ᐅ Software for Project Planning and Tracking in Residential Construction

Tassimat schrieb:

You can handle everything needed for home building with the basic functions of just about any tool.

... along with the previously mentioned shortcomings. 😉

And even if the people involved don’t use the tool directly, you can still use it to manage processes and send out relevant emails — still a relief. But there are still people today who go to the fieldwork with an ox cart. You can do that if efficiency doesn’t matter, but I find that too cumbersome.

Tassimat schrieb:

Once again, who else besides the clients should use it?

At the very least, the construction manager or architect.

Tassimat schrieb:

Like the tradesperson who asked me if I wanted the quote by mail or fax?

I haven’t received a single quote by fax or mail in a long time. Maybe our tradespeople are just the big exception.

Tassimat schrieb:

Or should I create colorful reports for my own home building project to show how many tickets I have completed?

If that’s important to you, you can get that, but I personally see more value in operational support.

Tassimat schrieb:

where you can require everyone to use it.

If you have to force people to use it, they probably haven’t yet realized the benefit for themselves. But that’s not uncommon. As everyone knows, everything used to be better anyway, so it’s always hard to adapt to new things ... 🙄

K1300S schrieb:

At least a construction manager/architect

Exactly, and the OP is neither.
The client is the principal, not the project manager. Therefore, they are not well suited for operational project management tools.

The tools I mentioned were only necessary because we awarded separate trades. For a general contractor contract, there is no need for a separate construction schedule (it comes from outside, with few in-house trades/dates to coordinate) nor for invoice logs (I had to track about 150 invoices, early payment discounts, retention sums, deductions for the bank).
At most, a wishlist, a contract, and 1-10 payment milestones, whose legitimacy must be verified, are sufficient. Collection.

guckuck2 schrieb:

Exactly, and the OP is neither.

Context?! It wasn’t about this being used ONLY by the mentioned people, but ALSO. 😉

guckuck2 schrieb:

For a general contractor contract, you neither need your own construction schedule (it comes from an external source, with only a few in-house trades/appointments to coordinate) nor invoice books.

I completely disagree, because the so-called external construction scheduling in most projects I know is less about proper planning and more about randomness. A central documentation and ideally some form of control already help significantly.

guckuck2 schrieb:

At best, a wish list, a contract, and 1–10 payment dates, the legitimacy of which needs to be verified. Move-in.

Have you ever built like that? Then it’s no surprise if not the dream house but a cost- and effort-optimized version of a rough idea ends up being built. I wouldn’t want to live in the house that would have been built completely without my involvement.

If I were building with a standard prefab home builder, where I just sign off and eventually a house appears, I wouldn’t ask for or need something like this. We are building with an architect and have the freedom to choose our own contractors, so having a tool like this seems useful for keeping an overview. I used to use Todoist, but now I can manage with shared iCloud task lists. I find Asana and Trello interesting...

At the moment, I don’t expect anyone other than my partner and me to use these tools. I could imagine the architect using them, but if they do, I’ll probably have to adapt to their system. They wouldn’t change their office setup just for me.

untergasse43 schrieb:

I used to have Todoist, but now I can do the same with shared iCloud task lists. I find Asana and Trello interesting...

Same experience and tools for me back then. However, if you are seriously considering the latter ones, definitely check out MeisterTask as well!

In the end, I settled on the iCloud-shared Notes, Reminders, and iCal that you mentioned. Everything is tracked and documented in Excel (Numbers).
The latter provides a simple overview that can also be used for the bank when proving things or drawing funds....

I find this topic very interesting right now because we are just at the very beginning and, with some luck, will finally have a plot of land in about a month. At first, I also considered using Teams to access Planner and other tools, but I unfortunately realized that the Office 365 Family version basically only includes the Teams chat program. There are no workspaces or Planner available. It seems these can’t be added later. Do you have any experience with this? Or is there a tool you would now recommend purchasing instead?