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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?"
I use redmine, see http://www.redmine.org/
A combination of Bugzilla and Wiki. Wiki keeps track of backlog. Bugzilla keeps track of tasks.
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.
"Actually, I enjoyed this in the same vague, horrible way I enjoyed the A-Team" P. Opus
We've upgraded to soft clay tablets and pointy sticks from hand painting on cave walls. There was a great debate on the merits of the permanence of the new technology until Ugh pointed out that the clay tablets harden if you leave them on the fire and that you can also take them with you when moving to the summer caves.
I used to use Mantis and create tickets for different tasks.
I have switched to OpenGoo, this is a slick easy to use web based lightweight project management software. It can be used to give visibility to others in the organization regarding what you're working on if you so choose.
Slay a dragon... over lunch!
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 whiteboard w/ several color markers. Grid it out into colums/rows if needed using blue painters masking tape.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
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/
But I always wash my hands afterwards.
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Works fantastically well, but for Mac only. So chances are it won't work for you. It does everything you ask for anyway.
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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.
I use Task Coach It has hierarchical subtasks, attachments, and prioritization. I really like the ability to create tasks automatically from emails.
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.
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
Are you an emacs user? If so, then I definitely recommend org-mode: http://orgmode.org/
It's notes mixed with todos on steroids (which themselves are on steroids). There's nothing it can't do. Check it out.
There's a Google tech video about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJTwQvgfgMM
-Enfors-
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.
Although not strictly for tracking projects, I recently started using Microsoft OneNote.
...and if there are similar things out there, let us know. It is not the specific product that is the important, but the functionality.
I find it really great for keeping lots of notes in a semi structured way. I used to have a lot of files and pieces of paper with notes. Now I have it all in a OneNote file.
It also integrates with other MS products, so you can create an Outlook task directly from some note in onenote.
Don't take my word for it. You can most likely download a time limited trial from Microsoft and check it out, or watch the demos available.
Of course it is from Microsoft and it costs money, but if you can get over those hurdles, it is a good product.
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...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_issue_tracking_systems
You and your customers create issues describing what they want done. You estimate them. They prioritize them in the order they want them done. You track your time and status on each issue. You can add notes and artifacts to each issue so that you can pickup where you left off if priorities change.
This might sound like a lot of extra work. Not only is it not a lot of work, it is hugely to your advantage in two ways:
1. When the time comes, and it will, that whoever pays your bills wants you to justify your existence or justify why tasks are taking longer than they want, you can point them to this system and show exactly what you've done, where your time has went, and when priorities and requirements have changed.
2. When you're ready to move onto a larger company, having personally been responsible for rolling out and implementing an issue tracking system is a nice accomplishment to put on your resume.
Here's a novel approach:
Take massive quantities of LSD, combined with strobe light therapy, aka MK Ultra stuff - until you develop Dissociative Identify Disorder aka Sybil Effect and then assign each one of your personalities a non-competing task. Note: you may have to go Memento on this, and write the tasks on your body for the next personality to see.
What you should find is that you cycle personalities often enough to load balance the work properly. Take Thorzine as needed to adjust timing.
I think you will find that.... errerggshdgs... wait, what? Ignore that advice!
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.
I think it's been fairly well established that African swallows are no better at carrying coconuts. It's a question of mass ratios. That said, there have been recent discoveries in OCT protocols (octopus coconut transport) that you may be interested in.
Down with the career politician! SUPPORT TERM LIMITS
What do you do to stop the octopi from stealing the coconuts to live in?
Matthew Walker
http://www.tweeterdiet.com/ - My Diet Tracking Tool
TaskFreak!
- project/task list all on one screen CHECK
- a Task List on steroids CHECK
- hierarchical subtasks (not 100% sure on this feature in TaskFreak!)
- attachments CHECK
- prioritization CHECK
- a locally-hostable web app CHECK
Not sure how secure TaskFreak! is for public internet access but it is multi-user with passwords and permissions.
Big Question: Why aren't you using the Outlook Journal to at least track projects? It can link all of the information (messages, tasks and files) into a single location. Very handy and you've already got it.
Another option that will work nicely is Onenote by MS. It's now part of Office and expands on the Outlook Journal capabilities. It uses tabs to keep things organized, you can add pages as needed, link in other documents such as research information, web links and maybe track emails like the Outlook Journal. It also has a shared notebook feature that's for networks and the best thing is, you might be able to convince the boss to get a copy since it's fairly cheap from your normal office super store. I've only been using it for 6 weeks now and it's already become the must have tool for me. Can't say how well it'll work for you but worth giving it a try
Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
There was a similar comment posted, but it lacked explanations and has not been modded up yet, so let me go into more details.
Your current task management solution does not work so well, and you are looking for a tool that, you hope, will automagically make everything work for you. Let me tell you from experience: this won't happen. You may get a small boost at first, when using a new shinny "todo list on steroids", but it does not come from the tool: it just comes from your increased motivation. And when the novelty wears off, you will find yourself facing the same problems as before, blame the tool again and start looking for a new one. Rinse, repeat...
So, rather than looking for a technical solution to your problem, you first need to find a better task management method. And as a previous poster wrote:
1) Read the book "Getting Things Done" (GTD) by David Allen.
2) There is no 2). The GTD method works very well with just pen and paper, and you can probably implement it with the tools you are currently using.
Once you are familiar with the GTD method, you may start looking for some GTD specific tool. In that case, I suggest OmniFocus. I reviewed many such tools, but I think OmniFocus is the one that is truest to the method. In particular, it is very important to be able to easily turn a task into a project when you process your inbox. And OmniFocus makes it the easiest: you just drag and drop the task to the project sidebar. All other software make you click extra buttons, input the project title again, and this extra clutter just gets in the way of a smooth inbox processing. OmniFocus is also an iPhone application, that can sync with its desktop counter-part, so you can have access to your GTD system anywhere. Only issue: the desktop version is unfortunately Mac only.
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What do you do to stop the octopi from stealing the coconuts to live in?
Kick 'em in the tentacles!
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I've used so many groupware projects that claim to have excellent task tracking. They all wind up being projects that have a bazillion modules and none of them are much good.
We stumbled upon OpenGoo. It's a modern web app (very ajaxy), very very fast. It uses Ext, so it's nicely cross browser and is very similar to a desktop app. It has a great ui for very quickly creating tasks and milestones. That's my biggest complaint about many task managers and groupware projects, is that it just takes too damn long to create and manage tasks.
It also has a contact manager and calendaring, a document manager, time tracking, and reporting. And it does everything quite well. It has due dates and priorities, a messgaeboard for just about every item. You can drag and drop tasks between milestones (projects), you can also tag items. There are configurable workspaces (ie: entirely separate groupings for personal tasks, company tasks, and client tasks). It has a role based permission system, and it's generally just pretty damn awesome.
opengoo.org
Disclaimer: I don't work on, or currently contribute to opengoo, I'm just a happy user.
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