Overview of free tech tools and templates for managing projects with distributed teams. This walks you through my considerations when selecting a project management tool and tech I use and how I communicate reports.

1. Project Management Tech Tools
Kathleen Ludewig Omollo
Certified Strategic Planning Professional
Candidate: Project Management Professional (Expected 2019)
Senior Project Manager, UM-CIRHT, University of Michigan
December 21, 2018
Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY SA) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

2. Situation
● As project managers, site coordinators, and other roles within project
management, we each have to manage some aspect of the scope (deliverables),
timeline, and budget for our work within a grant.
● This requires us to coordinate resources (people, equipment, documents) across
locations and organizations.
● We need to report progress to various stakeholders - team members, principal
investigator(s), partner institution, and funder.
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3. Project management - free general templates and guides
● My bookmarks: https://www.pinterest.com/kathleena2pins/project-management/
● Elizabeth’s Guide to Project Management - GirlsGuideToPM.com/ - simple guides
and checklists
● MindTools.com - some free, some paid resources available
● ProjectManagementDocs.com - free project management templates
● ProjectManagement.com - user-contributed content from members of Project
Management Institute, some free, some paid
● Project Management Institute Educational Foundation - PMIEF.org - free guides
● Project-Management-Skills.com - free templates and newsletter
● Project Management for Development Organizations - PM4Dev.com
● Open Course on Managing Projects -
https://www.oercommons.org/courses/managing-projects 3

4. Considerations when selecting project management tech
● Ease of access - do people need to create a new login? Does it offer single sign on
so people can use existing login? Can people access by link only?
● Email integration - can you turn email reminders on/off? Can you update or add
information from within email?
● Import / export - can you import and export as spreadsheet or general format?
● Version history - can you track when and by whom information was updated?
● Filter - can you filter information by person, by topic or other key variable ?
● Online / offline sync - are you able to view and/or edit information and files from
your device when there is no Internet and sync when there is Internet?
● Security - is it encrypted? Does the system comply with privacy/security requi
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5. Tips for selecting project management tech
● Keep process and tools as simple as possible to keep you on track.
● No single tool will be perfect. Select the one(s) that fits well.
● Commit to use for project phase or entire project period.
● Accept you will be the most active user on your project team of whatever tech you
select.
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6. Tech options: Managing schedule
Availability:
● Doodle.com - determine availability across time zones
● When2Meet.com - determine availability within same time zone
Confirm time:
● TimeAndDate.com - Event Announcer that converts across times
● GoogleCalendar Settings > World Clock - show multiple time zones
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7. Tech options: Managing schedule
Shared calendar and/or Gantt chart
● TeamUp.com - Free shared calendars, share by link in edit mode or view only
● TeamWeek.com
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8. Tech options: Managing scope
● Integrated tools - for tracking and assigning tasks as lists or boards
○ Asana.com
○ Zoho.com/Projects
○ https://blog.capterra.com/9-best-basecamp-alternatives/
● Google Suite - for sharing print-friendly versions
○ Documents
○ Spreadsheets
○ Slides
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9. Tech options:
Managing scope -
dashboards
PresentationLoad
templates
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10. Tech options:
Managing scope -
dashboards
GirlsGuidetoPM.com
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11. Tech options: Managing budget
● Google Suite Spreadsheets
● Box.com
● DropBox.com
● Zoho.com/Projects
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