“Project management re- imagined” – Casual website says. It’s true in many ways,as this tool transforms each project plan into awesome, step-by-step visual maps. The Casual approach to project management is drastically different from what is now offered by other tools. While most tools take either Kanban boards, Gantt charts or task lists as their base, Casual presents the project plan as one process with numerous dependencies. Basically, it’s just the way how we imagine tasks and ideas in our mind – in radiant rather than linear manner. In simple words, you have one big clear project roadmap to follow with exact steps outlined in the right sequence.
As the founders say: “Casual was originally intended for non-professional project managers who don’t feel comfortable with complicated Gantt charts and other pro management stuff.”
How Casual Works
To create a project on Casual, all you need is to drag-and-drop tasks onto the project canvas. All the tasks can be set to step-by-step execution, or divided into 2+ parallel processes.
Next, set up deadlines and add executors for each task. Each executor will now have his own to-do task list with respective deadlines. As a manager, you can view everyone’s tasks at one glance or specific users’ lists and make necessary adjustments.
Now comes one of the coolest features – Casual will prioritize the tasks for you. Considering the fact that your project consists of numerous processes with dependencies, the app will identify the key tasks and line them up for execution in the right sequence. You can learn more about it here.
All you have to do now is simply get things done. The app offers a great deal of additional features for effective collaboration: Google Calendar sync and deadline adjustments; direct file import from your computer, Dropbox or Google Drive; posting comments and notes to each task; daily notifications and project export as PDFs or images.
Additional Pros
Each project in Casual is basically a ready-to-use template. If you are constantly dealing with similar or repetitive projects, you can simply clone an existing project in one click, or copy-paste specific tasks between different projects.
Task dependencies visualization comes as the second unique and handy feature. As your whole project is visible at one quick glance, it’s easy to identify the following key points:
- Who’s now working on what?
- Where’s the project bottleneck?
- Whose action needed to solve problem X?
Casual is available as a web app and iPhone application with limited functionality.
Monthly plans start from $9 for 2 users with a 14-day free trial available with no credit card required.
You can learn more about the product and get some great advice about managing projects in a new, more efficient way and download free project templates at Casual Blog.