* The BaseCamp project management framework
“Projects don’t fail from a lack of charts, graphs or reports, they fail from a lack of communication and collaboration.” So opine the chaps at 37signals who, no surprise, have a solution.
I covered a couple of 37signals services last year: its free list manager called Ta-Da List and an organizer named BackPack.
37signals produce services that, as its PR guy claims, “do a few things really well and then get out of your way.” Certainly, it is true that the company’s applications tend towards minimalism and avoid the feature bloat syndrome, which make a huge difference in usability. Add to that that I thought the services I previously reviewed were very effective and it would appear that 37signals adheres to its founder’s stated axioms:
* Underdo your competition.
* The customer isn’t always the king.
* Solve simple problems and leave the big ones to everyone else.
* Fewer employees, less meetings, less corporate structure and fewer promises.
* Ignore details early on.
A hugely debatable and somewhat amusing list (particularly “The customer isn’t always the king”) but 37signals is still in business and still producing interesting applications. Its answer to the project management problem, BaseCamp, fits its philosophies very well.
As you might expect BaseCamp provides a characteristic project management framework to assign to-dos and tasks, post messages and gather feedback, provides supports for simple scheduling and access controls, includes file sharing both between team members and with clients, and allows you to track group members’ time usage.
When you take the tour you’ll find that BaseCamp is indeed simple and as the company says: “Basecamp doesn’t do everything, but what it does it does extremely well.”
One aspect of the service I really like is that 37signals has thought about how the data will look on paper; when you print project information it looks polished and professional, something that isn’t a common feature of many ASP-style services.
I won’t spend any more time discussing the features (I’ve covered them all) or waxing lyrical about the user interface (you need to take the tour to get the feel for how it looks and works).
Pricing starts at $0 (no file sharing, one project, unlimited project members and clients, and access to 37signals new Campfire instant messaging service through to $149 per month with unlimited projects, 5GB of storage for shared files, SSL encryption and time tracking.
This is a company to watch. Its quasi-minimalistic approach is refreshing and effective and its pricing extremely reasonable.
