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Setting up the project

There are quite a lot of tools and services that help us to manage a project. Again - there's so many different options, that it's hard to tell, what one must use. It depends on so many things, like what your client or partners are already used to, what type of project we are talking about (commercial / NGO / educational / etc) and so on.

If you pay for, let's say Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace/Classroom, you'll have whole ecosystem with loads of apps and services, like communication, collaborative tools, file sharing etc. But you may prefer to use free alternatives. It's possible, but probably requires more work to manage. Let's see some options.

Communication

Meetings

Yes, good old meetings. You know: people come together, sit down, discuss and make notes. It is a powerful tool. But sometimes it doesn't work. Your client may be on the other side of the globe. Or maybe there's some new nasty flu, we have to worry about.

Online meetings

This is where online meetings come in handy. You sit in your bedroom and have to dress only your upper body. Convinient!

So, the main features here are: video chat/conference with screen sharing, maybe recording. Let's see who offer this.

Which one to choose? You probably have to use a couple of them, because you have to communicate with different people. Be flexible.

Online messaging / discussions

E-mail

Yes. E-mail. After a super fancy online meeting in whatever mindblowing environment, you still may want to send a memo with main points/agreements etc to participant's e-mails. Then it's there. Carved in an e-mail. Forever.

File/asset sharing

Usually there's need to share some files. Some of the communication software mentioned above have plans, where you can store and share files and assets.

  • Google Drive
  • Microsoft OneDrive
  • Dropbox
  • Apple iCloud

There's more, like described here.

Project management

At some point you also need something to keep track of more features, people, tasks, assignements and so on. For this there are some special project management tools with free/starter options

Time tracking

Code managment and versioning

This topic is discussed in detail in the Frontend part of this curriculum.

Documenting and archiving

NB!

This section is originally a topic under Designing learning output in the curriculum, but it really should be here - it is a part of design process.

  • naming
  • solutions / versioning
  • cloud

TIP

Nice list of project management tools can be found here