Project Managers
Project Managers
When your to-do list becomes a mile long, and to check an item off that list could take months and/or multiple people to do it, you need more than a checklist to keep track of it all. This long checklist then transforms into a project and you will need a good tool that is designed to manage it. Whether for personal life or for university related projects, these tools will get the job done quickly and efficiently.
These robust tools do more than just create checklists. They focus on collaboration with others and help you to streamline workload and workflow. Project Managers can be very costly, so this list focuses on ones that have free versions that still have a lot of functionality.
Asana
Asana is a project management tool that allows teams to work together more effectively. This task based project management tool allows you to assign tasks to yourself and others, create project boards, and track completed tasks through reports over time. You can eliminate the amount of emailing you do with teammates by following and unfollowing certain projects that pertain to you, adding progress notes, attachments, conversation, and subtasks to your projects.
The free version of Asana allows you to create a project board with up to 15 members. College student groups can get the premium version of Asana for free if you request it.
Instagantt Add-On
Instagantt is an add-on of Asana that allows you to create project timelines based on your Asana task lists in the form of a Gantt Chart. When you need to maintain a whole schedule synchronized when you are making changes to a plan, having dependencies between tasks is an incredible and simple way to have everything aligned. Just make a change to one task and everything will be propagated across the Chart. You can identify simultaneous workflow for individual users and the entire group to identify where changes can be made to increase productivity. Setting progress bars, milestones, and custom color groups makes your chart easily read.
Instagantt is free for up to three individual projects. Premium features are a monthly charge.
Download Information:
Cost: FREE for up to 15 users
Upgrade to Premium: Contact for Academic Pricing
iOS Users: Download here.
Android Users: Download here.
Web Users: www.asana.com
ToDoIst
Like Asana, Todoist is a project manager that is clean looking and relatively easy to use. You can access Todoist on any device and download it for personal use for free. It can also be used offline when wifi or data networks are not available. A cool feature that is unique to Todoist is that it will send reminders based off of geolocations. There are a lot of add-ons with the Doist product line that work with Todoist for a fully rounded out project management package.
Todoist seems best for individuals who need to manage multiple projects within their life, but collaboration is a premium feature here that has to be paid for. For $5/month (that's discounted for education and nonprofits), you can reap the full benefits of Todoist.
COST: FREE for 80 projects with up to 5 users per project
Upgrade to Premium: apply HERE for 70% educational discount of Todoist Business ($60/year)
iOS Users: Download here.
Android Users: Download here.
Web Users: https://todoist.com
MS Teams
Microsoft Teams is part of the MS Office 365 package available to you as an NSU student. Teams is a chat-based collaboration platform with the ability to share documents, host online meetings, etc.
Microsoft Teams features make it stand out from other collaboration software:
- Teams and channels. Teams are made up of channels, which are conversation boards between teammates.
- Conversations within channels and teams. Discussion Board style conversations within the channels.
- A chat function. The basic chat function is commonly found within most collaboration apps and can take place between teams, groups, and individuals.
- Document storage in SharePoint. Every team who uses Microsoft Teams will have a site in SharePoint Online, which will contain a default document library folder. All files shared across all conversations will automatically save to this folder. Permissions and security options can also be customized for sensitive information.
- Online video calling and screen sharing. Audio and Video Calls that mimic Zoom for people within the NSU network.
NOTE: For non-student NSU access to Teams, faculty, staff, and NSU-employed students with an @nova.edu email address will have to download MS Intune in order to access any of the Microsoft Office 365 Suite apps from their phones or tablets. Intune is available for iOS and Android users. Students still have the ability to access these items without having to download Intune.