5 Powerful Project Management Features You can only do on UnaWave (Google Wave)

Google Wave has been lambasted for its lack of a killer app or specific business use case.  A new application built on Google Wave seeks to become that first killer app. 
UnaWave is a new work management solution built on Google Wave.  They call it work management since it’s been developed to work the way you do – Collaboratively and intuitively.  To me it’s also more of a Social Task and Social Project Management system.  Try it out here:
Do they make the grade? See the summary below. 

1. Dashboard Views into Projects

One complaint that I’ve had from Remember the Milk or 37Signals or some of the other task or project management sites that I’ve used is the lack of a relevant project dashboard.  UnaWave makes it simple to see what’s happening on a project by keeping it front and center.  Yes, they need to add graphics and additional detail, but it’s a good start.

Note See it Live Below in #4:

2. Collaborative Task Management

Another complaint I have with existing task and project management systems is the disconnect between content, documents and media from other team members.  Meaning, it’s very difficult for your team to collaborate on items that are linked to a task in one place and in real time. 
UnaWave solves this problem by leveraging the Wave platform.  Here, collaboration within a task is extremely powerful and easy.  Best of all, it’s all done in one place.

3. Tasks that Bubble Up in your Inbox

Another issue with current task management systems is the problem of checking task lists.  Either I forget to check the list, or an email is sent out reminding me to log back into the tool to see what’s changed.  Most of the time, the email reminder gets buried in my inbox (I get 200 emails a day on average) and I forget to check it.  With UnaWave, the tasks bubble up to the top as people collaborate on them so they are always on top.

Note: you can also use the email notifications (pull down next to the inbox link) to notify you of Wave changes. 

4. Embeddable Work/Project Dashboards

Ever been interested in a projects progression but didn’t have a “seat license” or were not allowed to view it because you were not a project participant?  With UnaWave’s embeddable Dashboards you can quickly embed code on any webpage for everyone to see.  See the example below: 

NOTE: you can also give anonymous access with Tasks and Milestones. 

5. Easily Extend UnaWave with other applications 

Imagine adding other robots, extensions and gadgets to an UnaWave.  The possibilities are endless.  Below I’ve added a Pollo Gadget extension to the UnaWave Project Dashboard in order to poll the participants.  Normally, this is extremely difficult and requires a coder.  With Google Wave, these additions are simple.  

What Project Management decision makers need to know

Unawave is for the 80% of us that don’t want to learn Microsoft Project or find it too complex.  It’s also much more powerful than the current task management solutions that are available due to the added power of being built on Google Wave.  If you have Wave, it’s a must try.  Especially since it’s free.
There are still some usability tweaks that need to be made in order for it to be even more intuitive.  But it’s still a very powerful and easy to use tool.
The other challenge is getting non-Wave users on the system.  They’ll need to be invited since Wave is still in beta.   Once Google opens up the system to everyone, this problem will go away. 
All in all, a great start.  The UnaWave team promises some never before achieved, beneficial features to come that are outside the Wave environment. Their goal is make the management of our work much easier.
And that’s something we all need.