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I am looking for a really basic developer task/todo app or system. Are there any good ones out there? What are you using? All I need is a good overview and being able to add time and priority to my tasks.
I've found that a pen and dedicated project notebook works best for me. I maintain a priority by putting keeping a page for each priority level. If something changes priority I cross it off and move it to the new priority.
Time could be tracked with a written time estimate.
I've done the same thing using Emacs ORG mode, or a folder of .txt files, depending on how complex my project gets.
I just found what I was looking for. A really nice and simple todo app called Wunderlist. Thanks for all the answers though.
I write tasks on an index card. When I'm done with the story, I tear it up. Very satisfying. Of course, this means only working towards one thing at a time, which is a great discipline anyway.
I was just checking for one last week. Didn't want to go for a commercial app also hosted web apps like FogBugz had a limit on the free option of 2 users (3 would be smarter).
Most of the open source projects are bloated or in bad shape.
Finally settled on Project Pier and for a week it's been working out really well. The project is active but more importantly it does a fine job of what its main goals are.
EDIT for tasks/todos I highly recommend tasks jr
Pivotal Tracker
KISS: Emacs org mode if you are already an Emacs user, perhaps even if you are not; ff that doesn't suit you, Excel or another spreadsheet.
I use toodledo. It contains almost all imaginable functionality for a to-do list, while being simple:
Priorities
Contexts
Tags
Folders
Reminders
Ability to add new tasks by email
Ability to share tasks if necessary
Open API, which allows multiple third-party apps integration (a number of iPhone/Android applications, Outlook integration, browser plug-ins etc.)
Really basic system what I've used besides paper is to
% grep TODO *
Data.py: # TODO!
Data.py: # TODO normalize tag priorities so that Up/Down would work the best
If you like to TODO multilinely, give grep some context:
% grep -C 2 TODO *
Data.py- self.con.commit()
Data.py-
Data.py: # TODO!
Data.py- # Make the given tag go up or down in the list: find the next priority
Data.py- # in the sorted list of tags and set new priority
If you git,
% git grep TODO
works well and searches from the project files only.
In an IDE, I'd use its TODO features.
If your company provides you with Outlook, it's more than capable of managing a TODO list, along with alerts.
Failing that, a powerful text editor like VIM or EMACS will get the job done; they both have good plugins.
I know this has been answered already but Asana is an amazing, flexible to-do list with time tracking via integration with Harvest. Combined with Trello as needs arise, this is a 1-2 punch to the face of inefficiency. Hopefully this helps someone else.
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I like Pivotal Tracker, however I do not agree with their approach of using a "star" system, rather than asking programmers to provide real time estimates. I think there should be accountability so that programmers learn to get better about providing time estimates. The star system appears designed to insulate developers from this, which I think is counter-productive.
Is there something like Pivotal Tracker where programmers provide real time estimates?
I would also like something that has a report which shows the total estimated time for all outstanding issues, on a per-programmer basis.
In the past we rolled our own using Trac, but would prefer a more modern solution. I'm considering using Github Issues (we already use Github for source control), and building some tools that use the Github Issues API to facilitate per-issue time estimates in the manner I've described.
I'd appreciate any suggestions.
TargetProcess (www.targetprocess.com) is the cleanest and most fluid tool I've found.
make it work for you: just go to your pivotal tracker project's settings and choose custom estimates, or maybe Fibonacci, and use that for hour/day estimations
Check out Assembla Agile Planner - it s very similar and free for unlimited users/tasks: http://www.assembla.com/catalog/tag/Free
Try Breeze, it allows you to add estimates (in hours) and also log work done under every task, plus it has a time tracker built in. Reports are also available, showing totals for projects and work done per task. You can also export the reports to CSV.
Overall it has a similar Kanban style layout and system.
You can try JIRA or Version one.
JIRA : very powerful and flexible , it supports Scrum , kanban or you can invent your customized issue tracking workflow.
Version one : very organized and has an easy workflow (Scrum only) & supports managing dependency of user stories & tasks.
Finally , Github is good tool for managing projects as well but it will not be a good solution for you because you can not add an estimate for issues you can only set a dead line for a milestone also it has some constraints that you should be aware of while choosing.
You can only one level of tasks , there is no nesting which will make it tricky to manage a user story and its sub-tasks - a work around for that we use labels.
You can not delete an issue , you can only archive it or close it.
You can not attach an image or file directly to it , you'll have to do it using the Markdown syntax and push the images to the repository first.
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Does anyone have recommendations for a good task/time management tool.
Ideally this would just keep track of programming tasks / the project and the time spent also the option to produce an end of week report would be advantageous
at the lower end, for free software, there's ToDoList
FogBugz is your friend too. FB6 is a great PM tacking tool, I've been using 5 to manage my team and I'm trying to pry the money for FB 6 out of those that hold the purse strings.
For open source/ 1 dev its free as well.
A good tool with collaboration feature as well:
http://www.producteev.com/
We have been using Eylean for our project management. It has all the features you are looking for and then some. You will be able to visualize your tasks as post it notes on a task board, estimate how much time they will take and then track them in order to see how much time they actually take up. It might be little more than what you are looking for, but i really enjoy the software.
JIRA has a log work feature. You log your work on a per task/issue bases. My boss rather likes the reports.
If you work with a large team, Team Foundation has it all. Work item tracking (which can be tied to checkins and builds!), reports, all sorts of metrics. For a small organization though the cost is probably too high.
Voo2do is pretty good. I've used it before and it's great because it's very simple to start, but you can use the extended functionality as needed. And there's an API, which can fill in the missing features.
organize tasks by project
track time spent and remaining
add tasks by email
publish task lists
as easy as paper, but on the web 24x7
supports software guru Joel Spolsky's Painless Software Scheduling method
fancy-shmancy “ajax” interface
API for custom applications
For basic commandline task tracking I use http://wtime.sourceforge.net/ It's simple but effective but only has top level tasks.
Here's another vote for FogBugz. Originally I bought it for managing client projects, but I've grown to use it for keeping track of almost everything to-do related in my life -- simple tasks, stuff to remember, small personal/home projects, books to read, etc. It's feature-rich and has a handful of nice integration points, and while it's still very much software-type-task-oriented, it's handy. Very reasonably priced for the value.
For task management for myself - Outlook
It's centralised
I have to have my email open so I don't need to worry about yet another application
Sync to server so I can get it anywhere I have a browser
Sync to phone so I get reminders when not at the desk
Emails can be flagged as tasks
For task management for a team - TFS 2008 with SP 1. There is some nice enhancements in there with alerting that makes a big difference.
We use Smartsheet as a tasking and collaboration tool. It's pretty well based on the idea of a spreadsheet that you can add your own columns to. The sheets can be shared amongst team members, it sends you emails when anything changes, it has file share (without limit) - you can also give external people access so that they can raise bug notifications etc. that then get notified to the team. Works very well for us as it is SO flexible
I recommend Task Coach, an open source, single person, hierarchical task manager that allows for time tracking, categories, reminders and much more.
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I'm looking for a good template on server-side installation of software for a project I'm working on.
The client-side is pretty straight-forward. The server-side installation is a little trickier. It is made up of several pieces (services, database connections, dependencies, ports that need to be unblocked, etc.). During a recent test, several undocumented pieces were discovered. Now I need to create installation documentation for our disaster-recovery plans and ways to test the installation without necessarily having a "full-up" system to test on.
I'd really like a suggestion of where I can get a template or a really good example of such a document. I'd like it to be something that an operator could read and comprehend in the heat of a recovery.
[EDIT]
Our current documentation comes mainly from the questions our administrators have had during off-site tests. As new code is written, I'd like to make sure the documentation is written ahead of time. I've been collecting VMWare images to start testing, but was looking for some good examples. It's a Windows Server shop (2000 & 2003). Word templates would be great, but if I could see good documentation, I could create the templates. Any suggestions about what should be tested would be great as well.
[2nd EDIT]
I've gotten several good ideas from the answers posted. After changing my Google search, I came up with some good starting points. They're not perfect, but they are a good start.
Microsoft Exchange - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb125074(EXCHG.65).aspx
iPhone - http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Enterprise_Deployment_Guide.pdf
http://www.novell.com/documentation/gwgateways/gw7_exch/index.html?page=/documentation/gwgateways/gw7_exch/data/ab32nt1.html
http://cregan.wordpress.com/2006/06/22/exchange-2003-step-by-step-installation-instructions/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc160942.aspx
Covers planning in the design stage well - http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/04/08/disaster_recovery.html?page=2
[Edit 10/29/2008]
THIS is the type sample I was looking for. It doesn't have a lot of garbage, but seems to explain enough of the why along with the how http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Installing_Labs_3_Nile
The most complete method that we've come up with for creating our DR documentation, involves going through a full cycle (or two) of installation, and documenting each step along the way.
I realize this can be a bit difficult if you don't have a test (or replacement) system to use to create your documentation - but it's worth lobbying for running through this cycle at least once.
(I recommend twice, the second being done by someone not involved with the project - this is how you test the documentation for future admins, who may not be as experienced with the process.)
A side effect of the above is that your documentation grows fairly large - last I had to do it, I believe the completed installation manual for our database servers was 30+ pages.
What should be tested? Well, in the case of a web site, "can you get to the page?" Include a URL as a starting point and let the admin click through to a certain point. It is not necessary for the admin to go through the whole QA cycle, just a confirmation that what you meant to be deployed is really what got deployed.
Other ideas
Also, we (my team at my last job) had QA test the deployment. As a QA person should be, he was not intimate with the details and as he deployed to QA, we were able to get feedback on what went wrong.
Another thing that is useful is sitting down with the admin(s) before the deployment. Go over the instructions and make sure they understand them the same way you do.
Template? Just make sections that have fields for data such as URL to DEV, QA, and PROD. When you write out the instruction you can refer to those. Just make it clear what is being deployed.
Depending on the admins, automation is helpful. I've had windows admins that want a Word doc with step by step instructions and other admins that wanted a script.
However, some helpful things to include, probably as sections
Database changes
Scripts to run
Verification that they worked
Configuration changes
what are the change
where is a version of the new file (In my case they diffed the two, which helped reduced errors concerning production-specific values)
General verification
what should be different from the user perspective (feature changes)
For web farm deployments, it might be helpful to have a coordination document concerning how the servers need to be pulled in and out of pool.
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Granted knowledge is best retained when put into practice, but as programmers I'm sure there's just too much information. Besides annotating your books, what other methods do you use for your own personal knowledge-base so you can have an easily accessible reference?
Do you create your own wiki or use software like wikidpad, or save them as plain text, bookmarks, pdf, web pages etc..? Or do you just treat google/SO as your giant knowledge-base and search only when required?
You may find this similar
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10961/have-you-used-a-wiki-in-your-project-or-group, and of course this question can easily relate to non programmers as well.
Blog about it. That way you'll always have it no matter where you are, and that information gets shared with others.
I use Tiddlywiki to keep all of my development notes together, other than notes or handouts that I might get at a meeting that I want to keep. Those go into a folder for the particular project and I add a reference to them in my Tiddlywiki so that they don't get lost in the shuffle. I tag everything with a limited set of tags (rather than going overboard with the tagging, I have a set of 15 tags that cover the projects and categories I need) so I can get back to them quickly.
Works for me.
Otherwise, I blog about them as needed, use drive indexing for massive searching across lots of stuff, and keep a short daily summary of activities (1 or 2 lines) for better recall.
There are several solutions that I have seen people use successfully:
blog about it (as others have noted here)
maintain a Wiki (local or hosted)
keep it in a plain text file
use Backpack
use a hosted office solution (Google docs, Zoho)
email it to yourself in Gmail (yes, really :) well, makes stuff easily search able)
I personally use a TiddlyWiki (easy to use; very good search) which I carry around in a USB pen drive and which is also checked in to my SVN repository; and a small "notebook" (created from here) which fits neatly in a wallet, to jot down things when I am not near a computer.
Start a wiki.
ScrewTurn is what I use.
I've been storing my notes in Google Documents(google.com/docs). I've tried wikis but the cost of setup and maintenance hasn't been justified yet. I may need to look further into this option as my set of notes get larger.
Another thing to consider is ye olde programmer's physical notebook. Paper and pencil should never been underestimated in this digital age.
As far as personal Wiki software goes, I've been a big fan of VoodooPad for OSX. It's a nice self contained Wiki applications. No need to maintain a web server or have your Wiki hosted anywhere but your computer. Plus you can export into a variety of formats. It's very inuitive to use and can store just about anything you want.
It should also preserve syntax coloring if you were to extract a code sample (I don't have it in front of me so I cannot confirm).
I like Treepad for organizing notes. It's based around a tree structure, and each node can contain a text document, and have child nodes.
It's not particular designed for programming, but it's very easy to use.
org-mode for Emacs. I use it for planning work (short- and long-term), TODO items, random how-to notes (with clicky links to source files and URLs) — All in one single flat file. It has unicorns!
I use codekeep to store my code snippets
Occasionaly I store a few notes on google notes too
Mostly in a plain text on a flash drive, which is in the key ring along with keys from home. Plus eventually backups on the web site. This makes it available on any platform and in any place, wherever I go. There's still places without internet access you know.
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As a contractor, out-sourcer and shareware author,I have about 5-10 projects going on at any one time. Each project has a todo list, requirements need to be communicated to other outsources and employees, status needs to be given to clients, and developer's questions need to be answered.
Sometimes it is too much... but then I realize that I'm not very organized and there has to be a better way.
What is your better way?
How do you keep track of requirements for multiple projects, assign work to multiple developers, obtain and give status for multiple projects to multiple clients?
What tools do you use? What processes?
This may sound really old-tech, but a different set of notepads for each project. Now, hear me out.
I know that notepads aren't searchable, and they aren't indexed, etc. But they will have meeting dates and times (if you've been taking notes during meetings, even on the phone), they have the ability of never crashing, and they're future proof in the event of wondering what you did a few years back but can't remember if the old project files made it to your new hard drive.
But the biggest reason is CYA-- logbooks and notepads can be used in the event of someone suing you as legal documents, especially if you've been diligent about dates. It might also work during patent discussions as well, showing a clear date and time of ideas being made. During another life, I worked in biology labs, and electronic record keeping, because it's so fickle, wasn't allowed for the legal reasons of being able to show that the work you did was your own. That attitude has permeated my own project notetaking, and helping to keep track of everything I need to get done.
You should have a look at No Kahuna Easy to use; Free and Pay versions; active, responsive development team.
tools are not the answer, unless you already have the knowledge, organization, and self-discipline to use them well. i highly recommend Getting Things Done
I'm a big fan of http://trac.edgewall.org/'>trac for managing software projects. It provides task and bug management with integrated wiki and source control.
We have been using FogBugz for managing several projects (10+) and clients (20+) for more than 4 years.
We have a project for each product and another project for each client. In this way I can control the requirements for each product and the pending activities related to each client.
Try Omniplan if you're on a Mac. I find it just makes sense. I also find I don't end up fighting the interface and instead concentrate on using it to help me plan better.
Edit: It goes well with OmniFocus and no, I don't work for the Omni Group :)
If you are into Agile methods (or even if not) you could try some of the Agile tools out there. Look in http://www.agile-tools.net/ for some comparisons. I use xplanner at work where we coordinate requirements and work over iterations among several teams. It has its quirks but it generaly gets the work done and allows for some useful agile structure. I am sure some other will have preferences for more mature tools.
Trac (as Mark Roddy mentioned) is also nice, because it integrates a wiki, task and defect management, so it can be an interesting tool if you have none of those already in place.
I should say that we use Mantis now, but I wish it was better. I wish I could use it for customer-facing queries, I with I could open and assign issues by email.
ScrumWorks Pro looks promising, but amazingly expensive for me, with 15 developers.
AccuNote may be an option, but it is new to me
I'm using the customer support, project planning and issue management portions of OpenERP. Having your issues and feature requests, along with the tasks required to get them done on the same CRM that allows you to manage your customers is a big benefit.
I have used SourceGear Vault to manage all our software projects. Our business nature is very much driven by project basis - typically I have 5 active projects running at one period of time.