Too much visibility! Am I doing this wrong?
I've tried out a lot of project management programs, and so far Zoho seems to be the best (mostly due to the hierarchal tasks setup...it mirrors the way I've always approached project organization). The integration with the Writer and Sheet products seems to be great (though I haven't given them a full test run yet) and the fact that users can include both Writer/Sheet documents and uploaded files in the Documents section is a terrific feature. Of course, the price is certainly right.
That being said, while Zoho seems to deal with some of the more global issues better than most or all (probably all) of the programs I've tried, it seems like some very basic functionality is lacking. To be fair, I've been using the software for less than 24 hours, but I do have a fair amount of experience with competing programs and I know what I'm looking for. It's entirely possible that some of these functions are available and I simply was not able to find them.
My comments:
1) Visibility/permissions seem to only be set at the Project level, leaving every task, note, document, forum post, etc. visible to everybody in the project, even contractors!
While I love how nice and light it is to add tasks via Zoho, there is a huge benefit to task management programs which allow you to set responsibility and visibility on a task-by-task basis. I simply don't want my low-level team members to have the details of every piece of investor correspondence, financial information, etc.
2) Tasks cannot be assigned to multiple people.
3) Tasks cannot be assigned a time (as in "phone call at 3:00"), but I guess I could learn to use Calendar for that.
4) Email notifications would be more useful if the subject was the task title instead of just the Project name. Also, emails would be well served to include any accumulated notes.
These things are of course a small drop in the bucket compared to the tons of features that I'm thrilled with. I'm going to spend some more time this evening testing the software and will post again with any additional comments.
Adam
P.S. Might want to add "Zoho" to the spellchecker's dictionary. :D