Basecamp & Web 2.0 -Reaching the Limits

Read a recent post on some of the limits people are reaching with Basecamp.  They seem to apply to the general “software should do less” approach many people associate with Web 2.0. 

The philosophy of software that “does less” can actually create more work and aggravation once users, teams or projects scale up to a certain level of complexity. The approach starts to lose its usefulness.

At a certain level of scope or scale, people can benefit from project management software (and software designers) that “do more” in terms of details and thought out interface and functional architecture/workflow.

This applies to functionality contained in the project management software (like scheduling and project planning) as well as functionality which reaches outside to users or clients (like automatic email notifications and identity management or access level management). It also speaks to the value of more involved customer support and training, where the project management software company takes time to understand the work their customer does.

Web 2.0 is about useful tools.  “Do less” type software can certainly be useful and has its place (just look at the growth of Basecamp’s project collaboration tool). But these types of software are not one size fits all solutions. There are project management software solutions that offer similar benefits as Basecamp and other first generation Web 2.0 tools, but which are built to handle projects of a larger scale.

          

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Project Management Software, Software and Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.