one here has spent more time using SiteSpring now that this post is 6 months. I just took a look and it looks good. Is anyone using SiteSpring for real projects? Thanks.

On 22:12:21 25 July 2001 Ashley wrote:
>Hi Eric
>
>Glad the book was of some help. For starters, it might be
>worth reading through my post at
>http://www.e-consultancy.com/forum/default.asp?v=809&p-
>=1 in this forum where I talk about Sitespring a bit.
>
>Which would I choose Sitespring or Project…?
>
>Project can do all sorts of clever stuff but most people
>(in my experience) only really use it for its Gantt chart
>capabilities. It is particularly useful to give a visual
>representation of “here’s a list of tasks,
>here are their dependencies on each other, here’s
>how long it takes and this is where we are now”.
>Project can do a lot of the things that Sitespring can
>(automating the sending out of tasks for example and
>tracking their status) but people don’t seem to use
>it for that. It can also do a lot of things that
>Sitespring cannot e.g. resourcing, budgeting and, for that
>matter, critical paths.
>
>Project is very useful in creating a visual reference
>point for the client and the project team. However, in
>terms of day-to-day workflow management most people still
>rely on e-mail + attachments. This is not ideal as you end
>up with files replicated everywhere, no central point from
>which you can audit and control the decision making
>processes etc. And this is what Sitespring is good at.
>
>I don’t think it’s an “either, or”
>decision. I think they are quite different products. I
>know Macromedia are saying that Sitespring does not
>compete with Project. I’m sure Microsoft, however,
>have plans to upgrade Project to encompass the
>collaborative work tools of Sitespring…
>
>I have to say that I have not yet used Sitespring on a
>real project but I have played around with the beta and I
>would like to give it a try as I think it does address a
>lot of the issues surrounding the collaborative and
>iterative nature of web development. It provides a set of
>useful tools but does not prescribe a process which I
>think is the right approach. (I don’t think
>I’ve ever known a web project where the initial MS
>Project plan has been religiously kept up to date. Things
>change so often that you would need to employ someone full
>time just to do this.)
>
>I think the real challenge with Sitespring (for the
>Macromedia sales team as much as anyone) is that it is a
>collaborative tool i.e. it only has value if a group of
>people actually use it. And the group in question is
>typically a project manager, a developer and a designer +
>others depending on the size of the project. Now these are
>quite different sorts of people, each with their own way
>of working. In my experience, I think that Sitespring will
>appeal to the Project Managers and the Developers, but
>I’m not so sure about the Designers…
>
>If you are to buy Sitespring you will also have to change
>the way people work together. Well, not
>‘change’ exactly as Sitespring is designed to
>fit in with existing working practices, but you will still
>need to get people using the product together and not just
>resorting to e-mail. The same is true of your clients
>– they will need ‘training’ on this
>“new” way of doing things. It may be a better
>way of doing things, but busy people don’t always
>embrace change that willingly as I’m sure you know.
>
>If you can afford it, I would get both products. However,
>I wouldn’t spend much money on Project. I would use
>it for a few basic tasks in the planning phase (and as a
>key document deliverable) and not much more. If you
>actually spent a small amount of time with its
>Help/Tutorial content (or look on the web) there is more
>than enough help there not to have to spend money on
>training.
>
>I would buy Sitespring in the hope that it would
>streamline the way people worked internally (saving costs
>and mental anguish) and helped the client monitor project
>progress (though the client site function) and helped
>everyone communicate more efficiently. However, I would
>chose a fairly small, low-risk, easily manageable project
>with more comfortable deadlines to pilot it on first
>before trying to roll it out any wider.
>
>Is there anyone out there who has used Sitespring on a
>live project and can comment on how well it works?
>
>
>
>On 22:46:49 21 July 2001 esteph wrote:
>> I enjoyed reading your book recently and wanted to
>ask
>>your opinion on which project management product you
>would
>>recommend to a small U.S. based development company
>Ms
>>Project or Macromedia Sitespring?
>>
>>We work with 12 to 15 people who are broken down into
>>different teams for different projects, depending on
>the
>>size and scope of each
>>project.
>>
>>I am the owner and am looking for a way to coordinate
>this
>>whole thing
>>online and have read some of the specs of the new
>>sitespring product
>>which sound interesting.
>>
>>I already own MS Project (98 I believe) which to date
>>haven't used
>>much but have scheduled some training for myself and
>my
>>teams in the
>>use of this product. I will have to buy an upgrade to
>take
>>advantage
>>of the online part of it and don't know if I should
>spend
>>that money
>>on the training and upgrade or scrap it and move over
>to
>>the
>>Macromedia product instead.
>>
>>We currently use most of the Macromedia line of
>products
>>to do our
>>design & development anyway and thought it might
>make
>>sense to stick
>>with them for the project management and version
>control
>>product.
>>
>>Your expertise and knowledge would be much appreciated.