Discussion Thread

Hi Luis. I have used and enjoyed Trello for at least 4 years now, for projects personal and work-related, solo and team-based. Those with MS Office 365 have Teams available (if your IT department supports it) which is very similar. Dropbox is essential for me and my collaborators too. I've used Slack occasionally when other people invite me to their team on that.

Nice to learn about other tools out there from this discussion. Onward!

We have been implanting Microsoft Teams into some projects to better track project progress.  That way we can easily set intermediate deadlines for individual tasks to keep the project moving, opposed to just submittal dates.  It's helped to keep everyone on the same page and prevent cramming to do all the work within the last couple weeks before submittal.  Additionally it helps us track who is working on what so that it's easier to know who to talk to about specific questions and who to inform about changes that may impact their work.  It also allows you to share project information within the group.  Like Brett said, it's free with Microsoft Office 365 which helps.  Furthermore it can tap into your outlook calendar when you go to set meetings, etc.  For it to be most effective, however, you need to get everyone using it properly.  It looks more like Facebook with posts, but the newest is at the bottom.

More basic, but I keep a very detail calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Internally I have it set to viewable so others can see if I'm free and if not, whether I'm in the office or across town or further.  It has a lot of tools to help you further organize appointments with reminders and customizable color labels to help prioritize your schedule and make sure you don't forget anything.  You can put things as "Busy" (in office meetings, webinar, etc.), "Out of Office" (Doctor's appointment, out of office meeting, etc.), "Free" (reminder to contact client, deadline, etc.), or even "Tentative" (may have to miss meeting).  Sharing it with team members makes planning meetings and coordinating communication a lot easier. We also coordinate things like vacation time sending a meeting invite as "Free" to a regional "vacation" calendar, and to any supervisors.  It's pretty standard practice to use the calendar, but a lot of people don't make the most of it.  Lastly, and most importantly, have this sync'd up with your phone so you can see it on the go.

I have also used Microsoft Note. Also free if you already have Microsoft Office 365.  It give you a lot of control to make a "book" and add tabs and sub pages that give you a lot of control.  If you can establish an internal best practice it's a great way to keep track of work and assign tasks.  This level of control can also be it's downfall as it can be easy to "mess up" with so much going on.  It works much more like a Google Doc so multiple people can edit at once, which is good but sometimes troublesome.  I've used this before and found it great early on in a project to get project information, but as time went on it became a little tedious to update.

I have spent less time actively tracking budgets, but at a previous firm we use BST10 for timesheets, but found that to be very effective at managing project budgets.  I'm sure there's lot of similar software, like previously mentioned that can also fill this role.

Lastly, we use Bluebeam Revu for our PDF reader and edit tool.  Where it really shines are the Studio tools that allow users to collaborate on a project.  Everyone can work on a PDF at the same time.  Allowing reviewers to make comments, and design teams to address them on the fly.  You can use their comment tool to reply to comments and set their status as complete, rejected, canceled, and more as the options can be customized.  This also cuts back on duplicate comments in multiple place, waiting to mark-up a document after another is finished, massive file size PDFs from having to scan documents.  The amount of control it gives you over a document is vastly superior to products like Adobe, which can make it a little hard to pick up.  I think of as Lenox versus Mac.  More control/cheaper/harder to use versus less control/more expensive/easier to use.  Learning it is worthwhile, though.  Lots of State Department of Transportations are starting to use it because it coordinates so well with ProjectWise and MicroStation.  Another bonus feature, is that the reader mode is free, and if you're invited to collaborate on a project you don't need the paid version to edit the documents in Studio.  That way clients without the software can still collaborate on a project and add comments.

Hi Luis. I have used and enjoyed Trello for at least 4 years now, for projects personal and work-related, solo and team-based. Those with MS Office 365 have Teams available (if your IT department supports it) which is very similar. Dropbox is essential for me and my collaborators too. I've used Slack occasionally when other people invite me to their team on that.

Nice to learn about other tools out there from this discussion. Onward!

We have been implanting Microsoft Teams into some projects to better track project progress.  That way we can easily set intermediate deadlines for individual tasks to keep the project moving, opposed to just submittal dates.  It's helped to keep everyone on the same page and prevent cramming to do all the work within the last couple weeks before submittal.  Additionally it helps us track who is working on what so that it's easier to know who to talk to about specific questions and who to inform about changes that may impact their work.  It also allows you to share project information within the group.  Like Brett said, it's free with Microsoft Office 365 which helps.  Furthermore it can tap into your outlook calendar when you go to set meetings, etc.  For it to be most effective, however, you need to get everyone using it properly.  It looks more like Facebook with posts, but the newest is at the bottom.

More basic, but I keep a very detail calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Internally I have it set to viewable so others can see if I'm free and if not, whether I'm in the office or across town or further.  It has a lot of tools to help you further organize appointments with reminders and customizable color labels to help prioritize your schedule and make sure you don't forget anything.  You can put things as "Busy" (in office meetings, webinar, etc.), "Out of Office" (Doctor's appointment, out of office meeting, etc.), "Free" (reminder to contact client, deadline, etc.), or even "Tentative" (may have to miss meeting).  Sharing it with team members makes planning meetings and coordinating communication a lot easier. We also coordinate things like vacation time sending a meeting invite as "Free" to a regional "vacation" calendar, and to any supervisors.  It's pretty standard practice to use the calendar, but a lot of people don't make the most of it.  Lastly, and most importantly, have this sync'd up with your phone so you can see it on the go.

I have also used Microsoft Note. Also free if you already have Microsoft Office 365.  It give you a lot of control to make a "book" and add tabs and sub pages that give you a lot of control.  If you can establish an internal best practice it's a great way to keep track of work and assign tasks.  This level of control can also be it's downfall as it can be easy to "mess up" with so much going on.  It works much more like a Google Doc so multiple people can edit at once, which is good but sometimes troublesome.  I've used this before and found it great early on in a project to get project information, but as time went on it became a little tedious to update.

I have spent less time actively tracking budgets, but at a previous firm we use BST10 for timesheets, but found that to be very effective at managing project budgets.  I'm sure there's lot of similar software, like previously mentioned that can also fill this role.

Lastly, we use Bluebeam Revu for our PDF reader and edit tool.  Where it really shines are the Studio tools that allow users to collaborate on a project.  Everyone can work on a PDF at the same time.  Allowing reviewers to make comments, and design teams to address them on the fly.  You can use their comment tool to reply to comments and set their status as complete, rejected, canceled, and more as the options can be customized.  This also cuts back on duplicate comments in multiple place, waiting to mark-up a document after another is finished, massive file size PDFs from having to scan documents.  The amount of control it gives you over a document is vastly superior to products like Adobe, which can make it a little hard to pick up.  I think of as Lenox versus Mac.  More control/cheaper/harder to use versus less control/more expensive/easier to use.  Learning it is worthwhile, though.  Lots of State Department of Transportations are starting to use it because it coordinates so well with ProjectWise and MicroStation.  Another bonus feature, is that the reader mode is free, and if you're invited to collaborate on a project you don't need the paid version to edit the documents in Studio.  That way clients without the software can still collaborate on a project and add comments.

Hi Luis. I have used and enjoyed Trello for at least 4 years now, for projects personal and work-related, solo and team-based. Those with MS Office 365 have Teams available (if your IT department supports it) which is very similar. Dropbox is essential for me and my collaborators too. I've used Slack occasionally when other people invite me to their team on that.

Nice to learn about other tools out there from this discussion. Onward!

We have been implanting Microsoft Teams into some projects to better track project progress.  That way we can easily set intermediate deadlines for individual tasks to keep the project moving, opposed to just submittal dates.  It's helped to keep everyone on the same page and prevent cramming to do all the work within the last couple weeks before submittal.  Additionally it helps us track who is working on what so that it's easier to know who to talk to about specific questions and who to inform about changes that may impact their work.  It also allows you to share project information within the group.  Like Brett said, it's free with Microsoft Office 365 which helps.  Furthermore it can tap into your outlook calendar when you go to set meetings, etc.  For it to be most effective, however, you need to get everyone using it properly.  It looks more like Facebook with posts, but the newest is at the bottom.

More basic, but I keep a very detail calendar with Microsoft Outlook. Internally I have it set to viewable so others can see if I'm free and if not, whether I'm in the office or across town or further.  It has a lot of tools to help you further organize appointments with reminders and customizable color labels to help prioritize your schedule and make sure you don't forget anything.  You can put things as "Busy" (in office meetings, webinar, etc.), "Out of Office" (Doctor's appointment, out of office meeting, etc.), "Free" (reminder to contact client, deadline, etc.), or even "Tentative" (may have to miss meeting).  Sharing it with team members makes planning meetings and coordinating communication a lot easier. We also coordinate things like vacation time sending a meeting invite as "Free" to a regional "vacation" calendar, and to any supervisors.  It's pretty standard practice to use the calendar, but a lot of people don't make the most of it.  Lastly, and most importantly, have this sync'd up with your phone so you can see it on the go.

I have also used Microsoft Note. Also free if you already have Microsoft Office 365.  It give you a lot of control to make a "book" and add tabs and sub pages that give you a lot of control.  If you can establish an internal best practice it's a great way to keep track of work and assign tasks.  This level of control can also be it's downfall as it can be easy to "mess up" with so much going on.  It works much more like a Google Doc so multiple people can edit at once, which is good but sometimes troublesome.  I've used this before and found it great early on in a project to get project information, but as time went on it became a little tedious to update.

I have spent less time actively tracking budgets, but at a previous firm we use BST10 for timesheets, but found that to be very effective at managing project budgets.  I'm sure there's lot of similar software, like previously mentioned that can also fill this role.

Lastly, we use Bluebeam Revu for our PDF reader and edit tool.  Where it really shines are the Studio tools that allow users to collaborate on a project.  Everyone can work on a PDF at the same time.  Allowing reviewers to make comments, and design teams to address them on the fly.  You can use their comment tool to reply to comments and set their status as complete, rejected, canceled, and more as the options can be customized.  This also cuts back on duplicate comments in multiple place, waiting to mark-up a document after another is finished, massive file size PDFs from having to scan documents.  The amount of control it gives you over a document is vastly superior to products like Adobe, which can make it a little hard to pick up.  I think of as Lenox versus Mac.  More control/cheaper/harder to use versus less control/more expensive/easier to use.  Learning it is worthwhile, though.  Lots of State Department of Transportations are starting to use it because it coordinates so well with ProjectWise and MicroStation.  Another bonus feature, is that the reader mode is free, and if you're invited to collaborate on a project you don't need the paid version to edit the documents in Studio.  That way clients without the software can still collaborate on a project and add comments.

Hi Luis. I have used and enjoyed Trello for at least 4 years now, for projects personal and work-related, solo and team-based. Those with MS Office 365 have Teams available (if your IT department supports it) which is very similar. Dropbox is essential for me and my collaborators too. I've used Slack occasionally when other people invite me to their team on that.

Nice to learn about other tools out there from this discussion. Onward!