Posted by texas-bronius on April 9, 2010 at 3:36pm
I am an independent Drupal consultant, and until I began sharing work and overlapping projects, I was doing ok with a personal wiki, google docs, and FreshBooks. Lately, however, I find myself sharing more workload with others (and having to ping back periodically, "How is it coming?" as well as touching base with the client with status updates on things I can't readily know), and I would like to hear what tools you have found useful and why.
I'll start it off :)
Comments
dotProject and FreshBooks
After trying a number of different "project" and "task management" solutions, I am leaning most heavily toward dotProject but have lots to learn yet. I had used it in the past, but back then, it was too feature rich and a bit complex for my modest needs at the time-- I found myself spending more time on project setup and management than actually doing the work, it seemed.
While other lighter weight tools I've come across are nice for general task management (check out CrowdSource's Tasks Pro, hosted acct available too), I have not found anything that helps me to forecast what work I can take on and by when I could get started.
I mention FreshBooks here just because it (like Harvest and other hosted invoicing software) is a real delight to use and helps me to tick the clock on individual tasks at individual rates (or not). I don't spend any time in Word (ok, OpenOffice Write) messing with invoices anymore.
I also lean on Google Docs for contracts and project plans so I can easily update the client without their having to have a special login to anything and without me having to manage and attach files all the time.
We use basecamphq.com for
We use basecamphq.com for task, project management ,and hour tracking. It also conveniently ties into a very sweet and robust SVN management via springloops.com
I like BaseCamp in theory..
I enjoy BaseCamp on another contract's dime as a subcontractor for them. It's a bit big for me right now, and I don't like that the WriteBoards are so clunky.. I do like the ease of integration with billing tickers and what not.
Basecamp and... HourPatch? :)
I've enjoyed Basecamp in the past when I had to collaborate more. It's super simple and gets all the communication in one place, which is great. The drawbacks are though that sometimes it's hard to get clients to use it, and the cheapest (non-free) plan is $12/month. Maybe I'm cheap, but I just don't use it quite enough to merit that much.
And now for a personal plug, I made a web app called HourPatch that is specifically for addressing your other issue: "I have not found anything that helps me to forecast what work I can take on and by when I could get started". http://www.hourpatch.com/.
I have very few people using it so far (although I use it every day), so if you check it out and it looks like it would help you, I'd be happy to give you a year of it for free, if you'd consider giving me some feedback as you use it!
Chadwick Wood, Coffeeshopped LLC
HourPatch looks perfect!
Chadwick- Thanks for the tip. I will have to checkout HourPatch-- it looks absolutely simple and straightforward. I'd of course like to see it talk to other services, but I am going to give it a whirl soon:
http://www.hourpatch.com/tour
-Bronius
You've got a very good point,
You've got a very good point, basecamp is not cheap. We ourselves use one of their most expensive plans.
It really depends on what is important to you and what resources you have at your disposal.
Why we use basecamp:
1. simple - almost no barrier to entry, easy to get time reports for project/ people
3. reasonably priced - for a large shop
4. almost no management time - we dont spend hours managing the project management
5. expandable and expansive - file space ability to store files with projects, as well as comments and whiteboards
6. unix/mac command line hour tracking app - this is just nifty more than useful most of the time (its good until your projects have more than 1 word in the name)
It may not be for some (in no particular order):
1. cost - probably prohibitive for a small operation
2. control & workflow - you have to do it the way they let you do it, luckily it is pretty simple.
3. not DIY - its not open source, and there is no coding to be done.
4. client resistance - cant get clients to use it, not an issue if it is for internal use mostly.
I am not their sales rep, but its just something that runs smooth and we appreciate it.
Thanks!
Hey Bronius,
Awesome! Please let me know what you think, as well as if you find any bugs or anything. I'm all ears. Making it talk to other services is absolutely in the plans... Freshbooks, and Cashboard (once they get their API out) are first up. I'm actually a Cashboard user, so I could really use the feedback of a Freshbooks user as I work on integrating with them.
Chadwick Wood, Coffeeshopped LLC
I use unfuddle, but mostly
I use unfuddle, but mostly just for SVN and ticketing. My needs are probably very different from yours though.
I'm Happy With ZOHO Suite + Unfuddle
So many tools..... In the past I've used a variety of PSA, PM and time reporting tools (Basecamp, QuickArrow, Sharepoint+Brightwork+MS Project, OpenAir, Freshbooks).
These days for my own consulting services business, I am using a ZOHO suite, ZOHO Projects, ZOHO Invoice, ZOHO CRM to manage projects, T&E Billing and Sales Pipeline. They don't get in my way and provide me the features that I need at a good value (eg: free to cheap). While it may not be "kewl like drupal", it is one less system that I have to maintain and for over 2 years of use I've found it to be very reliable. Initially, while I had some concerns about the quality of support (the company seems to be mostly India-based) this seems to be improving (hard to be more sure, because like I said I've had few problems).
Here's some of the features that I like:
web-based project sites
- admin, employee, contractor and client users (however permission settings aren't fine grained or flexible).
- milestone tracking across projects, per project and per user
- task assignment to user or groups of users
- filters for dashboard like tools (overdue tasks, etc)
- import project MPP files (however still a little buggy)
- RSS feed - global and per project
- Project Templates
- More traditional PMP approach than with Basecamp (some might complain more rigid - but I like it)
- Time Estimate vs Actual tracking
- Task/Milestone calendars, across projects, per project, per user
- keyword search
- embedded chat and shout box (what am I working on now)
- embedded meeting scheduling
- Document repository - desktop doc upload or integration with either ZOHO or Google Docs
- Forum discussions
- Wikis
- timesheets and time tracking (flexible input)
- one click export to ZOHO invoices
ZOHO Invoices
- Invoice dashboard - Open/overdue/sales/etc
- Estimates
- Expenses
- Email, PDF (but no send snailmail like Freshbooks).
- Receive payment electronically
I've recently tied in UNFUDDLE to provide GIT repository hosting and trouble ticket tracking (it also has time tracking tools, but I'm not using).
I hope that this was helpful.
Chris
BaseCamp
Hi,
We use basecamp for collaboration, file sharing and project task tracking, etc. for multiple projects and it has worked great! Would highly recommend it!
Christy
JIRA + Confluence + Harvest
At Four Kitchens we use:
* JIRA - A full-featured bug and issue tracker for project management (with many plugins for extending it's use)
* Confluence - Robust wiki platform
* Harvest - Time tracking and invoicing (can also handle project estimates)
Note: JIRA and Confluence are part of the Atlassian enterprise-level product suite. As an open source development shop, we were able to obtain free licenses for both of these products. I imagine many other Drupal shops and freelancers could do the same.
Atlassian rocks
I enjoyed Atlassian products at a former place of work-- wasn't aware that opensource projects could use it for free: http://www.atlassian.com/opensource/
Very good to know: I would love to get back into Confluence + Jira, but I would imagine that one would have to be a serious contributor to qualify.
We also use Jira + Confluence
We also use Jira + Confluence at punkt. netServices
I love it! Have to check out Harvest
JIRA + Confluence + Harvest + Fisheye
Fisheye, also from Atlassian is really useful with its changelogs and charts-graphs.
++ JIRA+Confluence
Yes, JIRA and Confluence are excellent. I’ll have to have a look at Harvest.
From: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/licensing.jsp#nonprofit
It's also free to “official non-profit organisations and charities (proof of non-profit status is required).”
OForge, TWiki, Fossil, Open Atrium, FogBugz, Kiln
At Optaros, we used a customized Trac almost exclusively for both source control, task tracking, documentation and project management. Some of the PMs used it as their PM tool, some of them used MS Project or their own Excel sheets. The PM side was a little weak (mostly around all the different types of reports PMs like), but serviceable. As a developer and designer, I liked it a lot.
I've used TWiki, which supports custom, structured data on wiki pages, for similar purposes (not for the source control part, obviously). For personal work I currently use Fossil for task tasking/wiki documentation/source control.
I think Kerry and Chad have said they set up (the Drupal-based) Open Atrium for each of their clients.
As for task tracking and project management with projected completion dates, FogBugz supports it (evidence-based scheduling), and their new Kiln product integrates source control (Mercurial) and code review into it as well.
JIRA and Confluence at $10/ea, annual if you want support
jkoporax tickled this thread, and I remember the non-profit/for open source license of free-ninety-nine. However, a good while ago (it's been at least a year), Atlassian began offering self-hosted full license to all its awesome software for just $10 apiece. Jira + Confluence = $20. If you want continued support, you fork over another $10, but if you are a rogue/cheap, you can get away with the one-time fee throughout that major version release.
Note: Jira sucks the life out of your server: install only on a VPS with at least 1GB Ram. Trust me-- it just won't hobble along otherwise! I bought a $10/mo JBoost VPS 02 plan for just this purpose.
Redmine
Check out Redmine. Redmine is an open source, flexible project management web application. We have been using it for a couple years.
http://www.redmine.org/
Have you taken a gander @ OnTime?
A decent solution that covers all of your bases is Axosoft's OnTime (http://www.axosoft.com/)
Great for bug tracking and scrum development, but with the custom field options, you can track issues, feature request, or whatever you like.
Our small team has enjoyed it so far and the pricing is reasonable (I don't know what it is currently, but when we bought purchased it, it was around 10 bucks a month)
Cheers