Using WordPress For Project Management

At WordUp Minneapolis 2014 I gave a talk on using WordPress for project management.

In this session I talked about building a simple project management app with WordPress using the P2 theme and a handful of plugins. With this app you can create to do lists, check off those tasks, and mark posts as unresolved or resolved.

The base of this tool is the P2 theme, which allows you to easily make new project posts from the frontend of the site. This theme is extended with P2 Resolved Posts, P2 New Post Categories, and a custom plugin of mine called P2 Projects. I also use the Members plugin to make the site private.

With the P2 Resolved Posts plugin posts can be marked as resolved or unresolved, P2 Projects marks new posts as “unresolved” automatically and adds a category widget for filtering unresolved or resolved project posts. The P2 New Post Categories plugin adds a dropdown to the front end post editor for selecting a category for the project posts.

Setup Video Tutorial

Watch this screencast and learn how to build this app step-by-step.

I have used many different tools for project management over the years: a legal pad and a pen, ancient FileMaker programs, and pretty much every web app out there from Basecamp to Trello. Ultimately these are all, aside from a pad and pen, overkill for my own use as a freelancer.

By using WordPress I was able to cut out another monthly expense and build something that was tailored specifically to my needs. This solution might not be right for you, but the beauty of WordPress is that it doesn’t have to be, you can get in there and build your own perfect app!