Using WordPress for Project Management

| January 2010 Posted in Business Blogging, Tips & Tricks, WordPress |

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I have been looking for a solution for managing projects. I own and operate a Web Development firm and at times I have five to ten projects running consecutively. Which means there are five to ten clients to communicate with and five to ten employees to communicate with. Each project has its own specifications and content requirements.

Email is a great source for sharing info and sending attachments, but when you are running that many projects at a time, your email box gets bombarded and you start to lose your mind. Emails can reach the point of confusion, or you get so many of them you start forget where what is and if you responded to what?

I wanted something that would allow me to put all the project information in on place, have a string of easy to review commentary and discussion and be affordable. Have you looked at project management solutions? They can get pretty pricy pretty quick! I was not interested in spending $95 a month to manage my projects. With my WordPress solution all I needed was a domain, and a hosting account.

One little thing I was concerned about was the privacy. There is no reason for this blog to be viewable from search engines and if someone happened to stumble upon it I did not want them to be able to review the details of the project. Where there is a will there is a way!!

Here is what I did to make this project management solution work.

Step One:

I created a subdomain for every project, i.e emtv.blog4biz101.com. The emtv. is a shortened version of Effective Marketing TV which is one of my clients.

Step Two:

Install and set up WordPress in the directory associated with the subdomain you just created.

Step Three:

Use the following Theme and Plugins to create your Project Management solution using WordPress!

Inline-Google-Docs

Plugin Description
Many people maintain dynamic content on Google Documents or hold volatile data on Google Spreadsheets. These change when collaborators save an update or users submit a form. Occasionally, one may wish to embed the contents of one’s Google Documents or Spreadsheets in a post or page to reflect the latest updates on one’s blog. This plugin seeks to provide this functionality without using an < iframe >. In addition, it caches contents of the Google Documents or Spreadsheets to speed up page loading.

Why I incorporated it
Using Google docs is easy! Almost everyone uses Google these days, and using Google to share documents is so easy. So to make it that much easier this plugin allows you to share the Google docs, and the content of those docs in your WordPress site. Instead of using two different locations for sharing content you can now incorporate that content into one place.

Download

Members-Only

Plugin Description
Members Only is a WordPress plugin that allows you to make your blog only viewable to visitors that are logged in. If a visitor is not logged in, they will be redirected either to the WordPress login page or a page of your choice. Once logged in they can be redirected back to the page that they originally requested. You can also protect your feeds whilst allowing registered user access to them by using Feed Keys.

Why I incorporated it
WordPress allows for some privacy however after some time you will still find that you WordPress site becomes viewable to the public. So by using Members-Only you can control who can see your site. Instead of loading the home page of your site, Members-Only takes you directly to the WP-Login page and will not allow you to view any aspect of the site until logged in. You can decide through the settings feature of this plugin where the person is redirected once logged in. Great Privacy tool!

Download

WP-Task-Manager

Plugin Description
WP-Task-Manager is a plugin for wordpress which add a small task manager inside the administration panel. You can add task to your self or to the other contributor of the blog.

Here is a list of functions :

Dashboard Widget to quickly see your task
Page to see all the tasks : yours but the other one too
Create a task for you or for the other participant
give access permission of your users
comment and discuss about each task

Why I incorporated it
I need to be able to assign myself and my employees task for any given project and then be able to over see the completion of those tasks. This simple plugin allows me to do that very easily!

Download

Events-Calendar

Plugin Description
Events-Calendar is a versatile replacement for the original calendar included with WordPress adding many useful functions to keep track of your events. The plugin has an easy to use admin section that displays a big readable calendar and lets you add and delete events.

Why I incorporated it
Most projects have deadlines. This easy to use calendar helps to ensure that you reach your deadlines. It is also good to use this calendar when scheduling meetings.

Another option would be to stick with Goole and embed a Google Calendar into the site.

Download

P2 Theme

Theme Description
A group blog theme for short update messages, inspired by Twitter. Featuring: Hassle-free posting from the front page. Perfect for group blogging, or as a liveblog theme. Dynamic page updates. Threaded comment display on the front page. In-line editing for posts and comments. Live tag suggestion based on previously used tags. A show/hide feature for comments, to keep things tidy. Real-time notifications when a new comment or update is posted. Super-handy keyboard shortcuts.

Why I incorporated it
Anyone familiar with Twitter an that uses Twitter enjoys the ability to write quick messages. This theme is set up much the same way. There is however no limit to the format and length of your messages. Essentially it is the same as writing a post, the theme is just perfect for conversation and staying up to date in REAL TIME!

Download

Once all of this is installed and set up you are ready to start managing your projects. Just create a user account for everyone you want to have access to the system, be sure to give theme an appropriate user level. To use the plugins and theme there is no need to set anyone as an Administrator, Author or Contributor will give all parties enough access to use the wonderful features of your newly created Project Management system.