Project, Time, and Task Management software 1 person [closed]

Question

I have spend countless hours trying demos of the 100's of types of project and task management software out there, and none seem to fit the bill of exactly what I am looking to accomplish.

I decided to turn here and see if anyone has come across something that might fit these requirements. Thank you in advance! Here's the situation

Key items:

• 1 Man Show
• Various Short term and long term projects (from a few days to a few months)
• Multiple Clients/Departments (inside 1 organization)
• Various Small Tasks (15-min - 4-5 hours)
• Meetings

In an ideal world, I would like to be able to plug in my weekly available hours and then put the task, or project in place and it's due date, along with what client it is assigned to.

The main thing I am trying to accomplish is stop myself from saying "I can have that done by ...." Without knowing all the things on my plate also to visually see how all the little tasks and meetings throw off the bigger projects.

I am a one man show and some of the things i need to get done have turned into who screams the loudest gets their stuff done first.

For example, if I am "Booked" for the next 2-3-4 weeks, and someone comes to me and says This needs to be done by tomorrow, I need to know all the other projects and tasks that were effected so I can notify those people that they are getting "Bumped" by a time sensitive task or project that comes up. It would be nice at meetings to have the ability to show what caused it, and show what was worked on when and for who. Also to show how these smaller tasks effect the completion deadline of the bigger projects.

So I guess something that throws a flag when there is a conflict.

This will also be used to show over a long period of time that additional personal are needed.

I have tried the following: I have found them to be way overkill and complicated, or lacking (tested 1-2 weeks)

• MS Project
• Toodleo
• Zoho

Thank you for any and all input / suggestions you have!

Answer 1

I think this question may be answered elsewhere on PMSE but as a quick response my preference for this situation would be JIRA + Greenhopper + Team Calendars (all Atlassian software and will cost less than $50 at the scale you need).

As always, though, it pays to define your process first and then pick your tools. My recommendation works for me but might not fit your specific needs.

Answer 2

Disclaimer: I'm the author of Breeze.

Check out Breeze (http://breeze.pm). It's an agile PM tool, basically a Trello and Basecamp mashup.

I think we have exactly what you need because we have similar workflow to yours. Breeze has calendar module and it also supports due dates and time tracking. You can add your tasks to a board and assign a start and due date for them. Then you can see all your tasks in the calendar by task or resource (person). The resource view is like a mini Gantt chart.