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I work with a non profit that offers programs for high school students in low resource settings. We don't certify them in anything but we run workshops and six, eight and ten week projects to get them to learn skills that will help their job prospects.

Most of my students are not considering college at all. Some are considering community colleges. This isn't something I can persuade them to reconsider. But having skills that employers look for is something I can hold their attention with! Project management is a big one, in my mind.

I'm hoping to offer a six or eight week class on project management and would like to know if there are any open source project management that you may know that would be useful for my purposes. Even if it's a basic program, I hope that having a good understanding of how a project is run from start to completion will be a useful to them.

Thanks in advance!

Emme
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    Hi Emme, welcome to the site. We try and avoid software recommendations here as they tend to become obsolete quickly. You might try over on http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ though. – Ben May 06 '14 at 15:28

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I would suggest using Eylean board. As it provides dynamic and playful interface with easy to get started and intuitive use. It can be used as a free stand alone version for personal and commercial use according to license. It packs all the modern features for project management based on lean and agile: task board, time tracking, team resources, reporting. Also, it can be extended by importing tasks from office tools like: 1. Microsoft project 2. Outlook 3. Excel

Agile task board

VidasV
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In my opinion, ProjectLibre is a good project management software that can be a replacement of Microsoft Project.

I think it could fit your needs.

Kind regards

user8993
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  • Thank you for the suggestion, I will try it out. What do you think, have you used it? Did you like it? – Emme May 06 '14 at 00:48
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For PM training the best "tools" are a piece of paper, a pencil and an open mind.

In the limited time that you have available I don't think it is in your student's best interests to devote any of a software PM tool because:

  • The key features of PM have little to do with tool use, they are process-related skills and an understanding of key underlying principles (have a justificable business case, focus on end products, learn from experience, defined roles/responsibilities, etc etc).
  • In addition, the really good PMs have incredible soft skills. These are also IMHO basic life skills, better to focus on them than learning software.
  • You teach them tool X, while in the real world they will have to learn tool Y.
Doug B
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  • Thank you for the insight Doug B, that's the plan --to get them familiarized with the thought process behind project management. But I also know how excited they are to use computers and I want to parlay that enthusiasm into familiarity with PM software. You're right, they won't use a particular one, but i want them to have hands on experience with something. – Emme May 06 '14 at 00:46
  • If you want something that will help emphasize process you could try Project-in-a-Box. It is more of a filing system than a PM tool, though it has an associated Gantt chart/risk&issue tracker add-on. The main advantage is that it is geared towards PRINCE2 and a couple of other more generic PM methodologies. – Doug B May 06 '14 at 12:06