Why we use Basecamp for project management

Basecamp is an online project management tool from 37signals. We use it extensively for all of our design and development projects. It is no exaggeration to say that without Basecamp, my job as a project manager would be considerably more stressful and our projects would run far less efficiently.

With a typical web build and design project, involving a project manager, a designer, a developer and a content administrator on the Deeson side, and often at least four stakeholders on the client side, there is potentially a huge amount of communication. Basecamp has the power to put this all in one place, where all parties are able to access it, with separate sections for messages, tasks and files.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the scenario of an email message between several recipients, each replying to ‘all’ and the thread getting longer and longer (and more indented), making it difficult to find who said what, when. And then someone only replies to the sender, so the thread gets fragmented. With Basecamp that message thread would be a simple chronological page of messages, with each message clearly identified with its sender.

Another important advantage of Basecamp over email is that all staff at Deeson will be able to access the messages, so in the event that the project manager is out of the office, someone else will be able to get up to speed with the project quickly.

The fact that our clients become Basecamp users means that they can fully collaborate within projects and have a good understanding of the progress. For example, if a client is reviewing a new site build, they can add any bugs and tweaks directly to a ‘to do’ list, alerting the relevant member of our team. The client will then be able to see when these have been completed.

Obviously there’s no substitute for phone calls and face-to-face communication, but Basecamp is great for assigning tasks during a meeting or call, meaning no one gets lumbered with the minute writing too!

Overview of features

The following is a brief overview of the main functions of Basecamp. This may be useful for new (and existing) clients:

Messages
We use this for project based communication, rather than email. If you are included within a message’s recipients list, you will receive a notification email each time someone posts to that message thread. To reply, you can simply reply to the email and it will be added to the message thread, automatically alerting the other message recipients – you can even include attachments on the email and these will be added to the project files. Alternatively, you can log into Basecamp and reply from the online interface.

To dos
We use these for specific tasks. They can be assigned to an individual and have due dates added. It is also possible to add comments to the ‘to dos’ which is useful for short discussions around a specific task.

Milestones
These are used for deadlines and date related tasks. It is possible to relate milestones to individual ‘to do’ lists, and for an individual to be alerted when a milestone is upcoming.

Writeboards
These are collaborative, editable documents which we generally use for documentation and specifications.

Files
The files section is used to store all project files such as wireframes, visuals, images and supplied text documents etc. The system is able to handle very large files, so this is our preferred means of transferring large PSDs, etc. When files are attached to messages, they are automatically added to the files section of Basecamp.

Search
The search function will search the whole Basecamp project.

The one failing of Basecamp is that if a new message or ‘to do’ is not assigned to anyone then no one will receive notification – potentially a message could go unnoticed. If you are not sure to whom a message or ‘to do’ should be assigned to, then please mark it for the project manager.

Basecamp has many applications outside of website development – for instance I recently moved house and my partner and I used Basecamp to keep track of the many tasks involved – the move became another project with tasks needing to be completed by certain milestones.

My partner was initially skeptical of using a system like this but soon came round to the idea when she realised she could assign ‘to dos’ to me (“cut the grass”, “clean the toilet”, etc, etc…). Lists on scraps of paper would certainly have been lost, whereas the ‘to do’ lists were easily accessible from my laptop or iPhone… including the fact I hadn’t done them, unfortunately!