Item: Project Insight
Rating: 4
Author: Clay Horste

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We got Project Insight (PI) as a way to manage projects across the agency. The idea was to utilize a single tool to manage projects that had components in diverse departments (creative, event production, event management, event technology). We used it to manage everything in the projects from tasks and bugs to time tracking.

Pros and Cons

Very Flexible
Customizable

Not a good fit for all types of projects
Very Complex

Return on Investment

Integration with related teams
Project visibility across the company

Alternatives Considered

Azure DevOps Server (formerly Team Foundation Server), Atlassian JIRA Align (formerly AgileCraft) and Redmine

When I got to the company where I used Project Insight, we had our own custom tool that fit the tasks that it was designed for but wouldn't grow with the company unless resources were put onto expanding capabilities. We needed something more.
We replaced that tool with Redmine. It worked well and was easy to use, but it looked pretty dated when we got it, and since we didn't have many resources for managing, it looked dated after a few years without receiving upgrades. It was a decent tool for small teams that were focused on similar tasks. Redmine was much more straightforward than Project Insight and felt more reliable since we never had an issue with our internal servers. On the other hand, Redmine felt dated and didn't fit as many of the tasks that were needed. Redmine's price was right if you installed it locally and was probably still cheaper if you used their SAAS version.
Jira, on the other hand, felt like an excellent tool for software teams. Jira had a great project and task management and felt right for a software team. Jira also had useful integrations, even with Project Insight. Jira seemed pretty unreliable, worse than Project Insight. Our team would have preferred Jira, but I think it didn't work for other teams.

Support Rating

I found Project Insight somewhat opaque overall. I thought the training was sparse and answers to questions few and far in between. There was a lot of power there for the dedicated user/administrator. For me, who was a casual user and administrator, I found support lacking. I didn't administer Project Insight much, just some work on integrations with other tools.

Key Insights

Do you think Project Insight delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with Project Insight's feature set?

Did Project Insight live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Project Insight go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Project Insight again?

Other Software Used

Azure DevOps Server (formerly Team Foundation Server), Atlassian JIRA Align (formerly AgileCraft), Visual Studio IDE, Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Yammer, MS SharePoint, Microsoft SQL Server

Likelihood to Recommend

My rating would vary depending on the types of projects that need to be managed. Since I am in software, I don't think it was an excellent fit to manage software projects unless they are small projects with only a few tasks. On the other hand, if you are needing to manage a wide range of departments that are working on a single project with many moving pieces, then I would think that PI might be a better fit. Think of it as a jack of all trades, but master of none.

Project Insight for software guys

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Project Insight