What Does Everyone Use For Task/Project Tracking?

JerBear0 writes "I work as the sole IT employee at a company of about 50 people. I handle programming, support, pretty much anything that is IT related, or even that plugs in. As seems to be true with many small companies, the priorities seem to shift quite frequently. As a result, I've always got multiple programming (both new systems and improvements/changes to existing systems), integration, research, maintenance tasks/projects on my To Do list, in varying stages of completion. At any given time, I need to be able to jump back to one of these items and pick up where I left off. I am currently using Outlook Tasks, and then end up referencing my notebook and email for those dates to figure out exactly where I left off. It works, but not well. If it's been a while, I'll end up losing an hour or two just tracking everything down. I looked at using MS Project / OpenProj, but they want an individual file for each project, and I want at least the project/task list all on one screen. Essentially what I'd want would be a Task List on steroids, allowing for hierarchical subtasks, attachments, and prioritization. Ideally it would be a desktop app, but a locally-hostable web app would be okay. In some of these projects I may want to include proprietary information, which I really don't want floating out in the cloud outside of my control. I know I'm not alone in this problem, so what do you guys (gals) use to address this?"

Comments

Bugzilla and Wiki

[sky289hawk1]

A combination of Bugzilla and Wiki. Wiki keeps track of backlog. Bugzilla keeps track of tasks.

Re:Bugzilla and Wiki

[eulernet]

At my work, we used Bugzilla extensively, but it was because one of our developers maintained it, by coding some new components.
It is really oriented towards bug tracking, but it's not very well integrated with anything else.
For example, how can you automatically link a wiki page to a bug, when you do a commit on a SVN server, then run a build ?
It's also a mess to maintain, since it's written in Perl.

We recently switched to Trac because we needed a more complete integration between the automated build process, the wiki, the bug tracking and the frequent releases (we try to work with agile methodologies).

Frankly, Trac is not very good on each of the above points, but it's easy to use, fast and light and it's written in Python (and our Bugzilla maintainer is a Python expert, so he's much happier).
Bugzilla is slow and if Mozilla did not put resources on maintaining it, it would have died since a long time.

Note that using two different tools (Wiki and Bugzilla) leads to developers concentrating on Bugzilla, and never updating the wiki.
On the contrary, having the wiki and bug tracking forces them to update the wiki.

Re:Bugzilla and Wiki

[RichardJenkins]

We use this, except we have a subversion hook which forces commits to be associated with bugs, and adds a link to the commit in viewvc as a comment in the bug. Seems to work pretty well for small teams on multiple small projects.

Re:Bugzilla and Wiki

[tbischel]

I've found Fossil extremely easy to use as an individual programmer... it incorporates wiki, issue tracking, and version control through a simple interface, the server software is a single executable and runs on the client with no setup required, and it is free. When you begin working in larger teams, the model is distributed version control. Its pretty slick.

Re:Bugzilla and Wiki

[rtfa-troll]

What's the advantage of using the proprietary options over Trac? Especially since that can run on top of an advanced VCS like GIT, I think it's pretty close to ideal.

Clocking It

[sheetzam]

http://www.clockingit.com/ Might be worth a look. Keeps track of stuff you need to do, and will let you keep track of time spent doing it as well. Definitely a help if you're looking to prove you need help some day. And yes, you can install a copy of it on a local server.
Heck, might be a good tool for others in your office, for that matter - this isn't a problem you're alone in having in your company.

TikiWiki

[dikdik]

I set up TikiWiki for my department to track projects. We are a commercial HVAC firm (my dept is the automation side), so CVS and the like don't (at least I don't think!) really apply. But I do the engineering and layout, with others doing the actual installations and we needed a way to easily transfer information. They always have their laptops with them, and have VPN access to the office, so this idea came to mind.

It has worked pretty well, and quite a few people in other departments have started using it too. It's a nice way to do "brain dumps" and record those things people tend to say in passing in the hall! I still have a few people that "forget" about it and call / barge into my office to ask a question. "Did you check the wiki?" standard response now!

Nice big

[i.r.id10t]

Nice big whiteboard w/ several color markers. Grid it out into colums/rows if needed using blue painters masking tape.

WebCollab

[MooMooFarm]

I use WebCollab, great tool and fits the description of a "task list on steroids" and its open source! What is nice about WebCollab is that you have one object, a task, and a task can have multiple tasks in a hierarchical organization or can be by itself. http://webcollab.sourceforge.net/

Re:redmine

[Cryacin]

I use BSmart from Bijingo. www.bijingo.com Pretty slick and it does pretty much what you want.

redmine, launchpad, basecamp

[kikito]

I use redmine, which is opensource, and free as long as you have a server for it.

If I liked bazaar, I would use launchpad.

If I wanted a payed, supported option, I'd go for Basecamp.

Task Coach

[northrange]

I use Task Coach It has hierarchical subtasks, attachments, and prioritization. I really like the ability to create tasks automatically from emails.

Go oldschool

[Keruo]

I work in almost identical setup and simply use two notebooks. In notebook one I keep generic todo list, which travels with me. Second notebook sits on my desk. I keep more per project detailed data on it describing how I did something or just basic notes when trying to solve something. If the project is bigger, there will be separate binder for it additionally.

The generic notebook gets decoded into excel file which has sheet for each month, so I can track what I've been doing past year(s). Also it helps when troubleshooting reoccurring problems.

Re:Go oldschool

[nine-times]

I agree with keeping it old-school-- or at least it's good to avoid making things more complicated and technological than they need to be.

If you're trying to do something very complex and specific, there are probably good tools out there for you. Other people here are talking about tools that manage trouble tickets and stuff, and if you need that, great. Try some out, see what works. However, don't undervalue the old pen and paper. If you're going to use a computer, don't be afraid to type some lines into a text editor and save the text file, relying on simple directory structures and file names to keep things organized. As a techie, it may disappoint you to resort to such simple approaches, but the simple things still work.

I may be stating the obvious that everyone here already knows, but you might want to read Getting Things Done if you haven't already. The GTD fad may be overblown, but there's some good advise in there for making task lists.

But generally, my advice would be to not even try to devise a technical solution that will "keep you organized". Either you're organized or you aren't. If you add a complex technical solution on top of your disorganization, you'll probably end up dealing with your technical solution in a disorganized manner and it won't work. Get organized, then figure out a system that will help you skip over some of the more tedious steps of your workflow. Also, don't try to put all your information into a single task list. Keep the task list simple enough that you can glance at it and see if there's anything you can check off. If you need more information on a given task, keep a resource file somewhere else and store all the details there.

But regardless of this advice, you have to find a system that works for you. There's no "proper" way of handling these things that will work perfectly for everyone.

Trac works well

[talcite]

I've worked with people in the same situation (small office & 1 person IT team) before.

They used Trac (http://trac.edgewall.org/) to keep things organized. It works really well because it has integration with the standard SVN features for software development, while tickets/milestones can be used for non-programming projects. It even scales well with job assignments if you eventually get an IT team.

Re:Emacs org-mode

[flynt]

I second org-mode. Basic emacs is worth learning just so you can use it, honestly.

Retrospectiva

[k33l0r]

You might want to have a look at Retrospectiva. It has ticketing, milestones/goals, code reviews, a wiki add-on, a blog add-on, and an Agile project management add-on. Plus you're free to develop your own add-ons. It's fully open source too...

Trac = Bugzilla and Wiki

[rysiek]

Trac is a Bugzilla, Wiki, and then some - plus it has thousands of plugins. Also easy to administer and manage. Great tool, I use it for many projects.

Re:Emacs org-mode

[Saint Aardvark]

Another vote for org-mode. Checklists + todo + export-to-whatever makes awesome.

Re:Emacs org-mode

[Jason Earl]

Even if you are not an emacs user org-mode is awesome.