Project and tasks management is very important to small teams so having a web based tool that can allow all members (including clients) to have an overview of what are the milestones and tasks as well as a central repository of documents helps a lot. Had been using WebCollab for the past 3 years and while I’ve found it to be quite sufficient for my needs, customers often complain that it isn’t the most user-friendly tool.

Seeing as how BaseCamp has been wildly successful in its attempt to be a project management tool for the masses, I thought I would try it too. However, the costs associated with it on a monthly basis isn’t the most attractive option.

Thinking I would have stick to WebCollab and its green/red tasks indicators, I’m glad I came upon RedMine and spent quite a few hours getting the CentOS + Plesk 8.1 server ready for Ruby. However, after spending some time with it, I realise although its a great project planning tool, it seems more suited for developers rather than end-customers.

Again I went searching until activeCollab came up during my Google Reader scans. This time the requirement for PHP5 gave me a little problem since Linux server is still on PHP4. Luckily Windows server is able to toggle between PHP4 and 5 and I managed to get it installed and tested out creating projects and clients. It has a straightforward interface that allows for creating of projects, assigning clients to it as well as milestones (deadlines) with its associated tasks list. Looks like I’ll soon be migrating all the projects currently being managed to activeCollab since it looks simple enough for end-users to use too.