Clarizen: Project Management for Non-Project Managers

Israeli startup Clarizen positions itself as a project management and collaboration tool specifically aimed at non-project managers. Of course, Clarizen is a latecomer to the space, but they seem to have the right ingredients: A fairly convenient interface, a smidgen of unique differentiation. Clarizen was designed as a PM tool for operational/functional managers. This is a good move because the biggest failing point in project management is probably during the set-up stage which requires the project be planned out to the “T” before it can be rolled out. This is a process that requires a high level of familiarity with such methodologies, so it’s no surprise why non-professional project managers bail on it so often.

Clarizen deals with this basic problem by allowing the project participants to assist in the planning, even if the project has already begun. The collaborative planning and execution can transpire among teams working within the same organization, or among those whose resources are dispersed between two or more companies.

Here’s an example: Let’s say my project is the creation of a Facebook app and I own entire the project. I can delegate my R&D manager to set and manage the in-house development process and its dependencies. When it comes to the user interface, though, I’ve gone with an outside contractor who obviously has his own work processes and dependencies. With Clarizen I can have the contractor enter and update all the relevant info independently, while I maintain a unified view of the project at large. As a side note, Clarizen includes with each company subscription a single free license for a partner.

One of the things I like about Clarizen is that it puts reality above methodology. Even if the full scope is unknown or the whole plan is not complete, projects can be kicked-off by activating only the parts that are ready to roll. At any point, any portion of the project can be switched back to draft mode, be paused, re-planned and reactivated. So if the graphics designer goes snowboarding for a week unexpectedly (something far too many of us can relate to), no problem, the task can be reactivated when he/she gets back. Other PM tools provide similar functionality but in a version control paradigm that involves the project’s “baseline”. Basically this creates a new version of the project each time an “anomaly” (i.e., delays caused by the real world) occur.  Clarizen, in contrast, treats delays as a normal occurrence.

Another feature I found useful is that Clarizen allows projects to be updated without having to log into the application. Using the Facebook app example above, the contractor would be sent an email notification (screenshot below) with a link to a form in which the task statuses can be updated. No login is required, no subscription has to be purchased. Very convenient indeed.