Planprojects Software Evaluation What Originally

¶ … PlanProjects Software Evaluation

What originally began as a hosted project management application has turned into a collaboration portal that appears to not have much functionality apart from an online calendar and the ability to send relatively simple invoices via PayPal. The functionality of this site, when created most likely in the 2002-2003 timeframe could have been easily created using the Google Application Programmer Interfaces (APIs) from the 2007 timeframe. PlanProjects is deficient in so many areas of collaboration and project management, that the application (a calendar) and the billing functionality are comparable to what could be accomplished in Google today through personalization and slight custom programming. The Forum section of the site for service is not working; not a good sign from a service perspective today. The application appears to have been abandoned.

Navigability, Usability and Look & Feel

The basic navigability of the application, a calendar, is relatively straightforward. The creation of projects is managed on a simple HTML screen that prompts for the name of the project and additional information. Navigating the application is relatively straightforward as there are three, at most four steps in the entire series of screens, and the support for freelance assignment is comparable to filling in an e-mail address field in Yahoo mail for example. Navigation is very easy as the application is so thin in terms of functionality.

The usability and look and feel are amateurish and lack professionalism. Created in HTML and lacking in customizability, the entire application and for that matter, the workspace, appear to be more of a class project than a going business. There is a complete lack of backward and forward navigation, in addition to a lack of support for the development of linking and dependencies in the task assignments as well. The "add a Freelancer" option does not draw from a list of pre-defined sources, and there is also little in the way of support for the development of customized workflows either. In short, this application (or website) is using rapidly aging software technology that Google is now offering for free through its calendar APIs.

Relative Advantages and Applicability to Work Needs

There is not much applicability to work needs as this application does not support collaboration across multiple members of a work group. This isn't really even a collaborative environment; it is actually a task scheduled meant as a personal productivity tool. The use of PayPal as a means to pay freelancers for projects is a rudimentary implementation; there is no support for credit cards or electronic checks, which would have been needed if this application had continued to gain users, which apparently from the lack of functionality, it has not. There is no support for XML integration, no reporting, no functionality for Gannt chart, PERT, or time-based reporting by deadlines, and in general a complete lack of support for gaining an overview of all projects. The listing of all projects by status is a simple HTML generated list that could be easily created by Yahoo's SiteBuilder applications (free from Yahoo) for example. There is also no way to segment out projects by their status or not. All of these limitations could potentially create a high level of security violations as there are no individualized project status definitions apparently in the application. Once someone gains access to even a single project, they can easily get to all projects in the entire system. This application therefore lacks security as well. There are many other limitations from a project management standpoint and collaboration perspective as well including a lack of support for integrating even the simplest PayPal payment back to other systems like Quicken or other personal finance applications. There is no fraud detection on this website either meaning that once a person's e-mail address is associated with the person and project, the potential of identity theft could be high. The demo account showing projects has not been cleaned out since June 13, 2004 which leads one to believe this is an abandoned application and website.