We love Basecamp!
By nature, designing and/or developing a website involves the efforts of at least several people relating in one way or another using numerous components. Plus, bugs happen, systems crash and many other bad things happen. Sometimes problems can be taken care of in five minutes and other times it takes 10 days.
This adds significant urgency to properly managing a project and using the most efficient methods possible so everyone can focus their energy on what they love to do.
Enter Basecamp, the revolutionary online Project Management tool developed by 37signals we use to manage projects, communicate with clients and colleagues, share files etc… The beauty of Basecamp is not only that it is really easy to use and allows us to manage virtually every aspect of a project, but that it is accessible anywhere there’s an Internet connection, whether from a computer or phone. 37signals has more on how we use Basecamp at Epsilon Concepts.
Some of our favorite features at Epsilon Concepts are:
Overview
The Project Overview page serves as the project’s “dashboard” and lets you see what’s late, what’s due soon, what’s just been posted or commented on, what’s recently been finished, and when everyone who is involved in the project has last logged in. It’s a one-stop-shop that gives you the high level details you need to know. Each project has its own project page.
Messages
Messages are the foundation of Basecamp and work just like email. Just like email, messages can contain attachments and when you post a message, you have the option of notifying other project members of your message or comment by email notification.
Milestones
Basecamp lets you track important project milestones and note who is responsible for each one. Basecamp automatically categorizes milestones into late (shown in red), upcoming (shown in yellow) or completed (shown in green) milestones.
Chat
Campfire/Chat is a simple web-based group chat tool that makes it easy to chat about a project from within the projects page. Using Campfire further ensures that all pertinent information is housed in a single location and no details fall through the cracks since transcripts are saved for the duration of the project. This also ensures that communication is transparent.
Files
Basecamp allows us to upload, share, and store files. Basecamp automatically links all files within each project for easy download and can be uploaded on their own or as attachments to messages.
-FT
