It’s actually pretty good: way too often people don’t fully define all the tasks that must be done (right brain stage) and tend to jump right away on the scheduling bandwagon (left brain stage), assigning arbitrary times to unpolished tasks, putting all their faith in a Project Management solution to sort it out.
Of course it just never works that way. What looked like the Holy Grail turns into a rotten apple, and the result is a mess (late delivery, over budget, grey hair).

(Same thing happens with business plans and PowerPoint presentations, if you ask me… you just can’t organize what isn’t well thought out.)

This is my current set-up for project management – running a company (25+ collaborators) and handling product development – software – as well as all the various aspects of a company’s operations planning :

1. Organizing ideas
Tool : PersonalBrain
2. Defining tasks
Tool: PersonalBrain
3. Scheduling tasks
Tool: SmartDraw (lighter than MS Project)
4. Managing tasks collaboratively (this is when iterations take place, not before.)
Tool: VeoProject (online tool. Ugly but done by smart people for smart people, call it a niche market I did try Wrike, found it way too expensive for what it really helps you achieve, despite a clever approach.)
5. Hands on management (for software development, on the developers’ side).
Tool : TRAC + Subversion

I’m willing to give Action Steps a try, as a way to gather ideas at the beginning of a project – should be better then email.

Remember: use your right brain first, then your left brain. Don’t rush. Otherwise you’re bound to fail and no tool will help you prevent that.
Also: no single tool will ever cover all aspects of project management. Don’t believe marketing fluff.

I totally agree with you. An intelligence app can be done and would be great.

If you know anything (methodology. application) with this aproach please let me know.

Cheers.

Might be worth having a quick look over our website, the points that you mention above in terms of converting time into actual costs and invoicing are included in our software.

Many thanks,

Barry

I still haven’t found one single tool which does everything I want. Maybe it doesn’t exist. As someone else mentioned, I’m looking for a “smart” database. Something which says: “HEY — you entered this three weeks ago, what progress have you made since then?”

I’ve signed up for the free trial, so I have high hopes that Action Method may help me to tie everything together. Or at least some of them.

i think he just wants his problem solved not future users. deal with the matter, don’t be so ingratiating

I was reading an article at myintervals today about this exact point (what can differentiate your PM tool), and I’ve suggested intelligence. Right now these tools are just taking your data, saving it, and then presenting it in different formats. So it’s more or less of a database.

Intelligence, eg learning from you, knowing what you want to do, fixing your mistakes, etc… will add huge value to such applications (and it can be done).