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What is the best project management application for start-ups?

22 points| p47 | 17 years ago | reply

Hello,

With my friends we are starting a company and we had found that we need application to manage tasks whitim our projects. Its it project. We use Subversion to keep our code updated.but our needs are wider,

Do HN tested open source freeware software for this task?

best wishes!

39 comments

order
[+] makecheck|17 years ago|reply
I'd recommend Trac (trac.edgewall.org). It's pretty configurable with basic milestone tracking and a wiki (and people have written addons, etc.). It also integrates with Subversion.
[+] andrewljohnson|17 years ago|reply
I also recommend TRAC. And I recommend my ISP too - WebFaction - which gives you integrated SVN/TRAC out of the box, along with any database or programming language you need. A small slice costs $9.50/month.
[+] adammichaelc|17 years ago|reply
Trac looks very solid. Curious. I'm starting a project soon and want the following functionality in the software that we use:

I want it to (a) track bug issues, (b) track milestones and a roadmap, (c) allow us to upload code to keep track of each of our changes to the code, and (d) give us a (login-restricted) wiki and/or forum so we can document the discussions/ideas we have.

I'll take a look at Trac in more detail later tonight, but if anybody knows off the top of your head if Trac (or some other software) does the things I mentioned above, let me know!

[+] gleb|17 years ago|reply
I am fan of Acunote http://acunote.com Not surprising since that is my startup :-)

It's tailor-made for a software startup, includes SVN integration and is free for <= 5 users.

[+] markessien|17 years ago|reply
Yikes, be very careful with the audio on screencasts. It sounds highly unprofessional to have smacking sounds on audio - and additionally, it should not auto-start.
[+] Mystalic|17 years ago|reply
I'm a fan of Basecamp by 37 signals (basecamphq.com) - It's good for small and big businesses, file sharing, messages to clients, whiteboards and task lists, etc.

Trac is also good because of its integration with subversion and it being open source.

[+] theshady85|17 years ago|reply
Big fan of Basecamp. Been using it for 3 years across multiple projects.
[+] zacharydanger|17 years ago|reply
I'm not a fan of Basecamp. It lacks the analytical aspects of project management.
[+] eo3x0|17 years ago|reply
Pivotal tracker has been mentioned here on HN before. Just throwing that out there as a possibility.
[+] symesc|17 years ago|reply
We use Pivotal Tracker to manage our agile development at an airline. We love the open nature of the tool, in that it only presents the bare bones of what you'll need and then you can make it work in any way you want. We also like the dynamic nature of the real-time updates. I can watch my browser window update to reflect the work in process.

The tool has been extremely robust. They notify us well in advance of outages, both on their site and via twitter.

The most important item for gaining acceptance of the tool is that we can export our work from the tool into .csv so we can continue to work if Pivotal goes offline.

Highly recommended.

[+] jim-greer|17 years ago|reply
We use Pivotal Tracker at Kongregate and love it. You can do everything from one screen. It's got a great lightweight approach to iterations and velocity tracking - once you've done a few iterations you get surprisingly accurate estimates of when you'll deliver that next release. It's both more pleasant to use and more suited to our needs than a straight ticketing system.

We use Basecamp to discuss features & comps, then Tracker to get them done. Trying to use Basecamp for both doesn't really work if you care about iterations, story points, etc. Some might say you don't need those, but they've given us a lot better predictability than we did at first.

[+] bjclark|17 years ago|reply
We use Pivotal Tracker at AboutUs.org. It's endorsed by our CTO Ward Cunningham (c2.com/wiki en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham).
[+] rs|17 years ago|reply
XP-Dev.com - (disclaimer: I develop and manage xp-dev.com). I'm using it at the moment for a couple of side projects (they're not startups, but more webapps) with others.

Bunch of features: http://xp-dev.com/features/

Having said that, if you really want something standalone - Trac http://trac.edgewall.org/ and Redmine http://www.redmine.org/ come to mind. There is always Bugzilla (http://www.bugzilla.org/) if you want to go old school.

Of course, you could always just use a spreadsheet to track it all (please don't laugh at this - I've seen it used oh-so-many-times in the past).

[+] mello1|17 years ago|reply
Daptiv is a SaaS provider with great project management and built in collaboration features. Firefox or IE, nothing to install. Customers in many industries including software dev and gaming. www.daptiv.com
[+] cvg|17 years ago|reply
We use unfuddle, http://www.unfuddle.com . Kind of like Basecamp, but a bit more dev focused. Integrates well with Subversion.
[+] jessep|17 years ago|reply
also, unfuddle gives unlimited free git repos (or svn), which is nice. i don't use it for project management, but if i want to create a private remote repository and share it with folks, it's free, unlike many other choices.
[+] gibsonf1|17 years ago|reply
I highly recommend StreamFocus.com for work management, but as a founder I'm definitely biased :) We will be launching a free version shortly in addition to more powerful features at lower monthly fees, but you can use it free of charge in the beta program now. I have doubled my profit margin in my Architecture firm using StreamFocus over the last year, so the value it provides is very good.
[+] walesmd|17 years ago|reply
I have a found using Beanstalk and Basecamp together to be absolutely awesome. It gives us the ability to use todos/milestones as well as establish polices (coding standards, design docs, etc) on Whiteboards.

The best part - and what gets the most use - is Messaging/comments. The ability to post comments directly related to a commit has become insanely powerful for our 2-man crew.

Best of all, you can do it all for free.

[+] ca98am79|17 years ago|reply
you could try our startup http://wizehive.com - use beta code 'yc2009' to sign up. Email me with any questions or comments.
[+] mattculbreth|17 years ago|reply
Rally at http://rallydev.com. There's a free version.
[+] jim-greer|17 years ago|reply
We used to use Rally at Kongregate. They're nice guys, but we really hated it - overly complicated and hard to use. Also hell of expensive once you get past the free version.
[+] ilanos|17 years ago|reply
hi there! We've been using Producteev.com for the past 2 weeks, and it is simply amazing for Team Task Management... A pure jewel. If you request a code on producteev.com, you get a token within the hour You might want to try them out, I discovered them through this post on TC : http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/09/producteev-launches-gro...
[+] ilanos|17 years ago|reply
Wow people don't joke on HackerNews, didn't know it was that serious, sorry guys. I don't usually do that, do a GG alert/search on Producteev, you'll see that I'm never posting anonymous comments on my product, but in this special case, I reacted too quickly maybe, I apologize. Also, I don't pretend to be using my software, we really do, and it changed drastically our internal organization, it's way better, sorry to be enthusiastic about my product. I won't do that again anyway (even though I was already convinced that it was not fine). Mea culpa
[+] RyanGWU82|17 years ago|reply
ilanos: Are you Ilan Abehassera, Founder and CEO of Producteev Inc.? I see that your HN account is brand new and your post sounds a little too perfect...