Likelihood to Recommend I use Kanbanery for web app projects, customer support, and for my personal tasks. I think it would be perfect for DevOps, too. It might get a little tricky if there were hundreds of developers on one project, but with just ten to twenty people per team it's perfect.
Read full review For teams and users who are very familiar with Excel and its mode of operation, Smartsheet will feel like a walkover. If you have a number of users who use Excel or Google Sheets for their personal project management then you will find this tool to be very useful and somewhat familiar.
Teams that may be used to other project management suites or styles would find Smartsheet a bit challenging to adapt to, as formulas and formatting can be challenging to adapt to.
Read full review Pros I really like how easy it is for my clients to use Kanbanery. That's the most important thing for me in a project management tool, because I don't want the tool to get in the way of working with clients. I can see really quickly what needs to be done, and more importantly, what doesn't need to be done. Having a clear view of all my tasks takes a lot of stress of off me. Kanbanery is also good for communication with clients. If I have a task card that represents a component, we can talk about it in comments, or we use the project chat for general stuff. It keeps my email from getting cluttered. Read full review The easy to use dashboard has enabled us get comprehensive view of projects across the entire business. It has streamlined internal communication with ease of sharing information across different teams. Smartsheet automates our workflows, enhances collaboration and ensures there are no data silos. I like that it saves time for us and ensures we spend less time switching between apps. Read full review Cons I'd love to see some improvements in the Scrum burn down chart, but it works okay as it is. It would be nice if we could adjust the width of the columns. It's fine on most monitors, but on a small screen I have to scroll sideways. Read full review Smartsheet set up is similar to Excel, yet when you upload an Excel file, things like conditional formatting are lost. Smartsheet has its own conditional formatting, and you have to reinstate the rules. It would be great if those would apply automatically once a file is uploaded Some Smartsheet management and access rules can take some tweaking to work properly. This may be a case of offering more info to admins so they can apply these better and with more efficiency Read full review Likelihood to Renew It definitely meets our needs as far as organizing and archiving our tasks and files. As we train more staff to view it, I see opportunities for more improvement, which I am sure this program can handle. I look forward to seeing continued improvement from Smartsheet on their capabilities and functionality.
Read full review Usability Smartsheet is very easy to learn. However, while I have been able to pick it easily, Microsoft Excel and Project super users that I have trained on Smartsheet get bogged down in the differences and can find it frustrating. Explaining the differences ahead of time and why Smartsheet is being chosen instead of a different software seems to counteract those reactions
Read full review Support Rating I give this rating because it fills a niche in the market.
MS Project scares many away from proper task management but there are limited tools our there, especially cloud-based that are mobile-friendly. Smartsheet fills this market gap, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. IT is not fair to compare it to
MS Project , but fairer to see what gaps it fills.
Read full review Implementation Rating It's absolutely paramount to take a few minutes to actually play with the software. It's nearly impossible to do anything wrong or make a mistake which cannot be fixed easily. Under the help menu is Live Training option. After you familiarize yourself with the commands, watch the live training for some in depth understanding of how to make the software fit your needs perfectly.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Kanbanery is the easiest to use with the best visibility. It doesn't have a lot of features I don't need, like
Basecamp or LeanKit, but it's much more robust than
Trello or
Pivotal Tracker . It's just the perfect balance of ease of use and collaboration tools for me. I also like the UI better than the others. It's sleek without a lot of bright colors and rounded corners that make some tools look plastic and unprofessional.
Read full review Jira and
Redmine are much more robust and technologically advanced project management solutions. I enjoy using either when managing a very large project. However, I prefer to use Smartsheet for my smaller to medium sized projects. As for
Google Drive - I would say that Google sheets and Smartsheet are almost identical in my opinion when it comes to functionality. Personally I prefer to manage smaller projects via
Google Drive , but it is a personal preference!
Read full review Return on Investment I feel like we're much more efficient. I spend more time working on tasks now and a lot less time digging through tickets. Since we can see when there's a problem in our team really easy with Kanbanery, people get help when they need it sooner. That has to be good for productivity. Read full review This has really opened up collaboration across teams. A lot less working in silos. It hasn't fully replaced any one tool so it means having to go to another place. Hopefully, we can eliminate a tool or two in the next six months. Read full review ScreenShots Kanbanery (discontinued) Screenshots