cattaDoc - Open source document and project management
What is it and what do you get?
cattaDoc is about managing documents: Storing documents, searching for documents, finding documents, documenting the flow of documents, establishing an overview of documents, ensuring traceability, etc.
Documents contain knowledge, and document management is closely related to knowledge management. Documents are reused as paradigms or templates.
Document management is an essential part in almost all efforts to ensure compliance, ie. fullfilling standards as well as legal and other requirements from authorities.
In short, cattaDoc is a system for Integrated Document Management (IDM), including the main facilities for Electronic Records Management (ERM).
cattaDoc is about starting up, initiating, managing and closing projects: Preparing management products like the PID (project initiation document), work packages and highlight reports - keeping track of issues, risks and lessons learned, i.e. registers and logs - defining project organisation, cost estimates etc.
cattaDoc is focused on practical, day-to-day support for project management processes and tasks. It does not aim at implementing a pure PRINCE2® and/or MSP® environment.
Neither is cattaDoc aiming at delivering a lot of document templates like many other PRINCE2 tools and systems.
PRINCE2 (and MSP) seems to be very document-oriented. And many people are very focused on getting PRINCE2 document templates for Microsoft Word. This is very understandable. This is the way we are doing most of our office work today. Not only when managing projects, but in general.
However, if we really want to improve our productivity in office-related work, including when doing projects, I will claim that this is not the way forward. Today, office packages like Microsoft Office (and other similar packages as well) are more of a burden than an aid when we do most of our ordinary office work. They are over-loaded with facilities we never or very seldom use.
It is strange that you have to load a huge thing like Microsoft Word for writing a simple memo - or preparing a checkpoint report. And it does not stop there: You also have to find a unique name for the memo - and a place to store it, so that you can find it again. A lot of things that distract our attention away from the real subject in question. And it takes time, unnecessary time.
cattaDoc offers another approach to office work. An approach, where you work in an environment focusing on and tailored to the job you are actually doing. With cattaDoc: project management. Providing the tools you need - when you need them.
It is still in the beginning with the current version of cattaDoc. But this is the vision. Combined with a web-centred approach so you can manage your projects from anywhere, only with a browser and Internet access.