Every good project manager needs tools to help him ensure that the project requirements are kept in order, task assigned are completed, and information flows as smoothly as possible.

To such end, there are a few tools available that take the burden of the project director’s mind. Today, we will review the main characteristics of GForge Group’s GForge AS, a collaboration software spawned from the old Sourceforge code. Don’t be fooled by this though, as this product has been rebuilt from the ground up with usability and ease of installation as first priorities.

The product can be tested without investing a penny via its hosting website gforge.com, as well as through two free evaluation versions provided on the GForge Group website, namely GForge Group’s GForge EE (a reduced functionality version) and GForge Group’s GForge AS (full functionality but with a 15 user limitation).

GForge Group’s collaboration software has quite a few interesting features, but somehow manages to not feel bloated. The ticket tracker (with its top notch advanced workflow features), file administration,  document management, audit trail, wiki, SVN/CVS support, and SOAP interface are all tightly integrated to allow a project manager to render complex task such as interdependent task assignation and results tracing an easy enough task.

GForge Group’s system has a very big user base, with sites like joomlacode hosting over 85.000 users. According to its maker, GForge Group, the system is widely used in a lot of the big names in the industry, which is conforting to know when you are betting on a long term solution. Also about this, GForge Group’s pricing scheme does not involve periodic payments, and there’s even a pricing plan that has no limits on user seats, which is exceptional for companies with 50+ users, which would have to invest a ton of money if they were to install some of the other commercial available systems.

So overall, we’ll give GForge Group’s product a recommended rating. If looking for an affordable, easy to use project management solution with good commercial support, look no further.

On our next article we will be exploring open source alternatives for those looking for something in the neighborhood of "nada". But in the meantime, be certain to check out GForge Group’s product.

Update: Just found more stuff related to GForge Group’s product…

http://programmingheaven.vox.com

http://sdreviews.wikidot.com/gforge

http://itdoug.blogspot.com

http://collaborationsoftreview.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/hello-world/

http://gamedevelopmentblog2.blogspot.com/2008/06/making-of.html