The Collaboration Tax

John Reeve | February 15th, 2008 |

One of the key components to any web-based project management service is collaboration. Does the service reduce barriers to participation and facilitate collaboration? Whether or not a service touts it, collaboration among team members has to be addressed as part of the worfkow.

We’ve interpreted the team dynamic into Intervals in several ways. Most importantly, we’ve priced Intervals by project. It is essential to have the ability to add and remove users easily without being hindered by extra charges; something we call the collaboration tax. The last thing you want as a manager is to keep your creative director or your HTML pro from contributing to a project because of extra charges. Once your project is up and running, you should be able to see it end-to-end without unnecessary interruption.

Inside the application itself, Intervals facilitates collaboration through task histories and notes, project notes, document sharing, email notifications, timers, and other relevant functionality woven into the project management workflow. Intervals helps the user participate as they track time and tasks, as their comments and efforts become woven into the project for other members to review.

If collaboration is important to your small business, make sure you take into consideration your team’s needs when evaluating a web-based service. Ask yourself these questions: Will I be taxed for adding more users at a crucial moment during the project? Does the service enable my team to work more efficiently?

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Intervals is online time, task and project management software built by and for web designers, developers and creatives.
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John Reeve
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John Reeve

John is a co-founder, web designer and developer at Pelago. His blog posts are inspired by everyday encounters with designers, developers, creatives and small businesses in general. John is an avid reader and road cyclist.
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Jennifer Payne
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Jennifer Payne

Jennifer is the Director of Quality and Efficiency at Pelago. Her blog posts are based largely on her experience working with teams to improve harmony and productivity. Jennifer is a cat person.
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Michael Payne
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Michael Payne

Michael is a co-founder and product architect at Pelago. His contributions stem from experiences managing the development process behind web sites and web-based applications such as Intervals. Michael drives a 1990 Volkswagen Carat with a rebuilt 2.4 liter engine from GoWesty.
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